Agenda and minutes

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

Contact: Andrea Brown  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

96.

Apologies for Absence/Replacement Members

Minutes:

No apologies for absence had been received.

 

Councillor B Young and Added Member, Mrs P J Barnett, had advised they would be slightly late.

97.

Declarations of Members' Interests

Minutes:

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

98.

Minutes of the Meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board held on 29 March 2018 pdf icon PDF 153 KB

Minutes:

The Chairman referred Members to page eight of the agenda pack which requested that a report be presented to the Board, monthly, on the work plan for Serco IT including 'work in flight', milestone dates, agreed completion dates with Serco and expected dates to commission future projects.  Officers were asked to reflect on this request for the next meeting.

 

Councillor T Bridges requested that an amendment be made to the last paragraph of the Environment and Economy Scrutiny Committee section at minute number 94 (Scrutiny Committee Work Programmes) on page 12 of the agenda pack.  The last sentence should read:-

 

          "Councillor Bridges noted concern that 2020 would see a considerable number of tourists to Lincolnshire due to the Mayflower celebrations and that American tourists, in particular, expected 4* or 5* hotels which Lincolnshire had few of currently and none in Boston or Gainsborough"

 

The Chairman indicated that he had received comments from a senior officer which had been noted by himself and the Vice-Chairman but did not propose to make those further amendments.

 

RESOLVED

 

          That the minutes of the previous meeting, held on 29 March 2018, with the amendment noted above, be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

99.

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

Minutes:

The Chairman had attended the meeting of the Executive on 4 April 2018 and addressed the item on the Draft Engagement Strategy 2018-2023.  Confirmation had been given that the Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Committee had supported the recommendations at its meeting on 13 March 2018.  The Executive also supported the work of the Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Committee in committing to reviewing the activity of the Community Engagement Team at a future meeting.

 

There were no updates by the Executive Support Councillor for Resources and Communications or Chief Officers.

100.

Consideration of Call-Ins

Minutes:

No Call-Ins had been received.

101.

Consideration of Councillor Calls for Action

Minutes:

No Councillor Calls for Action had been received.

102.

Corporate Support Services Re-provision pdf icon PDF 64 KB

(To receive a report by Sophie Reeve (Chief Commercial Officer) which invites the Board to consider a report on the Corporate Support Services Re-provision.  Comments of the Board will be presented to the Executive in advance of its consideration of this item of business at its meeting on 1 May 2018)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report by the Executive Director of Children's Services which provided information in relation to the re-provision of Corporate Support Services, in advance of its consideration by the Executive on 1 May 2018.

 

Debbie Barnes (Executive Director of Children's Services), Sophie Reeve (Chief Commercial Officer), Andrew McLean (Chief Commissioning Officer), John Wickens (Head of IMT), Arnd Hobohm (Contract Support Services Manager) and Jason Davenport (Payroll Consultant) were in attendance for this item.

 

Sophie Reeve (Chief Commercial Officer) introduced the report which provided the Board with the following information:-

·       General background;

·       Performance:-

o   Overview;

o   Key Performance Indicators (KPIs);

o   Market alternatives to an extension of the Contract;

o   Business Process Outsourcing Contracts;

o   Insourcing;

o   Business World On (formerly known as Agresso);

o   Payroll and People Management (PM) Administration Services;

o   Hoople Limited;

o   IT; and

o   Customer Services Centre, Finance and People Management (PM) Services.

 

The Board was advised that the corporate support services re-provision would cost significantly more from 2020 than currently.  This was due to Serco very significantly underestimating the costs of delivering the services which resulted in Serco making an onerous contract provision on the Lincolnshire contract in the sum of £34m over the first five years of the contract in 2015/16.  A Programme Board had been established to oversee this work and would be led by the Executive Director of Children's Services.

 

The report noted that Serco had been asked to re-price an extension and had indicated they were interested in doing so having asked to refer to Lincolnshire as a centre of excellence when bidding for future local government contracts.

 

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

 

Performance

It was reported that the first year of operations (April 2015-March 2016) had been particularly difficult due to the implementation of the Council's ERP, Business World On, which suffered significant problems.  This had been improved and successfully upgraded over the last couple of years although this remained heavily reliant on manual workarounds within payroll.  The lack of proper commitment accounting also remained an issue, however these were not easily remedied due to implementation problems at the start of the contract.

 

Elements of the IT and CSC transformation had also been delayed in addition to payroll errors.  The scale of the payroll errors had resulted in a project being set up to review all three payrolls.

