Agenda and minutes

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the meeting held on 28^th May, 2012 be approved as a correct record.

To agree the following:-

GROUNDWORKS TRUSTS PANEL

Deputy Leader - Councillor Akhtar, (Chair)

Councillor Sharman

Cabinet Member for Culture and Tourism - Councillor Rushforth

Senior Adviser, Culture and Tourism - Councillor Andrews

Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Development - Councillor Smith

Senior Adviser, Regeneration and Development - Councillor Clark

Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing - Councillor Wyatt

Cabinet Member for Waste and Emergency Planning - Councillor R. S. Russell

Councillor Swift, (Director Groundwork Creswell Ashfield and Mansfield)

(subs:  Councillor Whysall) – appointed byImproving Places Select Commission

Councillor Wright, (Director Groundwork Dearne Valley)

Consideration was given to the membership of the Groundworks Trusts Panel which currently consisted of:-

Deputy Leader - Councillor Akhtar, (Chair)

Councillor Sharman

Cabinet Member for Culture and Tourism - Councillor Rushforth

Senior Adviser, Culture and Tourism - Councillor Andrews

Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Development - Councillor Smith

Senior Adviser, Regeneration and Development - Councillor Clark

Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing - Councillor Wyatt

Cabinet Member for Waste and Emergency Planning - Councillor R. S. Russell

Councillor Swift, (Director Groundwork Creswell Ashfield and Mansfield)

(subs:  Councillor Whysall) – appointed by Improving Places Select Commission

Councillor Wright, (Director Groundwork Dearne Valley)

Resolved:-  That the current membership be maintained and approved.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Jacqueline Collins, Director of Legal and Democratic Services, which provided details on the forthcoming Practice Management Inspection of the Legal Services section.

The Legal Services section was awarded Lexcel accreditation in 2005, which was the professional solicitors’ practice standard award of the Law Society.

The scheme set a quality standard for both private practice and in-house solicitors and provided a framework for ensuring timely and good quality advice and supported performance management.

Having a robust external inspection of Rotherham’s in-house legal advice would help to ensure that in-house clients continued to receive a high quality and professional legal service and also place the service in an strong position when considering providing shared legal services with other South Yorkshire authorities.

The next full inspection was to take place during July and preparations were underway to ensure continuation of the accreditation.

Resolved:-  That the forthcoming inspection be noted.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Chrissy Wright, Strategic Commissioning Manager, which set out the advised commissioning priorities for Children and Young People’s Services for 2012/13, which were identified by the members of Children and Young People’s Services Directorate Leadership Team (DLT).

The report set out in detail the priority, the responsible officer, timeline and progress and the accompanying risk matrix was being developed to support the achievement of priorities through mitigation of identified risks.

Further information was provided on the development of the Multi-Agency Support Panel, which had resulted in cost avoidance of over £3 million, commissioning of a specialist provider for Looked After Children (LAC) for more intensive step up support achieving a reduction in spend for each placement; the development of a framework for Independent Fostering Agencies (IFAs) to deliver high quality provision and achieve financial efficiencies of £80,000; a sub-regional commissioning approach for justice restorative work and a regional approach to procurement of a preferred partner for Looked After Children out of authority residential care, levering the market to achieve efficiencies on the highest cost placements for the authority.

The listed strategic commissioning priorities have had further inclusions throughout 2012/13 and a more recent addition of a review to identify opportunities for a partner for Habershon House outdoor education centre. The resource capacity to deliver these priorities would be assessed on an ongoing basis and there may be a need to review timelines to accommodate the high number of complex priorities.

Other areas of work are also being undertaken in strategic commissioning such as the eMarketplace – Connect to Support Rotherham and achievement of financial efficiencies of £2.2 million across the Resources Directorate which were not reported in with the Children and Young People’s Services priorities, but were captured in the Strategic Commissioning Children and Young People’s Services team plan.

Discussion ensued on whether this report had been considered further by the relevant Cabinet Member with responsibility, the seeking of a delivery partner for Haberson House and whether the commissioning of services to schools had also been reviewed.

Resolved:-  That the CYPS Strategic Commissioning priorities identified for 2012/13 be noted.

(2)  That further update reports on the progress of achieving the commissioning priorities be received.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Anne Hawke, Performance and Improvement Manager, which summarised the performance by the former RBT and the Resources Directorate against current measures and key service delivery issues during April, 2012 across the areas of:-

·              Customer Access.

·              Human Resources and Payroll.

·              ICT.

·              Procurement.

·              Revenues and Benefits.

The Resources Directorate was currently in the process of determining its key priorities and service plans for 2012/13.  Once completed, regular updates on progress and performance would be provided in all areas including the former RBT service, although further consideration in the wider context would need to be given to customer access given that this responsibility now lay with Environment and Development Services.

Full details of performance against operational measures for April, 2012 for all workstreams were set out in detail as part of the report and further explanations provided on various matters.

Discussion ensued on some ICT issues that had caused a few problems arising from the data centre migration from Civic Building to Riverside House. 

Resolved:-  That the very good service performance achieved against key measures be noted.

Consideration was given to the agenda which had been circulated for the meeting of the Cabinet on the 4^th July and the contents noted.

Reports which were planned to be submitted to the forthcoming meeting of the Cabinet on the 18^th July, 2012 included:-

Localisation of Council Tax Support.

Localisation of Business Rates.

Local Government Pension Scheme – Revised Proposals.

Resolved:-  That the information be noted.

Updates were provided on the following:-

·              End of year accounts for 2011/12, which were published on the internet on Friday, 29^th June, 2012.  Members of the public would be given the opportunity to raise any objections before the accounts were externally audited by KPMG.  The accounts were to be submitted to the Audit Committee on the 18^th July, 2012.

·              A briefing note was to be provided on single person discount review that was currently being undertaken.  The next stage would involve information being forwarded to claimants and for their details to be verified within twenty-one days.  For those that did not reply, a further letter would be sent giving a further twenty-one days to provide the evidence that they were eligible for a discount.

·              The Code of Conduct that had been presented to Cabinet and Council would be subject to approval by the Leader, Deputy Leader and Leader of the Opposition before the new Standards Committee was progressed further.   All Parish Councils had also been written to ascertain if they wished to participate with the dealing of complaints by the Standards Committee, but the response was limited.  A further letter would be sent to all Parish Councils asking if they wished to access this support.

·              An issue had been brought to the attention of relevant officers about the inclusion of the Register of Interests for each Councillor on the website.  An error had occurred, which was rectified within twenty-four hours.  Close scrutiny of this area of the website was recommended.

Resolved:-  That a further meeting be held on Monday, 10^th September, 2012 at 9.30 a.m.