Council and Democracy

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1, Town Hall, Chesterfield

Contact: Charlotte Kearsey  01246 345236

Items
No. Item

14.

Declarations of Members' and Officers Interests relating to items on the Agenda

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

15.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Caulfield and Fordham.

16.

Forward Plan

Please follow the link below to view the latest Forward Plan.

 

Forward Plan

Minutes:

The Forum considered the Forward Plan.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Forward Plan be noted.

17.

Scrutiny Monitoring pdf icon PDF 248 KB

Minutes:

The Forum considered the Scrutiny recommendations implementation monitoring schedule.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Scrutiny monitoring schedule be noted.

18.

Work Programme for the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum pdf icon PDF 30 KB

Minutes:

The Work Programme for the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum was considered.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Work Programme be approved.

19.

Overview and Scrutiny Developments

Minutes:

There was no update.

20.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 275 KB

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum held on 1 July, 2021 were presented.

 

RESOLVED –

 

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

21.

Deputy Leader - Council Plan Progress Update pdf icon PDF 73 KB

5.15pm to 6pm

Minutes:

The Service Director - Corporate attended to present a report updating the Forum about the progress of the Chesterfield Borough Council Plan. The report included an update on 2020/21 performance and the impact of Covid-19, the development a delivery plan for 2021/22 and quarter one milestone performance.

 

The Council Plan 2019 – 2023 had been agreed by Council in February 2019. The plan identified the Council’s key priorities, objectives and commitments over a four year period. Annual delivery plans were developed to track and challenge progress across the four years.

 

The outturn of the Council Plan Delivery Plan 2020/21 and the impact of Covid-19 were outlined in the officer’s report. During 2020 and into 2021 Council staff were re-deployed to support key Covid-19 response activities. This included ensuring that delivery of key services, such as the crematorium, were maintained but also to support new areas of work including business grant allocations, food and medicine deliveries, supporting testing facilities, town centre ambassadors and support for the community and voluntary sector volunteering programmes.

 

The re-prioritisation of Council resources and Covid-19 related safety measures, for example social distancing, had a significant impact on the Council’s ability to deliver elements of the delivery plan for 2020/21. This impact had been assessed throughout the year alongside performance progress and led to additional challenge, re-prioritisation and innovative alternative activities to ensure that outcomes were achieved.

 

The officer’s report noted that 73% of milestones within the delivery plan for 2020/21 had been impacted to a medium or high extent. At the half year point 46% of the milestones remained on target. Following challenge and discussion with Finance and Performance Board, Scrutiny and Cabinet, the Corporate Leadership team were tasked to develop improvement strategies and alternative options for delivering outcomes. At year end 68% of the milestones had been achieved and a further 15% were scheduled for completion in 2021. Challenge and new approaches enabled a significant increase in performance.

 

Potential barriers to the achievement of milestones remained as 27% of milestones were currently rated as amber and presented some delivery challenges. This was due to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic which included reduced availability of supplies, ongoing restrictions, impact on educational settings and Council capacity challenges due to previous and ongoing response efforts.

 

Members thanked all staff for their hard work during the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Members enquired about the impact of Covid-19 on the ICT Improvement Programme, which affected many areas of the Council and the way staff and communities interacted with the Council. The Service Director advised that there had been reprioritisation of some milestones as some needed to be sped up in response to Covid-19, such as enabling staff to work from home and community access to services through My Chesterfield. There were now 13k people using the My Chesterfield service. The key issue would be what was next for the ICT Improvement Programme because it was in the third year of the programme.

 

Members enquired about the policy for handling staff in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.