Agenda and minutes

Venue: Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BG

Contact: Salar Rida 020 8359 7113 Email: salar.rida@barnet.gov.uk 

Note: Public Questions and Comments must be submitted by 10am on the third working day before the meeting. The deadline for this meeting is 10am on Thursday 22 February. 

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 82 KB

Minutes:

It was RESOLVED that the minutes of the previous meeting of the Performance and Contract Management Committee held on 27th February 2018 be agreed as a correct record.

 

 

2.

Absence of Members

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Joan Scannell who was substituted by Councillor Caroline Stock.

3.

Declarations of Members Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Minutes:

The following interests were declared at the meeting:

 

Councillor

Agenda Item(s)

Interests Declared  

Arjun Mittra

7, 8

Non-pecuniary interest by virtue of being tenant of Barnet Homes.

John Marshall

7, 8

Non-pecuniary interest by virtue of being a Council appointed Director for Barnet Group, Your Choice Barnet and Barnet Homes.

 

4.

Report of the Monitoring Officer (if any)

Minutes:

None.

5.

Public Questions and Comments (if any) pdf icon PDF 72 KB

Minutes:

The Committee noted the details of the responses to the Public Questions which had been published and circulated prior to the meeting.

 

The Committee received a number of supplementary questions from Mr John Dix which were responded to verbally by Officers.

6.

Members' Items (if any)

Minutes:

None.

7.

Quarter 3 2017/18 Performance Monitoring Report pdf icon PDF 2 MB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman of the Committee introduced the Q.3 Performance Monitoring report and asked Officers to present the item.

 

The Chairman welcomed Ben Thomas, Strategic Lead for Children and Young People. The Committee welcomed the opportunity to review the Children’s Services Improvements alongside the role of the Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee. Members requested an update following publication of the second Ofsted Monitoring visit letter. 

 

Mr Thomas informed the Committee that the direction of travel is positive with improvements continuing to be embedded. The Committee noted that work was still ongoing to shape improvement activity and ensure that all staff understand the scale of the improvements required.

 

The Committee expressed concern over the 60 percent negative rating on the bin collection dates page over the Christmas and New Year period in comparison to the previous quarter. Kitran Eastman, Street Scene Director joined the meeting and noted that one of the reasons for the increase in the negative rating was that the collection information was not published on the webpage.

 

Following discussion, it was agreed that the Environment Committee be asked to consider the operation of the New Year Bin collection service as part of its Forward Work Programme. (Action)

 

Mathew Kendall, Adults and Communities Director joined the table to respond to queries from the Committee around sickness absence within Adults and Communities which was at 10.42 days during Q.3 in comparison to 9.55 for Q.3 in 2016/17.

 

Mr Kendall informed the Committee about the measures taken within the Delivery Unit to help support staff and tackle sickness with support from HR Partners. A Health and Wellbeing Group has been set up within the Delivery Unit to help improve health and increase physical activity. 

 

Following a comment from the Committee about the high sickness absence in Street Scene, Ms Eastman spoke about the mitigations put in place to tackle the higher levels of short term sickness absence which includes appointing a dedicated staffing supervisor to improve sickness management processes and an increased focus on return to work interviews.

 

The Committee agreed to make a referral to the Community Leadership Committee in respect of the Commissioning Plan indicator SPI CG/C3 on p.98 of the agenda, to consider what more can be done to respond to Domestic Violence and Violence with Injury offences, including working with perpetrators to reduce re-offending. (Action)

 

The Committee expressed concern over the small cohort representing the data on p.57 about CES/S26 Percentage of pupils with an EHCP or statement of special educational needs achieving the ‘expected standard’.

 

Members requested that details on the range (top and bottom ranking) and results for top 10% (rank 15) be incorporated in future reports for any educational attainment indicators that do not achieve target. (Action) 

 

The Committee requested that the next performance report provide details of capital slippage for Family Services (p.24)

 

It was RESOLVED that:

 

1.    The Committee scrutinised the overall performance of the council, in relation to the Corporate Plan; Theme Committee Commissioning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Contingency Planning Arrangements pdf icon PDF 287 KB

Minutes:

The Chairman introduced the item and invited Deborah Hinde Interim Assistant Commercial Director to join the meeting. Ms Hinde presented the report which sets out the Council’s contingency planning arrangements.

 

Following queries from the Committee, Ms Hinde informed the Committee about the ‘financial distress’ section contained in the service contracts which sets out a range of indicators that are designed to provide a warning that a provider may be in financial difficulty.

 

If triggered, a range of measures are available to the Council to protect its interests and enable the Council to maintain service delivery. Ms Hinde noted that the indicators and contingency arrangements are kept under review regularly.

 

It was RESOLVED that the Committee noted the contingency planning arrangements set out in the report.

 

9.

Review of High Impact Risks pdf icon PDF 281 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman introduced the report which presents information on moderate/low level risks (scoring 12 or below) with a high impact score of 5 on the strategic and service/joint risk registers.

 

It was RESOLVED that the Committee noted the moderate/low level risks with a high impact score of 5, including the controls and mitigations in place to manage the risk.

 

10.

Committee Forward Work Programme pdf icon PDF 201 KB

Minutes:

It was noted that the issues of gainshare and benefit realisation on the CSG contract will be incorporated within the Committee’s Forward Work Programme following the referrals from the Audit Committee.

 

It was RESOLVED that the Committee noted the Forward Work Programme.

 

 

11.

Any Other Items that the Chairman Decides are Urgent

Minutes:

None.