Minutes for Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, Jan 20 2010, 10.00AM official page

There were no declarations of interest.

To follow

It was moved by Councillor Keeling, seconded by Councillor Biggs, and

  RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 8 January 2010 were correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

An opportunity for members of the public to ask a question or make a statement to the Committee.  (A period of ten minutes is allocated this purpose.)  Questions and statements to be received by the Monitoring Officer by 12.00 noon on Friday 15 January 2010.

No public questions or statements had been received.

The Business Intelligence Team Leader introduced her presentation by explaining that the IDeA/Audit Commission definition of Performance Management was that used by Cornwall Council, which meant that practical steps were needed to turn the vision for communities into a reality.  [A copy of the presentation is attached to the binder.]  She outlined the reasons for Performance Management being important, which included ensuring the Council and its partners achieved what they set out to and what was most important.  Goals were prioritised and resources allocated effectively, to help improve services and outcomes for local people.  Motivating staff was important, as was ensuring significant risks to the achievement of objectives were identified and managed.

The characteristics of high performing organisations were identified in the presentation, which enabled the Business Intelligence Team Leader to identify the fundamental building blocks for the strategy document appended to the report.  Criticism received by the former County Council from the Audit Commission, included a lack of a corporate approach, poor prioritisation, mixed performance and poor use of resources, however that was not expected to improve for 2009/10.  The Business Intelligence Team Leader outlined the work what had been undertaken, and it was understood that the effective management of performance mitigated many of the organisational risks.  It was important to understand that Performance Management, Information Management and Risk Management were inextricably intertwined.

The opportunities the Business Intelligence Team Leader identified for Scrutiny were:

• Driving improvement – ensuring the vision and corporate priorities were fit for purpose initially;

·  Scrutinising the Cabinet’s performance management – including actions taken by Cabinet to address performance issues and consideration of service/directorate plans to check they were fit for purpose and well prioritised;

·  Scrutinising officer performance management – ensuring that the system was being used and followed;

·  Undertaking a review of the performance management system – to check it was fit for purpose and delivering improvement necessary; and

• Scrutinising the contribution of partners – which involved reviewing the performance of the Council and partners against Local Area Agreement Improvement.

The Chairman thanked the Business Intelligence Team Leader for her presentation, and added that it was important for the Committee to ensure that performance management was firmly embedded for the Authority.  He suggested a scoping exercise was undertaken to establish the approach the Committee could take with regard to performance management.

During the discussion a number of issues were raised, including:

(i)  It was important that performance management and risk management were worked on together; and

(ii)  With regard to timescales for measuring performance, the following were identified:

·  End of March 2010 for Business Plans, with annual updates;

·  Masterclasses for training Corporate Directors and Heads of Service in performance and risk management had been arranged for February 2010;

·  Training for those involved in inputting the performance data would be completed by the end of January 2010;

·  Further training was planned to be included in the induction programme; and

·  The Corporate Leadership Team had been involved in  ...  view the full minutes text for item CR/42

A performance monitoring report was presented to Cabinet each month, and the October 2009 report had been received by Cabinet at its meeting on 16 December 2009.  Overall, at the end of October 2009, it was reported that the proportion of the corporate basket of indicators above/well above target had increased to 64%.

It was observed that the presentation of information within the report was an improvement to that previously received, as was the quality of data information.  The report author was commended for the way the information had been prepared.  In response to the Business Intelligence Team Leader urging Members to feedback on how performance reports could be better presented, it was requested that acronyms were not used.

It was moved by Councillor Keeling, seconded by Councillor Hughes, and

  RESOLVED that the Committee considers the Council’s performance reporting arrangements to be effective.

Report to follow.

During his introduction of the report, the Corporate Director Corporate Support responded to criticism from Members, that this report had been sent out late, by stating the delay had occurred as a result of taking on board the latest guidance from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountability (CIPFA).  The CIPFA Code of Practice on Treasury Management 2009 recommended, as a minimum, that local authorities reported annually to full Council on the Treasury Management strategy and plan.  The CIPFA Code of Practice also stated that the Council put in place a Treasury Management Policy Statement.  The Policy Statement and Practices were appended to the report.

