Agenda and minutes

AGREED – That the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Panel held on 22 September 2016 be confirmed as a correct record.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary 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.

Report of the Director of Policy and Governance (enclosed).

The Director of Policy and Governance submitted a report which provided background information on the council’s investment in Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs).

Members of the Performance Panel were reminded that the council had supported the provision of PCSOs by providing funding to Lancashire Police for a number of years.  The council’s contribution was currently £297,000 per year which equated to 27 part funded PCSOs. 

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had previously considered the work of the PCSOs, and questioned police representatives on the matter to establish if the council was receiving value for money

Members of the Performance Panel were referred to a table within the report which had been presented to the Joint Management Board of the Constabulary and the Police and Crime Commissioner in August, which considered the HR establishment of the police.  The table clearly demonstrated that Chorley Council made the highest contribution to part-funding PCSO posts across the county, and was significantly higher than other district councils.

It was reported that for the southern division (Chorley, South Ribble, Preston and West Lancashire), there were 47 part-funded posts, 27 of those being funded by Chorley Council.  Lancashire Police also had 51 PCSO fully-funded posts across the division.  However, information suggests that none of those posts were provided to Chorley.  It was therefore suggested that the fully funded posts were deployed elsewhere where partner contributions were lower. The Deputy Chief Executive has since raised this query with Lancashire Police.

The report concluded that any change would need to be undertaken through negotiation with the police, with the potential for the council to suggest that the police should identify the number of PCSOs that should be deployed to the borough through their risk and threat analysis.  The council would then be able to choose to ‘top-up’ the provision if it was determined that it supported its priorities.

The Performance Panel raised concern about the report’s findings and it was their view that Chorley Council was not receiving value for money on its investment.

AGREED –

1.    That the report be noted.

2.    That the report be included for discussion at the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 26 January 2017.

3.    That the report be circulated to all elected members in advance of the budget setting meeting at Special Council on 28 February 2017.

4.    That clarification be sought from Lancashire Police on the deployment arrangements of fully funded PCSO in the south divisions and;

5.    The deployment arrangements of Lancashire County Council’s part-funded PCSO in the south division.

Report of the Director of Policy and Governance (enclosed).

Members of the Performance Panel considered a report of the Director of Policy and Governance which provided contextual information about the current performance of shared services.

The report explained how that the Shared Services Joint Committee for Chorley and South Ribble operated to a Service Level Agreement that set out key outputs required of the Partnership and the individual performance measures against which would be judged.  The Business Improvement Plan translated those output and measures into specific deliverables and targets which needed to be achieved during 2016/17.  The report related to performance presented to the joint committee in September 2016 and covered the period to the end of July 2016.

The plan included 21 projects and 28 performance measures across both assurance and financial services.  At the end of July performance was mainly rated green, with the exception of –

·         % planned time used – CBC (red)

·         Payment Card Industry – Data Security Standard PCI-DSS (version 1) Compliance (Chorley) (red)

·         Closures of Accounts – review to reduce timetable and facilitate tested and successful completions by 20 May 2018 (amber)

The Business Improvement Plan also covered the shared procurement service which continued to perform strongly, which recently supported a range of high value and high profile projects included the Digital Health Park, purchase of Refuse Collection Vehicles and the Extra Care Scheme development. 

A number of other smaller shared service arrangements existed, which included the Chorley and South Ribble Joint Community Safety Partnership.

To address the challenges facing local government it had been agreed that the council would pursue an ambition to achieve integrated public services for the borough which would need to include further sharing of back office functions under different structures.  The council’s Transformation Strategy also included an action to proactively investigate shared service opportunities.

During discussion, members of the Performance Panel were informed -

·         Significant savings had been achieved through joint procurement

·         Shared Services are monitored by the Governance Committee

·         The procurement team tests the market for best value for money

The Director of Policy and Governance informed the Performance Panel that there was a potential for more shared services in the future with South Ribble Borough Council, as both councils employed broadly the same number of people, and the performance and demographics were also similar. 

AGREED – That the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Policy and Governance (enclosed).

Members of the Performance Panel considered a monitoring report of the Director of Policy and Governance which set out the performance against the delivery of the Corporate Strategy, and key performance indicators during the second quarter of 2016/17 (1 July to 30 September 2016).

It was reported that overall performance of 2015/16 key projects was good, with 88% of the projects on track or complete. The project to ‘Deliver the Chorley Skills Framework’ was rated amber.  Actions to address the issues had been identified and were being implemented.  One project was rated red, ‘Progress the delivery of Friday Street Health Centre’; the cause for which was due to external factors.

Performance of the Corporate Strategy indicators and key service delivery measures was also good. 83% of the Corporate Strategy indicators and 80% of the key service measures were performing above target or within the 5% tolerance.

The Corporate Strategy indicators performing below target included –

·         The percentage increase in the number of volunteering hours earned

·         The percentage of 16-18 year olds who were not in education, employment or training (NEET)

The report outlined the actions being taken to improve performance.

It was also reported that the key service delivery measures performing below target were –

·         Time taken to process all new claims and change events for Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit

·         The average working days per employee per year lost through sickness absence

Action plans had been developed which outlined actions to be taken to improve performance.

Members of the Performance Panel discussed various aspects of the report included the number of people presenting themselves as homeless.  It was reported that the annual Rough Sleepers count had been undertaken recently, which resulted in no rough sleepers being recorded.  It was also reported that a lot of early intervention work had been carried out with those who were vulnerable to becoming homeless.  Although the figures for those presenting themselves as being homeless may not seem high, the intention of the measure is to monitor trends and reasons why people are presenting themselves as homeless so that we can respond proactively.   

AGREED – That the report be noted.