Agenda and minutes

(Director of Governance)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

It was noted that Councillor J Lea was substituting for Councillor H Whitbread.

Minutes

To agree the notes of the meeting of the Select Committee held on 6^th December 2016.

Matters Arising

To consider any maters arising from the minutes of the last meeting.

Minutes

The notes of the meeting held on 6 December 2016 were agreed subject to noting that Councillor D Roberts had given her apologies; and also amending the sixth paragraph of minute item 32 (Corporate Plan Key Action Plan 2016/17…) to read “Councillor Jennings said as a general observation…”

Matters Arising

Mr Maddock updated the Committee on the discretionary charges for people on Housing Benefits (minute item 28). There was a 50% discount but there was a data protection issue and the ability to cross check names for people on benefits. He was advised that the name could be viewed as long as the Council had advertised there was a 50% discount so suitable members of the public could also apply for the discount.

Councillor Lea said that this was the same discount for pensioners and Mr Maddock agreed saying that the intention was for it to be the same.

Councillor Lion asked if we monitored the number of claim benefits we had. Mr Maddock said that he was not sure if we did but, he could find out.

(Director of Governance). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a pecuniary or a non-pecuniary interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 9 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a non-pecuniary interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 9 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

There were no declarations of interest made pursuant to the Member Code of Conduct.

(Chairman/Lead Officer) the Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed the Terms of Reference of the Committee. This is attached along with an ongoing work programme. Members are invited at each meeting to review both documents.

Terms of Reference

The Committee noted their Terms of Reference.

Work Programme

Item 6 – ICT Strategy - The Committee noted that an update on item 6 would be going to their next meeting.

Councillor Patel wondered if this tied in with what the Governance Select Committee wanted to look at, the new Customer Services project. Mr Maddock said that this would also tie in with what was going to the next O&S Committee, a PICK form to scrutinise the transformation project.

Councillor Lion noted that the new Customer Services Manager would be reporting to the Management Board and then on to the Cabinet.

Councillor Kane agreed that this should be added to the next years Work programme.

Item 17- Shared Services working - it was noted that the new payroll system was now up and running. Officers were giving it some time to bed-in and will be reporting back on it at the July 2017 meeting.

Councillor Lion noted that there was nothing on Facilities Management, who have been upgrading the energy efficiency of the building. Would the Committee like to look at this. Councillor Patel agreed that it would be useful. He would like to know the payback period on these investments. Councillor Lion noted that there was still parts of this upgrade to be carried out. Mr Maddock commented that every autumn they continued with a rolling five year maintenance programme. Maybe a report could go to this meeting in the new year.

Councillor C Roberts suggested that this could be reflected back to the public as a good news story.

Item 21 – Review of Agency Staff and costs – Mr Maddock said a report would be going to the next meeting of this Committee.

(Director of Resources) to consider the attached report.

The Risk Management and Insurance Officer, Mr Higgins introduced the report on Insurance Claims Statistics. The statistics were for 2011/12 to 2015/16. The Council’s insurance cover was provided by Zurich Municipal. All the insurance claims shown directly affected the Council but did not include policies that were recharged. Table 1 showed claims for our fleet vehicles over this period and it was noted that our drivers only had 10 claims, the rest were when we were hit by other drivers.

Councillor Bedford asked if our vehicles were fitted with black boxes or dash-cams. Mr Higgins said that they were not, but they were fitted with trackers.

Councillor Bedford asked about the fire damage claims made and if smoke detector alarms were fitted. Mr Higgins said that all properties had them fitted. The Council had recently changed the battery operated ones with the kind that were wired into the mains. Councillor Dorrell noted that one of these claims was due to a direct lightning strike.

Councillor Bedford added that the Chief Fires Officer had offered to match fund one for one on sprinklers and that the Communities select Committee should be informed about this offer.

Councillor Patel asked about the way that the claims were processed, how would it affect our premiums. Mr Higgins said that we had entered into a long term contract with Zurich so our premiums tend not to change, except for the vehicles.

Councillor Patel then asked what support we got from Zurich on Public Liability claims. Mr Higgins replied that they handled all our claims from the very beginning of the process to the finish. They had the expertise in house and their charges were in our premiums.

Councillor Bedford on commenting on the vehicles was really wondering about the fitting of vehicle ‘black box’ technology which if fitted could reduce our premiums. Mr Higgins agreed and noted that Zurich had suggested we install dash-cams. He was advocating for the installations of these on Council vehicles. He noted that Zurich would be sending a Risk Management Analysist to inspect our regimes and advise us on them. He would provide a future meeting with a report on the outcome.

Councillor Patel asked if Zurich could indemnify us for HR claims in the future for such things such as employment tribunal costs. Mr Higgins said that he would ask this question at next years renewal negotiations.

RESOLVED:

That the report on the Council’s Insurance Claims statistics be noted.

