Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Room 1, Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley, HA9 9HD. View directions
Contact: Peter Goss - Democratic Services Manager 020 8937 1353 Email: peter.goss@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 this agenda. Minutes: None declared. |
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Deputations (if any) Minutes: None. |
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Minutes of the previous meeting PDF 101 KB Minutes: RESOLVED:-
that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 8 November 2011 be approved as an accurate record of the meeting. |
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Matters arising |
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Adult Social Care budget issues Minutes: At the meeting of the committee held on 13 September 2011 members had asked for information about the proportion of the direct services budget the savings of £750,000 represented and the outcome of the discussions taking place with the North West London Hospitals Trust. Jacqueline Casson (Senior Policy Officer) reported that she had been informed that the direct services savings were 11% of the total direct services budget. Negotiations were still taking place with Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust to ascertain the risks associated with a recruitment freeze. The trust had yet to provide the information requested and the recruitment freeze remained in place.
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The One Council programme PDF 392 KB The committee will be updated on the One Council programme savings. Minutes: Peter Stachniewski (Head of One Council Programme) introduced the report before the committee and explained that it principally dealt with the financial aspects of the programme because the One Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee had already considered the organisational aspects of the programme. The savings delivered from the programme in 2010/11 had amounted to £11.8M and it was poised to deliver £27.8M in the current year which together amounted to 60% of the savings the Council was required to find. In the current year there were fourteen projects underway. Most were expected to deliver their targeted savings or where they were not, alternative savings had been identified. The one major area of concern was the £1M centrally held saving for the procurement project where measures were in the process of being identified for bridging the gap.
Peter Stachniewski stated that the focus was now on bringing forward the next tranche of fifteen projects into the programme. He pointed out that once savings from the projects had been achieved the savings were cumulative. The programme was currently in good order but the challenge now was to get the new projects moving forward for next year.
In answer to questions, Peter Stachniewski outlined the components of the review of employee benefits project. This comprised of three elements, the first being to standardise the payment of the London Weighting allowance, secondly to reduce the payment of overtime and other allowances, which was now running at £1.7M less than the cost in 2009/10, and the third was to move staff onto a Brent core contract. Regarding the projected savings from the Library Transformation project, he explained that the business case projected savings of £800,000 in a full year with £400,000 in the current year. However, because of the legal challenge the part year savings were having to be found from other areas of the Environment and Neighbourhood Department's budget.
A question was asked on how the diversity implications of each project were impacting on delivery of the programme. Peter Stachniewski replied that each project was required to produce a predictive equality impact assessment and, after delivery of the project, to undertake a retrospective equality impact assessment. In addition, arrangements were being put in place for the One Council programme board to receive quarterly monitoring reports on management of equality impacts across the programme. Peter Stachniewski undertook to supply to members some examples of impact assessments carried out.
Questions were asked around the volume of demand and how savings were achieved in the face of this. Phil Newby (Director of Strategy, Partnerships and Improvement) explained that the customer transformation project had to have the flexibility to allow the issues to become apparent as the project was worked through. The project had a savings target attached to it related to what it expected to achieve in future years as the transformation of the service took place. The point was added that it was difficult to predict future customer demand but the bringing together of channels of ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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Central budget issues The committee will receive a presentation on budget issues relating to central items. Minutes: Mick Bowden (Deputy Director of Finance and Corporate Services) tabled an analysis of the central items comprising areas of precepts, subscriptions and the legacy of past decisions taken by the Council.
In answer to questions, Mick Bowden explained how the Council determined the level of insurance it took out. With reference to the additional liabilities the Council would have when it assumed the public health function, he explained that the Council was currently tendering for its insurance provider but that insurers were used to dealing with Councils having a wide span of responsibilities and so it was not anticipated that this would lead to any significant rise in insurance costs. He also pointed out that although the Council could not undo past decisions that committed the Council to a level of debt, it could manage future borrowing to ensure it met the best interests of the Council. He took members through the remaining list of items and stated that these items were pretty much fixed except in the area of capital financing charges where there remained further work to do to influence the final figure.
In response to questions around the New Homes Bonus, Mick Bowden undertook to arrange for additional information to be made available to members. He also undertook to explain what was included in the final item listed called 'Other items'. |
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Budget update The committee will be updated on the current budget position. Minutes: Mick Bowden (Deputy Director of Finance and Corporate Services) stated that he had hoped to be able to report to the committee the terms of the Government's financial settlement for 2012/13 but this had not yet been announced. The Council had held its first reading of the budget and the committee had heard of the significance of the One Council programme in delivering a balanced budget. |
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Any Other Urgent Business Notice of items to be 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. |
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Committee's first interim report Minutes: Jacqueline Casson (Senior Policy Officer) reminded members that she would be sending round a draft of the committee's first interim report and would be pleased to receive comments from members on it.
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Date of Next Meeting The next scheduled meeting of the committee is on 11 January 2012. Minutes: It was noted that the next meeting of the committee would take place on 11 January 2012. |