Agenda and minutes

Venue: Grey Room - York House - Windsor

Contact: Mark Beeley  01628 796345 / Email: mark.beeley@rbwm.gov.uk

Video Stream: Click here to watch this meeting on YouTube

Items
No. Item

149.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence received.

150.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 103 KB

To receive any declarations of interest.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received.

151.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 333 KB

To consider the minutes of the meetings held on 4th October 2021 and 11th October 2021.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meetings held on 4th October 2021 and 11th October 2021 were approved as a true and accurate record.

152.

Corporate Transformation Strategy and Action Plan pdf icon PDF 1019 KB

To consider the strategy.

Minutes:

Daniel Brookman, Head of Transformation, highlighted what had happened to the strategy since it had been signed off. Transformation was everyone’s role, the pandemic had a significant impact but changes at RBWM had been made. An update would be going to the Cabinet Transformation Sub Committee the following evening, on 30th November 2021. A huge amount of transformation had been delivered at speed and was done in a number of ways. Individual actions were things that people knew how to do themselves to make their work more efficient. Service actions involved working with communities on what they needed and ensuring that the council was able to deliver this support. Toolkits had been created which could assist and there would be support from the transformation team. Finally, there were council wide programmes and projects that covered a number of service areas.

 

There were a number of key focuses over the next 12 months. Engagement HQ was a new platform which had been recently set up and was called RBWM Together. This platform allowed for collaboration between teams, particularly when working remotely. It provided a space for staff to air views and new ideas, for example through surveys and quick polls. Considering adult social care transformation, MySense was a predictive system which allowed staff to react to any health issues before they happened. ‘Brain in Hand’ was a programme that had been developed to allow people to live independent lives by creating schedules for their day. As an organisation, RBWM had collected a significant amount of data and it was important that it was ethically stored. There were plans for a Corporate Data Strategy to be developed to further utilise and safeguard the use of this data.

 

The system used by staff in adult social care, Paris, was becoming outdated and the transformation team had undertaken work on a new system. The system would allow data to be shared, promoting multi agency working and providing long term financial viability. The website had been upgraded too and was now powered by Drupal, which was an open source software and had gone live in July 2020. There had been around 1,600 web pages and 300 forms which had been transferred to the new site. The number of daily visits to the RBWM website had been around 5,000, this had dropped to around 1,500 but this was due to the change in cookies settings which meant that residents could choose not to be tracked and therefore they would not show up in the figures. Accessibility requirements had also now come in, which meant that all documents on the website needed to be accessible. The website was audited by the government in August 2021 and was found to be partially compliant, the issues which had come out of the audit had now been actioned. A number of PDFs would be revisited, with about 250 still outstanding. The new search function was live and was an improvement on the original search function. A feedback loop had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 152.

153.

Resident Scrutiny Suggestion - RBWM App pdf icon PDF 170 KB

To consider the report.

Minutes:

Daniel Brookman said that the suggestion had come into the council from a resident using the scrutiny topic suggestion form on the website. The suggestion had been considered by officers and a report had been produced on the scope and potential of the topic for the Panel to consider. Daniel Brookman said the suggestion, for an RBWM App, was a good one and the report was suggesting a recommendation for officers to complete a discovery session to capture interested parties and allow the application to be costed. The findings of the session would be reported back to the Panel in June 2022.

 

Andrew Ingram informed the Panel that he had submitted the suggestion to the council for consideration. Around 87% of adults used smart phones and most organisations had an app which could often function between that a website. RBWM had a communication gap and by developing an app, the gap could be closed as the council could offer its services to more people. Notifications could also be sent to residents through the app. Andrew Ingram said that other local authorities already had an app, so RBWM could learn from their experiences. He thanked officers for considering his suggestion and for taking the idea forward.

 

The Chairman said that he taken a look at other local authorities who currently had their own app. He noted that on one example, the app had been released in 2017 and therefore it would be worth discussing the idea with this local authority to see how their app was working.

 

Councillor Werner thought it was a great idea, the app could be used for reporting issues as well as providing accessing to a number of other council services. He agreed that RBWM should see what other councils were doing before bringing their own app to the table.

