Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Room 4, Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley, HA9 9HD. View directions
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 6 February 2013 PDF 128 KB The minutes are attached. Minutes: RESOLVED:-
that the minutes of the last meeting held on 6 February 2013 be recorded as an accurate record of the meeting. |
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Matters arising Minutes: None. |
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Managing the Public Realm Members will receive a presentation providing an update on the project. This will include:-
· Objectives and scope of the contract · Procurement process · The timetable · Progress to date Minutes: Michael Read (Assistant Director – Environment and Protection, Environment and Neighbourhood Services) gave a presentation on managing the public realm project and informed the committee that he was a member of its’ Project Board. Members heard that the new public realm contract would include waste and recycling, street cleaning, grounds maintenance in parks and Brent Housing Partnership (BHP) sites and burial services. The vision of the project was to improve the look and feel of the borough, especially as the services provided were the most visible to residents. It was imperative to generate less waste and to improve sustainability and a holistic approach would be taken. Current spending on these services was around £16.4m a year and the savings target for the project was £1.35m a year, a saving of around 10%. A further issue was posed by the rapidly increasing population that would present challenges in keeping down total waste and it was noted that there had been a 10% growth in households, 82% increase in private renting and 11% increase social renting. In addition, a large percentage of the population did not speak English as their first language, whilst in some wards, around 10% of the population had been in living the UK for two years or less. Michael Read emphasised that it was importance that residents had a sense of belonging as they were more likely to participate in recycling and reducing waste and the waste contractors would be encouraged to work with local residents.
Michael Read stated that other issues to consider included the impact on the population of welfare reforms and the high expectations on the standard of parks. As there was currently no waste depot in operation in the borough, the costs of sending waste to another depot outside Brent were higher. However, the recent acquisition of a depot in Alperton was likely to help bring costs down. Initial discussions to share a public realm contract with the London boroughs (LB) of Barnet, Hounslow and Richmond had led to the possibility of a joint contract between LBs Barnet and Brent. However, LB Barnet was ultimately unable to continue towards a collaboration, meaning LB Brent would be pursuing its own contract. The tendering process would be through competitive dialogue, following which five tenderers had been invited to outline their solutions to the tender brief by 8 March 2013. Following an evaluation of the proposals, some tenderers would then be invited back to provide more detailed solutions by 13 May 2013. Two tenderers would then be selected to submit their final proposals in August 2013 with the contract awarded in October 2013 to commence from April 2014. Members heard that 60% of the evaluation criteria would be weighted for quality issues and 40% for cost and commercial factors. Consideration would be given to structuring recycling incentives into the contract, such as providing smaller residual bins.
Councillor J Moher (Lead Member for Highways and Transportation) added that consultation would take place with councillors over priorities and ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Re-procurement of the new parking contract PDF 159 KB Members will receive a presentation providing an update on the re-procurement of the parking enforcement project. The presentation will cover:
· The existing contract and incumbent provider · Procurement approach · Tender submissions and outcome · BAFO negotiation and submissions · Financial outcome and savings · Operational outcome · Added value · Collaborative outcome · Mobilisation outcome
The full report went to the Executive on 11 March 2013 to award a joint contract for the provision of parking services as required by Standing Order 88(c). The report summarised the results of the procurement process undertaken by officers from the West London Alliance participating boroughs for the provision of parking enforcement and notice processing services and following completion of the evaluation recommends a contractor for award of the proposed contract. The report also sets out the financial savings and other benefits associated with the contract. The Executive report has been provided as background information. Minutes: David Thrale (Head of Safer Streets, Environment and Neighbourhood Services) gave a presentation on the new parking contract and advised that the current contract was due to expire on 3 July 2013. The new contract would commence from 4 July 2013 and be part of a collaborative procurement competition involving LBs Brent, Ealing and Hounslow. The Brent vision for Parking Services involved:-
· A modern approach to delivering parking services · Responding to customer demand · Realising efficiency savings · Embracing the Brent brand · Working with neighbouring LBs and engaging with customers to provide high quality services to West London residents
Members were provided details of the procurement process and its’ outcome and it was envisaged that the estimated value of the contract would be £37.7m for Brent over ten years, with a first year costing of £4.4m and subsequent years £3.7m a year over a potential ten year term. Savings were anticipated to equate to around 23% in terms of cost of contract, which far exceeded the 5% target in the business case. SERCO had been awarded the contract which also had ‘added value’ commitments, including improvements to the customer services processes and enhancements to enforcement methods. An additional benefit for LB Brent was the fact that back office functions would be based in the borough.
