Agenda and draft minutes
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Contact: Dawn Mitchell 01709 822062 Email: dawn.mitchell@rotherham.gov.uk
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Minutes of Meeting held on 8th February, 2010 Minutes: Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting held on 8th February, 2010.
Resolved:- That the minutes of the meeting held on 8th February, 2010, be approved as a correct record. |
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Revenue Budget Monitoring Report April 2009 - January 2010 - Financial Services Minutes: Joe Johnson, Principal Accountant, presented briefly the submitted report relating to the above.
The report showed that the Financial Services Directorate was forecasting a break-even position against a net revenue budget of £10.5M by the end of March, 2010.
The report set out the summary year to date and projected outturn position for Financial Services as at the end of January, 2010. It also stated that the Directorate had incurred £37,452 agency spend to date.
A process for collating details of spend on the use of consultants had been implemented and would be included in reports as from April, 2010.
Resolved:- That the latest revenue forecast outturn position for the Financial Services Directorate for 2009/10 be noted. |
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Revenue Budget Monitoring Report April 2009 - January 2010 - Chief Executive Additional documents: Minutes: Joe Johnson, Principal Accountant, presented briefly the submitted report relating to the above.
The report showed that the Chief Executive’s Directorate was forecasting currently an underspend of £70,000 against a net revenue budget of £9M by the end of March, 2010.
Areas highlighted in the report covered:-
- Transport Fleet - Vacancies and Secondments - Rotherham Newspaper - Statutory Notices - Worksmart - Income
The report set out the summary year to date and projected outturn position for the Chief Executive’s Directorate as at the end of January, 2010.
There was no agency expenditure to report in the current financial year although there had been expenditure incurred on Job Evaluation in 2009/2010 funded via a centrally held budget. A process for collating details of spend on the use of consultants had been implemented in accordance with Scrutiny Review recommendations and would be provided in reports as from April, 2010.
Discussions were ongoing with regard to Rotherham News.
Resolved:- That the latest revenue forecast outturn position for the Chief Executive’s Directorate for 2009/10 be noted. |
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RBT Performance Report Additional documents: Minutes: Sarah McCall, Performance Officer, presented the submitted report which summarised RBT’s performance against contractual measures and key service delivery issues for January, 2010, across the areas of Customer Access, Human Resources and Payroll, ICT, Procurement and Revenue and Benefits.
Key points for this period included:-
Customer Access - All performance targets achieved with the exception of CAO5 (contact not abandoned – telephony) which achieved only 80.77% against a target of 90% - Efficiency and effectiveness of face-to-face services remained low (36.2%). The Transformation and Strategic Partnerships was working closely with RBT on improvements in this area - 5 complaints had been received with 3 ongoing and 2 closed as upheld - New Welfare Rights and Money Advice Manager to commence on 8th March
Human Resources and Payroll - All performance targets achieved - Technical development to allow for automatic write back of timesheet information to PSE now complete - Version 10 YourSelf release due in June, 2010
ICT - Achievement of performance targets for the ICT Service in January, 2010, was currently being reviewed by the ICT Client as there were several instances of downtime affecting critical systems during the period not reflected in the performance reports from RBT - Continued VOIP rollout progress - Principles of BS25999 to be adopted, the core of which was a Business Impact Assessment, which would allow review of the most important corporate services and activities and identify what processes were required to support - New website went live on 6th January
Procurement - All performance targets achieved with the exception of PO3 (% of undisputed invoices for commercial goods and services that were input within 25 calendar days of receipt) which achieved 98.96% against a target of 99.22%. - Former BVP18 achieved 93.71% in January, 2010, an improvement on 2009. Average performance to date stood at 94.31% - Procurement savings for the period to the end of December, 2009, were £330,278.68
Revenues and Benefits - Council Tax Collection Rate 92.19% at the end of January, 2010, 0.45% lower than the same point in 2008/09. Latest forecasts by RBT suggest that the final collection rate at 31st March, 2010 could be 0.24% down on last year - Overtime continued to be worked and, together with the strict recovery timetable, hoped that any shortfall in collection, compared with the previous year, would be addressed by the end of March, 2010 - The target for 2009/10 continued to be a Council Tax Collection Rate which placed Rotherham in the upper performance quartile for Metropolitan District Councils with a minimum collection level of 97.0% - There had been 3,306 Council Tax Liability Orders referred to the bailiff during the financial year. Currently 21.3% of the total bailiff caseload with Council Tax arrears were making regular payments by arrangement whilst a further 13.4% had had their cases put on hold at the request of the Council. - Average number of days taken to action a Council Tax Change of Circumstance was 15.14 days, slightly above ... view the full minutes text for item 82. |
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Apprenticeship Update Minutes: The Assistant Chief Executive (Human Resources) submitted an update on apprenticeship activity within the Council highlighting issues surrounding the future of apprenticeships in the current climate.
