Councillors Borrell and Flood declared that they were both members on the Derbyshire Law Centre Management Committee.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor V-A Diouf.

5:05pm to 5:10pm

The Minutes of the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum (OPSF) held on 16 January, 2018 were presented.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

-      Update on the Project Management Office

-      Update on the review of the PPP contract

5:10pm to 6:00pm

The Leader, Cabinet Member for Business Transformation, Assistant Director – Customers, Commissioning and Change and the Business Transformation Manager attended to provide a progress update on the delivery of projects through the Programme Management Office (PMO) and to update Members on the review of the PPP contract.

Programme Management Office

The PMO provides a strategic management oversight of all priority projects and uses a RAG (red, amber, green) system to monitor their progress. A Gateway Zero board made up of officers from across the Council meets monthly to consider the projects that are received by the PMO and makes recommendations based on having the appropriate skills and resources required for the project, ensuring legal compliance, the delivery of ICT essential upgrades and alignment with the council’s priorities. The board had received 36 papers to date, of which 12 had been rejected/closed/paused, 2 were running as business as usual and 22 were approved.

Monthly PMO progress reports are produced on each project to provide key data on budgets, risk, timelines, objectives and the overall project performance rating. The monthly reports are reviewed by project sponsors and portfolio leads who are able to provide commentary on the projects. Currently there are 26 live projects and 15 completed projects.

The Business Transformation Manager highlighted some of challenges facing the PMO which included the need to deliver projects at pace and having limited capacity within the team to drive through bigger transformation projects.

In response to Members’ questions, the Business Transformation Manager advised that some projects are paused due to the need to re-prioritise resources. If a project entered into the process that was a key council priority, extra resources would be needed however they would require approval through the correct channels.

Members asked if there was a project to improve ICT access; the Assistant Director advised that they were looking at piece of work to drive forward ICT improvements and a refresh programme was currently underway for iPads that would bring better technology and reliability.

Members were advised that they could be given access to the PMO dashboard to see how projects were progressing.

PPP Contract

The current PPP contract expires in October 2020 and includes the requirement to carry out a contractual review in year 7 of the contract which was 2017. The options for consideration that had emerged from the review were:

·        extend for a further 5 years with the opportunity to re-specify the contractual requirements;

·        end the contract on its expiry in 2020 and re-procure contracts or return services in house;

·        end the contract early and bring services back in house – the council would be subject to early exit costs and penalties.

All services offered by the current client had been reviewed and areas where service improvements were needed to support transformational change across the council had been identified.

Earlier in 2018, it was announced that Arvato CRM was to be placed under strategic review with the possibility of the company being sold, however more discussions were needed to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

-      Representatives from the Derbyshire Law Centre

6:00pm to 6:30pm

Tony McIlveen, Senior Solicitor, and Lisa Haythorne, Solicitor, attended from the Derbyshire Law Centre (DLC) to provide members with an insight into how the DLC operates, where their funding comes from and how it is spent, and what services and support they offer.

In addition to the office in Chesterfield, there are offices in Bolsover, Eckington, Ripley, Ilkeston and Buxton; and a home visit option is also provided along with a drop in advice service at Pathways in Chesterfield.

The DLC is run by a Management Committee made up of representatives from local groups, council funders and co-opted members. CBC are represented on the committee by two elected members. The primary aim of the DLC is to increase access to justice for vulnerable families in Derbyshire and their specialist areas are housing, homeless prevention, discrimination and community care work. The DLC also offer a signposting service to ensure clients access the appropriate support service.

As a not-for-profit solicitor’s agency, the DLC relies on funding from local authorities, project funding, charitable sources and local and national contracts. Funding will often be for specific projects or posts and have included a project on employment cases, trainee solicitor post, funding for housing and community care work and funding for a specialist debt caseworker.

The volunteer project was an essential part of the service, dealing with all initial enquiries and identifying the callers’ issues and how best the DLC can support them. The DLC had also provided unpaid work placements to law students and continued to bring in more trainee solicitors; in the future they hoped to be able to offer the trainees a position after their training contracts have ended.

In addition to assisting clients who approach the service, the DLC also provided a duty scheme at Chesterfield County Court, dealing with cases as they come in. The DLC has a good relationship with the Homelessness Prevention team at CBC and Citizens Advice Bureau to make sure clients are signposted to the right services and there is no duplication of work.