 

Councillor Sharpe said it was a good idea and wanted to see an RBWM app produced.

 

Councillor L Jones said that she regularly used apps and that it was a good suggestion. She raised some concern on whether the council had the capacity and capability to produce and run its own app. The project would need investment but it was a good way of communicating with residents. The financial information on a potential app needed to be considered too.

 

The Chairman commented that the report mentioned a full costing would be looked at over the next few months.

 

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel noted the report and:

 

i)             Welcomed the suggestion made for such an app which could form part of the council’s suite of communication tools.

 

ii)            Noted that a ‘discovery’ session within the next six months to capture user stories from both residents and other interested parties to enable a full specification to be costed, with the outcome of the session reported back to the Panel in June 2022.

154.

CIPFA Action Plan Update pdf icon PDF 227 KB

To receive the final update on the CIPFA Action Plan.

Minutes:

Andrew Vallance, Head of Finance, explained that this was the final CIPFA update that the Panel would be receiving. All actions in the action plan had now been undertaken, the last action still to be completed was on the recruitment of new staff. They would be starting in January 2022 when this action would be completed. In November 2021, Cabinet had approved the new internal audit arrangements which would come into effect from April 2022. Cabinet had also seen the 31Ten action plan report into the RBWM Property Company. Two Cabinet Transformation Sub Committees were taking place to consider the Corporate Transformation Strategy. A final report on the CIPFA action plan would be considered by Cabinet in December 2021.

 

The Chairman asked if now that all actions had been completed, were officers confident that there was now a system in place.

 

Andrew Vallance said that officers were confident and it was now business as usual for all service departments.

 

Councillor Sharpe considered the transformation of the finance team over the past few years and said that it was now in a good place.

 

Councillor L Jones asked about the management of partnership arrangements. Internal audit and the Property Company had been completed but other partnerships had not.

 

Andrew Vallance confirmed that reviews on Optalis and Achieving for Children had been completed, along with the review on the pension fund.

 

Councillor L Jones asked what other partnership arrangements did RBWM have.

 

Adele Taylor said that the shared legal service and Building Control were also part of this review. All partnership arrangements had appropriate reviews.

 

Councillor L Jones proposed that this section of the action plan was amended, so that it showed all reviews for partnership arrangements had been completed, not including partnerships which were subject to procurement.

 

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel recommended the completed section of the CIPFA action plan was amended to show that all partnerships, which were not subject to procurement, had been completed.

 

Councillor Werner said that now the CIPFA action plan had been completed, there was a big danger as this was when things could start to slide. He asked if there was a review process in place, for example could CIPFA be brought back in to see how RBWM was performing.

 

Adele Taylor explained that internal audit would ensure that RBWM was still performing as expected and the Audit and Governance Committee would be involved in the action plan of internal audit. Services would look to keep planning and make use of best practise, it was important that RBWM had a good internal audit function which also worked in conjunction with the external auditors.

 

Councillor Werner said that previous external and internal audits had failed, CIPFA then had to be brought in and therefore Councillor Werner felt that RBWM should have an open mind. He suggested that CIPFA was brought back in two years.

 

Adele Taylor said that there was an option around peer reviews, this was something that the Audit  ...  view the full minutes text for item 154.

155.

Financial Update pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To receive the report.

Minutes:

Andrew Vallance updated the Panel on the latest financial position of RBWM. At month 6, there was a small underspend of £46,000, which was a £700,000 improvement over month 4. The reasons for this were contained in the Outbreak Management Fund and extra money from the CCG had been received. There had been a severe overspend reduction in children’s services, down to £684,000 which was mainly around placements. For adult’s services, there was around a £500,000 overspend which was similar to other Berkshire local authorities. There was £1 million underspend in property.

 

Councillor L Jones said that the outturn position overall was roughly £50,000 above what was expected. £400,000 had been received from CCG, £1 million from property but there were still 6 months to go. She was unsure about bringing in the £1 million when there was still a lot of uncertainty. On the savings tracker, there were ‘potentially unachievable’ savings listed of £2.2 million, Councillor L Jones asked how achievable these savings were.