The Council had been required to complete a return to Government Office indicating the number of apprentices currently employed and the number likely to commence employment in the next 12 months.
In the last 2 years the Council had employed 34 young people as apprentices, most of whom had been employed on a 1 year contract. 11 of the 34 had gained employment of some sort within the Council, 4 in jobs elsewhere and 12 at present still in an apprenticeship. The remaining 7 had either failed to complete their apprenticeship or had completed without a job outcome. 2 further apprentices were to be appointed following interview processes.
There were definitive pledges to appoint at least 2 Horticultural apprentices, 4 Programme Led Apprentices in Social Care (these did not count towards employing more paid apprentices as per Government objectives as they were not employees in receipt of a wage), 16 through the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) and a further 10 graduate placements also funded by the CWDC.
The issue of apprenticeships and the Council’s progress in reaching the position referred to above had been reported to the Strategic Leadership Team on a number of occasions. Backing had been given to seeking to offer more apprenticeships but to date had not set targets or committed funding to make a step change in the numbers employed on an annual basis.
Using John Denham, Communities Secretary’s, benchmark figure, Rotherham was amongst the worst performing Councils for employing apprentices. Also early benchmark data received from the Government Office for the Yorkshire and Humber showed the Council as potentially the lowest performing Metropolitan Authority in terms of numbers of apprentices projected to be employed as at March, 2010.
If using the benchmark average of 1 apprentice to 248 employees to set a target for each Directorate, the results would be:-
Apprentice Target Current Apprentices 2010/11 2009/10
Chief Executive 1 1 Children and Young People 9 2 Environment and Development 9 3 Finance 1 0 Neighbourhood and Adult Services 8 0 RBT 3 0 Schools* 26* 6 Whole Council 31(57*) 12
*It was suggested that the Council could not directly control the actions of schools on this matter though it could seek to influence their engagement in the apprenticeship agenda.
Apprenticeships would be for a period of 12 months.
If the targets were achieved, there would be resource implications for Strategic HR. It was proposed that discussions take place with the Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services on how it could best be achieved.
However, further information was being sought as to how other authorities were calculating their numbers and what was included and what was excluded. At present Rotherham did not include 2010 Rotherham Ltd. or school based staff.
Resolved:- (1) That the apprenticeships offered to date be noted and the success of apprentices in ... view the full minutes text for item 83. |
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Website Strategy Group - minutes of meetings held on 15th February 2010 Minutes: Consideration was given to the minutes of the Website Strategy Group held on 15th February, 2010.
Resolved:- That the contents of the minutes be noted. |
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- Minutes of the meeting held on 30th November 2009 Minutes: Consideration was given and discussion took place on the minutes of the E-Government Board held on 30th November, 2009.
Resolved:- That the contents of the minutes be noted. |
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Exclusion of the Press and Public The following item is likely to be considered in the absence of the press and public as being exempt under Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the Council)). Minutes: Resolved:- That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 ( information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the Council)). |
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Consultancy Support - Organisational Development Minutes: The Chief Executive (Human Resources) submitted a proposal to exempt the contract for the provision of services, in connection with the review of the senior management structure of the Council, from Standing Order No. 48.1 (requirement to invite 3-6 tenders from contractors for contracts with an estimated value of £50,000 or more), and to award the contract to Hay Group Consulting Ltd.
Hay Group would be commissioned to work with the Council’s HR teams to identify the potential for the re-structuring/re-profiling of senior managers’ roles. The value of the preliminary work was estimated to be £35-40,000. However, depending on the outcome of the review, it may be necessary to commission the company to carry out further work taking the overall value of the contract over £50,000.
It was anticipated that the totality of the work would not exceed the current European Union threshold for services (currently £150,000) and therefore not engage the EU procurement rules.
It was noted that Strategic Director of Finance and the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services) had been consulted and agreed with the proposal.
Resolved:- That exemption from Standing Order No. 48.1 (requirement to invite 3-6 tenders for contracts with an estimated value of £50,000 or more) be approved and the contract for the review of the Council’s organisational structure be awarded to Hay Group Consulting Limited. |