Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

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 and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

Members were asked to consider whether they had any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

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

No such declarations were made.

To approve the accuracy of the minutes of the meeting held on 23 September, 2013.

A Member, referring to minute 13, ‘ICT Strategy’ commented that she had not received anything in writing from the Interim Head of ICT as yet on the security of the Wrap2 system, the Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources, assured the Committee that he would follow this up.

Resolved – That the minutes of the Transformation and Resources Policy and Performance Committee of 23 September, 2013 be approved.

The summary document and individual budget options papers are attached.

A presentation will also be made on this item.

The Committee received a presentation from Kevin MacCallum, Marketing and Engagement Manager, Neighbourhoods and Engagement, on the process of the Budget Options consultation. The consultation was launched on 16 September with extensive online promotion. There had been around 200 events to date with direct engagement with 20,000 Residents. To date, a total of 5,000 responses had been received, 4,000 from residents and 1,000 from members of staff.

Budget options had been developed with the focus on four principles:

·  Being More Efficient

·  Working Together

·  Promoting Independence

·  Targeting Resources

The consultation would close on 6 December, with the results being considered by Cabinet on 10 December and recommendations from the Cabinet being considered by Council on 16 December, 2013.

In response to questions from Members on the consultation process, Kevin MacCallum made the following comments:

·  A fifth of the responses so far were from staff and these could be disaggregated from total responses if there was a different view between staff and residents when the results were published.

·  Responses from community organisations would count as one response although they would be highlighted in the results and shown as community responses.

·  Although direct engagement had taken place with 20,000 people so far only 4,000 questionnaires had been returned from the public, though this engagement was comfortably the highest level of engagement of any similar consultations in the country.

·  He would be able to supply a breakdown of responses by ward to all the Committee.

·  More time was spent going to particular established groups, with over 200 so far having been consulted.

·  The staff working on the consultation were neighbourhood engagement staff whose role it was to spend 52 weeks of the year doing this type of work.

·  This was now the third or fourth time such a consultation exercise had been undertaken and the response rate was continually improving.

·  The neighbourhood engagement staff were continually being made aware and finding out of new community groups being established and these were then involved and added to the consultees.

·  Staff would knock on doors and try and talk to as many people as possible particularly in hard to reach groups of residents.

Councillor Blakeley commented that the Committee had no idea of what the people of Wirral’s responses were to the consultation until it had concluded and what really mattered was what the people of Wirral wanted.

Councillor Hale commented that there was no reference to consulting with Councillors in the Chief Executive’s message in the consultation paper foreword. Whilst fully supporting the consultation process he expressed concern about the interpretation of responses and that many of the questions were very general.

Councillor Johnston commented that political criticism of the process undermined the consultation process which was previously started under a Conservative / Liberal Democrat administration.

Councillor Brightmore commented that the Committee was meeting to scrutinise the budget options and not to make any decisions.

The Strategic Director commented that the published officer proposals to meet budget savings were an opportunity to pre-scrutinise and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.