 

People Management professional advisory services had been good throughout the contract and the Customer Service Centre had also performed well.  Adult Care Finance and Finance Services were also now generally at a higher standard than that of the previous provider.

 

In spite of the significant failure in IT delivery, 154 IT projects had been delivered out of a possible 309.  The IT estate had improved considerably since 2015 in terms of email security, web browsing security and resilience.

 

41 Key Performance Indicators covered most of Serco's service delivery and were measured monthly.  Initial contract performance  ...  view the full minutes text for item 102.

103.

DRAFT Final Report from the Impact of the Part Night Street Lighting Policy Review pdf icon PDF 76 KB

(To receive a report from Cllr Mrs A M Newton (Chairman of Scrutiny Panel B) which presents the final draft report arising from the scrutiny review into the Impact of the Part Night Street Lighting Policy.  Subject to the approval of the Board, the report will be submitted to the Executive on 5 June 2018 for its consideration and response)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report from Councillor Mrs A M Newton (Chairman of Scrutiny Panel B) which included the final draft report arising from the scrutiny review into the Impact of the Part-Night Street Lighting Policy, and which would be presented to the Executive on 5 June 2018 for its consideration and response, subject to the approval of the Board.

 

Councillor Mrs Newton introduced the report and advised that over 5,000 observations had been received, all of which had been used to identify a number of 'key themes':-

·       Crime rates, fears about safety and crime;

·       Road safety and collisions;

·       Impact on emergency services;

·       Social impact and personal safety;

·       Economy and employment;

·       Environmental impact;

·       Public/Community Engagement; and

·       Technical considerations.

 

The recommendations within the report had been agreed with each of the key themes at the fore:-

1.    The Lincolnshire Police are requested to continue to review and update a street lighting crime data report for consideration by Lincolnshire County Council's Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Committee on an annual basis;

2.    That the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership ensures data regarding street lighting levels is captured and reported as part of any analysis of road safety and collisions.  And, for this data to be reported and considered by Lincolnshire County Council's Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Committee on an annual basis;

3.    That the Executive considers formalising the list of exemption sites as part of the County Council Street Lighting Policy and include an additional exemption for community public access defibrillator sites where requested by local communities;

4.    That the Executive endorse working between the County Council and other agencies to plan communication activity with the public to reassure and address the cause of fears of crime surrounding the change to part-night street lighting.  And, to develop and action plan and work to reduce these fears and change public perceptions; and

5.    That the Executive considers the County Council developing an appropriate protocol to enable local communities (through Town/Parish/District Councils) to financially support street lighting to be upgraded to LED and reinstated to full night operation on request as part of routine maintenance.

 

Councillor Mrs Newton also asked that her thanks to Daniel Steel (Scrutiny Officer), Sara Barry (Safer Communities Manager), John Monk (Group Manager (Design Services)) and Pat Cant (Senior Engineer), for their support and guidance throughout the review, be formally recorded.

 

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

·       It was reported that there had been a rise in crime locally with new data suggesting an increase of 10% and 15% nationally.  Although a team within Lincolnshire Police analysed incidents to ascertain what may impact on crime, it was noted that they did not currently report the lighting status at each incident.  There was a facility to do so but this would take time to implement;

·       A percentage breakdown of crime between the hours of midnight and 6.00am was requested.  Members were advised that this data was available from Lincolnshire Police but that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 103.

104.

Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report

(To receive a report from Nigel West, Head of Democratic Services and Statutory Scrutiny Officer, which includes the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report for the Board's consideration)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report by Nigel West, Head of Democratic Services and Statutory Scrutiny Officer which presented the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report.

 

At 12.30pm, the Rev P Johnson left the meeting and did not return.

 

The report outlined the work of the Overview and Scrutiny function over the last year and highlighted key areas of scrutiny for the year ahead.  The report was in draft form for approval by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board before the final version was presented for approval at the Annual General Meeting of the Council.

 

The key aims of scrutiny work within local councils were to:-

·       Provide healthy and constructive challenge;

·       Give voice to public concerns;

·       Support improvement in services; and

·       Provide an independent review.

 

A new Overview and Scrutiny committee structure and procedures had been implemented over the last year following a review undertaken by a Councillor working group.  One noticeable change had been the greater engagement of Executive councillors with scrutiny committees and also the attendance and input of the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board at meetings of the Executive.

 

Development of the Executive and Scrutiny Protocol, "Developing Effective Relationships Between the Executive and Scrutiny" had also helped to establish practical working arrangements between the Executive, scrutiny committees and the Council's senior management.

