Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

Councillor Douglas Auld declared a personal interest in items 9 (Residential and Nursing Home Contracts for Older People – Gateway Review) and 15 (Award of Framework Contracts for Domiciliary Care Services) on the Executive’s agenda as his wife was employed by the Council as a social worker.

Councillor Judi Ellis declared a personal interest in item 9 on the Executive’s agenda (Residential and Nursing Home Contracts for Older People – Gateway Review) as her father was a resident in a care home in the borough.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions to this Committee must be received in writing 4 working days before the date of the meeting.  Therefore please ensure questions are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Friday 8^th June 2012.

No questions had been received.

Councillor Tom Papworth suggested that minute 169 (8), relating to the report to the Executive on Bromley Town Centre – Increased Parking Capacity, should be expanded to cover concerns raised about the higher costs of phase 2 and phase 3 and comments that businesses should pay for improved parking facilities.  

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th May 2012 (excluding exempt items) be confirmed, subject to the insertion of additional comments as suggested above.

Report RES12096

The Committee noted updates on matters arising from the minutes of previous meetings. A new organisation structure had been published on the Council intranet and most of the HR issues had been dealt with. The following matters were still outstanding -

• Blue Badge Enforcement: A report was due to be presented at the Committee’s next meeting in July.

• Costs of Council Services: Officers were working on this and a report was expected in September.

• Pension and Redundancy Arrangements for senior Officers: A report was expected at the next meeting in July.

The Committee noted the Forward Plan of Key Decisions published on 17^th May 2012.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions to this Committee must be received in writing 4 working days before the date of the meeting.  Therefore please ensure questions are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Friday 8^th June 2012.

No questions had been received.

To note decisions the Portfolio Holder made since the last meeting of the Committee.

The Committee noted two decisions taken since the last meeting by the Resources Portfolio Holder.

The Resources Portfolio Holder to present scheduled reports for pre-decision scrutiny on matters where he is minded to make decisions.

The Committee considered the following report for pre-decision scrutiny on a matter where the Resources Portfolio Holder was minded to make a decision.

Report DRR12/049

The Executive had allocated £500,000 to support sustainable employment opportunities for young unemployed people living in Bromley and it was proposed to establish a three year project to create these jobs for young residents aged 18-24. The programme would focus on creating sustainable apprenticeships and internships in the private sector to give young people skills and experience in the workplace, and it was estimated that about 52 places could be created over the life of the project. Alongside this, it was also proposed to work with other partners to apply to the Jobcentre Plus Flexible Learning Fund to create a skills based environmental training programme that would complement Council initiatives in the borough’s parks and open spaces. Opportunities would be sought to lever in other funding. It was confirmed that referrals to the scheme would be through Jobcentre Plus, ensuring that only unemployed young people would be taken on, but young people who pulled out of the scheme would not be at risk of losing benefits.

It was proposed to carry out a tendering exercise to engage specialist providers, and report back to the Committee on 3^rd January 2013 before a final decision was taken to award a contract.  Officers would ensure that a sound proposal was drawn up incorporating financial controls which would be monitored by existing staff at no additional cost to the Council. Members commented that the criteria for awarding the contract needed to be weighted more towards quality than price to ensure that an effective provider was chosen, and that the contract needed to be closely monitored and payment made by results rather than up-front. A Member suggested that payments to the young people should be based on the London Living Wage, but the Committee supported the project in principle.

Members requested further information or clarification on the following –

• The relation between the unemployment rates given in paragraphs 3.2 and 3.3 of the report.
• The numbers of unemployed young people in each age group cohort.

RESOLVED that the Resources Portfolio Holder be recommended to

(1)  Approve the creation of an employment programme for young people aged 18-24 over three years (2013-2016) by way of apprenticeships and internship.

(2)  Approve the outsourcing of the project to a suitable, experienced and proficient employment and skills provider to deliver the outcomes desired from the programme.

(3)  Approve an application to the Jobcentre Plus Flexible Learning Fund to deliver environmental skills and training to young people over the next 3 years with support from local and regional partnerships (the application may be submitted by one of the Council’s partners rather than directly by the Council.) 

Members of the Committee are requested to bring their copy of the agenda for the Executive meeting on 20^th June 2012.

