Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor R B Parker.

Apologies for absence were also noted from Councillor M J Hill OBE, Leader of the Council and Executive Councillor for Resources, Communications and Commissioning, Councillor R D  Butroid, Executive Councillor forPeople Management, Legal and Corporate Property, Councillor H Spratt, Executive Support Councillor for People Management, Legal and Corporate Property, the Chief Executive and the Executive Director for Commercial.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED:

        That minutes of the meeting held on 24 February 2022 be approved as a   correct record and signed by the Chairman. 

The Vice-Chairman announced that he had attended the Executive on the 1^st March on behalf of the Chairman and presented the Board’s comments on the Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring reports and the Quarter 3 Performance report. In relation to the Board’s comments on the Quarter 3 performance and the number of children in care being lower than other areas, it had been confirmed that new data had just been published which confirmed that Lincolnshire remained low in comparison to the Council’s statistical neighbours and the Executive Director of Children’s Services was confident that the threshold was set at the right level.

The Executive had challenged whether the target for the measure was appropriate given it had not been met, and it was highlighted by the Chief Executive that the target had been set before the government had mandated all local authorities take a proportionate share of unaccompanied asylum seeking children and that there may be a need to revisit the target to ensure it reflected the national mandate. It was suggested that the Board may wish to consider whether the target was appropriate when the Quarter 4 performance report was received.

The Board was advised that James Drury, Executive Director – Commercial, would be retiring from the Council at the end of this month and the Vice-Chairman recorded the Board’s thanks to James for all his support to the Board and wished him well for the future.

None had been received.

None had been received.

(To receive a report by Chris Miller, Deputy Head – Environment, which invites the Board to consider a report on the Bikeability (Cycling Proficiency) Procurement, which is due to be considered by the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT, between the 29 and 31 March 2022. The views of the Board will be reported to the Executive Councillor as part of his consideration of this item)

Consideration was given to a report by the Deputy Head of Environment, which invited the Board to consider a report on the Bikeability (Cycling proficiency) procurement, prior to its consideration by the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT between the 29^th and 31^st March 2022.

The Bikeability scheme was equivalent to the historic Cycling Proficiency scheme and was delivered to over 4500 pupils in Lincolnshire. The scheme consisted of three levels of training and provided valuable safety awareness training which supported primary and secondary school children in the attainment of appropriate skills and confidence in riding a bike.

The scheme sought no funding from Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) and all costs were met by a per-head grant issued by the Department for Transport.

The report proposed that a new contract of £1.5m be awarded by tender for the delivery of bikeability in Lincolnshire, to commence at the start of the new academic year in September 2022.

The Board supported the recommendations to the Executive Councillor and during the discussion the following points were noted:

·       The Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership was aware of the Bikeability programme and would offer support to the scheme, if required.

·       The scheme used to be delivered in-house but was then outsourced in 2017 due to being too resource intensive.

·       Bikeability was a well respected programme and supported by schools, especially in the primary schools network, with around 5500 children and young people receiving training over the current contract period. The programme could also be delivered to children and young people at independent schools and those who were home educated. Further information was requested on the proportion of children and young people involved in the programme.

·       Involvement with young people at Level 3 was difficult due to curriculum constraints in secondary schools and trying to fit the programme in. The level of involvement at Level 3 had increased since the programme was outsourced.

·       It was understood that the programme included bicycle maintenance and good repair as part of the training, but confirmation would be sought.

·       It was understood that there was no similar scheme available for teaching road safety to children and young people who walked to school, but this would be confirmed.

·       It was understood that cycling in designated spaces such as cycleways was taught as part of the programme but confirmation would be sought. Cycling on footpaths would not be encouraged. All forms of cycling, including how to cycle in a traffic environment, would be covered in Levels 1 and 2, and Level 3 would start to look at how to cycle on roads which included roundabouts and traffic lights. More use of cycleways, especially in town centres, should be encouraged.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the recommendations to the Executive Councillor, as set out in the report, be supported;

2.    That a summary of the comments made be reported to the Executive Councillor as part of their consideration of this item.