 

The report included updates from the following committees:-

·       Overview and Scrutiny Management Board;

·       Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee;

·       Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee;

·       Environment and Economy Scrutiny Committee;

·       Flood and Water Management Scrutiny Committee;

·       Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire;

·       Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee;

·       Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Committee;

·       Scrutiny Panels A and B;

·       Corporate Parenting Sub-Group; and

·       Lincolnshire Safeguarding Boards Scrutiny Sub-Group.

 

The Chairman thanked Councillors L A Cawrey and R Wootten for their work and support as Vice-Chairmen of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.  Members confirmed that they thought the contents of the annual report reflected the work undertaken by the respective committees.

 

The Executive Councillor for Community Safety and People Management, Councillor B Young, advised that the representation by Councillor Parker at meetings of the Executive had been extremely helpful and, despite early concerns that the change in scrutiny may cause difficulties, this had, in fact been a clear success.

 

The added members of the Board confirmed that they felt involved in the meetings and were grateful for the welcome and inclusion.  Unfortunately, it appeared that not all email correspondence was reaching added members and it was agreed that this would be looked into further.

 

Councillor R L Foulkes asked that his thanks to Simon Evans (Health Scrutiny Officer) and Daniel Steel (Scrutiny Officer), for their support and help with the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee, be formally recorded.

 

The Chairman concurred and also placed on record formal thanks to all officers who support scrutiny committees, including democratic services, scrutiny and all presenting officers.

 

On behalf of the Board, Councillor Mrs Brockway thanked the Chairman for a fair and balanced approach and allowing engagement from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

105.

Scrutiny Committee Work Programmes pdf icon PDF 154 KB

(To receive a report which sets out the work programmes of the Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee and the Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire 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:-

 

Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee

 

Councillor C E H Marfleet, Chairman of the Adults and Community Wellbeing 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 30 November 2017:-

·       Care Quality Commission Findings;

·       Performance Reporting;

·       Procurement and Pre-Decision Scrutiny – Local Stop Smoking Service; NHS Health Check Programme; and Shared Lives Services; and

·       Other Pre-Decision Scrutiny Items.

 

It was reported that the County Council was required to make procurement arrangements for a Healthwatch organisation and that a decision would be made on future procurement arrangements at the meeting of the committee on 30 May 2018.

 

It was proposed to hold a themed meeting on 4 July 2018 on the public health function with the community wellbeing element of the terms of reference.  Following consideration of the Annual Report of the Director of Public Health, and a presentation on the role of the Director of Public Health, an item was planned on Obesity and how lifestyle changes could improve outcomes.

 

In relation to the CQC findings noted on page 104 of the agenda pack, Councillor Marfleet explained that the CQC rating occasionally reflected the lack of facilities within residential and nursing homes rather than the service provided.  It was also stressed that Adult Care and Community Wellbeing staff continued to support learning and promote improvements in care homes.

 

There were no comments or questions from Members.

 

Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire

 

Councillor C S Macey, Chairman of the Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire, introduced the work programme and highlighted the areas which had been considered by the Committee since the last report to the Board:

·       Lincolnshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP);

·       Grantham A&E – Overnight Closure;

·       Lincoln Walk-In Centre; and

·       Non-Emergency Patient Transport.

 

Paediatric Services would be added to the work programme for the Committee's consideration at its meeting on 16 May 2018.  On 27 April 2018, the Board of United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) was to consider an item on Paediatric Services where it was expected that several options would be presented.  It was anticipated that the ULHT Board would suspend paediatric inpatient services at Pilgrim Hospital on a temporary basis due to the insufficient numbers of staff across ULHT to continue to support all existing paediatric services. 

 

The Committee continued to receive quarterly updates on the overall Lincolnshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STP).  One significant concern of the Committee was that temporary changes to services on the grounds of patient safety (such as Grantham A&E previously and now paediatric services in Boston) would dictate the eventual content of the Lincolnshire STP consultation document.  The risk would be that the temporary changes could become the status quo and the starting point for any consultation.

 

The Committee had also focussed on four strands within the Lincolnshire STP – mental health; operational efficiency; the GP  ...  view the full minutes text for item 105.

106.

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, during the meeting, one addition was to be made to the work programme:-

·       Corporate Support Services Re-provision Update – 28 June 2018, 30 August 2018 and 27 September 2018 (following the due diligence process)

 

RESOLVED

 

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

 

 
 
dot

Original Text: