Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 1 September 2015 be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Reema Patel who was substituted for by Councillor Dr Devra Kay.

In relation to agenda item 9, the Quarter Two Performance Monitoring 2015/16 report:

·                Councillor John Marshall declared a non-pecuniary interest by virtue of being a board member of Barnet Homes; and

·                Councillor Anne Hutton declared a non-pecuniary interest by virtue of being a member of the board of trustees for Barnet Carers’ Centre.

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A public comment was received from Mr John Dix.

Details of the public 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.

It was reported that the Deputy Monitoring Officer had advised that the Member’s Item was not within the committee’s terms of reference and would be withdrawn from the agenda.

The Chairman acknowledged this advice but wished to place on record that he and Councillor Cooke disagreed with the Deputy Monitoring Officer’s interpretation of the constitution.  

The committee received a report in the name of the Head of Governance which requested that a sub-committee be established to respond to any items referred to it by the West London Economic Prosperity Board.

The sub-committee, comprising three members and two substitute members (in accordance with political group nominations) would:

-       consider any decisions of the West London Economic Prosperity Board which had been called in, in accordance with the meeting procedure rules; and

-       be convened in the event that a meeting of the Performance and Contract Management Committee was not already scheduled with the specified timeframe (seven clear working days).

Councillor Finn moved a motion to agree the recommendations set out in the committee report. The motion was duly seconded by Councillor Khatri and agreed unanimously.

RESOLVED that:

1.         In accordance with Article 7 (section 7.03), the Performance and Contract Management Committee agree to the establishment of a sub-committee to be convened only for the purpose of considering any items referred to Performance and Contract Management Committee by the West London Economic Prosperity Board, which may be convened in the event that a meeting of the Performance and Contract Management Committee is not already scheduled within the specified timeframe (seven clear working days); and

2.         The Performance and Contract Management Committee agree the appointment of Members and Substitute Members to the sub-committee on the following basis:

Sub-Committee Members:

Councillor Anthony Finn (Conservative)

Councillor Sury Khatri (Conservative)

Councillor Geof Cooke (Labour)

Sub-Committee Substitute Members:

Councillor John Marshall (Conservative)

Councillor Kathy Levine (Labour).

The committee received a report from the Head of Customer Strategy and Programmes, Kari Manovitch, together with the Customer Services Operations Director, Jim Gibbs, who were in attendance to answer the committee’s questions.

In response to a query raised by the committee, the Service Director for Re, Bill Murphy, agreed to ascertain whether there was a planned programme of highways maintenance works identified for each ward and how frequently it could be circulated amongst members.

Following discussion, Councillor Finn moved a motion to agree the recommendations as set out in the committee report. The motion was seconded by Councillor Khatri and agreed unanimously.

RESOLVED that the committee:

1.         Consider and agree that the outcomes from the informal working group, as outlined in Appendices A and B, accurately reflect Members’ collective position;

2.         Note the actions that have been taken, together with those that are planned and agree that they are appropriate based on the discussions that took place with the informal working group; and

3.         Agree that a follow up action plan progress report will be provided for the next committee meeting.

The Adults and Communities Director, Matthew Kendall, was invited by the Chairman to discuss the pressures affecting the projected overspend within the Adults’ Services Delivery Unit and the measures in place to deliver budget savings, including the recovery plan.

The committee observed that the targets for performance indicators AC/S12, S13 and S14 were relatively low. The director undertook to circulate a breakdown of the compactor data sources. It was clarified that carers in the context of these measures were unpaid family carers and the genesis of the quality of life score in AC/S14 was aggregated data from a survey. The director undertook to confirm the highest score possible on that survey. The director also agreed to circulate further information about the use of direct debit payments in AC/S16.   

Following review of the key performance challenges for the delivery unit, together with its efforts to reduce overspend, the committee was concerned that the savings target was ambitious and questioned whether it could be adjusted.

Councillor Levine moved a motion to recommend that the Policy and Resources Committee note and consider the potential impact of the proposed savings target on the Adults Delivery Unit. The motion was seconded by Councillor Cooke and following debate, agreed unanimously.  

The Family Services Director, Nicola Francis, was invited by the Chairman to discuss the performance of the Family Service and the reasons for overspend within that service, together with its recovery plan. Further to discussion concerning indicator FS/S10, the director agreed to provide the adoption scorecard to the committee. The committee noted that one of the contributing factors to the projected overspend was the number of permanent staff that were paid above the midpoint scale at which the budgets has been set (section 1.13 of the report) and questioned whether this created an unfair pressure. The director undertook to circulate information confirming how many social workers were salaried above the midpoint scale.

The Chief Operating Officer, John Hooton, undertook to provide a detailed report concerning the performance of the Customer and Support Group (CSG) together with a report reviewing the CSG contract, for consideration at the committee’s next meeting. In response to questions from the committee regarding ICT operations, the Chief Operating Officer further agreed to provide a report on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library methodology assessment.  

The Director of Street Scene, Graham Lawson, addressed the committee and answered questions about the performance of the service together with the waste action plan. Further to discussion of SS/S3 the committee emphasised the importance of maintaining an accurate public perception of how waste and recycling was collected and subsequently managed by the council, e.g. by labelling food waste collection receptacles.

Officers from highways provided context to the budget pressures overspend and savings targets and answered the committee’s questions concerning reactive and pro-active highway maintenance.

The committee discussed the correlation between the performance indicators presented in quarterly monitoring reports and the key measures which were of particular concern to commissioning officers. In response to discussion about the role of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Chairman introduced the item and invited comments from the committee.

RESOLVED to amend the 2015-16 work programme (Appendix A to the report) to include the following additional reports:

January 2016

-           ICT Operations – ITIL Methodology Assessment

-           Performance of the Customer and Support Group

-           Review of Customer and Support Group Contract

February 2016

-           Corporate Plan and Commissioning Plans (including key performance indicators).

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