Agenda item

The Mayor published the Transformation Plan on 30 November 2023.   The Committee has subsequently asked for further information on the Commercial & Income Opportunities and the Income & Debt Review projects as part of its Budget Scrutiny assurance process.  The report set out in the agenda provides the information available at this stage for both projects

The Committee considered a report set out on pages 27 to 30 of the agenda which provided a further information on two of the transformation projects listed in the Cabinet Budget report considered by the Committee at its 6 December 2022 meeting. The report had been requested to allow the Committee to review in further detail two of the projects listed, namely the Income & Debt Review and Commercial and Income Opportunities.

Cabinet Members for Finance, Councillor Jason Cummings, Corporate Director for Resources, Jane West, Assistant Chief Executive, Elaine Jackson, Corporate Director for Adult Social Care & Health, Annette McPartland, attended the meeting for this item.

The first question on this item asked whether the aim of the fees and charges review was to improve governance or to improve income streams. It was confirmed that it would be both, as it was aimed at ensuring that fees and charges were updated annually on an incremental basis rather than larger increases every few years.

Regarding the £500,000 estimated increased income from the fees and charges review, it was confirmed that this equated to a small proportion of the uncollected debt to the Council. The viability of sharing debt collection services with other local authorities would also be explored as a means of reducing costs and increasing income. Reassurance was given that although the figure of £500,000 increased income was realistic, it had not been built into 2023-24 as further work was needed to gain a greater level of certainty on its delivery before it could be considered for inclusion in the budget.

It was confirmed that there was a National Fraud Initiative which cross referenced information across the Council, with it highlighted that improved correlation of data would increase the instances of fraud identified. As the use of data had not been as good as expected, it was likely that initially there would be several quick wins once improvement work started, before levelling out.

A question was asked about the potential income from digital bus shelters, as an agreement for the delivery of this project had first been agreed in November 2021. It was confirmed that the project was currently under discussion and an update would be provided for Members in the near future, as soon as it was possible to do so.

In response to a question about the value that could be generated from contractors who provided services to different directorates, it was advised that this was still being mapped, so it was not possible to provide an exact figure at this stage. This work would be prioritised towards the areas that provided the biggest opportunity, but it would help to improve contract management processes across the Council.

Regarding the Premier Supply Programme, it was questioned how the projected £200,000 income would be achieved. It was explained that this would be achieved by getting more suppliers into the programme and that there were a few areas of the Council that still had to introduce their suppliers to the programme.

It was confirmed that no figures had been included in the report for the Commercial Income project as it was still being worked through and the opportunities needed to be properly scoped before any potential targets could be confirmed. It was important to have a degree of rigour in the process to identify figures as this would help to ensure people could be held to account on delivery.

At the conclusion of this item the Chair thanked those present for their attendance at the meeting and their engagement with the questions of the Committee.

Actions arising from the meeting

Following the discussion of the Transformation Projects Deep Dives item at the meeting, the Committee agreed the following actions that would be followed up after the meeting.

1. The Committee asks that confirmation is provided on the estimated timelines and key milestones for each transformations project once defined, to assist with planning the scrutiny work programme.

Conclusions

Following its discussion of the Transformation Projects Deep Dive report, the Scrutiny & Overview Committee reached the following conclusions: -

1. It was accepted that the two projects reviewed by the Committee were still in their infancy and in the process of being mapped out. This meant that any assurance on these projects would need to be reserved until further information was available.
2. The Committee would like to see further evidence of the transformation programmes being mapped out with key milestones and time lines, once available. This will provide reassurance that processes are being followed and enable the Committee to hold people to account through timetabling further scrutiny at the appropriate time.
3. The Committee welcomed confirmation that work was underway to map out the Council’s contracts, as this was an area of work that had previously been flagged as a concern by Scrutiny.
4. Confirmation that that the Programme Management Office was leading a project to introduce a new project management system was welcomed, as improved reporting was essential to ensuring there was a robust monitoring system in place.
5. Confirmation was welcomed that the savings targets attributed to the transformation projects in the 30 November 2022 Cabinet report had not been included the 2023-24 budget unless it was clear how it would be delivered.
6. It was agreed that a range of intended outcomes for the transformation projects, beyond purely financial savings, needed to be set out during the mapping phase of each project to ensure clarity of purpose.