Agenda item

Portfolio Holder Briefing - Organisation Portfolios

To receive a briefing from the Organisation Portfolio Holders regarding the Organisation business area and their portfolios.

Minutes:

Members received a briefing from the Organisation Portfolio Holders on the Organisation business area and their portfolios. The three Organisation Portfolios Holders were: Finance, Investment and Companies, and Corporate Direction and Governance. These three portfolios were aligned with the themes set out in the Council’s current and emerging Corporate Plans.

Finance Portfolio

Councillor T. Schofield, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Finance, gave an overview of the ongoing work in the Finance area which included Service and Financial Planning, Treasury Management, legal services, procurement and land charges. A report to the Committee set out a progress update on the Finance Portfolio’s objectives. These objectives included adopting a Capital Investment Strategy, approval of the Medium Term Financial Plan 2020-25, a procurement review, developing an asset management strategy and establishing working groups to guide key areas such as a Budget Advisory Group with Portfolio Holders.

The draft budget proposals for 2020/21 were due to be considered by the Executive on 7 November and reviewed by the Budget Scrutiny Panel on 21 November 2019 before it was reported back to this Committee.

Members commented on the following areas:

Procurement – Members noted the review of the procurement and contract management processes. They requested sight of the report and its recommendations when it was completed so improvements could be made to these areas.

Budget 2020/21 status – It was confirmed that Legal services which had overspends in previous years was expected to be on the existing budget from 2020/21. The new legal support arrangements were welcomed.

Investments and Companies Portfolio

The Portfolio Holder for Investments and Companies, Councillor T. Archer, was unable to attend the meeting, so Portfolio Holder for Finance, Councillor T. Schofield gave an overview of the Investment and Companies area of business. This included the Council’s assets and management, companies and commercial investments.

A report to the Committee set out progress on objectives which included ongoing oversight on existing companies via the Commercial Ventures Executive Sub-Committee, determining the Horley Business Park investment approach, considering new investment opportunities as they arose and ensuring effective monitoring and reporting of existing investments.

Members commented on the following areas:

·       Performance of companies – noted that a report on the performance of the companies owned or part-owned by the Council was considered under Agenda Item 8 of the meeting.

·       Updated asset management strategy – work was being undertaken to review the Council’s current assets to maximise returns from its commercial properties and land. The review would also be looking in detail at each asset held. The updated Asset Management Strategy would be considered for approval by the Commercial Ventures Executive Sub-Committee once completed. It was noted that the Committee requested a report, when the review is completed, on the assets held in terms of purchase price, value and overall returns.

·       Building energy ratings – Members asked if information was held on the building energy ratings for properties we lease to ensure compliance with new regulations.

Corporate Direction and Governance Portfolio

Councillor V. Lewanski, Portfolio Holder for Corporate Direction and Governance, gave an overview of the ongoing work in the Corporate and Governance areas. This included Legal and Governance (including Mayoral support), performance and project reporting, an improved Employment Committee, a review of the Standards Committee, HR and organisational development, the ICT roll out of Windows 10 and Office 365 and updates to the Customer Contact Strategy.

The Portfolio Holder reported that the Employment Committee was now operating in line with its updated terms of reference and had engaged with the recruitment process for both a new Head of Finance and a Director of Organisation.

The training programme for Members had been greatly expanded with a Member Learning and Development Programme which would be developed to sit alongside the Corporate Plan 2020-25.

In the performance and project reporting area, updated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) mapped to the Corporate Plan 2020-25 were being developed in consultation with Heads of Service and Executive Members. An informal KPI Working Group had been set up to review KPIs which involved Overview and Scrutiny Committee Members.

It was noted that work was underway to update the priorities of the Great People Programme to encourage employee engagement, customer focus and creativity. The Staff Survey would ask more detail about staff views on working for the Council.

Updates to the Council’s strategy on communications and customer contact had delivered significant efficiencies and savings. Work was now in progress to make sure that it remained practical and convenient, particularly for vulnerable and older residents who could not use online or digital ways of accessing services, to contact the Council using methods other than via online forms and email.

Members thanked Councillor V. Lewanski for his work in this Portfolio business area.

Committee Members had a number of questions and comments in the discussion that followed:

·       Apprenticeships – the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Direction and Governance said that 0.5 per cent of the Council’s total pay bill was paid to the Government for the apprenticeship levy. The Council drew down approximately £5.8k a month of this money to pay for training people in different roles from accountants to gardeners. This was something Members wanted to continue to do so as to develop the talent pool and take on apprentices permanently after their training had been completed. Members asked for a breakdown on the number and type of apprenticeships, particularly at Levels 2 and 3, as there was a skills shortage at this entry level in employment. Many young people left education at age 16 without a Level 2 qualification and it was important that the levy helped young people onto this first rung of the career ladder.

It was confirmed that the Council targets a broad range of different roles though its apprenticeship schemes. It had also focused on training local young people who were not in education, employment or training.

 

Members asked for more information in a written answer about the Council’s apprenticeship programme – how much it spent on the levy, how many apprenticeships there were at each training level and their roles.

 

·       ICT – Members asked how the roll-out of Windows 10 and Office 365 across the business was being managed to ensure that business change was achieved in addition to new hardware updated.

·       Communications – Members noted improvements to this service. They asked how the Council measured how effectively it was communicating with residents to make sure that improvements that had been made were monitored.

·       Customer contact – Members reported concerns from residents that it could take a long time to get through on the phone to different departments via the central customer contact number. Members asked if the initial welcome introductory message could be reviewed as it was a long three-minute message which added to the waiting time for residents. 

Other Members reported that residents did not have difficulties submitting a question online but getting a response back to their online questions (which were passed to the relevant department) could take time. Members asked what was in place to measure the Council’s responsiveness online to questions from the public. It was identified that the work on developing KPIs could look at this area.

Councillor Lewanski said that ICT was looking at how many forms for residents were being filled out by Council staff as opposed to people filling out forms online themselves as this was a high number. He welcomed the feedback from Members who suggested a survey of their experiences.

·       Informal Working Group on KPIs – it was confirmed that this group was due to meet in a few weeks. The Chair, Councillor N. Harrison asked Conservative and Green Party Members to give their nominations directly to the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Direction and Governance.

·        Standards Committee – it was noted that the Head of Legal and Governance was reviewing this area to formalise the work of this Committee and work was continuing. A draft report would be produced early in the new year.

RESOLVED that: the Portfolio Holder Briefings on the Organisation Portfolio and the observations of the Committee for consideration by Executive Members be noted.

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