In terms of how the service would operate, David Thrale explained that recovery of revenue would undergo a data cleansing exercise and the contractor would even be able to pursue penalty charge notices (PCNs) from foreign vehicles. In addition, the longstanding 0845 penalty telephone number would be replaced with a 020 prefix. The new contract would be preceded by the closure of parking shops. The parking shop in Pyramid House had undergone a ‘soft closure’ with staff available for a period of time to provide help to residents during the changes to the service. A new online system for parking permits has been introduced and is fully automated to give instant decisions in the majority of cases. Significant changes to charges would be introduced from autumn 2013, with differentiation in charges for permits and cashless parking and a simplification of the permit system. David Thrale advised that coin based payments were costly to collect and bank, so over a period of time parking cash machines would be taken out of service through a pilot scheme later this year and depending on how things went, would either be removed or reinstated for a time if residents were not yet ready for the changes.
During members’ discussion, details were sought of parking permit costs and whether parking permits could be collected. Clarification was sought concerning Blue Badge holders and whether it was possible to reduce parking permit fees because of the savings made with the new contract. A member asked if an update on how working with the other partner LBs could be provided at a future meeting.
In reply, David Thrale advised that parking permit charges would not changes as a result of the retendering of the contract, ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Performance and Finance Review, Quarter 3, 2012-13 PDF 134 KB The report provides details of the council’s performance and financial situation for quarter three of 2012-13. Additional documents: Minutes: Phil Newby (Director of Strategy, Partnerships and Improvement) presented the report and advised that performance overall had improved over the course of the quarter. He informed members that some performance indicators had no specific targets and the way in which performance would be reported in future was being revised and a new format and set of figures would be presented the next time this item was put before the committee. It was noted that overall performance in Adult Social Services continued to improve, whilst school places and foster care remained an issue for Children and Families, along with budget pressures in respect of children’s social care.
During members’ discussion, concern was expressed about some performance indicators relating to mental health and adult social services remaining red and further explanation was sought as to what the problems were. In addition, details of overspends to the adult social care transformation project were requested. Another member commented on data quality issues with regard to adult social care and that those on direct payments, who were amongst the most vulnerable members of the community, were also being affected by the changes to services. A member sought reasons with regard to the overspend in waste collection and what was being undertaken to address this. He commented that there were instances of waste to being deposited to the side of bins and he asked if any action was being taken in to address this. With regard to the change in recycling target, he also queried whether the previous target was unrealistic. Another member referred to the forecast £50k overspend in the Children and Families budget and in noting that this would be compensated by two other service areas, he sought a breakdown of what these underspend were and asked what action would be taken by this service area to prevent this from happening in the future. Views were sought as to how effective the children’s social care transformation project had been and further details were asked with regard to the £2m overspend in Special Educational Needs (SEN).
In reply, Phil Newby advised that a new One Council project was due to commence in respect of mental health services which would suggest taking a fresh approach and look at how the service could be provided in a different and more effective manner. Members heard that most of the problems stemmed from the current provider. Turning to adult social care, Phil Newby stated that data quality issues arose from the way information was reported on Framework I and was further complicated by the various ways different Government agencies demanded how they wanted the information presented. With regard to the children’s social care transformation project, Phil Newby advised that it had been successful to the extent of prevention of children ending up under direct council care as opposed to fostering and adoption placements. However, the next phase would look at more long term, preventative measures and address root causes. Phil Newby advised that Mick Bowden would be able to ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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One Council Overview and Scrutiny work programme PDF 57 KB The work programme is attached. Minutes: Members discussed the work programme as set out before them. The Chair felt that the committee required further information on Mental Health Services and in particular an explanation as to why performance remained red in this area and what was being done to address this. Councillor McLennan suggested that the committee needed further details concerning Adult Social Services, specifically in relation to details of the strategy on re-assessment of clients and the number of clients moving to direct payments. The committee concurred that these issues needed to be discussed at the earliest opportunity and it was agreed that steps be taken to arrange a special meeting to consider these items before the end of 2012/13.
RESOLVED:-
that a special meeting be arranged before the end of 2012/13 to discuss issues relating to Mental Health Services and Adult Social Services. |
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Date of next meeting The next meeting of the One Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be confirmed at the Annual Council meeting on 15 May 2013. Minutes: It was noted that the next meeting of the One Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be confirmed at the Annual Council meeting on 15 May 2013. |
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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. |