Agenda and draft minutes

The Former Cabinet Member for Resources and Commissioning - Monday 13 June 2011 11.30 a.m.

Venue: Town Hall, Moorgate Street, Rotherham S60 2TH

Contact: Dawn Mitchell 01709 822062 Email: dawn.mitchell@rotherham.gov.uk

Items
No.	Item
1.	Minutes of meeting held on 12th April, 2011 PDF 31 KB Minutes: Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting held on 12^th April, 2011. Resolved:- That the minutes of the meeting held on 12^th April, 2011, be approved as a correct record.
2.	Representation on Outside Bodies/Working Parties PDF 18 KB (1) RBT Governance Group (see report) (2) E Government Board Cabinet Member and Advisor for Resources (3) Rotherham Information Governance Group Councillor Wyatt (4) Data Protection and Information Group Councillor Wyatt (5) Fair Trade Group Councillor Wyatt (Chair); Councillor Jack (6) Procurement Panel Councillor Wyatt (Chair) Councillor Smith, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Development Services Councillor Whelbourn, Chair, Performance and Scrutiny Overview Committee (7) Complaints Forum Councillor Wyatt (8) Customer Access Strategy Group Councillor Wyatt (9) Website Strategy Group Councillor Wyatt Minutes: Consideration was given to representation in respect of the above and the need to nominate representatives. Resolved:- (1) That representation on the following be deferred for further discussion with the Deputy Leader:- RBT Governance Group. Data Protection and Information Group Procurement Panel Complaints Forum Customer Access Strategy Group Website Strategy Group (2) That the Cabinet Member attend meetings of the Council’s E Government Board. (3) That Cabinet Member attend meetings of the Corporate Information Governance Group. (4) That the Cabinet Member remain as Chair of the Fair Trade Group, and attend meetings, together with Councillor Jack.
3.	Chief Executive Revenue Outturn 2010-11 PDF 33 KB Additional documents: Chief Exec Appendix , item 3. PDF 20 KB Minutes: Joe Johnson, Principal Accountant, presented briefly the submitted report relating to the above. The net outturn for the Chief Executive’s Directorate showed an underspend of £156,060 against a net cash limited revenue budget of £8,872,842. This represented a variation of –1.74%. After adjusting for the Directorate’s Trading Accounts (where balances were automatically carried forward into the next financial year), the adjusted outturn was an underspend of £16,120 (-0.18% from budget). The summary outturn position was detailed in the report and the main variations related to :- · underspend in the Chief Executive’s Office due to savings on salaries and additional unbudgeted Crowded Place income · underspend in Communications Policy and performance due to additional income generated by the former Rotherham News and underspend in Rotherham Partnership which were offset by overspends in the Communication Team and the Ministry of Food · underspend in Infrastructure and Corporate Initiative budget · underspend in External Funding Migration Impact Fund · overspend in Legal and Democratic Services which was offset against support staff savings and no expenditure on staff advertising It was reported that a request for carry forward would be made to the Cabinet relating to 20% of the Directorate underspend in accordance with the revised outturn procedure in respect of year end variances. Resolved:- That the 2010/11 revenue outturn position for the Chief Executive’s Directorate be noted. (2) That the impending request to Cabinet for carry forward, as now reported, be noted.
4.	Financial Services Capital Outturn 2010-11 PDF 31 KB Minutes: Joe Johnson, Principal Accountant, presented briefly the submitted report relating to the above indicating that the net outturn position showed a breakeven position against a net budget of £5,873,704. The summary outturn position was detailed in the report. Resolved:- That the 2010/11 Capital Outturn position for the Financial Services Directorate be noted.
5.	Financial Services Revenue Outturn 2010-11 PDF 31 KB Minutes: Joe Johnson, Principal Accountant, presented briefly the submitted report relating to the above. The net outturn for Financial Services Directorate showed an underspend of £321,012 against a net cash limited revenue budget of £10,828,939. This represented a variance of – 2.96%. After adjusting for the Directorate’s Schools Finance Trading Account (where balances were automatically carried forward into the next financial year), the adjusted outturn was an underspend of £120,951 (-1.12% from budget). The summary outturn position was detailed in the report with the main variations relating to over recovery of income in Housing Benefits and Births, Deaths and Marriages which had been partially offset by unbudgeted running costs of the Customer Service Centres. The request to Cabinet for carry forward related to 20% of the Directorate underspend in accordance with the revised outturn procedure in respect of year end variances. Resolved:- (1) That the 2010/11 revenue outturn position for the Financial Services Directorate be noted. (2) That the impending request to Cabinet for carry forward, as now reported, be noted.
