Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Room 4, Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley, HA9 9HD
Contact: Toby Howes, Senior Democratic Services Officer 020 8937 1307, Email: toby.howes@brent.gov.uk
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Declarations of personal and prejudicial interests Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting any relevant financial or other interest in the items on the agenda. Minutes: None declared. |
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Minutes of the last meeting held on 5 December 2012 PDF 146 KB The minutes are attached. Minutes: RESOLVED:-
That the minutes of the last meeting held on 5 December 2012 be approved as an accurate record of the meeting. |
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Matters arising Minutes: Complaints annual report
Priya Mistry (Policy and Performance Officer, Strategy, Partnerships and Improvement) agreed to re-circulate information to Councillor Colwill that provided an explanation as to why compensation for adult and social care related complaints had increased despite the number of escalated complaints falling. |
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Procurement project Members will receive a verbal update on the procurement project. Minutes: Fiona Ledden (Director of Legal and Procurement) provided an update to the committee on the procurement project that had been running since 2012, following the strategic procurement transformation that had changed the composition of staff from mainly temporary staff to permanent council staff, with a number of professional category managers embedded within service directorates. Fiona Ledden advised that the category managers were working actively with the service directorates in ensuring the council benefitted from procurement activities. Turning to the areas covered by the procurement project, she reported that the e-procurement strand had been largely successful and was at green RAG status. Under this strand, i-proc, part of the Oracle module, was being developed and this would facilitate compliance and ensure that staff were accessing the specific contract they were involved in.
Fiona Ledden stated that considerable efforts had been made to provide the appropriate training in up-skilling staff to undertake procurement activities to a high standard. The Business Manager in Legal and Procurement had undertaken a training needs analysis across the council to facilitate this and training courses were being rolled out, with two scheduled for February and March 2013. It was noted that the training strand was presently at amber. The project also had an additional savings strand with a target saving of £1.5m per annum and this was the most challenging one to achieve, although this had recently moved from red to amber status. The reasons for it being problematic was that it involved finding savings from what was mainly the day to day work of the team and there was also no dedicated project manager to undertake this. However, the resource undertaking e-procurement development had been identified to dedicate some time in project managing this strand and a clear plan of activity was now in place.
Members then discussed this item and raised some questions with regard to the project. It was commented that the previous lack of resources for the project had been addressed and further information was sought in respect of the work of the project manager and what training was being offered as some staff could potentially be inexperienced in procurement and was this available to new staff. The importance of up-skilling staff to reduce reliance on external staff and consultants was emphasised and details of what progress had been made in respect of procurement was sought, whilst an enquiry about the progress of controlling maverick spend was made. Members asked how the savings target had been identified and was the emphasis on improving the service as well as making savings. It was suggested that if there was a specific model as to how procurement was to operate, then it should be set out clearly and also pay due consideration to the Brent economy. It was also asked whether a preferred suppliers list for contracts and services was available and could a link to the council’s contracts database be provided.
In reply, Fiona Ledden advised that project management was a key issue and much ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Report to follow. Minutes: Denis Turner (Project Manager, One Council Programme) introduced the report and explained that the current payroll system was based on Logica which was coming to the end of being supported, whilst support for the Oracle Release (R)11 Finance and Procurement modules were similarly due to end this year. Project Athena offered both payroll services and Oracle R12 and the plan was that these services be provided through a partnership with five other London boroughs – Havering, Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Barking and Dagenham - on a shared single platform. Working with these partners, a rigorous approach to procurement had been undertaken to ensure the appropriate technical specification was set out to potential bidders. Denis Turner drew the committee’s attention to the IT specification as set out in the report and advised that all partners had agreed to keep as closely to the specification as possible in order to keep costs down.
Turning to the project’s progress, Denis Turner advised that the solutions validation stage was near to completion and user acceptance testing would soon commence and this would be followed by payroll parallel tests. The aim was for the system to go live on 1 August 2013, although he cautioned that there may be some difficulties in achieving this. Once implemented, the new system would mean significant changes for managers in that they would be taking more day to day responsibilities for controlling expenditure and also HR matters, such as staff absences and sickness. Denis Turner felt that it was important to embed the systems initially before looking at ways to best harness the benefits it can bring.