The Corporate Director reassured Members there was a regime in place to control public money, as the Council was required to have regard to CIPFA’s Prudential Code for Capital Finance.  Following the collapse of the Icelandic banking system, the Local Authority treasury management had been subject to much scrutiny and, as a result, considerable steps had been taken to improve governance, scrutiny and framework.  The Corporate Director reported that the borrowing strategy was primarily based on the Council’s capital expenditure plans, and views on interest rates formed a key element of the strategy, although the management of risks remained the key objective.

The Treasury and Investments Manager reported on how the proposed capital expenditure and financing plans would impact on the net cash requirement of the Council over the next four years.  A key consideration of the treasury management strategy was the way in which the total cash requirement for 2010/11 and future years was met.  The cash requirement would increase the net debt position of the Council and consideration needed to be given whether this was met by increasing debt or reducing investment balances.  In order to reduce interest rate risk, some advanced borrowing had been arranged.  To take account of the cash required to support the capital programme over the medium term, the Council had a requirement to borrow a further £107m over four years, in addition to forward borrowing already arranged.  The Treasury and Investments Manager explained that, historically, the former Cornwall County Council had managed to arrange borrowing at competitive interest rates compared with other authorities.  She added that the management of risk was the prime objective of the borrowing strategy and reduction of rate risk and refinancing risk within the portfolio was essential.

During the discussion a number of issues were raised, including:

(i)  In relation to the Icelandic banking system, the Treasury and Investments Manager reported that the proposed referendum in Iceland had no impact on the Council’s deposits in that country;

(ii)  There was a ruling by Landsbanki that the former County and Restormel Borough Councils’ investments had been confirmed as Preferential Creditor status, which gave the Council a maximum of 80% (and minimum of 32%) chance of recovery of the funds;

(iii)  In response to a request for a breakdown of the debts incurred from the former County and District Councils, and the current position, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item CR/44

The Head of Property reported that the building at Higher Trenant and its surrounding land was considered surplus to the Council’s requirements, and Members’ views were sought on its disposal.  On 25 January 2010 the Cabinet had arranged to discuss the options available for the future of the site and, if declared surplus to requirements, was being asked to recommend that it be sold.

The Chairman reported that a site meeting had been scheduled for Friday 22 January 2010, and it was unfortunate it had been unable to arrange the site visit before this meeting.  It was proposed that, on 22 January 2010, Members of this Committee toured the Higher Trenant building and were familiarised with the external site boundaries, followed by a tour of the Council offices at Trevanion Road.  A public meeting had been arranged at 11.00 a.m. that day, at Wadebridge Town Hall to allow the views of local residents and interested parties to be expressed.  The Chairman indicated that, although he would take comments during this meeting, he expected a full discussion to be held on 22 January 2010, which was an opportunity for the Committee to engage with the public.  He considered it was very important for the Committee to represent the views of the public on this occasion.

The Head of Property explained that, as a result of service planning requirements, the service directorates had been asked to identify in which locations they wished their front-line staff to be based.  The outcome was there was little demand for any major office presence in Wadebridge, so it was envisaged there was no long-term office need for the building and no other Council functions had been identified as requiring the property.

With reference to the site meeting, there was a query how the public were aware of the meeting and observed that the time of day it was arranged did not take account of those in day time employment.  The Team Leader Scrutiny and Executive reported that the Ward Members, Wadebridge Town Council and the campaign group had received notification, a press release was planned and that, following this meeting, the Network Managers would be involved in the process.  However, in order to ensure comments were reported to the Cabinet meeting on 25 January 2010, the meeting had to be arranged at short notice, and that was the only date and time available.  However, the Corporate Director added that the site visit on 22 January 2010 had not been formally constituted as a full meeting of this Committee, there were no public notices for the meeting, and it was, therefore, proposed that the Chairman and Vice Chairman were empowered to take the views from the meeting to feed into the Cabinet meeting.  The Chairman confirmed that the Committee’s function was to inform the Cabinet’s decision-making process.

