Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED - That the minutes of the last meeting be agreed as a correct record subject to noting the following amendments for accuracy:

·                    Item 9 – Quarter 2 Monitoring Report

            Councillor Seal, not Councillor Davey had left the meeting

·                    Item 10 – Committee Forward Work Programme

            Members Items had been agenda item 7, not 6.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Daniel Seal, who was substituted for by Councillor Lisa Rutter.

Councillor John Marshall declared a non-pecuniary interest in relation to agenda item 8 (Quarter 3 Monitoring Report 2014/15) by virtue of being a director of Barnet Homes.

CouncillorArjun Mittra declared non-pecuniary interests in relation to agenda item 8 (Quarter 3 Monitoring Report 2014/15) by virtue of being a Barnet Home tenant. In addition, his mother owned a nursery and he may have had questions in relation to early years provision.

Councillor Shimon Ryde declared a non-pecuniary interest in relation to agenda item 8 (Quarter 3 Monitoring Report 2014/15) by virtue of being a governor at an LEA school.

During the course of the meeting Councillor Arjun Mittra declared a non-pecuniary interest in relation to agenda item 7 (Client/Contract Management Arrangements) by virtue of his membership of a trades’ union.

There were none.

A public comment was received from Mr John Dix.

Details of the questions asked, together with the published answers were provided with the agenda papers and circulated at the meeting. Verbal responses were given to supplementary questions at the meeting.

There were none.

At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr Philip Hamberger, Partnership Relationship Manager, introduced the report which provided an overview of the clienting and contract management arrangements in operation across the council contracts within the committee’s remit and set out how performance was monitored and challenged. The report also presented the annual review of the Customer and Support Group (CSG) and Re.

The committee considered and commented on the report and asked detailed questions which were responded to by officers and contractors. Mr John Hooton, the Deputy Chief Operating Officer, undertook to coordinate a response to the independent article and to circulate it to the committee. In response to questions from the committee, he clarified that the £1.2m procurement savings referred to in the CSG annual report were predominantly due to large contracts.

RESOLVED - That the report be noted.

At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr John Hooton, the Deputy Chief Operating Officer, introduced the report which provided the delivery and financial performance of both contracted and non-contracted services.

Councillor Kathy Levine MOVED the following motion which was seconded by Councillor Geof Cooke:

“That the Performance and Contract Management Committee request that the Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee consider how the council could mitigate the risk of looking after two year olds and assist in increasing the uptake of the nursery places offer, while also assessing whether further work could be initiated to assist in increasing capacity”.

The motion was agreed unanimously.

RESOLVED – That the Performance and Contract Management Committee request that the Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee consider how the council could mitigate the risk of looking after two year olds and assist in increasing the uptake of the nursery places offer, while also assessing whether further work could be initiated to assist in increasing capacity.

Mr Tom Pike, Head of Programmes and Resources, reported an addition to the report in that the average time spent in temporary accommodation in quarter 2 was 45.7 weeks and in quarter 3 was 50.2 weeks.

RESOLVED - That:

1.         the quarter 3 2014/15 revenue budget and capital position contained in paragraphs 1.11 and 1.15 of the report be noted;

2.         the agency costs for the quarter 3 2014/15, as detailed in paragraph 1.16 of the report, be noted;

3.         the transformation programme position as at 31 December 2014, as detailed in paragraph 1.17 of the report, be noted;

4.         the treasury position outlined in paragraph 1.19 of the report be noted;

5.         the projected £18,323 capital slippage of the outturn at quarter 3 2014/15, as outlined in Appendix C to the report, be noted;

6.         the Capita payments outlined in Appendix I to the report be noted;

7.         the additional information requested by the committee on 11 November 2014 and the rationale behind the choice of corporate plan indicators, as outlined in Appendix J to the report, be noted.

The committee considered the forward work programme and the Chairman indicated that suggested changes to key performance indicators be included. The Chairman invited the Committee to send any proposed performance indicators to himself, or to officers.

Mr John Hooton, the Deputy Chief Operating Officer, undertook to seek the committee’s comments in advance of its next meeting.

RESOLVED - That the report be noted.

There were no urgent items of business.

As it was the last meeting of the municipal year, however, the Vice Chairman moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman, Councillor Anthony Finn, for his chairing of the committee. This was supported by members. Councillor Finn made suitable acknowledgement.