Agenda item

The Council was issued with a ‘Best Value Notice’ by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) on 3 August 2023. This followed an assurance review that was commissioned in response to the Council’s July 2022 request for a capitalisation direction under the Exceptional Financial Support programme. The Chief Executive also carried out an internal assurance review prior to this, with the conclusions supported by the external review.

In response to receiving the ‘Best Value Notice’, an action plan was agreed by Cabinet on 6 September 2023 and has been monitored and updated regularly since.

The ‘Best Value Notice’ expired on 2 August 2024. This report outlines the good progress made against the action plan.

The Leader of the Council 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 Board was asked to note the good progress made against the Best Value Notice action plan. The Council was issued with a ‘Best Value Notice’ by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) on 3 August 2023. This followed an assurance review that was commissioned in response to the Council’s July 2022 request for a capitalisation direction under the Exceptional Financial Support programme. The Chief Executive also carried out an internal assurance review prior to this, with the conclusions supported by the external review. In response to receiving the ‘Best Value Notice’, an action plan was agreed by Cabinet and has been monitored and updated regularly since.  The ‘Best Value Notice’ expired on 2 August 2024. The report outlined the progress made against the action plan. A number of issues were raised in the discussion, including:

·       That it may be useful to have an updated communication to Councillors to remind them of what actions were appropriate and noting that there had been lots of changes on the Council since that time. It was noted that the first four years were challenging which was partly due to the tight political balance and there were now measures in place to address those issues. New Councillors coming on board had an induction programme which would cover this but an annual reminder to Councillors would be beneficial.

·       The Chief Executive advised that BCP Council had gone through several points to ensure these were reflected within the Constitution. The report went back one year since the notice, and this was served sometime since the review was completed. There was confidence that measures were in place to address issues that it was not thought would happen now.

·       An issue was raised regarding the Councillor/Officer relationship, especially considering staff pressures and job changes. It was noted that many officers were great at engaging but there was sometime officer reluctance to engage with Councillors. The Board asked how confident officer felt in dealing with Councillors. The Chief Executive wanted to make sure that all officers were aware of what the rules were and were confident in dealing with issues in this regard. It was noted that officers were being asked to find ways of making savings to services which was a difficult position for them but there was a need to have rules in place to create a more open culture of trust within the organisation.

·       A Councillor asked about the initial training for Councillor’s and there being a need to help Councillors understand the ‘corporate’ business. For example, use of different IT systems. It was suggested that it would be a good idea for there to be a cross-party buddy system in place for new Councillors.

·       It was noted that the progress which had been made was positive, the initial review being triggered by government changing the rules on Capital Receipts. The Government’s external assurance review was inline with the Chief Executives internal review.

·       A concern was raised regarding the Council demonstrating Best Value with regards to asset disposal and regeneration. A Councillor commented that from information received from developers it appeared that the Councillors were not being made aware of conversations the Council were having with developers on various projects. It was noted that a report on regeneration would be coming through Cabinet which would set out where the Council was in terms of key regeneration projects. It was also expected to have a report from Lead Cabinet members on projects they had been working on.  It was noted that the cross-party regeneration working group had been disbanded and it was felt that this was probably due to Future Places winding down, but it was felt that the cross-party group was needed to give better Visibility on regeneration. The Leader advised that she was not aware of any deals having been made.

It was RESOLVED that:

The Board was pleased to see progress made in delivering the Best Value Notice Action Plan.

Voting: Nem Con

Issues were raised regarding Member/Officer relations and what it meant to be a member led Council. It was explained that expectations around this were set out in the Member/Officer relations report. A copy of which would be circulated to the Board Members

The Chief Executive advised that he was happy with the way things were moving forward and was pleased to have a strong Corporate Management Team in place. The Leader thanked Officers and Members who had embraced changes, and this could be seen in behaviour of Councillors in how they act. The Leader was confident that BCP was a transparent Council that was accountable to local residents.