Agenda and minutes

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting held on 11^th January, 2010.

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the meeting held on 11^th January, 2010, be approved as a correct record.

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 December, 2009.  It also stated that the Directorate had incurred £22,954 agency spend. 

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.

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 £40,000 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

The report set out the summary year to date and projected outturn position for the Chief Executive’s Directorate as at the end of December, 2009.

It was reported that discussions were still ongoing with regard to the phase 2 of the Rotherham Newspaper (Minute No. K61 refers) and a more sustainable model.

Resolved:-  That the latest revenue forecast outturn position for the Chief Executive’s Directorate for 2009/10 be noted.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Human Resources) submitted a report on the decision of the Strategic Leadership Team to introduce an internal Talent Pool in order to reduce the cost of sourcing temporary employees from external agencies.

It was hoped that potential savings for the Council and 2010 Rotherham Ltd. combined would be in the region of £50-80,000 per annum in relation to administrative and clerical staff if current levels of demand continued.

Following initial concentration on sourcing administrative and clerical staff, the possibility of expanding the Pool to encompass other occupational categories and the placement of apprentices would be explored.  It would also become a focus for deployment of employees around the Council both in response to the outcomes of service restructuring and changing service priorities.

The Pool would be a facility to utilise activities currently underway to map the skills of the workforce to better deploy employees to meet changing demands and critical gaps in service.  Ultimately, it could use skills mapping data to identify employees with consultancy skills which could lead to a decline in the use of more costly external consultants. 

Discussion ensued on the proposal and the possibility, once established, of promoting it to public sector partners.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the proposal to set up a Talent Pool be supported.

(2)  That Service Managers first attempt to source temporary administrative and clerical employees via the Talent Pool.

(3)  That future consideration be given to extending the scope of the Talent Pool to include other employment categories.

(4)  That the concept of using the Talent Pool as a focus for effective deployment of existing staff within the Council be endorsed.

(5)  That the initial set up costs of the Talent Pool (£9,859) and annual systems support charge (£305 per annum) to be met from charges levied for redeployment of staff be approved.

(6)  That service standards for the operation of the Talent Pool be agreed between Strategic HR and the HRP Service.

(7)  That 6 monthly updates be submitted to the Cabinet Member.

(8)  That the report be submitted to the next meeting for the Consultancy and Agency Value for Money Group in May 2010.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Human Resources) reported that on 12^th November, 2009, the Apprenticeships, Children, Skills and Learning Bill had received Royal Assent.  This formally established the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSNB) as a statutory body which would agree a pay and conditions framework for support staff in the maintained School sector.  Subject to ratification by the Secretary of State, agreements would apply to all maintained schools in England.

The role and remit of the SSSNB could have significant implications for School support staff.

Teachers would not be covered nor support staff employed under contracts incorporating the agreement of the JNC for Youth and Community Workers, the Solbury Committee and the JNC for Local Authority Craft and Associated Employees.  Any other employee whose contract of employment provided for them to work wholly in schools, including those employed by the local authority’s DSO/DLO, would be included.  There would be a facility for the parties locally to refer jointly to the SSSNB any questions or differences of interpretation concerning the inclusion or otherwise of particular employees.

The SSSNB was required to negotiate and seek to reach agreement on matters referred to it by the Secretary of State through the employers and Trade Unions.  Sides were also free to bring other matters to the negotiating table.

Initially the SSSNB was to focus on:-

-        The production of a core contract of employment to cover remuneration, duties and working time

-        The design of national job role profiles to cover core school support staff roles

-        The development and production of a method for converting those role profiles into a salary structure

-        A strategy that would effectively implement the national pay and conditions framework in all schools maintained by local authorities in England including a methodology to manage both transition and steady state

The Secretary of State has asked the SSSNB to submit to him any agreements on the above by 28^th May, 2010.  There would then be a period when the Secretary of State would consider the agreements before deciding whether to endorse them or refer them back to the SSSNB for reconsideration.

Consultations with support staff trade unions in Rotherham had been ongoing with a paper in the process of preparation to send out to all Schools.  The Human Resources Schools Advice and Guidance Team would be advising and assisting Schools on issues of implementation as they arose.  Staff from Council DSO/DLO operations, specifically the Cleaning and Catering functions, would also be within the remit of the new body.  The Human Resources Business Partners from the different Directorates involved would liaise to ensure a consistent approach was taken with regard to consultation and implementation of outcomes.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the changes which would arise from the remit of the new School Support Staff Negotiating Body be noted.

(2)  That consultation with Schools and directorates containing affected staff groups continue on an ongoing basis with regards to the implementation of the new Body.

(3)  That the report be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

Sarah McCall, Performance Officer, presented the submitted report which summarised RBT’s performance against contractual measures and key service delivery issues for December, 2009, 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

-              Average waiting time for face-to-face customers had significantly improved – 95.5% of customers being seen within 15 minutes

-              Revenues and Benefits customer contact was improving with a reduction to 15.49% of telephone calls being abandoned.  Waiting times for Revenues and Benefits telephone customers achieved 44.10% of calls answered in 21 seconds

-              Revised performance measures had now been agreed in principle.  Subject to RBT concluding any remaining issues with trade unions, it was expected that the Business Process Re-engineering work would now progress

-              2 complaints received in December, both closed as upheld,  relating to the Cashier Service

-              RBT currently developing options for the staffing of Aston Joint Service Centre and for incorporating cashiers within the wider customer services network

-              Office launch event scheduled for the MacMillan Welfare Rights Project on 29^th January, 2010

Human Resources and Payroll

-              All performance targets achieved

-              Maltby Academy was set up on PSE as a new organisation in readiness for transfer of employees from Maltby Comprehensive School to the new Academy in January

-              Version 9 of Yourself was due for release in February

ICT

-              Achievement of performance targets for the ICT Service in December, 2009, 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

-              Eric Manns Building re-opened in December, 2009, and had VOIP throughout together with a wireless network to enable flexible working

-              RBT, ICT and EDS had been working with an external company to design the audio-visual infrastructure for the refurbished Town Hall

-              ICT specification for the new Civic Building completed in December, 2009, and passed to the building contractors

Procurement

-              All performance targets achieved with the exception of PO6 (% of orders placed against electronic catalogue framework agreements) which achieved 17.85% against a target of 19%.  Performance was expected to increase to normal levels during January

-              Former BVP18 achieved 95.49% in December, 2009, an improvement on 2008.  Average performance to date stood at 94.38%

-              Procurement savings for the period to the end of November, 2009, were £216,195

Revenues and Benefits

-              Council Tax Collection Rate 81.12% at the end of December, 2009, 0.34% lower than the same point in 2008 once the impact of comparative timing of Direct Debts run over the Christmas period had been taken into account

-              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  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the Complaints Forum held on 11^th January, 2010.

Resolved:-  That the content of the minutes be noted.

- minutes of meeting held on 18th January, 2010

Consideration was given to the minutes of the Customer Access Group held on 18th January, 2010.

It was noted that the Customer Excellence Award had been formally presented to the Authority at the recent Council meeting.

Resolved:-  That the contents of the minutes be noted.

- minutes of meeting held on 18^th January, 2010

Consideration was given to the minutes of the Website Strategy Group held on 18th January, 2010.

Resolved:-  That the contents of the minutes be noted.