Agenda and minutes

No declarations of interest were received.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Dyke and Flood.

-      Introduction of new Director of Resources, Kevin Hanlon.

5:05pm

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Planning and the newly appointed Director of Resources attended to provide members with an update on the Council’s budget position.

The Deputy Leader began by highlighting the funding reductions detailed in the Efficiency Plan for 2016/17 to 2019/20 and noted that there was an expectation that further funding reductions would be made over the next 3 years. The Director of Resources added that the Efficiency Plan included a request for a 4 year funding settlement from the government in order to provide certainty, a settlement that 85% of other local authorities also requested. Predictions had shown that the budget was expected to run deficits for the next 4 years and plans were being put into place to make savings early on in order to remove pressure in future years where there was a need for greater savings to be made.

Members were presented with a table providing a summary of where the key variances to the budget were occurring. Increases in income had been generated from the renewal of leases, rental income and Queens Park Sports Centre. Areas where budget savings were being made included energy budgets, vacancy savings and grants to voluntary organisations. Income from car parking, market rents, the community infrastructure levy and commission from collection of fees had reduced. There had been an increased expenditure on housing benefits, the old Queen’s Park Sports Centre and pensions. The updated forecast showed a deficit of £326k. The Director of Resources added that though there was a challenge to meet the deficit, the Council was in a good position to achieve the savings.

The Director of Resources provided an update on the General Fund Capital Programme. The original forecast for capital receipts for the year was £1.8m however this had been revised down to £1,029k. There had since been the repayment of the loan by Chesterfield Football Club and re-phasing of capital receipts for the former fire station and 87 New Square which had increased the capital receipts to £2.6m. The capital spend on the general fund had been increased from £2.3m to £6.2m due to increased costs from the Waterside infrastructure scheme, Disabled Facilities Grants, old Queen’s Park Sports Centre, Town Hall alterations and new schemes for the Northern Gateway, Winding Wheel lifts, Museum store and the Market Hall café. The Director of Resources added that a break even position was still expected for the General Fund Capital Programme.

The Director of Resources advised that a general working balance of £1.5m was being maintained in the reserves. The Budget Risk Reserve had a balance of £1m at the start of the year; a large proportion of this had been used to fund severance costs of £405k arising from the voluntary redundancy and voluntary early retirement schemes. The Invest to Save reserve contained £274k at the beginning of the year however only £1k remained uncommitted. The opening balance of the Service Improvement Reserve was £1m at the start of the year. Investment from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

-      To receive feedback and suggestions

-      To decide on next actions

5:40pm

Following the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum (OPSF) on 8 November, 2016, the slides from the Work Programming presentation delivered by the Chair and the Policy and Scrutiny Officer to the Corporate Cabinet/Corporate Management Team Away Day (CC/CMT) on 8 November, 2016 were circulated to all members for suggestions and feedback.

Members commented that some scrutiny project groups (SPGs) needed to be more specific as reviews into broader subjects had a tendency to run for a long time. It was felt that the issues chosen for SPGs needed to be more focussed and split into two or three separate groups if the issue was too large. The Chair asked the SPG on concessions on fees and charges to meet to evaluate the positives and negatives of how the project was run and bring a report back to a future meeting of the OPSF.

Members agreed with the three suggestions made by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Team to improve future work programming sessions:

·        Better alignment of work programme planning with corporate priorities and budget setting timetables;

·        Prioritise the long list – but be strict about the short list

·        Allow more time after work programme planning to formulate and consult before OPSF approval

Members added that, in relation to the second point, the second work planning day needed to be structured in a way that would support members in prioritising the long list.

The Policy and Scrutiny Officer commented that three of the new Corporate Management Team had not yet been appointed at the time of the work programming sessions in March and April which created some gaps in the information available. Feedback from cabinet members suggested that they needed more information from senior officers to support the work programming days adequately but were keen to help with the work programming process. The Policy and Scrutiny Officer added that there was now a complete Corporate Management Team which had improved communication between officers and cabinet members which should enable the work programming sessions to be more effective in creating the long list for the 2017/18 work programme.

Members declared the pilot work programming sessions as a success and agreed that a similar exercise would be carried out in order to set the 2017/18 work programme. It was suggested that the dates for the work programming sessions should be set sooner to improve the availability of officers and members. Additionally, Members agreed that research should be carried out to explore if other local authorities have undertaken budget setting scrutiny and how it had worked. The Policy and Scrutiny Officer agreed to contact other authorities and report back to the Forum.

RESOLVED –

1.   That the Members of the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum agree with the suggestions of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Team to improve the work programming days:

·        Better alignment of work programme planning with corporate priorities and budget setting timetables.

·        Prioritise the long list – but be strict about the short list

·        Allow more time after work programme planning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

-      Progress report from Councillor Derbyshire as scrutiny committee appointee to the Member Development Working Group.

6:10pm

Councillor Derbyshire, scrutiny committee appointee to the Member Development Working Group (MDWG), and the Policy and Scrutiny Officer provided members with an update from the latest meeting of the MDWG on 15 November, 2016.

The MDWG received Cllr Sarvent’s report on the Scrutiny and Effective Challenge training session that was considered by the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum on 8 November, 2016. The MDWG supported the proposal that a training session be provided by the Policy and Scrutiny Officer and Cllr Sarvent based on the Scrutiny and Effective Challenge training and agreed that scrutiny could decide who to open the training up to.

Members recognised that many of the training and development requests are scrutiny led and felt that a clear corporate action plan for member development needed to be created and maintained.

Two dates for Procurement Training had been proposed, 19 or 26 January, 2017. Members felt that as the request for procurement training came from the OPSF, scrutiny members should ensure that they are represented at the training session.

The Policy and Scrutiny Officer provided an update on the arrangements for Questioning Skills training. The Law Centre had agreed to provide the training which would consist of a half-day session of 3 ½ hours to take place in January or February 2017. The Law Centre had been approached to deliver the course due to the trainer’s experience in training through Sheffield University and the questioning skills techniques used. The session would be open to all members.

The MDWG had discussed a pilot that was taking place of an electronic system for online training, it was hoped it would improve the efficiency of training delivery. The group were waiting for information on what training could be provided through the system in order to decide if it would be useful to members.

Members thanked Cllr Derbyshire and the Policy and Scrutiny Officer for providing the report.

RESOLVED –

That the members of the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum endorse the comments about the need for a clear corporate action and method plan for members’ development that facilitates a variety of training options.