Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room One, County Offices, Newland, Lincoln LN1 1YL

Contact: Andrea Brown  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence/Replacement Members

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Mrs K Cook and Added Member Mrs P J Barnett.

 

It was reported that, under the Local Government (Committee and Political Groups) Regulations 1990, Councillor Mrs A M Newton had been appointed as replacement member for Councillor Mrs K Cook, for this meeting only.

2.

Declarations of Members' Interests

Minutes:

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

3.

Minutes of the Meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board held on 26 April 2018 pdf icon PDF 211 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

          That the minutes of the previous meeting, held on 26 April 2018, be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

4.

Announcements by the Chairman, Executive Councillor for Resources and Communications and Chief Officers

Minutes:

The Chairman addressed the Executive at its meeting on 1 May 2018 in relation to the Corporate Support Services Re-provision and highlighted that a number of concerns had been raised by the Board in relation to the payroll proposals.  The Executive did not support the recommendation of the Board to receive a further report on the due diligence process in relation to the payroll system and governance arrangements before entering into a shared service arrangement with Herefordshire County Council.  However, a report on the due diligence process would be presented to the Board at its meeting in June.

 

Members of the Board confirmed that they had been invited to attend an IMT Engagement Session on Thursday 28 June 2018 at 3.00pm.  The Chairman urged all Members to attend.

 

There were no announcements from the Executive Councillor for Community Safety and People Management, Executive Support Councillor for Resources and Communications or Chief Officers.

5.

Consideration of Call-Ins

Minutes:

No Call-Ins had been received.

6.

Consideration of Councillor Calls for Action

Minutes:

No Councillor Calls for Action had been received.

7.

Performance of the Corporate Support Services Contract pdf icon PDF 581 KB

(To receive a report by 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 February 2018 and March 2018.  The report also provides a progress update on key IMT-related transformation and transactional projects being undertaken by Serco)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report by the Chief Commercial Officer which provided an update of Serco's performance against contractual Key Performance Indicators specified in the Corporate Support Services Contract between February 2018 and April 2018.

 

The report also provided an update on the progress made on key IMT-related transformation and transactional projects being undertaken by Serco and included a list of 20 suggested priority projects and a proposed reporting format.

 

Sophie Reeve (Chief Commercial Officer), Arnd Hobohm (Contract Support Services Manager), John Wickens (Head of IMT), Mark Bennett (Partnership Director, Serco) and Jane Sickerdich (Head of Projects and Programmes, Serco) were in attendance for this item.

 

Following the Board's approval at its meeting on 29 March 2018, the format of the report had been condensed into a more succinct format.  At that meeting, a proposed list of the top twenty priority IMT projects together with a narrative of the rationale behind those projects was requested.  Members also asked that the full list of projects be presented in order to review and verify the key priorities.

 

The Chairman suggested that each section be considered separately to give Members the opportunity to ask relevant questions.

 

Performance

 

Table 1 within the report provided an overall summary of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of service delivery over the period October 2017 to April 2018.  Table 2 showed that no KPIs failed to meet the Minimum Service Level during that period, however Table 3 showed that four KPIs failed to meet the Target Service Level in February and March 2018.  Table 3 on the addendum report indicated that two KPIs had not met the Target Service Level in April 2018.

 

Table 5 showed the number of abatement points which the Serco Corporate Support Services Contract had attracted each month since the start of the contract.

 

Members were invited to ask questions, during which the following points were noted:-

·       IMT_KPI_02 and IMT_KPI_05 failed to meet the Target Service Level in April 2018 due to an outage of the Avaya telephony system.  It was explained that this outage had been a priority one incident which was not resolved within the agreed resolution timeframe.  There were different views as to whether the equipment was obsolete.  If it was obsolete Serco's obligations would be less.  It was explained that as Serco and LCC had different views on the obligations for this particular KPI, this was to be resolved through escalating the issue through the contract's governance arrangements;

·       The contractual time allowed to rectify any faults on the telephone system was two hours but, on this occasion, it took slightly longer than four hours which meant the service level agreement was not met.  The outage affected the ability to open an outside line which also impacted on the gateway services of the council, however the 'fix' for the root cause identified was complex and would take a number of months to complete; and

·       It was acknowledged that platforms can have issues but that these were often rectified within the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Scrutiny Committee Work Programmes pdf icon PDF 175 KB

(To receive a report which sets out the work programmes of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee and the Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Committee in accordance with the Board's agreed programme)

Minutes:

The Board considered the work programmes of two scrutiny committees where the following points were noted:-

 

Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee

 

Councillor R L Foulkes, Chairman of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee, introduced the work programme and highlighted the following items which had been considered by the Committee since the last report to the Board on 25 January 2018:-

·       Building Communities of Specialist Provision for Children and Young People with Special Education Needs and Disabilities;

·       Inclusive Lincolnshire Strategy; and

·       Post 16 Transport Policy Statement 2018-2019

 

Councillor Foulkes continued by highlighting to the Board the following items which would be considered by the Committee in the coming months:-

·       Ofsted Inspection

Lincolnshire Children's Services had hosted a visit from Ofsted between 10th and 18th April 2018 and the focus had been on permanency planning and achieving permanence for children in care.  The outcomes of the visit would be considered by the Committee at its meeting on 8 June 2018.  Ofsted had found that leaders were ambitious for children in care and that they continued to prioritise resources in order to support social work.  A small number of areas had been highlighted which could be further strengthened;

·       Lincolnshire Secure Unit

The Lincolnshire Secure Unit (LSU), based in Sleaford, had worked with the Youth Justice Board and the Ministry of Justice since 2002 to provide secure accommodation for young people on both a remand and sentenced basis.  The Committee would consider a report in June regarding a bid to the Ministry of Justice for a new contract to provide secure accommodation facilities from the LSU.  A further report would be considered on 20 July 2018 in relation to increased capacity at the LSU for welfare secure beds through capital development; and

·       Building Communities of Specialist Provision for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

The SEND review had looked at how all the Special Schools in Lincolnshire could supply provision for all types of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities across the county.  This review was expected to lead to children with Special Education Needs and Disabilities attending a school near to their home thereby reducing journey times to and from school.  It was expected that the final outcomes from the review would be presented to the Committee at its meeting on 19 October 2018.

 

During discussion, the following points were noted:-

·       The Ofsted summary indicated that the electronic recording system for children's social care was slow with documents difficult to locate.  It was explained that this was due to the Mosaic system.  This would be raised by the Committee on 8 June and a referral made to the Head of IMT.  It was advised that the Mosaic interface needed to be improved; and

·       It was reported that the Working Group on Permanent Inclusions had received a number of volunteers to sit on that group.  There was a wealth of experience amongst the members, including teachers and younger Councillors.

 

At 12.05pm, Councillor C E H Marfleet left  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Overview and Scrutiny Management Board Work Programme pdf icon PDF 152 KB

(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)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

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

 

The Head of Democratic Services and Statutory Scrutiny Officer confirmed that there were no additions or amendments to the work programme included within the agenda pack.

 

The Board was reminded that an IMT Engagement Session had been arranged for 3.00pm on Thursday 28th June 2018.  The time had been set to allow the Board to have lunch after the meeting due to the number of items on agenda.  However, officers would be able to bring the workshop forward should the meeting close earlier than expected.  All members were encouraged to attend.

 

RESOLVED

 

          That the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board Work Programme, as presented, be agreed.

 

 
 
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