The Chairperson referred to the death of Councillor Butcher this morning.  All present stood in silence as a mark of respect. 

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2008 (including Whipping declarations)

None.

To receive for approval the minutes of a meeting of the Corporate Resources and

Improvement Overview and Scrutiny Committee dated 17 January 2017.

RESOLVED:           That the minutes of the Corporate Resources & Improvement Overview and Scrutiny Committee of 17 January 2017 be approved as a true and accurate record subject to Councillor E Dodd being added to the list of Members present. 

The Scrutiny Officer presented a report which detailed the items to be considered and the invitees to attend the next meeting of the Committee on 15 March 2017.

Conclusions                  

The Committee noted the items to be considered at its meeting on 15 March 2017.

Invitees:

Cllr Hywel Williams, Deputy Leader;
Darren Mepham, Chief Executive;
Martin Morgans, Head of Performance and Partnership Services;
Randal Hemingway, Head of Finance;

Caron Cant, Interim Digital Transformation Programme Lead.

The Chief Executive reported on an update on the Digital Transformation Programme and provided an overview of the overall aims of the Digital Transformation Strategy, including those projects already identified.  He stated that a number of approaches in England had been looked at by the Corporate Management Board in developing the programme due to a lack of similar programmes being implemented by Welsh local authorities. 

He informed the Committee that a hybrid approach had been adopted which relied on internal and external resources supplemented with specialist skills and expertise procured from external suppliers as needed; this allowed a flexible approach to be adopted.  He stated that there had been a very strong user focus in developing the strategy and that the programme was not about an ICT programme but was about transformation supported by ICT.  The Transformation Programme supports the Corporate Plan and One Council ethos.  Digital Transformation had been used widely by banks and the retail sector to transform their services.  He informed the Committee that Caron Cant who had experience in several other local authorities had been engaged to help with the digital transformation process. 

The Chief Executive informed the Committee that a “Digital Roadmap” had been developed to highlight the work to be delivered within the programme and within that a series of Work Packages had been set having their own budget and milestones.  Work Package 1 involved the development of My Account which is an online feature and allows residents, staff and Members to access services such as council tax; housing benefit, waste and recycling.  The programme was initially was focusing on council tax and housing benefit.  Work Package 2 involved the redesign of the website which was currently not fit for purpose.  Work Package 5 would see would involve the piloting of tablet devices to Members to assist with reducing paper.  HR Self-Serve would be used in Work Package 3 to develop the internal HR system. 

The Committee in welcoming the plan commented on the difficulty in finding Committee reports on the website and that introducing functionality such as web-chats would enhance the user experience.  The Committee however stated that caution would need to be exercised with this approach in areas where the demographic is different such as a high proportion of elderly people who would possibly prefer to have face to face contact with the Council.  The Committee questioned what steps it was taking to include and not exclude people.  The Digital Transformation Lead commented that a great deal of research had been done on user needs and a user centred approach and that the website redesign would have the input of citizens of all ages.  She stated that a user needs assessment is essential in the development of transforming services.  The Chief Executive informed the Committee that the Council did not want to be a “hole in the wall” Council and neither did it wish to exclude some citizens because of their circumstances.  The digital transformation programme was about giving citizens choice on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 232.

Invitees:

Cabinet and CMB;
All Scrutiny Chairpersons;
Randal Hemingway, Head of Finance.

The Scrutiny Officer introduced the report of the Head of Finance which updated on the Council’s financial position as at 31 December 2016.

The Committee requested an explanation of the under spend of £1.98m in the Operational and Partnership Services Directorate and questioned the pressures on carrying out back office functions and delays to processing transactions in Legal Services due to staff reductions / shortages.  The Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services explained that the under spend was attributed to a number of reasons, in part, due to budget planning for next year to account for the devaluation of Sterling.  He also explained that problems had been experienced in recruiting legal staff and a bid had also been made top recruit senior staff to support the transformation agenda but again had been unable to recruit.  He stated that if he cut the number of staff it would impact on the functioning of services elsewhere in the Council and he did not believe there had been a serious problem in the delivery of services.  He also informed the Committee that the Directorate had maximised the use of grant funding in Housing Options and Homelessness which had also contributed to the savings in the Directorate.  The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations commented that the Cabinet Secretary was looking at bringing together the funding of anti-poverty schemes together, namely, the Supporting People Programme; Families First and Communities First and that an announcement was anticipated soon.          

The Committee questioned whether the under spend of £1.98m was after the drawdown of £699k had been made from earmarked reserves.  The Head of Finance explained that the Operational and Partnership Services Directorate had received support of £699k which would then be released back to the General Fund and without which the under spend would be £1.4m.     

The Committee questioned whether the application of vacancy management in the Operational and Partnership Services Directorate was not detrimental to processing work and service delivery.  The Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services stated that he was satisfied with some elements of vacancy management but not with all of it.  He informed the Committee that the ICT service had countered difficulties in recruitment by introducing an apprenticeship scheme.  He had also experienced difficulties in recruiting Solicitors and to this end had embarked on a grow our own strategy and had recruited Paralegals and Trainee Solicitors.  He intended to roll this strategy out across the Directorate but was not yet in a position to do so in Housing.  The Committee asked whether difficulties could be encountered in retaining staff after they had been trained.  The Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services stated that he had to be prepared for the eventuality of staff leaving to pursue opportunities with other public bodies and which did happen. 

In response to a question from the Committee, the Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services requested that he be provided examples of where there were perceived to be delays in the processing of Traffic Orders and Community  ...  view the full minutes text for item 233.

To consider any items of business in respect of which notice has been given in accordance with Part 4 (paragraph 4) of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.