(To receive a report from Clare Rowley, Head of Transformation and  Chris Erskine, Principal Social Worker, Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, which provides the Board with an update on the Transformation Programme, including a focussed overview of the Adults Improvement and Development project, to demonstrate the positive impact of the Transformation Programme)

Consideration was given to a presentation by the Head of Transformation and the Principal Social Worker, Adult Care and Community Wellbeing, which invited the Board to consider an update report on the Transformation Programme.

The presentation briefly outlined the focus of the overall transformation programme prior to providing a detailed introduction of the Adult Care and Community Wellbeing Improvement and Development Programme, which had been working to identify a programme of activity to maximise opportunities for early intervention, and roll out interventions aiming to maximise independence and develop ambitions.

A summary of the key achievements to date were reported and a case study which illustrated the impact of this work on individuals lives and levels of independence was outlined.

Consideration was given to the report and during the discussion, the following points were noted:

• The Council aimed wherever possible to keep Lincolnshire’s Children in Care within Lincolnshire as it gave better access to family and friends within the County. The Council was in the process of building a number of new children’s homes which would provide more accommodation for children being placed back into the County and this also provided a financial benefit to the Council.  Where possible,  Children in Care were placed with foster or adoptive families before being placed in children’s homes. Assurance was provided that all children placed out of county were allocated a social worker from the Council and any safeguarding concerns would be raised with the Council.
• It was requested that the next Transformation Programme update provide a focus on the Children in Care project.
• The importance of effective signposting and well trained staff within the customer service centre, as the first point of contact for many people wishing to receive adult care support, was emphasised.
• Some Members expressed their concerns that there had been emphasis placed on reducing costs within the service rather than ensuring a good service was provided.
• Detail of the representation of elderly people within the Adults Improvement and Development project was requested.
• The person-centred approach and flexibility of care needs adapted to individual cases was supported.
• There had been no concerns raised as a result of the move away from a more formalised process for assessments, however it was recognised that people were entitled to a full complex assessment if they wished. Officers emphasised the importance of supporting people to access the correct information at an early stage.
• The Board recognised that a less formalised assessment process could provide quicker access to much needed support, and highlighted the importance of publicising the more efficient service that was available.

RESOLVED:

1. That the report and presentation be received;
2. That a six month update, with a focus on the Children in Care project, be reported to the meeting scheduled for 29 September 2022.

(To receive a report from Stuart Wright, Contract Manager - Corporate Property, which provides an update on the performance of the Property Services Contract with VINCI Facilities Partnership Limited (VFPL) at the end of the sixth year of the contract with an interim report for year seven)

Consideration was given to a report by the Contract Manager – Corporate Property and the Head of Facilities Management, which invited the Board to consider a report on the Property Services Contract for Year Six and Interim report for Year Seven.

The Board was advised that despite the challenges faced by covid-19, the contract was performing well and had achieved an overall 96.2% on key performance indicators (KPI) for year six, which was a rise on the 94% outturn for year five.

To date, performance for year seven had improved during quarters one and two on the previous year, however quarter three was showing a reduction to 91.5% which was attributable to eight failures in VFPL completing reactive work within timescales set in the contract and two failures of completing statutory work within timescales.

Covid safety had been at the forefront of date to day business over both years six and seven of the property contract, including working closely with Public Health and Health and Safety Teams to manage the situation effectively.

The One Team had received the Premises & Facilities Management award for Partners in Corporate – Public Sector in which it was acknowledged that effective collaboration and partnership working between all departments played a significant role with the One Team achieving the award.

Further details of the performance of the contract were detailed within the report.

Consideration was given to the report and during the discussion the following points were noted:

• Reassurance was provided that the statutory tasks that had failed to reach the target KPI had simply failed under the contract requirements which had been set to ensure a high standard, rather than failing to be completed within the statutory timeframe. 
• The importance of sufficient funding and resources to promote the green masterplan within Property Services was highlighted. 

RESOLVED:

1.    That the report be noted and assurance be provided on the performance of the Property Services Contract;

2.    That a further update on the performance of the Property Services Contract for year seven and interim for year eight be received in March 2023.

