Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

Apologies were received from Cllr S Armstrong. Cllr E Connolly joined online.

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications.

There were no substitute members.

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest received for this meeting. For the purpose of Transparency Cllr V Slade advised in relation to agenda item 6 - Budget and Medium Term Financial Plan that a family member had an EHCP.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting held on Thursday 25 July 2024.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 25 July 2024 were approved as a correct record subject to an amendment to the seventh paragraph of clause 17 that the ‘adequate’ be changed to ‘inadequate’.

The Committee was advised that the answer provided to Mr McKinstry’s question at the last meeting was being reconsidered and any clarification provided to the Committee at its meeting on 17 October.

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1

The deadline for the submission of public questions is midday on Friday 30 August 2024. [midday 3 clear working days before the meeting].

The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday on Wednesday 4 September 2024 [midday the working day before the meeting].

The deadline for the submission of a petition is Wednesday 21 August 2024 [10 working days before the meeting].

Two Statements were received for this meeting from Mr Redman as follows:

Statement 1

In 2023, a procurement decision record was issued for the temporary catering van at Highcliffe Castle.  The council would not release the names of businesses mentioned on the PDR because it was considered commercially sensitive information.  Information Governance’s decision was referred to the Information Commissioners Office and the council released the information quickly when challenged by the ICO, without requiring the ICO to make a decision.

Commercial sensitivity is not a catch all reason for not publishing PDRs and I hope this committee and council will review this decision and publish PDRs to help transparency and accountability.  I thought this was a requirement when PDRs replaced waivers.

Statement 2

The three line defence detection system has a fundamental flaw, it is retrospective.  It will not prevent non-compliance and will only detect non-compliance if stumbled across after it happens.

The three line defence detection system would not prevent the Bayside scandal happening again.  No manager or service director is going to report themselves for non-compliance.  Strategic Procurement will be oblivious to what is happening unless a PDR is raised and Internal Audit will be a year or so behind the event when non-compliance may be picked up through one of their audits.

The council would not waste taxpayers money if it had proactive controls to prevent non-compliance in the first instance.  Knowing all PDRs will be published would help.

To receive a presentation on Budget and the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) decision making process, governance and safeguards.

The Chief Finance Officer gave a presentation on the Budget and Medium Term Financial Plan Decision Making, a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Committee received information around the governance for the process, an outline of good governance in the public sector, information on what a budget was as a financial expression of the Council’s ambitions and priorities and the budget setting process and timeline. The Committee was informed that services were required to manage their income and expenditure within the limits of the budget allocated for them. It was explained that it was unlawful to set a deficit budget and that the budget was set annually within the context of ta three-year MTFP. The Committee also considered the budget framework procedure rules and the safeguards in place. A number of issues were raised by the Committee and responded to throughout the discussion, these included:

The impact of the Dedicated Schools Grant override. This would not be a concern until the 2026/27 budget but there were issues regarding the ability to ensure cashflow for the deficit which was expected to be in the region of £100million for the 2025/26 budget. The DfE was looking into BCPs current situation, and a response was expected on this issue. A basic principle of local government finance was that borrowing could only be for capital expenditure and the position was now that all of the Council’s treasury management advantage had been utilised.

The impact of managing income and expenditure within an allocated budget for statutory services. It was noted these were based on a forecast and that if a service could not deliver within the budget it would need to seek an amendment to the budget through Council.

Cashflow difficulties as a result of the DSG deficit. It was noted that other authorities shared these issues but that the BCP deficit was at the extreme end. Spending on SEND was in excess of £30million more than the government grant.

Processes and support systems in place to navigate the budget process. All authorities needed to ensure that appropriate support mechanisms were available and structured support mechanisms were in place including reaching out to the MHCLG and keeping CIPFA involved in the process.

Targeted funds received by local government including those for homelessness prevention. It was hoped that the MHCLG were fully aware and engaged with these issues. It was noted most councils were waiting to see what the government position was and the outcome of the October budget. The deficit in relation to reserves was high and there had been higher reserves previously.

The composition of spending between statutory and non-statutory services. There hadn’t been a detailed costing in terms of statutory and non-statutory spending. It was noted that the process of clarifying statutory obligations may be helpful in future years if the budget setting process became more difficult.

Thresholds for certain decision-making processes. It was noted that the values set out in the BCP Constitution  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

To receive a presentation on Procurement Arrangements (including changes resulting from the Procurement Act 2023).

The Director of Commissioning and Interim Head of Strategic Procurement gave a presentation on Procurement arrangements and changes resulting from the Procurement Act 2023, a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Committee was advised that the act was due to come into effect in October 2024. The Committee was given an overview of the way that the Council seeks to procure goods, services, works and concessions and would help in understanding the Council’s requirements linked to the new Procurement Act, and also some of the requirements around compliance with the current legal arrangements. The team would be moving to the Finance Service from Commissioning at the end of September. A large proportion of the team were responsible for contract management within Adult Social Care. The Governance arrangements were outlined, including those for procurements above £30k which were placed on the regional portal ‘Supplying the Southwest’. Works above this but below the PCR 15 threshold could now be advertised more locally if appropriate. There were a number of process which procurement contracts needed to go through including recorded decision records. The changes in regulations through the Procurement Act 2023 were outlined. A number of issues were raised and responded to during consideration of this item, including:

Key Performance Indicators for Contracts – how often was the data captured to ensure that contractors were delivering. It was noted that the contract management would set these, but the timing may be different for different contracts. In many cases this would be monthly up to 6 monthly. Larger contracts were required to have at least 3 KPIs and for the performance information to be published.

Pipeline Contract Valuation Threshold – It was noted that the Procurement Board needed to make a decision on this and there were a couple of options being considered,

In reference to public statements made earlier in the meeting the Committee asked about the three lines of defence detection system being retrospective. The first line was that management was expected to ensure guidelines were followed and that there were no breaches, they could intervene at any point prior to the award of the contract. The second line was going through procurement for anything above £30k and the third was where internal audit would be involved. It was noted that the second and third lines were real time controls and Audit also provided advice and support to prevent things going wrong not just retrospective compliance checks.

The effectiveness of the three lines of defence. It was noted that there was a waivers report and the four new categories which were discussed in the presentation would be reported. Procurement would report breaches to internal audit and also consult on issues around financial regulations.

Changes due to the new regulations for those tendering for work were considered. It was noted that once approved as an exceptional person for a particular service this would cover all local authorities across the country. In terms of detail  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.