Agenda and minutes

Members and officers must declare any pecuniary or personal interest in any business on the agenda.  They should also make declarations at any stage such an interest becomes apparent during the meeting.  Consideration should be given to leaving the meeting if the nature of the interest warrants it.  If in doubt please contact Democratic Services before the meeting.

21.1     In accordance with the code of conduct, the following personal interests were declared: -

·       Cllr Bence in respect of item 6, End of June 2022 (Quarter 1) Quarterly Performance and Resources Report – as the proposed alternative route for the A29 goes through his division

·       Cllr Boram in respect of item 6, End of June 2022 (Quarter 1) Quarterly Performance and Resources Report – as a member of Adur District Council

·       Cllr Sparkes in respect of item 6, End of June 2022 (Quarter 1) Quarterly Performance and Resources Report – as a member of Worthing Borough Council

·       Cllr Waight in respect of item 9a, Forward Plan of Key Decisions (Endorsement of design and procurement process: Worthing Public Realm Improvements programme: Railway Approach Scheme)– as a member of Worthing Borough Council

22.1     Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 17 June 2022 be approved as a correct record and that they be signed by the Chairman.

23.1     Resolved – That the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2022 be approved as a correct record and that they be signed by the Chairman.

The Committee is asked to note the responses to recommendations made at the 17 June and 13 July 2022 meetings.

24.1     Resolved – That the Committee notes the responses to recommendations made at the 17 June and 13 July 2022 meetings.

A report by the Chief Executive and Director of Finance and Support Services setting out the corporate performance, finance, workforce, risk and capital programme positions as at the end of June 2022.

The Committee is asked to examine the data and supporting commentary for the Performance and Resources report and make any recommendations for action to the relevant Cabinet Member or Scrutiny Committee.

25.1     The Committee scrutinised a report by the Director of Finance and Support Services (copy appended to the signed minutes).

25.2     Summary of responses to committee members’ questions and comments: -

·       The increase from £5.5m underspend to more than £7m overspend may get bigger due to a number of challenges and inflationary pressures – the Council will continue to monitor the situation closely, look for ways to provide services in a more efficient manner and use contingency budgets if necessary, in order to keep the pressures under control.

·       The Council estimates that the National Joint Council pay offer will cost an extra £4.5m, which has been budgeted for

·       The Council has always paid above the minimum wage, but it is important to offer good, competitive packages for staff to encourage recruitment and retention

·       Some Covid grants had been carried forward and will cover the lagging impact of Covid – it was assumed that if Covid worsened, more grants would be made available

·       The Council is expected to meet inflationary pressures from contingency and reserves. If budget management reserves were to be used, they would have to be replenished, but it is thought this won’t be necessary as fuel prices are expected to decrease

·       There was a query as to whether the A2300 improvement scheme had led to active/sustainable travel choices –
ACTION: Head of Performance & Intelligence to investigate

·       £20m was added to the Capital Programme for High Needs Capital Funding, but a grant for £21.050m has now become available to cover this expenditure. Cabinet will be briefed on possible ways to utilise this capital budget going forwards

·       There was a query about the end date of the Crawley Schools Private Finance Initiative contract –
ACTION: Deputy Chief Finance Officer, to investigate

·       The Dedicated Schools Grant deficit is likely to have to come out of budget management reserves from 2023/24 but awaiting Government guidance around this

·       The Council is aware of the inflationary pressures on the Capital Programme and expects inflation of 24% over the next five years. The Programme is being closely monitored and analysis is taking place to model the inflationary impact across a range of materials.  The impact will be built into the budget review of the Capital Programme and could be mitigated by use of contingency reserves or, if necessary, borrowing

·       Corporate Risk 11 (skills shortage) is a big challenge for the Council as workforce recruitment and retention problems are being faced across all services. Work is underway to better understand the issues and develop competitive packages.

·           Corporate risk 68 is still valid as the Covid-19 pandemic is ongoing, but it may be reviewed and combined with corporate risk 70

·         The Human Resources and Organisational Development Directorate’s salary benchmarking target has been achieved and the policy was working. More information will be included in the Quarter 2 report

·        Significant changes are taking place in Adult Social Care to build flexible capacity around assessments and budgets

·        The Council would welcome a countywide rollout of the food  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

Report by Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development.

The report outlines progress on a range of issues relating to the Council’s workforce and details areas which require further attention and development moving forward.

The report also includes details of changes to work practices as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic as Smarter Working is implemented across the Council.

26.1     The Committee scrutinised a report by the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development (copy appended to the signed minutes).

26.2     Summary of responses to committee members’ questions and comments: -

·         To improve equality and diversity, the Council needs to better understand the experience of staff with protected characteristics and make reasonable adjustments to working arrangements where necessary

·         The Fire & Rescue Service is trying to attract people from various backgrounds by highlighting different aspects of the role e.g. the leadership and managerial aspects of the role over the purely physical requirements

·         The Key Performance Indicators used by the Council were its own, but were similar to those used by other local authorities

·         The Council is starting to promote careers in local government by going to schools/colleges and run its own careers fairs. Also need to promote careers with the long term unemployed.