(Director of Resources) to consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director Benefits, Janet Twinn introduced the report updating members on the work being undertaken to combat both Housing Benefit and Local Council Tax Support fraud and compliance.

The meeting noted that the Housing Benefit fraud investigation ceased to be the responsibility of the Council from 1 October 2015. The existing Investigation Officers at that time were transferred to the Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS), part of the Department for Work and Pensions. The Council however, still remained responsible for the verification and checking of Housing Benefit applications. Local Council Tax Support was the Council’s own scheme and therefore the Council remained responsible for Local Council Tax Support fraud and compliance.

Officers had known for some time that Housing Benefit investigation work was going to be transferred to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) from 1 October 2015 and had therefore restructured both the Benefits Service and the Internal Audit service to manage benefit compliance work and Local Council Tax Support fraud and compliance. A compliance team was set up in the Benefits Division to carry out reviews of both Housing Benefit and Local Council Tax Support applications and a Corporate Fraud team was set up as part of the Internal Audit Service.

The DWP advised of the procedure to be followed to refer claims to the Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS). Where there was suspicion of Housing Benefit fraud, the Benefits Division made an on-line referral to SFIS and a team within the DWP would assess the referral and decides whether it was worthy of being passed to an investigating officer, who could be based anywhere in the country. If they did not consider that it should be passed to SFIS, they would decide whether the referral should be passed to their own compliance team who would phone the claimant and ask some questions or, they could decide not to pursue the referral at all. If they decided to investigate, the investigating officer would contact the Authority and request that we send them all the documents associated with the claim. Unfortunately, the Authority was not advised which action was to be taken and, of the 37 cases that had been referred to SFIS since October 2015, there has been no further contact from them. The only contact that we have had from SFIS in relation to requests for information and the reassessment of entitlement, were cases where the investigation had been instigated by SFIS. It was known that staff were not happy there and tended to leave.

However, our Compliance Team reviews both Housing Benefit and Local Council Tax Support applications, either by asking for a review form to be completed, or by visiting or telephoning claimants and checking whether any of their circumstances had changed. The team was very proactive in visiting claimants and they would check that a claimant was actually resident, the household composition, and also the relationships between occupants of the property. They also visited every claim where there was a tenant renting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

(Director of Governance) to consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director, Accountancy, Mr Maddock introduced the quarter 3 performances of the Key Performance Indicators 2016/17. The meeting noted that as part of the duty to secure continuous improvement, a range of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) relevant to the Council’s services and key objectives, were adopted each year by the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee. Performance against the KPIs was monitored on a quarterly basis by Management Board and overview and scrutiny to drive improvement in performance and ensure corrective action was taken where necessary.

The overall position for all thirty-seven (37) KPIs at the end of the third Quarter was as follows:

(a)    26 (70%) indicators achieved third quarter target;

(b)    11 (30%) indicators did not achieve third quarter target, although 4 (11%) of KPIs performed within the agreed tolerance for the indicator; and,

(c)   31 (84%) indicators were currently anticipated to achieve the cumulative year-end target and a further 3 (8%) were uncertain whether they would achieve the cumulative year-end target.

Nine of the Key Performance Indicators fell within the Resources Select Committee’s areas of responsibility. The overall position with regard to the achievement of target performance at Q3 for these nine indicators, were as follows:

(a)    7 (78%) indicators achieved target;

(b)    2 (22%) indicators did not achieve target,

(c)    0 (0%) indicators performed within the agreed tolerance for the indicator;

(d)    8 (89%) of indicators were currently anticipated to achieve their year-end target and a further 1 (11%) was uncertain whether it would achieve the year-end target.

RES004 – what % of the district’s annual business rates was collected – it was noted that this was only just under target. It was noted that the NHS were now paying over a 12 month period and not the 10 month period they used to. If this was taken into account then we would be above the target.

RES006 – on average, how many days did it take us to process notices of a change in a benefit claimant's circumstances – Councillor Dorrell noted that there were seasonal differences on this target, could we adjust the targets to take this into account. Mr Maddock said that this would need to be done for the new year. Ms Twinn added that this target was like this every year. It was high target for the first three quarters and a low one for the last quarter. Councillor Kane said that these were known variances and it should be revised. Ms Twinn assured the meeting that they would meet the target at the end of quarter 4.

Councillor Kane commented that RES009 (are customer needs being met by the Corporate Website being available); RES010 (are customer needs being met by the main Corporate Website not having broken links); and RES011(are customer needs being met by the main Corporate Website having effective navigation) were worthless as the performance graphs generated flat lines thus making the measurements meaningless. Councillor Lion said that we should  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46.