 

Andrew Vallance said that the £1 million had come from the property team, some of the savings would turn to green from amber. Those that did not, alternative savings would be found.

 

Adele Taylor added that one of the amber savings had recently turned to green after a Cabinet decision.

 

Councillor Werner said that the update was showing a different picture to the last update that the Panel had received. He asked what work had gone in to change the overspend to an underspend. How would this be embedded into the system so that this did not happen again.

 

Andrew Vallance explained that the main reason for the £700,000 change was the CCG money being confirmed. There were further reserves which could be used if needed to balance the budget. The provisional figure for month 7 was a £9,000 underspend.

 

Adele Taylor said that RBWM spent over £100 million in total, so small amounts of movement like this were common. Budget mangers were going through the data in detail which led to greater transparency and it was shown to the Panel where things were being changed where needed. The start of the financial year was less certain than mid-year and therefore it was based on estimations and assumptions. Government had supported the council with grant funding which had an impact on the budget and it was difficult for officers to predict how much support RBWM would receive going forward. Any movement was explained in the report but officers were happy to explain any further detail.

 

Councillor Werner asked for clarification that the Head of Finance had suggested that if there was any further overspend, there were other sources of income which could be used.

 

Andrew Vallance said that there was money in reserves available which could be used if required.

 

Councillor Sharpe said that there were a number of pressures, he asked if officers were sure that all the pressures had been outlined.

 

Andrew Vallance responded by saying that officers were aware of many pressures,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 155.

156.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 24 KB

To consider the Panel’s work programme for the remainder of the Municipal year.

 

To include consideration of items scheduled on the Cabinet Forward Plan.

Minutes:

The Chairman said that there was an item on the customer journey which had been suggested, a scoping document needed to be completed to add this item to the work programme.

 

Councillor L Jones suggested an item on communication and that she was considering a scoping document on this. This work could then lead into the potential development of an RBWM app, as had been discussed during the meeting.

 

Mark Beeley, Democratic Services Officer, said that the Panel would potentially have an additional meeting towards the end of December 2021 to consider and scrutinise the budget.

 

Councillor L Jones expressed concern that the budget could be scrutinised properly in December as not all of the numbers would be available on the finance settlement, she believed that there should be another scrutiny session after Christmas.

 

Adele Taylor said that numbers on the finance settlement were expected mid-December but these would still be provisional. She would be looking to brief Members as soon as possible.

 

Councillor L Jones suggested that she would prefer to scrutinise the budget after the finance settlement figure had been confirmed.

 

Councillor Sharpe said that the Panel should give as much time as possible to allow the figures on the finance settlement to be confirmed. Therefore, scrutinising the budget in December might not be the best course of action.

 

Adele Taylor clarified that the only figure the Panel did not have was the finance settlement figure. All other aspects of the budget still needed to be scrutinised, there was no guarantee that the final finance settlement figure would be received before RBWM was legally required to set the budget.

 

Councillor Sharpe asked if the finance settlement figure was essential in setting in the budget.

 

Adele Taylor explained that it was not, it was not the function of scrutiny to consider the finance settlement number. It was not unusual for local authorities to not have a final confirmed figure for the finance settlement when setting the budget.

 

Councillor L Jones asked if it meant that the figures in the budget would therefore not change.

 

Adele Taylor responded by saying that the budget proposals would not change, the estimated finance settlement number was £3 million.

 

Councillor L Jones commented that it would be useful to have as much information as possible at the time the budget was scrutinised by the Panel.

 

Councillor Werner said that the budget was based on assumptions but the budget could need to change if the £3 million finance settlement was not received from the government. Councillor Werner argued that if the figure was confirmed, the December meeting should go ahead, if the figure was not confirmed then the Panel should delay the meeting until the new year.

 

Adele Taylor said that any changes would be proposed in the final budget. This was an opportunity for the Panel to see the budget early and feed into the process. Officers had to make estimations on government funding before final figures were confirmed.

 

Councillor Werner asked what  ...  view the full minutes text for item 156.