·         Weekly recruitment meetings are held to review vacancies in Children’s Services due to pressures in that area

·         Apart from surveys, staff feedback comes from managers, weekly meetings with UNISON and exit interviews

·         Planned reduction in office space was based on team feedback through the Smarter Working Project

·         It was expected that more people might work from offices during the cold months

·         The Council will be cautious about reducing the available accommodation until the situation settles in case more people decide to work from offices

·         Most staff are comfortable with webinars to gather views and feedback though face to face events also take place

·         Managers are asked to talk to staff regularly about smarter working arrangements

·         It was normal practice that existing staff can take up apprenticeships within the Council. Development opportunities like this also helps with staff retention

·         The unregistered workforce is people who don't necessarily need a specific qualification to undertake their roles

·         Human Resources and Organisational Development is on target to meet £100k savings this year – next year’s savings are on hold

·         Looking at why people join the Council could be investigated to better understand what attracts people to work for the Council. This could help to develop recruitment and retention strategies

·         It is unknown how many people leave and rejoin the Council, but some take early retirement and come back part time

·         Staff coming back to the Council from CAPITA will have a clear induction programme and be asked to complete a pulse survey after three months

·         The Branch Secretary of UNISON attended the meeting and reported that UNISON feels: -

Ø  The pulse survey is essential and that some questions should be kept for historical comparison

Ø  Work around recruitment and retention is essential, especially in social work (where there have been some good initiatives) and schools

Ø  Human Resources carries a lot of risk for the Council and needs investment as much as any other directorate

Ø  UNISON will work with Human Resources on integrating CAPITA staff back into the Council

26.3     Resolved – that the Committee: -

             i.        Recognises the need to understand the workforce with more clarity in terms  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

Report by the Director of Finance and Support Services and the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development.

The report provides an update on the project for the replacement of the Council’s Business Management Solution and identifies the required resources to complete the project setting out the remaining milestones to completion.

27.1     The Committee scrutinised a report by the Director of Finance and Support Services and the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development (copy appended to the signed minutes).

27.2     Summary of responses to committee members’ questions and comments: -

·         The project is on course to meet the new delivery date of April 2023

·         Updates to the system are planned in November 2022 and February 2023 – testing of these has been factored into the programme

·         The Council has bought support from its delivery partner, DXC, to help with any issues that arise around hypercare after go-live and will train its own staff to deal with these in the future

·         Checkpoints have now been built into the programme so that if the Council is not happy with the quality of data the programme can be suspended until issues are resolved

·         The length of the delay due to Covid was unknown, so the team working on the project was not stood down as this may have meant not being able to continue the project – it would have cost more to relaunch the project than the extra costs incurred due to keeping the team in post

·         Since January 2022, the Council has been nailing down the scope of the project via change control notices to avoid drift and meet delivery requirements

·         The contingency of £1.25m is a realistic amount and costs will be monitored closely as the project progresses

·         When the Council uses its own staff on projects this is generally not included in costs as they are already being paid

27.3     Resolved – that the Committee: -

             i.        Supports training in-house staff to take forwards the system after implementation to reduce reliance on external experts

            ii.        Has concerns about the programme delay and change to project scope and stressed the importance of learning lessons around this for future projects

           iii.        Asks that consideration be given to whether the internal governance process should be reviewed to be more timely and pro-active with fast moving projects of this nature

Extract from the Forward Plan dated 31 August 2022 – attached.

An extract from any Forward Plan published between the date of despatch of the agenda and the date of the meeting will be tabled at the meeting.

The Committee is asked to consider whether it wishes to enquire into any of the forthcoming decisions within its portfolio.

28.1     The Committee considered the Forward Plan of Key Decisions (copy appended to the signed minutes) and learned that in regard to the decision, ‘Endorsement of design and procurement process: Worthing Public Realm Improvements Programme: Railway Approach Scheme’, the Cabinet Member for Support Services and Economic Development has been asked by Worthing Borough Council to suspend the programme whilst it is looked at in more detail – the decision will therefore come out of the Forward Plan for a while

28.2     Resolved – that the Committee notes the Forward Plan of Key Decisions.

The Committee to review its draft work programme taking into consideration the checklist at Appendix A.

29.1     Resolved – that the Committee notes its Work Programme.

The next meeting of the Committee will be at 10.30am on 28 November 2022 at County Hall, Chichester.  Probable agenda items include: -

·         Quarter 2 September - Performance and Resources Report (PRR) September

·         Medium Term Financial Strategy 2022/23

·         Property Joint Venture update report

Any member wishing to place an item on the agenda for the meeting must notify the Director of Law and Assurance by 11 November 2022.

30.1     The Committee notes that its next meeting will take place on 28 November 2022, commencing at 10.30am.

The Committee is asked to agree the Part II restricted minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2022 (attached for Members of the Committee only, gold paper).

31.1     Resolved – That the Part II minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2022 be approved as a correct record and that they be signed by the Chairman.