(Director of Governance) to consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director, Accountancy, Mr Maddock introduced the quarter 3 progress report of the Corporate Plan Key Action Plan for 2016/17. The Corporate Plan was the Council’s key strategic planning document, setting out its priorities over the five-year period from 2015/16 to 2019/20. The priorities or Corporate Aims are supported by Key Objectives, which provided a clear statement of the Council’s overall intentions for these five years.

The Key Objectives were delivered by an annual action plan, with each year building upon the progress against the achievement of the Key Objectives for previous years. The annual action plans contained a range of actions designed to achieve specific outcomes and were working documents and therefore subject to change and development to ensure the actions remained relevant and appropriate, and to identify opportunities to secure further progress or improvement.

Some actions have cross directorate responsibility. Where this is the case the most appropriate Select Committee was requested to consider the action. This report presented progress against the Key Action Plan for 2016/17 for actions most appropriately considered by the Resources Select Committee.

Progress against the Key Action Plan is reviewed on a quarterly basis to ensure the timely identification and implementation of appropriate further initiatives or corrective action where necessary. Q 3 progress against the individual actions of the 2016/17 Key Action Plan is as below:

There were 49 actions in total for which progress updates for Q3 are as follows:

·         Achieved or On-Target:                        26 (53%)

·         Under Control:                           13 (27%)

·         Behind Schedule:                        4 (8%) 

·         Pending:                                                  6 (12%)

Total    49 (100%)

13 actions fell within the areas of responsibility of the Resources Select Committee. At the end of Q3:

·         8  (62%) of these actions have been ‘Achieved’ or were ‘On-Target’

·         2  (15%) of these actions were ‘Under Control’

·         1  (8%) of these actions were ‘Pending’

·         2  (15%) of these actions were ‘Behind Schedule’

Councillor R Jennings asked what the status indicator ‘under control’ meant. Was it out of control before? Mr Maddock said that the Performance Improvement Unit should use a better term as it indicated an ongoing situation for that target that could be handled by officers by simply, for instance, changing the target date.

Councillor Patel noted that at a recent Audit and Governance meeting the same problem was identified. If a target date was not met then the officer should explain why not.

Councillor Dorrell said that ‘amber’ usually meant that the target was in trouble and not under control. Once a date had slipped then it has to be noted and reported on.

Councillor Lion noted that item 3 (develop additional business cases) was a rolling programme and so it was strange to put a target date on it.  Councillor Patel said that this had also been raised before. There needed a better way to report this for the entire council. Councillor Lion added that these were not SMART objectives and they should be. Councillor Jennings agreed. Councillor Patel said that this should be put to Management Board as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

(Director of Resources) to consider the attached report.

Mr Maddock introduced the report providing information on the cost of Member and Corporate Services, how it was calculated and what was the definition of these services. The two areas that this report was concerned with was Corporate Management which was made up of two cost centres and Member Activities which was made up of six cost centres. The former fell within the Office of the Chief Executive budgets and the latter, Governance.          

Corporate Management sometimes referred to as Corporate Policy Making was the cost of managing the authority as a whole and includes the cost of the Chief Executive, management board meetings, production of the accounts, external audit, Cost of maintaining a corporate bank account  and a number of other similar costs. There was a popular misconception that a service area that provides support to all areas of the Council was a charge to Corporate Management, this was not the case as the definition was rather more narrow than that and the costs of these functions should be apportioned out to all Council services.

Member activities were sometimes referred to as Democratic Representation and as the name suggested was concerned with the cost to the authority of having elected members. It included Members Allowances, the holding of committee meetings and provision of agendas, the cost of attendance at external meetings where the member was representing the Council, officer advice to members and the provision of member admin services.

As regards the total cost of both of these services the HRA should bear a proportion of the cost as members and officers carrying out this work clearly make decisions that affect both the HRA and General Fund.

As regards to Corporate Management, a significant proportion of the costs relate to officer time and all the cost of the Chief Executive. As regards Member activities, much of the costs were incurred regardless of the number of meeting held. A proportion related to office space including the Council Chamber, Members Room and Committee Rooms. The majority of the Democratic Services Team were also charged here along with support provided to members by other officers.

It was noted that the costs of Corporate Management and Member Activities were quite significant and based on the 2017/18 original estimate represent 12% of the General Fund ‘Net Cost of Service’ of £17.959 million. However in common with a number of other services there was a significant fixed element to the costs which would only vary when large scale changes were made.

Councillor Lion noted that the production of paper agendas was now moving over to a paperless agenda system. There were now no more Council Bulletins on paper. He asked what was the cost of paper agendas. Mr Maddock said that he would find out.

Councillor Patel said that the report was interesting and that it fed into the Transformation project with its costs for the building and offices.

The Committee had a short discussion on Members ability to read or connect to the new electronic  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

To consider which reports are ready to be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its next meeting.

The Committee noted that a general update would be going to the next O&S Committee.

To note the date of the scheduled future meeting:   28^th March 2017

The date of the upcoming meetings were noted.