During the discussion a number of issues were raised, including:

(i)  Concern was expressed over this being the first property falling within the recently approved Office Accommodation Vision  ...  view the full minutes text for item CR/45

Report to follow.

This item was deferred to the Committee’s next meeting on 6 April 2010.

The Head of Communications explained the report covered three aspects of communications, social media, internal communications and Member communications, at the request of the Committee at its meeting on 3 September 2009.

In the area of social media, the External Communications Manager reported that a new approach to communications was being developed, around two-way communication, listening and responding, building relationships, sharing ideas and being open to influence.  Social media tools could be used to engage better with the people the Council served, community engagement, openness and transparency.  A draft social media policy for Cornwall Council had been developed, setting out guidance and the framework for allowing access to social media.  A corporate Twitter feed had been established, used for monitoring and responding to comments about the council, for updates, checking mentions of the Council and for more conversational approaches and to promote the posting of partner organisations.

Several Councillors were using blogs, Twitter and other social media, and would soon be able to use their individual pages to upload information regarding the work they carry out across Cornwall.  Cornwall’s social media presence was expected to be developed in the future, including more of an e-participation link to the website and a “virtual town hall” to encourage more active participation and engagement.  It was considered Cornwall was in a particularly good position to work with new media, being set to have a new generation broadband.

With reference to internal communications, the Corporate Communications Manager explained that, in order to meet the challenges of the new organisation, a corporate framework was required to define the Council’s aims, messages, linked to the corporate vision and priorities.  Included in the aims was the improvement of internal communications across the Council, giving the whole organisation a clear sense of direction for the future and the engagement of employees to encourage open communication and sharing of responsibility for improving communications.  Examples of the work that had commenced since April 2009 were given, and it was indicated that staff had noticed the effort made to communicate.

The Corporate Communications Manager reported that Members were expected to be good communicators to promote the easy flow of information between the Council and communities they serve.  Members were supported by the Council in their work by providing them with the information they required and had opportunities to meet their training and development needs.  Since June 2009, when Cornwall Councillors had been appointed, a range of activities had been put in place to support Members, including monthly and weekly newsletters, media training and promotion of Members’ roles.

During the discussion a number of issues were raised, including:

(i)  In response to a query about engaging with harder to reach groups, the Head of Communications confirmed that was included in the wider communications strategy for the Council;

(ii)  Decisions on social media access, specifically within the Library Service, needed to be made more timely and easier;

(iii)  In response to a suggestion about a study by IT experts into better  ...  view the full minutes text for item CR/47

The Chairman considered that improvement was being made, although it was accepted further improvement was still required for the Forward Plan.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support reported that, under his portfolio, he would discuss with the Leader whether it was appropriate for the Cabinet to consider “Options for Land at Higher Trenant, Wadebridge” at its meeting on Monday 25 January 2010, as the Committee had planned a public meeting at Wadebridge Town Hall on Friday 22 January 2010.  However, he considered that a visit of the complex was a good idea, and agreed to discuss the issue with the Leader further.  Members thanked the Cabinet Member for his comments.

It was moved by Councillor Keeling, seconded by Councillor Kerridge, and

  RESOLVED that the report be noted.

The Chairman reported that the scrutiny of the budget was nearly complete, and asked Members to register their interest in work on Enterprise Resource Planning/Shared Services and the Performance Management Framework.  However, a scoping exercise was still required to establish the form the work took on consideration of the Performance Management Framework as it was important not to duplicate work being carried out within other areas of the Authority.

Of the Members remaining, the following expressed interest in being involved in the ERP/Shared Services work:

  Chairman

  Vice Chairman

  Ann Kerridge

  Paula Dolphin

  Graham Walker

It was agreed that the Team Leader Scrutiny and Executive emailed all Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee Members, asking for expressions of interest the two areas of work identified.

It was moved by Councillor Keeling, seconded by Councillor Kerridge, and

  RESOLVED that the report be noted.