Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors R L Foulkes and Mrs J Brockway and Added Members Mrs P J Barnett, Reverend P A Johnson and Dr E van der Zee.

It was reported that, under the Local Government (Committee and Political Groups) Regulations 1990, Councillor R J Kendrick had been appointed as replacement member for Councillor R L Foulkes, for this meeting only and that Councillor R Wootten had permanently replaced Councillor L A Cawrey. 

The Committee was reminded that Councillor R Wootten had been appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board at the meeting of Full Council on Friday 15 December 2017.

No declarations of Members' interests were received at this point of the proceedings.

The Chairman advised the Board of an error on page two of the minutes.  Dr E van der Zee had been referred to as Mr E van der Zee, which would be amended.

RESOLVED

          That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 30 November 2017, with the amendment noted above, be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman advised that he had attended two recent meetings of the Executive, on 5^th and 19^th December.  These meetings had included an overview of the way in which key indicators were considered and a presentation from the County Finance Officer in relation to the budget workshops.  Unfortunately, the settlement for Lincolnshire had only just been received and therefore the detail was unable to be considered at that time. 

The Chairman confirmed that scrutiny committees would be consulted on the draft budget proposals prior to the Board's consideration on 25 January 2018.  The Executive would then consider the comments prior to making a recommendation to Full Council on 23 February 2018.

The Executive Support Councillor for Resources and Communications confirmed that some areas of the budget would be reconsidered following the announcement and the potential increased income.

There were no announcements by Chief Officers.

No Call-Ins had been received.

No Councillor Calls for Action had been received.

(To receive a report from Sophie Reeve (Chief Commercial Officer) which provides an update on Serco's performance against contractual Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) specified within the Corporate Support Services Contract between September 2017 and October 2017.  The report also provides an update on progress made on key transformation projects being undertaken by Serco)

Consideration was given to a report by the Chief Commercial Officer which provided an update on Serco's performance against contractual Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) specified within the Corporate Support Services Contract between September 2017 and October 2017.  The report also provided an update on the progress made on key transformation projects being undertaken by Serco.

Prior to the meeting an addendum report had been circulated to the Board which provided an update on Serco's KPI performance in November 2017 (contract month 32).

Arnd Hobohm (Contract Management Team – Infrastructure) introduced the report and explained that Appendix A and the addendum to the report provided detailed KPI results for the six months of service delivery from May to November 2017 broken down by service area. 

Table 8 of the report highlighted two areas of KPI failure and the effect on Council service provision where the Minimum Service Level (MSL) had not been achieved, both of which were in September 2017 only.  These were CSC_KPI04 (% of abandoned calls) and IMT_KPI05 (number of Priority 1 incidents reported to service desk). Since the report and addendum had been published, the score against KPI04 (% of abandoned calls) within the Customer Service Centre was 2.79% which was the best it had ever been.

It was reported that KPI performance across most service areas had been good with MSL failures continuously falling however four IMT KPIs which had been escalated for August 2017 remained outstanding.

The Chairman invited Paul Briddock (Partnership Director, Serco) to give an update from the perspective of Serco who explained that a considerable amount of hard work and effort had been done in order to improve the KPIs with a number of services maintaining performance and moving forward.  Only one KPI was missed and that was by 0.75% of 1% therefore it was reported that they were now in a much stronger position than previously.

The Board was advised that October 2017 had resulted in no red status KPIs for the first time since the start of the contract and that this had continued into November 2017.

The Chairman invited the Board to ask questions on this section of the report, during which the following points were noted:-

·       Councillor A M Newton asked that her thanks to both Paul Briddock and LCC teams regarding the progress made be recorded.  As the Chairman of the former Value for Money Scrutiny Committee during the last Council term, where this item was regularly scrutinised, Councillor Newton acknowledged the level of improvement made, but reiterated that these indicators should have been met from the start of the contract;

·       Serco had faced significant issues in recruitment as competitors were also recruiting to similar positions.  As a result, Serco had improved advertising and technology in addition to a change in management staff with better skill sets.  All of these changes had come into effect from 1 October 2017 which had resulted in the step change in performance shown in the report;

·       Outstanding payroll queries appeared to continually  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

(To receive a report by the Head of Democratic Services and Statutory Scrutiny Officer which presents the Board with the opportunity to evaluate the proposals received to-date for future scrutiny reviews)

Consideration was given to a report by the Executive Director for Environment and Economy which presented the Board with an opportunity to evaluate the proposals received to-date for future scrutiny reviews.

Nigel West, Head of Democratic Services and Statutory Scrutiny Officer, introduced the report and confirmed that an email had been sent to all Councillors on 17 November 2017 reminding them of the invitation to propose potential scrutiny review topics using the scrutiny toolkit provided (also included in the agenda pack at Appendix A).

It was confirmed that this request had also been extended to officers of the Council.

Councillor M Brookes explained that it had been agreed at the last meeting of the Highways and Transport Committee to receive a formal report requesting a review as per the previous system.  It was reported that a paper would be presented to them in January 2018 in relation to sponsorship of roundabouts and it was expected that this would be submitted for a full review.

The Chairman explained that this was a different approach and it was still not completely clear how these review topics would be agreed.  Further consideration would be given to this process and suggestions presented to the Board at the next meeting.

It was also unclear what the required focus and outcome would be of each of the suggested reviews documented within the report.  It was suggested that a named sponsor be allocated to meet with lead officers initially to undertake an exercise to clarify the reasons for the review request.  This information would then be presented to the Board at the next meeting.

RESOLVED

1.    That the report be noted;

2.    That a report detailing a suggested process to decide relevant scrutiny reviews be presented at the next meeting; and

3.    That named sponsors be allocated, for the suggested scrutiny review topics, to undertake a review with officers and report back to the next meeting.

(To receive a report which enables the Board to consider and comment on the content of its work programme for the coming year to ensure that scrutiny activity is focussed where it can be of greatest benefit)

The Board was provided with an opportunity to consider its own work programme.

The Board was advised that the Property Company item for pre-decision scrutiny would be presented at the meeting in January 2018.  Due to the additional items for consideration in addition to the Budget item, it was agreed that the meeting would likely be a full day meeting with a break for lunch.

In relation to the draft budget and the recent update regarding to the increase in rural grants by 1% in addition to the retention of business rates, the Chairman asked the Executive Support Councillor for Resources and Communications to clarify with the Executive if those changes would be included within the report to be presented to the Board in January.

RESOLVED

1.    That the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board Work Programme, including the amendments noted above, be agreed; and

2.    That the Executive Support Councillor for Resources and Communications clarify the intention relating to the recent budget updates.

The Chairman extended his best wishes to the Board for both a happy Christmas and New Year.