To consider the progress update on the CIPFA Action Plan.

Councillor Hilton, Lead Member for Finance and Ascot, introduced the report and explained that in his opinion it had gone above and beyond the recommendations that CIPFA put forward in their report.

Adele Taylor, Director of Resources, said that there was an internal group of officers at RBWM that met on a regular basis to discuss progress, with this report detailing what progress RBWM had made. The Property Company would be having a review of its governance arrangements including its relationship with RBWM which would be taking place by the end of the financial year.

Councillor Sharpe said that he had not seen a review document that was as comprehensive as this. This showed that RBWM was moving in the right direction and he was looking forward to seeing where it went next.

Councillor Story commented on the transformation section of the report and asked if there was an opportunity to transform any services.

Adele Taylor said that this linked in with the new Corporate Transformation Strategy that the Panel had looked at in the previous agenda item. There would be areas identified for improvement in the action plan of the strategy.

Councillor Story asked how the training programme was coming on.

Adele Taylor said that a number of budget managers had gone through the training before lockdown. Andrew Vallance confirmed that a substantial number of managers had received the appropriate training.

Councillor L Jones commented on the management of the capital programme and that it seemed a lot of decision making on the programme was down to Members. She felt like sometimes she did not know what would be the best capital decision to make and asked for any pointers that would help Members with their decision making.

Adele Taylor said that if any Member was unsure of the decision that they were making or did not understand any technical aspects of such reports to contact either Adele or appropriate members of the team who would be willing to help. She said that officers had worked hard to improve the financial implications section of reports going forward which would hopefully help Members understand the context and impact of decisions better.

Councillor L Jones agreed that the financial implications section had improved a lot. She thanked officers for an excellent report.

Councillor Hilton said that relatively small amounts of money were needed in the capital programme to keep it running, with the vast majority coming from other projects.

Councillor Sharpe pointed out that there were a number of items listed in the report that were due for completion in September 2020. He asked if these had now been completed or if they had been delayed.

Adele Taylor explained that work was currently underway on a number of these actions, the date was to start in September 2020 and was ongoing rather than completed for some of them.

Councillor Sharpe suggested that it might be better to put the estimated completion date next to the action instead of the start date, which officers agreed to do.

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

i)             Noted the actions already taken in respect of the objectives set out and those planned for the next quarter.