Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

Apologies were received from Cllr R Rocca.

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.

Cllr A Filer Substituted for Cllr R Rocca.

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.

In response to a query about unknown potential interests in relation to the list of savings in connection with the budget report, the Monitoring Officer advised that for transparency if Committee members felt that they may have an interest they should declare this. It was acknowledged that members would not have had time to consider the further information regarding this and it should be treated as exempt information and not as part of the papers for the meeting. The following declarations were made for the purpose of transparency on this basis:

Cllr M Andrews advised that they were Chairman of St Peter’s Surveying Limited.

Cllr V Slade advised that they were Chair of the Broadstone Youth Centres Trust.

Cllr S Bartlett advised that they were a member of BH Live and BH Live Enterprises. They also advised that they were a member of Tricuro Executive Board.

The Chairman advised that they were a member of the Arts Council.

Cllr M Iyengar and the Chairman declared their membership of the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum Management Committee.

Cllr V Slade, Cllr S Bartlett and the Chairman advised that they were all members of the Lower Central Gardens Trust Board.

In response to a question it was confirmed by the monitoring officer that as the Committee was not a decision making body a general dispensation to address the setting of Council tax was not required but this would be provided for all members for the full Council meeting when this would be discussed

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 4 clear working days before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday the working day before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.

There were no public petitions or statements. Two public questions were received from Mr McKinstry, a local resident. Mr McKinstry attended the meeting to put their questions. The questions and responses are outlined below:

1.      I feel we're not being given the full picture in tonight's budget report. Several councillors have tweeted about an alternative budget plan which has been excluded from tonight's papers, "although it was shared in a member briefing"; one councillor has gone into specifics, saying it involves "borrowing more for a capital project than needed" and utilising the surplus. Lee Rowley, meanwhile, states (Appendix 1) that "as part of its budget plans, the Council is considering further commercial opportunities" - including "a commercial scheme that carries risk". What is the Leader contemplating, and what are the risks to which the Minister alludes?

Thank you for the question. Yeah, I've been clear in our, public statements on this and also in the budget café., The second budget cafe we had with Members was looking forward to bringing forward the budget proposal this evening. But we were also stating that we were going to take the extra time between now and the full Council in February to see it worked through tirelessly to see if we can improve the budget situation and in particular, Council tax requirement. Just one thing I will correct, if I may, the Council, can't use borrowing to fund revenue expenditures. So the expectation then or what was alluded to in your questions, was technically incorrect. But we look forward to continuing to work harder to make sure of the other means to fund local government services and public accounts for the taxpayer. Thank you.

2. If the Leader does produce a new budget proposal - perhaps as an amendment to the current budget on 21 February - will he publish, well in advance, all advice he has received on the soundness and legality of that proposal? (The Minister has suggested CIPFA be approached, for instance.) I well remember the KPMG reports being withheld during last year's budget; including the warning, on page 48 of the first report, that the Council borrowing to purchase its own assets "would be deemed for an improper purpose" - a warning omitted from 2022's budget paperwork.

Thank you very much. Yes, absolutely. We made it clear again in the budget cafe session that any, anything, any advice we've got would be made available. Again, they've put forward any budget amendment and also we had a confirmation from conversations with Minister Lee Rowley in terms of, the conversation we'd had in his expectation, obviously that any budget amendments or more budgets are legal, so they comply with our section Section151 officers advice and any other statuary officers and also the current guidance. So, the simple answer to your question, Mr McKinstry would be, absolutely yes. Thank you.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting held on 12 December 2022.

The minutes of the meeting held on 3 December 2022 were approved as a correct record.

The Corporate and Community O&S Committee is asked to consider the attached report. The report outlines:

The implementation of the Council’s new Organisational Design and Operating model is a fundamental part of the wider “Our New Normal” transformation programme.

Significant progress is being made in the implementation of the three programmes:

Organisational Design; including new technology and service redesign. 

Where and how we work; in the refurbishment of the BCP Civic Centre and Poole Hub and Library with a full face to face Customer service offering.

Along with Supporting our Colleagues, with Pay & Reward, Values and Behaviours framework and new Talent Acquisition and Wellbeing strategies as well as underpinning the savings required by the Medium-Term Financial Plan.

The Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Transformation presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Committee were advised that the implementation of the Council’s new Organisational Design and Operating model was a fundamental part of the wider “Our New Normal” transformation programme and that significant progress was being made in the implementation of the three programmes; Organisational Design;

Where and how we work; and Supporting our Colleagues; In the subsequent discussion a number of issues were raised by the Committee and responded to by the Portfolio Holder and Officers including:

·     That the area in which someone lived still had an impact on the services provided and how these were accessed. The aspiration was for a single service for the area and this was being worked towards Yes that is the aspiration working towards - currently implementing customer resource management system – reengineering the customer front door including website elements – improve the way things are working at the moment. Looking towards Autumn of this year. Mosaic for social care for whole area now all on one system, so in this instance no need to

·     When this was considered by the O&S Board in August 2021, one of the outcomes was the proposed establishment of cross-party councillor transformation group. However, this had still not been established and it was asked why this was the case.

·     It was noted that current customer interactions were not efficient, and it was noted that the system changes which would drive efficiency would also lead to an improved outcome for customer services This has been the ethos of the Transformation Programme for the last few years.

·     It was noted that Enterprise, Resource, Planning systems were being implemented at great costs and could be impressive but may also fail to deliver benefits and a close eye would need to be kept on the big ticket items coming through to ensure that the benefits were realised. It was agreed that evaluating the benefits was important, for example in Children’s Services cases were now on one system rather than passed over between systems as it was before.

·     Concern was raised that staff were not comfortable bringing issues forward or people were not being properly informed. There appeared to be a disconnect here. The Committee was advised that it did need to be ensured that this work went through the whole organisation but that middle management were in a difficult place in terms of what they are able to communicate to their teams. It was felt that this was moving in the right direction, but Councillors were asked to make officers aware if they felt there was a specific problem.

·     Previously prior to LGR Councillors were advised that this process would be straightforward, and it was good to see Mosaic working but the process was clearly a lot more difficult than it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.

To consider the following Finance related reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 8 February 2023:

•   2023/24 Budget Report

The Corporate and Community O&S Committee is asked to scrutinise and comment on the report and if required make recommendations or observations as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor Drew Mellor, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Transformation

.

The Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Transformation presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these minutes in the Minute Book. In the ensuing discussion the Committee raised a number of issues which were responded to by the Portfolio Holder and Officers including:

·     Concerns were raised regarding proposed cuts in grants to non-profit cultural organisations. The Leader advised that the Council was working to ensure that these saving cuts would not be required.

·     Whether the recommendation at “o”, “agrees capital investment of £5m in seafront infrastructure assets funded by borrowing supported by revisions to beach hut fees”, was needed. This was to follow on from the paper taken to Cabinet in December and identifies the major capital investment outlined at section 123 of the report.

·     Whether the recommendation outlined at ‘q’, “That Cabinet confirms the previously approved budget of £12.5 million for Roeshot Hill and Crescent Road to be repurposed and used under the CNHAS Programme”, was working.

·     The plans for taking forward the budget report through Cabinet and Council and whether there was an additional proposal which may be worked up and presented to Cabinet and/or Council. The Leader advised that there was no proposal to bring forward anything differently to the Cabinet meeting to be voted on. However, there was also an aim to try to improve the position regarding the Council Tax increase. The Leader advised that with the current political balance situation this would need to be opened up to discussion with the other political groups.

·     In response to queries regarding an outline of the legitimate timeframe in terms of the Council deadlines it was confirmed that any member could bring a proposed amendment to the S151 officer by the deadline of three clear working days prior to the Council meeting. It was confirmed that this applied to all.

·     That it was unfair for school funding issues with the dedicated schools grant to be picked up by local authorities.  It was noted that this was within the legislation and the Council did not have any choice on this. The Committee was advised that at some point this would need to be addressed and paid for by someone, be it schools local councils or government.

·     Risks associated with FuturePlaces. Concerns were raised around the situation of full business cases being approved and what the market conditions may be like in terms of being able to secure financing to take these forward. The possibility of the Council having to take a loss on a development as not being able to secure funding on it.  Whether there was an option to reign in some of the work of future places

·     The proposed non-traditional commercialisation, and work with partners and the timeframe set out to be able to do this only providing 3 months.

·     The 130 lines of cuts outlined and how much of this would be achieved through efficiencies  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

The Corporate and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee is asked to consider and note the Committee’s work plan. Also included is a copy of the item request form which Committee members are asked to complete if they have an item to add to the Work Plan.

The Chairman presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'C' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Committee members noted their disappointment that there had not been opportunity for further meetings of this important Committee.  It was noted that there were a number of items on the work programme which were outstanding. A number of the items on the Work plan were now due to come to the Cabinet meeting in March. It was noted that the number of Overview and Scrutiny meetings were being considered by the Constitution Review working Group. The Chairman advised that he would look into the possibility of an additional meeting and discuss this with Democratic Services. It was noted that special meetings outside of the normal schedule would need to be agreed with the monitoring officer by the Chairman.  It was suggested that a meeting could be conducted virtually if this would make the practicalities of scheduling this more straight forward.