Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

Apologies were received from Cllrs P Broadhead, L Dedman, S Moore, L Northover and T Trent.

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.

The following Substitutes were appointed for this meeting:

Cllr C Adams for Cllr P Broadhead, Cllr C Weight for Cllr S Moore, Cllr B Castle for Cllr L Northover and Cllr M Tarling for Cllr T Trent.

To elect a Chair for the Overview and Scrutiny Board for the 2024/25 municipal year.

The Vice-Chair took the Chair for this item. A nomination was received and seconded for Councillor S Bartlett. There being no further nominations it was:

RESOLVED that Cllr S Bartlett be elected Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Board for the 2024/25 municipal year..

Voting: Unanimous

Cllr S Bartlett resumed the Chair.

To elect a Vice-Chair for the Overview and Scrutiny Board for the 2024/25 municipal year.

A nomination was received and seconded for Councillor S Aitkenhead. There being no further nominations it was:

RESOLVED that Cllr S Aitkenhead be elected Vice-Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Board for the 2024/25 municipal year.

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 made on this occasion.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting held on 2 April 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on 2 April were approved as a correct record.

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 12 noon on Tuesday 7 May 2024. [12 noon 3 clear working days before the meeting]

-       The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday on Friday 10 May 2024. [midday the working day before the meeting]                

-       The deadline for the submission of a petition is Friday 26 April 2024. [10 working days before the meeting]

There were no public issues on this occasion.

The Chair proposed and it was agreed to vary the order of business to take agenda item 9 Transformation Programme Update as the next item

This report provides an update on the progress of the transformation programme of the BCP Council, which consists of three main elements: organisational design, where and how we work, and supporting our colleagues.

The report highlights the achievements and benefits of the programme, such as the implementation of the new Dynamics Finance and Operations system, the launch of the new customer journeys on the Dynamics Customer Engagement system, the development of the new People Strategy and the negotiation of the pay and reward offer with the trade unions.

The report also outlines the challenges and risks that the programme faces, such as data quality issues, the complexity and volume of the remaining customer journeys and processes that need to be developed and transferred to the new customer engagement system, the impact of the organisational change on the staff and the exit strategy from the transformation funding.

There are a number of appendices that provide more details on the programme, such as the data and analytics case study, automation of manual processes, programme costs, benefits realisation and savings.

The Portfolio Holder for Transformation and Resources 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. The Board was advised that the report provided an update on the progress of the transformation programme of BCP Council, which consisted of three main elements: organisational design, where and how we work, and supporting our colleagues.

The report highlighted the achievements and benefits of the programme, such as the implementation of the new Dynamics Finance and Operations system, the launch of the new customer journeys on the Dynamics Customer Engagement system, the development of the new People Strategy and the negotiation of the pay and reward offer with the trade unions. The report also outlined the challenges and risks that the programme faced, such as data quality issues, the complexity and volume of the remaining customer journeys and processes that needed to be developed and transferred to the new customer engagement system, the impact of the organisational change on the staff and the exit strategy from the transformation funding.

The Portfolio Holder and Chair of the Committee noted that Katie Lacey, The Director of IT and Programmes would be leaving the Council in the near future and both placed on record their thanks for her contribution to the transformation programme. There were a number of issues considered by the Board including:

·     The recruitment system closing down the application process, the Director of People and Culture undertook to follow up on this issue.

·     Communication and co-ordination between teams and the organisation of staff to be able to work more efficiently. A common data platform was able to be used to connect previously separate data sets together which would help in this process.

·     The Dynamics F&O system allowed Managers and Directors to instantly access budget information. Managers had access to the 2024-25 budget earlier than previously.

·     The Chair requested that the Board receive a demonstration of the ERP system (Dynamics F&O) now that it was up and running and well established.

·     Savings from the Transformation Programme in relation to Library Services. It was noted that there was a consultation open which was considering matters around this at present. The Consultation would be used to help inform the development of the Service.

·     Pay and Reward and the reasons for the different outcomes in the union ballots. It was noted that unions were not obliged to share membership details with the Council. The Union which rejected the offer did share the issues which Union members had with the Council offer and the improved offer reflected this. An update on the outcome of this would be made available as soon as possible.

·     Organisational Structure – An organisational hierarchy was being worked on and it was something which would be developed and made available.

·     IT accessibility by members of the public. The use of technology should make the whole system more efficient which should allow more resource  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

BCP Council’s high-level vision, priorities and ambitions were adopted by Council in January 2024.

The ‘A shared vision for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 2024-28’ is a corporate strategy which sets out the council’s vision, priorities and ambitions as well as the principles which underpin the way the council will work as it develops and delivers its services.

A delivery plan has been incorporated into the strategy, prepared in consultation with Cabinet, directors and council officers, to provide focus areas and measures of progress for achieving the vision, priorities and ambitions. Performance will be monitored and reported in a new dashboard.

This strategy is a key component of a whole council approach to performance management.

The Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Dynamic Places 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 Board was advised that BCP Council’s high-level vision, priorities and ambitions were adopted by Council in January 2024.