(To receive a report from Donna Fryer, Head of Portfolio and Resources Allison Kapethanasis, ICT Business Relationship and User Engagement Manager, which informs the Board on the function and recent activities of the IMT User Engagement Team, and give a high-level view to show progress on highlighted projects being commissioned through IMT)

Consideration was given to a report by the Head of Service Delivery and User Engagement – IMT and the Head of Portfolio and Resources – IMT, which invited the Board to consider an update on IMT services with a focus on the user engagement and project portfolio.

The Board was referred to appendix A to the report, which provided further detail on the user engagement and service delivery team. 

Work was ongoing to update a number of legacy systems to ensure that remote working technology enabled people to ‘work from anywhere’. The amount of connectivity issued had dropped from 40 calls per day to 10 per day. 

Data was provided on a number of statistics within the user engagement and service delivery team and details of vendor and software contracts were provided to the Board.

Current concerns within the team included the recruitment and retention of IT staff and a current resource shortage in IMT, as well as Serco.

Consideration was given to the report, as well as the information included in the project portfolio as set out in appendix B, and during the discussion the following points were noted:

• The need for a possible connection between Microsoft Teams and the telephone system was recognised as well as a need to ensure the telephone system was fit for purpose and in line with the smarter working policy. 
• The original project for the MDT service within Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service (LFR) had been completed, however additional work was being scoped which meant that the project had not yet been marked as completed.
• The use of Microsoft Teams as an effective tool for contacting Officers of the Council was commended.
• Legal Services used a legacy software system which was not compatible with the Modern Desktop Management system (MDM). IMT was closely monitoring the situation and was working with Legal Services to commission a new system which could work with MDM.
• It was hoped that all LFR staff would have received the MDM update within the coming months. An update would be provided at a further meeting of the Board.
• The concerns around retention of existing IT staff within a competitive market were acknowledged. It was noted that recruitment of IT staff was a national issue, particularly in technical roles. The Council was exploring ways to retain and recruit experienced staff.
• The number of reported incidents had reduced by around 30-40% since the height of the MDM software upgrades, however incidents had now stabilised and the service was working at ‘business as usual’ levels.

RESOLVED:

That the report be received and assurance be provided on the activities of the IMT User Engagement Team and the progress made on the highlighted projects currently being commissioned through IMT.

(To receive a report which sets out the work programmes of the Adults and Community Wellbeing and the Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire; and in accordance with the Board's agreed programme)

Consideration was given to a report by the Chairman of the Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee which detailed the future work programme of the Committee as well as details of items considered by the Committee in recent meetings, including the appointment of a Director of Public Health for Greater Lincolnshire; and the Residential Care and Residential with Nursing Care Fees to providers.

The Committee had also taken part in a briefing session on 12 January on the Adult Social Care Reform White Paper, which was going to impact the Committee’s work programme, particularly in relation to finances. 

The Chairman announced that he had attended the opening event on Tuesday 22 March for DeWint Court, Lincoln which would provide 50 one-bed and 20 two-bed apartments, as an extra care housing facility and congratulated all those involved for the creation of an excellent facility.

Consideration was then given to a report by the Chairman of the Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire, which detailed the future work programme of the Committee as well as a detailed account of items considered by the Committee in recent meetings.

The Committee had supported the efforts of ULHT, in making a range of service improvements, as reported by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and agreed to a further update from ULHT at the 18 May meeting on its action plan in response to the CQC and its overall recovery programme. 

The Committee recorded its concerns over proposals which look like leading to yet another service being centralised at Lincoln County Hospital.  The Committee would be finalising its response to the consultation on 13 April. 

The Committee had also established two working groups: one to respond to the draft Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment; and a second to consider the quality accounts from three NHS provider trusts. 

A summary of future items scheduled for the Committee were highlighted.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Board's satisfaction be recorded with the activity undertaken since16 December 2021 by:

(a) the Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee and

(b) the Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire.

2. That the Board's satisfaction be recorded with the planned work programme of:

(a) the Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee and

(b) the Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire.

(To receive a report which enables the Board to note the content of its work programme for the coming year)

This item was for information only.

In response to a question, it was clarified that the results of the staff survey would be included within the next People Management Update to the Board.