Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1 - Wallasey Town Hall. View directions

Contact: Shirley Hudspeth 

Items
No. Item

35.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors P Brightmore and D Burgess-Joyce and from Mr M Harrison.

 

36.

Code of Conduct - Declarations of Interest Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012, Including Party Whip Declarations

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any disclosable pecuniary or and / or any other relevant interest which they have in any item of business on the agenda no later than when the item is reached.

 

Members are reminded that they should also declare whether they are subject to a party whip in connection with any item(s) to be considered at this meeting and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

 

37.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 127 KB

To confirm the Minutes of the Special meeting of the Committee held on 16 February 2016 as a correct record.

 

Minutes:

Resolved:

 

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 16 February 2016 be confirmed as a correct record.

 

38.

Peer Review Report pdf icon PDF 97 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources introduced his summary report on the Council’s Corporate Peer Challenge. The report informed that Wirral Council was committed to external review and challenge in order to continue to improve how it works and how it is able to achieve positive outcomes for residents. The Strategic Director reported that the Council had a strong track record for participating in peer reviews and that in November 2015 a team of experts from across the public sector were invited to conduct a Corporate Peer challenge.

 

The Committee noted that at the Council’s request an invitation had been presented to the Local Government Association (LGA) to organise the review. Members noted that the peer review team was led by Mark Rogers, Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council and had included peer members and officers from other local authorities. The team had been asked to focus on the Council’s capacity to deliver the Wirral Plan, its approach to partnership working, and the work currently underway to develop new models of service delivery.

 

Members were informed that the findings of the report had been published and the Council had developed an action plan in response to its findings, which it had immediately set to work on delivering. The peer review team had confirmed that the Council had the appropriate plans in place and also helped to identify where additional attention was required to ensure the Council and its partners focussed on ‘the right things in the right order’ to deliver improved outcomes for residents and businesses and were fit for purpose.

 

Members noted that the Council had agreed a new five year plan in July 2015 that had been adopted by all Wirral partners. The report informed that the Wirral Plan committed to achieving a set of 20 Pledges by 2020 to improve the quality of life enjoyed by all Wirral residents. 

 

The peer team feedback / findings were attached at Appendix 1 to the report and were considered by the Coordinating Committee. Members questioned the Strategic Director on a variety of points contained within the report that included:

 

  • The time taken to compile the report (delays incurred due to general drafting and FOI enquiry relating to peer challenge correspondence).

 

  • Corporate Leadership (issues regarding senior leadership adequacy / capacity - arising from new Chief Executive in post, significant changes underway, and senior leadership focus on operational matters at the time).

 

  • Actions to identify commercial skills, capability and capacity required to develop the Council’s approach to commercialism.

 

  • Review of short term capacity gaps in the Council’s corporate functions.

 

The Strategic Director informed that long term planning was now taking place and Officers were being released from operational matters to create leadership capability within the organisation in support of the identified actions in the peer review report.

 

Resolved: That

 

1)  the contents of the Corporate Peer Challenge report and associated action plan be noted; and

 

2)  the Committee be updated on progress of the listed actions.

 

39.

2015/16 QUARTER 3 CORPORATE PLAN PERFORMANCE pdf icon PDF 112 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources introduced his summary report on the Council’s Quarter 3 (October to December) performance against the delivery of the 2015/16 Corporate Plan (as approved by the Council at its meeting on 8 December 2014).  A detailed report was attached to the Director's report as Appendix 1 and detailed progress against a suite of agreed performance indicators.  The performance indicators related to a range of pledges under the three Wirral Plan themes of People, Business and Environment. 

 

Members were informed that of the 21 reportable indicators, using a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rating – assigned depending on the performance level against the target - 15 were rated Green, 3 were rated Amber and 3 were rated Red.

 

A briefing note was circulated that provided information on the background to, and take-up of, the NHS Health checks programme (Red indicator PHCP03). Members were informed that the mandatory programme was currently delivered through 50 Wirral GP practices and that lead commissioning responsibility had changed from the CCG to the Council in 2013. The briefing note informed that performance across targets in Wirral, along with most other areas (across England) was falling consistently below the target uptake of 66%.

 

Annual uptake for the previous two years were reported as follows:

 

 

2013-14

2014-15

Wirral

53.09%

44.43%

England

49.04%

48.82%

 

The briefing concluded that GP practices were still in the best position to deliver all that the programme required, and that once results had been collated for Q4, it was proposed that discussion regarding options for the future delivery of the programme be undertaken with other Wirral commissioners.

 

Members noted that significant discussion had recently taken place regarding the two remaining ‘Red’ report indicators i.e. Performance Appraisals (TRCP03) and Sickness Absence (TRCP04) and that the earlier reporting had informed all staff members should receive their performance appraisal on the in line with the anniversary of their last. Further corrective actions for all Red or Amber indicators were listed in Appendix 1 to the report.

 

Resolved:

 

That the contents of the report be noted.

 

40.

2015/16 QUARTER 3 CAPITAL & REVENUE FINANCIAL MONITOR REPORTS pdf icon PDF 99 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources introduced his report that provided the Committee with the Quarter 3 Capital and Revenue Financial Monitoring details, as reported to the Cabinet at its meeting on 22 February 2016.  This was done to enable the Committee to scrutinise progress against the 2015/16 Revenue and Capital budgets and to highlight any areas for further clarification.  The Revenue and Capital monitoring reports were appended to the Director’s report.

 

The Cabinet reports as appended provided the Coordinating Committee with detail regarding the Capital Programme as referred to Council, with the revised Capital Programme of £46.9 million that included the return of the £0.4 million Liverpool City Region Sustainable Transport Enhancement Package grant to Merseytravel. See summary table below:

 

Capital Programme 2015/16 at 31 December 2015

 

Capital Strategy

Revisions Since Budget Cabinet

Revised Capital Programme

Actual Spend December 2015

 

£000

£000

£000

£000

Transformation Resources

10,556

-3,258

7,298

3,663

Families – Children

8,517

2,287

10,804

5,404

Families – Adults

8,263

-5,386

2,877

649

Families – Sport & Rec

1,865

599

2,464

1,531

R&E–  Env & Regulation

12,633

-1,089

11,544

7,256

R&E–  Hsg & Comm Safety

6,412

-984

5,428

2,319

R& E – Regeneration

1,808

4,694

6,502

5,344

Total expenditure

50,054

-3,137

46,917

26,166

 

 

The Cabinet report also set out the projected revenue position for 2015/16 as at the close of quarter 3 (31 December 2015). The projected outturn showed an improvement of £0.65 million on the quarter 2 position. The latest position forecast an £80,000 year end overspend.

 

2015/16 Projected Budget variations by Directorate £000’s (Revenue)

 

 

Revised Budget

Forecast Outturn

(Under) Overspend

Change from Previous

FWB – Adult Social Care

71,066

73,478

2,412

2

FWB – Children & Young People

72,458

75,143

2,685

885

FWB – Further Areas: Safeguarding, Schools, Leisure, Public Health

9,406

9,791

385

135

Regeneration & Environment

89,461

87,651

-1,810

-1,080

Transformation & Resources

31,040

27,590

-3,450

-450

Corporate Growth, Savings & Grant

-4,656

-4,796

-140

-140

TOTAL

268,775

268,857

82

-648

 

Members questioned the officers on billing and collection, and the 75% recovery rates currently being achieved. Further questioning took place on the practice of court proceedings and charges against property, time involved and minimum charge levels.

 

The Committee was apprised that, for example, in the case of care home costs or contributions, arrangements for deferred payments were often agreed in advance. 

 

Resolved:

 

That the contents of the report be noted.