The corporate strategy set out the council’s vision, priorities and ambitions as well as the principles which underpin the way the council works as it develops and delivers its services.

A delivery plan had been incorporated into the strategy, prepared in consultation with Cabinet, directors and council officers, to provide focus areas and measures of progress for achieving the vision, priorities and ambitions. Performance would be monitored and reported in a new dashboard. The Strategy was a key component of a whole council approach to performance management. Issues raised by the Board included:

• A suggestion to change the dates so that all issues fell within the correct timeframe.
• Agree to establishing new governance arrangements for reporting and tracking progress.
• That the measure to reduce the number of people in bed and breakfast accommodation should refer to all temporary accommodation. IT was noted that this would be extremely difficult and there was sometimes a real need for temporary accommodation.
• A Suggestion to amend the wording of the measuring concerning increasing both the number of new affordable and social rented homes.
• Discussion concerning suitable and effective measurement of resident and staff satisfaction. It was suggested that a number of measures could be grouped together to provide an indication of increased satisfaction.
• new governance arrangements for reporting and tracking progress would be established. It was planned to introduce a Corporate Strategy oversight Board for Officers to keep track of performance and a live dashboard would allow others to access tracking.
• In future a review of the Corporate Strategy should come back to the Board and should be robust. Cabinet would also need to see how it could be robust in challenging the oversight Board.
• It was noted that the dashboard which would be produced would be one of the most important documents for the Board to monitor.
• Concern was raised regarding housing issues and the measures addressing this were considered.
• Town Centres and how they were dealt with through ambitions in this document.

The Chairman outlined the recommendations from the Cabinet report and it was:

RESOLVED that the Board support these, subject to the suggested amendments from the Board:

(a)  The delivery plan be approved

(b)  The measures for monitoring progress and ensuring accountability for delivery be agreed.

Voting: Nem con

This report provides an update on activity carried out by the Investment & Development directorate since it was formed in November 2023, with a particular focus on the three priority regeneration projects of Holes Bay, Dolphin Leisure Centre and Bournemouth International Centre & Winter Gardens.

The Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Dynamic Places 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. The Board was advised that the report provided an update on activity carried out by the Investment & Development directorate since it was formed in November 2023, with a particular focus on the three priority regeneration projects of Holes Bay, Dolphin Leisure Centre and Bournemouth International Centre & Winter Gardens.  An advisory panel had been established from the previous non-executive directors of FuturePlaces. There had been a decision to decouple the BIC from the Winter Gardens and each of these sites would need to be moved forward with partners for each of the sites. The Dolphin Leisure Centre was coming to the end of its life. The only way to achieve the building of a new leisure centre would be through cross funding with property development. The Board raised a number of issues in the subsequent discussion, including:

·     Holes Bay – Environmental noise issues within the site due to proximity to the switching station. It wasn’t considered that this was a significant issue and developing the site out in stages may lead to a position where it could be removed in future.

·     BIC/Winter Gardens – The options for the site included the improvement of the existing facility in conjunction with the views of the current operator, BH Live who had an operating lease until 2035 or a more ambitious plan which could be sold to an external provider. Renovations would lead to discussion with BH Live regarding an extension of the current lease. The Board raised issues concerning how the process would move forward for each site in the now decoupled state. It was noted that this was a Bournemouth Development Company Project, and the Council would work with MUSE to move this forward. There was an existing precedent for Planning Permission but it was expected that there would be less commercial requirements in the area. The alternative option for the Winter Gardens Site would be to consider it as part of a number of sites within the Town Centre to offer to developers. The procurement aspect of this process alone would be around 2 years. The BIC situation was still in very early stages.

·     Dolphin Centre – Issues concerning current parking arrangements were raised. It was suggested it should be included as a package with Leisure Centre entry. It was noted that not everything had been harmonised in the parking harmonisation Briefing for Ward Councillors and Neighbouring Wards. Potential blocks for understanding the relative costs of the scheme and financial constraints. The specification and design the Council may have to contribute additional capital.

·     The Board enquired about the governance arrangements for the future development sites, previously there was a FuturePlaces working group. The investment advisory panel was formed from previous FuturePlaces non-executive directors and provided an informal sounding board acting as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Board is asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in a Work Plan.

The Overview and Scrutiny Specialist presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Board was asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in its Work Plan.

The Chair confirmed the items which were now expected at the next Board meeting which were the Seafront Strategy and MTFP Cabinet reports and future Budget scrutiny discussion.

The Board agreed in principle on a housing inquiry to involve all Scrutiny Committees

The Board agreed to consider the Pay and Reward update when available

The Board considered when to bring a report on the Local Transport Plan. This shouldn’t be as a piece of pre decision Scrutiny. Consideration was also given to TAGs role in the development of the Local Transport Plan. 

The Chair advised that he was awaiting the Monitoring Officers opinion on a scrutiny request on the Dorset Pension Fund and advised that he had declined a request for further scrutiny of the Wessex Fields decision by Council

RESOLVED that the O&S Board Work Plan be updated as outlined above.

Voting: Nem. Con.