6.	RBT Performance Report for March 2011 and Year End Report for Annual Strategic Measures PDF 62 KB Additional documents: Performance Report March - Appendix A , item 6. PDF 54 KB Item 8 last Appendix Cross Cutting , item 6. PDF 21 KB Performance Report March Appendix B , item 6. PDF 56 KB Minutes: Mark Gannon, Strategic Commissioning Manager, presented a report summarising RBT’s performance against contractual measures and key service delivery issues for March, 2011 and performance against annual strategic measures for the financial year 2010/11 across the areas of Customer Access, Human Resources and Payroll, ICT, Procurement and Revenue and Benefits. Key points for this period included:- Cross Cutting Measures - All cross cutting measures were achieved during 2010/11 Customer Access - All strategic measures for the workstream achieved in 2010/11 - CAS4 Efficiency target of 60% in the month of March, 2011 had been achieved; the target for 2011/12 was to achieve 60% across the year - All operational measures were achieved - Data cleansing exercise by the Contact Centre to facilitate text messaging to let customers know when Wilmott Dixon would be visiting to help reduce avoidable contact levels. The 2010 Client had submitted a change request for the continuation of the currently provided weekend repairs service until March, 2010 - As from 29^th October, 2011, the Town Hall would be offered as a venue for marriages and civil partnerships - No complaints had been received during March, 2011 Human Resources and Payroll - All strategic measures had been met with the exception of HRS5 Customer Perception. This was not measured by the HRP client due to lack of resources. This would be addressed during 2011/12 - All operational measures achieved during March - HRP Server Refresh now complete and PSe database transferred to the new virtual server environment - Car Purchase Salary Sacrifice Scheme set up on payroll. 300 expressions of interest logged - Work on consultancy support to Dudley MBC progressing - Statement of Accounts reports delivered to Financial Services ahead of the 14^th April deadline ICT - All strategic measures targets achieved - All targets shown as achieved in March - RMBC and SCC had established a Joint Emergency Planning Shared Service. RMBC’s Emergency Planning Incident Management System would be used by staff across both authorities to co-ordinate the response to emergencies - Completed infrastructure refresh which ran the HR and Yourself applications - Agreement on the ICT fit-out of Riverside House and the migration of the data centre from Civic to the 4^th floor of the new building Procurement - All strategic measures achieved - All performance targets achieved in March - Former BVP18 achieved an outturn position of 94.89%, an improvement against performance for the previous financial year. The Indicator had been significantly impacted by the severe weather in December, 2010 - Procurement savings for the month of March were £160,000 Revenues and Benefits - RBS5 Customer Perception had been achieved with 93% of customers being satisfied with service levels - RBS6 Telephone Contact Not Abandoned was a new strategic measure introduced during 2010/11, the target for which did not come into effect until 2011/12 - Council Tax Collection Rate achieved 97.4% for 2010/11, an increase on the previous year’s performance of 97.1% - The total number of Council Tax Liability Orders ... view the full minutes text for item 6.