During discussion by Members, it was queried whether there was any risk of data manipulation and did Oracle R12 offer more functionality. It was enquired whether it was possible for staff to enter data erroneously. A member concurred that it was important to ensure the system was working properly before fully exploiting its benefits. The committee sought further details with regard to training for managers including what numbers were involved and whether this would take place before Project Athena was rolled out. A member asked if there were any savings objectives involved in the project and if so would there be any initial savings and why had details of savings not been outlined in the report. It was also queried if there were any concerns that such savings could be achieved. Details of implementation and service costs were sought and how long would it take for the savings to recover these costs. The committee asked whether savings, including cost comparisons with the current system could be provided. It was commented that it would be beneficial to identify what services could be shared in order to save costs and to see evidence of how the project was progressing. Members also asked how the project was linked with other projects and would the project’s implementation result in further staff restructuring.
In reply, Denis Turner advised that there was no risk of data manipulation as ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Realigning Corporate and Business Support Project PDF 176 KB This report sets out the details of the two strands of the project, the first relating to administrative or business support functions and the second relating to specialist or professional support functions. Minutes: Frank Dick (Project Manager – Realignment of Corporate and Business Support) introduced the report and advised that the project was close to being fully implemented. The project was needed to obtain necessary savings, however it was recognised that there were savings elements in other projects too and there would be implications at a later stage as a result of the implementation of Project Athena. The other main driver was the requirement to make staff structural changes due to the move to the Civic Centre, with the intention of drawing business and administrative support services together. The project would enable services to be rationalised and improved and provide a single business support model and £1m savings for 2014/15 would be made, with part year savings in 2013/14. The new model had been devised following a look at how other London boroughs and local authorities delivered their business and administrative support functions. The committee heard that the number of business and administrative support managers had been reduced, however the changes also offered a more defined career structure for those working in these areas. This would help raise the professionalism of the service and this was reflected by the fact that non-managerial business support posts were graded from SO6 and upwards. Frank Dick advised that there may be up to 34 redundancies as a result of the changes, with around two thirds of these being from voluntary redundancies, however this was still subject to the final redeployment process.
Frank Dick advised that the business support structure would be fully staffed from around the middle of April 2013. The changes made would provide tangible benefits to front line staff and service delivery and an Improvement Plan would be set in place. For some services, a paper light approach would be appropriate, although it was acknowledged that other services would still require a larger element of paperwork. However, there was greater potential to make use of more technology in order to accommodate the reduction in staff. Turning to specialist support functions covering areas such as IT, legal and HR, Frank Dick advised that a further £1m savings would be made for 2013/14. Some posts were being removed, however these were largely vacant posts and all staff were expected to be in post by March 2013.
Members then raised some issues on this item and it was asked what the redundancy costs would amount to. It was queried whether the 34 overall reduction in posts all equated to redundancies and would new posts be created or realigned. It was also asked whether pension costs had been factored in and had voluntary redundancy been offered. Furthermore, an explanation as to why any external recruitment would be undertaken was sought as it was suggested that internal staff could be redeployed to prevent the risk of losing talented officers. A member asked if internal staff that had been retained were appropriately skilled and were the savings figures and level of services comparable with other local authorities. Another member commented ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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Performance and Finance Review, Quarter 2, 2012-13 PDF 129 KB The report provides details of the council’s performance and financial situation for quarter two of 2012-13. Additional documents: Minutes: At the Chair’s suggestion, it was agreed that this item be deferred to the next meeting where results of quarter 3 of 2012-13 could also be discussed. The Children and Families overspend mentioned in the report would also be discussed following a request from Councillor Pavey. |
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One Council Overview and Scrutiny work programme PDF 56 KB The work programme is attached. Minutes: Members had before them the committee’s work programme. It was noted that procurement of parking enforcement was to be scheduled for a future meeting. The Chair also requested that the review of the library transformation project be added to the work programme. |
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Date of next meeting The next meeting of the One Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 21 March 2013 at 7.30 pm. Minutes: It was noted that the next meeting of the One Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee was scheduled for Thursday, 21 March 2013 at 7.30 pm. |
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Any other urgent business Notice of items raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Democratic Services Manager or his representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 64. Minutes: None. |