The DLC constantly face new challenges due to the reductions in funding, need to chase new opportunities and new case demands. There had been a number of disrepair cases and the DLC were working with the Neighbourhoods team at CBC to produce a leaflet advising tenants of their rights and responsibilities. In addition, the DLC were finding that many people were still not aware that housing benefit was part of Universal Credit. Members suggested that going into schools to meet with students and discuss these issues might help to give them an understanding before they find themselves in a situation where they need support.

The Chair thanked the two representatives from the DLC for informing Members about their organisation and answering Members’ questions.

RESOLVED –

That the update be noted.

-      Report of the Town Centre Scrutiny Project Group

-      HS2 Scrutiny Project Group

6:30pm to 6:45pm

Town Centre Scrutiny Project Group

Lead Member of the project, Councillor Borrell, presented the report of the scrutiny project group and asked Members to approve the recommendations and delegate authority to the scrutiny project group to add in further information received following the agenda publication.

The scope for the project was approved by the OPSF on 27 June, 2017 and set out how the group would evaluate the council’s fulfilment of its Council Plan priorities of developing our great town centre and making sure that local people benefit from growth in Chesterfield Borough. The recommendations sought to assist the achievement of these priorities by ensuring that the town centre broadened its offer, appeal and connectivity, and that developments with linkage to the town considered their impact and had a joined up approach.

Throughout the project members of the public, key stakeholders and senior officers had been consulted and their views used to inform the report and recommendations. In addition, studies surrounding recent changes in the retail environmental and the value of entertainment and leisure provided crucial detail and context.

To address the financial implications associated with some of the recommendations, the scrutiny project group decided to not include a timeline for implementation so that they could be introduced on a phased basis or used as a basis for further study.

HS2 Scrutiny Project Group

Lead Member of the project, Councillor Flood, advised that the group was reaching the end of its remit and only a few areas were left to review. The group would be putting together recommendations for how to move forward in the future and suggested that there needed to be a way that information on HS2 is fed into the OPSF.

There was still a need for more work into skills however this would be discussed at the Scrutiny Work Programming sessions for 2018/19.

RESOLVED –

1.   That the recommendations of the Scrutiny Project Group’s review of the town centre, as detailed below, be approved to be recommended to Cabinet, including any additional information received:

                     i.        Signage, cleanliness, general appeal (which includes the challenges currently being faced where rough sleepers are deterring locals and visitors alike) and connectivity between areas needs to be improved as does the transport infrastructure in order that visitors gain an immediate positive first impression to enable them to speak positively about Chesterfield and encourage others to visit.

                    ii.        To consider re-branding with a new more generic tag-line for the town with the intention of bringing a clear focus to potential foreign and wider-UK visitors.

                   iii.        That measures, such as Purple Flag status, are considered to bring more life to the town during the currently quiet periods – 3pm onward.

                  iv.        A review (frequency, location, size, type) of the market is required to provide an offering that meets the changing wishes of the modern-day customer.

                   v.        That ways to open up the town for a major event and cultural space are explored to broaden the appeal with a wider offering of activities focusing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

6:45pm to 6:50pm

Please click here to access the latest Forward Plan.

The Forward Plan was considered.

RESOLVED –

That the Forward Plan be noted.

6:50pm to 6:55pm

The Scrutiny Monitoring Schedule was considered.

RESOVLED –

That the Scrutiny Monitoring Schedule be approved.

6:55pm to 7:00pm

The Work Programme for the OPSF was considered. The second work programming session for 2018/19 would take place on 14 March, 2018 where the long list of items would be prioritised and potential scrutiny project groups and appreciative inquiries discussed.

RESOVLED –

That the Work Programme be approved.

7:00pm to 7:05pm

There were no updates.

7:05pm to 7:10pm

The Joint Chair, Councillor P Innes, and the Senior Democratic and Scrutiny Officer would be attending the next East Midlands Scrutiny Network meeting on 16 March, 2018. The findings from the the inquiry by the Communities and Local Government Select Committee on “Effectiveness of Local Authority Scrutiny Committees” was on the agenda and would be reported back at the next meeting of the OPSF.

RESOLVED –

1.   That the update be noted.

2.   That an update from the meeting of the East Midlands Scrutiny Network on 16, March 2018 brought to the next meeting of the OPSF.