7.	RBT Performance Report April 2011 PDF 57 KB Additional documents: Performance Report April - Appendix A (2) , item 7. PDF 54 KB Minutes: Mark Gannon, Strategic Commissioning Manager, presented the submitted report which summarised RBT’s performance against contractual measures and key service delivery issues for April, 2011, across the areas of Customer Access, Human Resources and Payroll, ICT, Procurement and Revenues and Benefits. Key points for this period included:- Customer Access - All performance targets achieved - Monthly meetings had commenced between 2010 Client, 2010 Contact Centre RBT Contact Centre and Rothercare to discuss operational issues and to improve customer experience - Neighbourhoods and Adult Services had withdrawn the Blue Badge Service permanently from Maltby Joint Service Centre with effect from 15^th April, 2011 - Customer Service staff to be trained in the Customer Information System due to be rolled out in May, 2011 - 1 complaint received during April, 2011 in respect of Welfare Rights. It was closed upheld and all issues resolved Human Resources and Payroll - All performance targets achieved - Work completed to support Aston Comprehensive School’s move to Academy status with effect from 1^st May, 2011 - Scoping work underway with regard to shared service arrangement for payroll with Doncaster Council ICT - All performance targets achieved - RMBC’S Emergency Planning Incident Management System now used by staff cross RMBC and SCC to co-ordinate the response to emergencies - Services of a specialist procured to review RMBC’s Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard - 1 complaint received not upheld Procurement - All performance targets achieved - Former BVP18 achieved 96.2%. Revenues and Benefits - Council Tax Collection Rate 10.12% at the end of April, 2011, 0.18% behind the same point in 2010/11 - The target for 2010/11 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% regardless of quartile position - There had been 168 Council Tax Liability Orders referred to the bailiff up to the end of February, none of which were classed as a vulnerable case - Average number of days taken to action a Council Tax Change of Circumstance was 13.8 days. This was better than the performance level which the service aimed to achieve i.e. 14 days - As at the end of April, 2011, 68.19% of Council Tax payments were by Direct Debit - NNDR collection rate was 10.44% at the end of April, 2011, 6.78% behind the same point in 2010/11 - The NNDR collection figure had been adjusted to incorporate the affect of the NNDR Deferral Scheme. The year end target remained a collection rate which placed Rotherham in the upper performance quartile for Metropolitan District Councils with a maximum collection level of 98.5% regardless of quartile position - 15 Business Rates Liability Orders had been referred to the bailiff in the current financial year up to the end of April, 2011 - The number of cases under NNDR Deferral Scheme currently stood at 184 allowing for a deferral of £385,821 - 4 complaints were received. 3 were closed not ... view the full minutes text for item 7.
8.	Strategic Commissioning Unit (Client Team) Annual Review 2010-11 PDF 96 KB Additional documents: Appendix A - Strategic Commissioning Unit (Client Team) Structure , item 8. PDF 16 KB Minutes: The Strategic Commissioning Manager submitted a review of the activities of the Strategic Commissioning Unit (Client Team) highlighting achievements across the areas of Customer Access, ICT, Procurement, Revenues and Benefits and Business Transformation together with the key areas of focus for 2011/12. The report included:- - Key findings and feedback from customers and stakeholders o ICT o Procurement o Meet the Buyer Event 2011 o Customer Access - Feedback from external assessors o Customer Service Excellence o Government Connect Assessment 2011 - Customer Access o Improved Efficiency o Development of Customer Service Centres o Channel Shift o Refreshed Customer Access Strategy o Customer Service Consolidation o Business Process Re-engineering of the Revenues and Benefits Service o Council Tax Collection Rate o Priority Areas for 2011/12 - Information and Communications Technology o ICT Strategy Implementation o PC Refresh Programme o Network Procurement o Accommodation Changes o Upgrade of Key Infrastructure o Emergency Planning Shared Service with Sheffield City Council o Improved RMBC Involvement in Regional ICT Networks o Electronic Document Records Management System o Priority Areas for 2011/12 - Procurement o Strategy Implementation o Meet the Buyer Event o Payment of Invoices within 30 days o Procurement Savings o Supporting the Local Economy o Priority Areas for 2011/12 It was noted that during 2010/11 the Strategic Commissioning Unit (Client Team) had continued to improve value for money achieved from the partnership with RBT. This had achieved savings of £816,486 during the financial year. Resolved:- (1) That the work undertaken by the Strategic Commissioning Unit (Client Team) in 2010/11 be noted. (2) That the priority areas for the Team’s work in 2011/12 be noted.
9.	Website Strategy Group PDF 29 KB - minutes of meeting held on 12^th April, 2011 Minutes: Consideration was given to the minutes of the Website Strategy Group held on 12^th April, 2011. Resolved:- That the contents of the minutes be noted.
10.	Customer Access Group PDF 24 KB - minutes of meeting held on 18^th April, 2011 Minutes: Consideration was given to the minutes of the Customer Access Strategy Group held on 18th April, 2011. Resolved:- That the contents of the minutes be noted.
11.	Complaints Forum PDF 28 KB - minutes of meeting held on 18^th April, 2011 Minutes: Consideration was given to the minutes of the Complaints Forum held on 18th April, 2011. Resolved:- That the contents of the minutes be noted.