Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED – That Councillor Molyneaux be appointed as the Chair for this meeting of the Sub-Group. 

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillor Mrs Stella Walsh (Chair), Councillors Henry Caunce, Michael Davies, David Dickinson, Keith Iddon, Kevin Joyce, Thomas McGowan and Geoffrey Russell. 

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda. If the interest arises only as result of your membership of another public body or one to which you have been appointed by the Council then you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.

If the personal interest is a prejudicial interest, you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of interest by Members relating to the items on the agenda.

Members of the public who have requested the opportunity to ask a question(s) on an item(s) on the agenda will be asked to put their question(s) to the Panel. Each member of the public will be allowed to ask one supplementary question within his/her allocated 3 minutes.  

No members of the public requested to speak at the meeting.

To set the questions for the feedback sessions with Directors.

Members considered the draft questions enclosed with the agenda, made several amendments and allocated questions to each Member for the feedback session with the Corporate Director of Human Resources, Corporate Director of Information and Communication Technology and Assistant Chief Executive (Policy and Performance) at the next three items.

RESOLVED – That the questions be set as below:

General Questions

1.             Please outline the services within the remit of your Directorate.

2.             How many Full Time Equivalents are there in your Directorate?

3.             How well do you think the council has done in the achievement of its efficiency targets and what contribution has your directorate made to achieving those gains?

4.             What areas of improved efficiency have you targeted for the future?

5.             Is there any scope for joint working within your Directorate?

6.             How do you manage and improve efficiency within your directorate and how does it link with your Business Improvement plan and the corporate strategy?

7.             What is your budget and what are the main heads of expenditure?

8.             How do you ensure that any efficiency gains you achieve are corporately collected and reported?

9.             What measures have you taken to ensure that effective procurement practice is in place within your directorate and can you give us examples of this in practice?

10.        The use of the absence management policy can lead to efficiencies.  Is the policy working in your Directorate?

Corporate Director – ICT

1.             What impact do you think improving our ICT platform has had on achieving efficiency gains in recent years?

2.             Have the leadership and senior management been fully supportive of this drive?

3.             What future ICT development is planned to support the council’s continuing drive to achieving efficiency gains?

4.             Is there scope to make printing in offices more efficient?

Corporate Director – Human Resources

1.             Substantial efficiency savings have been made through reduction of the establishment in recent years. What sort of impact has that had on staff?

To receive feedback from the Corporate Director of Human Resources - Lorraine Charlesworth. 

The Chair welcomed Lorraine Charlesworth to the meeting and thanked her for attending.  The feed back session comprised questions and answers collated into a schedule enabling comparison with those responses given by other Directors.

To receive feedback from the Corporate Director of ICT - Tim Murphy. 

The Chair welcomed Tim Murphy to the meeting and thanked him for attending.  The feed back session comprised questions and answers collated into a schedule enabling comparison with those responses given by other Directors.

To receive feedback from the Assistant Chief Executive (Policy & Performance) Lesley-Ann Fenton. 

The Chair welcomed Lesley-Ann Fenton to the meeting and thanked her for attending.  The feed back session comprised questions and answers collated into a schedule enabling comparison with those responses given by other Directors.