Report RES12097

The Committee considered reports on the agenda for the Executive’s meeting on 20^th June 2012.

(5) Provisional Final Accounts 2011/12

Report RES12094

The report set out the Council’s provisional outturn for 2011/12, showing an overall net improvement in balances of £2.8m (before carry forwards from 2010/11.)  Service departments had underspent leaving the Council well-placed to meet the challenges of future budget reductions. The underspends represented good financial planning rather than any incorrect underlying assumptions in budgeting.

The Committee supported the recommendations.

(6) Capital Programme Outturn 2011/12

Report RES12104

The report set out the final outturn on capital expenditure and receipts for 2011/12 and proposed carry-forward requests to 2012/13 totalling £258k. The Chairman commented that the Council should work harder to sell off unused property assets.

The Committee supported the recommendations.

(7) Revised Payment Structure for Foster Carer Allowances

Report CS12007

The Committee noted that the proposals were to be scrutinised by Care Services PDS Committee on 19^th June. 

(8) Children’s Social Care – Invest to Contain Proposal

The report set out a proposal to recruit, assess and support more in-house foster carers to meet the increased demand for foster care placements and reduce the need to use more expensive independent fostering agency and residential accommodation. Current projections showed that without taking action expenditure was projected to increase by £1.3m within the next four years. It was confirmed that the policy had been supported by the former Children and Young People PDS Committee and the Child Safeguarding Board.

The Committee supported the recommendations.

(9)  Residential and Nursing Care Home contracts for Older People – Gateway Review

Report CS12004

The Committee noted that the proposals were to be scrutinised by Care Services PDS Committee on 19^th June. 

(10) The New Standards System under the Localism Act 2011

Report RES12 106

The report advised the Executive of the changes to the standards regime required under the Localism Act 2011. Council would be considering these matters on 25^th June so that the changes could be implemented on 1^st July 2012 as required by the Act. The Committee noted that the Register of Members’ Interests would have to be published on-line.

The Committee discussed whether the existing £25 threshold for declaring gifts and hospitality should be removed, requiring all gifts and hospitality to be declared. After a vote, Members supported keeping the £25 limit (Councillor Tom Papworth requested that his contrary vote be recorded). 

The Committee supported the recommendations.

At the Committee’s previous meeting an update on the outcomes of the HR PDS Working Group had been requested. The report set out all of the Working Group’s recommendations, and subsequent action taken to implement them. Of the 25 recommendations, only two remained outstanding – recommendation 3 regarding the collection of educational qualifications and key skills from all employees and recommendation 16 regarding the incorporation of the Performance Appraisal and Development Scheme (PADS) into the Resource Link system.

A Member questioned why it was so difficult to record qualifications. Officers explained that although professional qualifications were recorded where particular posts required this, to add all qualifications to the existing system would require significant development work and no other authorities appeared to be interested in sharing these costs. There was no business case for this additional work, and the Council had successfully identified candidates for redeployment opportunities and potential “high flyers” for development without needing to refer to qualifications in this way. After some debate Members agreed that the matter should not be pursued.

In relation to recommendation 10, Members asked for confirmation that non-staff budgets were not used to fund posts. Officers responded that there was a rigorous process for creating new posts and that finance officers would not normally sign off requests for ongoing virements unless there was a sufficient business case.

In relation to recommendation 14 relating to exit interviews, Members requested further details about why staff left the Council, and requested that a report on this be made to General Purposes and Licensing Committee. 

RESOLVED that the content of the report be noted and a report on reasons for staff leaving the Council be made to the General Purposes and Licensing Committee.

Report RES12100

The Committee received an annual progress report on the performance of Capita Secure Information Systems (CSIS) in delivering the IT and Voice and Data Networks contracts since the service had commenced in April 2011. A Member commented that the Council appeared to be going against the recommendations of the New Technology Working Group by using Microsoft Lync rather than pursuing open source solutions.

RESOLVED that the information in the report be noted. 

RES12084

The Council’s Constitution required that a report was made each year to full Council on the work of PDS Committees. The report for 2011/12 had been deferred from the Committee’s meeting on 4^th April 2012; since the agenda had been issued, minor changes had been made by the Education PDS Committee on 12^th June to the chapter on the work of the former Children and Young People PDS Committee and by the Care Services PDS Committee Chairman to the Adult and Community PDS Committee chapter. 

