Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence received.

The Chairman reported that Councillor M A Whittington was no longer a member of the Committee following his appointment as Executive Support Councillor for Governance, Communications, Commissioning, Finance and Property and would attend in that capacity.  A replacement Committee Member was to be advised in due course.

There were no declarations of Councillors' interests at this point of the proceedings.

RESOLVED

          That the minutes of the Value for Money Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 26 April 2016 be agreed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Page 7 of the minutes had noted that the Committee requested that legal advice be taken to review the level of commercial sensitivity of the information presented to the Recovery Board.  It was reported that a review of this information had been undertaken between the Chief Commercial Officer and Serco where it was agreed that a number of areas would not be commercially sensitive in future.

(To receive a report from Judith Hetherington Smith, Chief Information and Commissioning Officer, which provides the Committee with an update of recent performance, against contractual Key Performance Indicators for March and April 2016.  Please note: performance information for May 2016 was under review at the time of publishing the agenda)

Consideration was given to a report from the Chief Information and Commissioning Officer which provided the Committee with an update on the recent performance against the contract with Serco.

Judith Hetherington Smith, Chief Information and Commissioning Officer, introduced the report and tabled updated performance figures up to the end of May 2016.

Paul Briddock, Partnership Director for Serco, was also in attendance for this item.

During discussion, the following points were noted:-

·       Serco anticipated that an agreement for the amendment of some KPIs would be reached within three months.  It was noted that KPI09 and KPI11 did not require renegotiation as it was acknowledged that the failure in these areas to reach the target was the fault of Serco and their responsibility to make the necessary improvements in order to meet those targets;

·       Although marked improvements had been made for some KPIs, the targets were still not being met.  The Committee was advised that for the purpose of reporting, despite these improvements being acknowledged, the KPIs remained unmet;

·       In relation to payroll queries, staff were frequently reminded to check payslips to ensure they were correct and any discrepancies reported immediately.  Although for some staff this would be straightforward for others with variable hours and pay it could be a complex process.  Due to these difficulties, the Corporate Management Board was concerned that staff should receive some support and help to do this.  As an example, it was noted that retained firefighters did not have enough information available on payslips to enable them to do the relevant checks.  This information had been requested;

·       F KPI 101 – undisputed invoices (finance) target was not improving and this was due to the amount of time taken to process the invoices, by both LCC staff and Serco.  Although this had improved since October 2015 it was acknowledged that better reporting was required by LCC to enable departments to be prompted to complete the invoice process.  It was further explained that there were currently 3168 late invoices in the system, 406 of which were awaiting action by Serco and 2700 were within LCC systems;

·       A detailed report of which departments were holding up these invoices was now available enabling the finance team to chase closure of these purchases.  This equated to 80-85% of late invoices.  It was confirmed that this report was not an additional task and would be prepared as part of the process for invoice resolution;

·       In theory, disputed invoices should be removed from the KPI and not counted but it was advised that this indicator also required renegotiation;

·       Should renegotiation of KPIs result in no alteration, Serco would have to find ways to meet those targets as part of the contract.  Paul Briddock, Partnership Director for Serco, reported that some of the KPIs may not be met as these relied on other areas within a process to do so.  The finance process for Adult Social Care had an indicator set at 14 days but within that process was a sub-process  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

(To receive a report from Nigel West, Head of Democratic Services and Statutory Scrutiny Officer, which provides the Committee with the opportunity to consider its work programme for the forthcoming year)

Consideration was given to a report of the Director responsible for Democratic Services which provided the Committee with the opportunity to consider the work programme for the coming year.

The Audit Committee had met to consider the motion presented to Full Council in relation to the Serco Contract.  It was suggested that this be considered at the Value for Money Scrutiny Committee scheduled for July 2016 in order to prepare a formal contribution from the Committee in regard to the contract.    The Committee agreed to add this to the agenda for the July meeting.

The Committee agreed that the pre-meeting held prior to the start of the formal Committee had been a helpful exercise and suggested this arrangement be replicated in July.  It was therefore agreed to start the formal meeting of the Value for Money Scrutiny Committee in July at 10.30am with a pre-meeting for Committee members only at 9.30am.

The Committee requested that the information within the County Council Property Assets – Detailed Analysis item, scheduled for consideration at the meeting on 27 September 2016, include a breakdown of all assets by Council Divisions.  The County Property Officer would be advised of this request.

RESOLVED

1.    That the report and comments be noted;

2.    That the start time of the Value for Money Scrutiny Committee, on Tuesday 26 July 2016, be changed to 10.30am;

3.    That the Scrutiny Officer make arrangements to hold a pre-meeting immediately prior to the next meeting of the Value for Money Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 26 July 2016; and

4.    That the County Property Officer be requested to include a breakdown of all assets by Council Division within the report "County Council Property Assets – Detailed Analysis" scheduled for consideration on 27 September 2016.

On behalf of the Committee, the Chairman expressed thanks to Judith Hetherington Smith (Chief Information and commissioning Officer) and David Forbes (County Finance Officer) and their teams for the continued work undertaken to support the Serco contract.