RESOLVED that the annual Policy Development and Scrutiny report 2011/12 be approved for submission to Council on 25^th June 2012. 

PDS Committee Chairmen reported on the work of their Committees as follows –

Education PDS: Councillor Nicholas Bennett reported on a number of changes that he had introduced for the new Committee, including –

• Reducing the numbers of co-opted Members so that they no longer outnumbered Councillors;
• Not having reports introduced by officers;
• Requiring Members to give at least 24 hours notice if they wished to discuss information items at meetings;
• Where Members requested reports, they should send questions to the report author in advance;

The Committee would be holding a select committee meeting on 17^th July 2012 to consider sold services and the future of the Education Development Centre (EDC), and there would be a seminar in November on the same lines as the Member finance briefings. A Budget Sub-Committee had been set up under the chairmanship of Councillor Neil Reddin and there would be a Pupil Places Working Group under the chairmanship of Councillor Lydia Buttinger.

Public Protection and Safety PDS: Councillor Douglas Auld reported on his Committee’s recent meeting. The Police Borough Commander had reported on a number of successful operations, but there were concerns about the level of street robberies involving young people. The Borough Commander had confirmed that the numbers of Incident Response Cars patrolling in the borough would be maintained over the summer, but she had offered no guarantees on community policing levels and there were no numbers available on the scheduled increases in PCSOs in the autumn. 

The Committee had also received a presentation from senior managers at the Bethlem Royal Hospital following the escape of patients from the Bill Yule unit in February. The unit had now been closed, and the building would be used for other purposes. There had recently been another incident where a patient under escort had run away and entered a home in Wickham Way, Croydon. The Committee was concerned that the Trust was not following the agreed protocols for informing the Council when escapes occurred, and was showing little urgency or determination in setting up its inquiry into the February escape and addressing the problems. 

The Government’s proposals for replacing ASBOs would be discussed at the next meeting.

The other Committees had not yet held their first meetings. 

Report RES12098

The Committee considered its work programme and proposals to set up a working group to examine changes to the local government finance system. The Chairman called for any Committee Members interested in participating to inform the clerk, and asked that an email be sent to all Members to seek other volunteers.

The Chairman drew attention to the Finance seminar on 27^th June and invited suggestions for other issues for the Committee to scrutinise. The following suggestions were made –

• Reviews of progress on implementing recommendations made by the Communications and New Technology Working Groups.

• Scrutiny of major organisational changes to ensure that real savings have been achieved.

RESOLVED that

(1) The schedule of meetings and the progress of PDS working groups be noted.

(2)  A Local Government Finance Working Group be set up with the following terms of reference –

 (1) To consider the impact for Bromley of the proposals arising from the Government’s Local Government Resource Review which are to be implemented from 2013/14 onwards, in particular the three main strands -

(i) Localisation of Business Rates;

(ii) Localisation of Council Tax Benefit;

(iii) Community Budgets.

(2) To bring forward proposals and recommendations for implementation in Bromley in response to the government proposals. 

The Chairman to move that the Press and public be excluded during consideration of the items of business listed below as it is likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings that if members of the Press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

RESOLVED that the Press and public be excluded during consideration of the items of business referred to below as it is likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings that if members of the Press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

The following summaries

refer to matters

involving exempt information

The exempt minutes of the meeting held on 17^th May 2012 were confirmed.

The Committee noted two exempt decisions made by the Resources Portfolio Holder since the last meeting.  

Penge and Cator

This report had been withdrawn.

The Committee considered exempt reports on the agenda for the Executive’s meeting on 20^th June 2012 as follows –

14. Contract to Supply Lease Cars: Government Procurement Service Contract

The Committee supported the proposed use of the Government Procurement Service framework agreement.

15. Award of Framework Contract for Domiciliary Care and Specialist Dementia Services

The Committee noted that this report would be scrutinised by the Care Services PDS Committee on 19^th June 2012.

16. Lease Acquisition – 46 Green Lane, Penge 

The Committee supported proposals to acquire the lease of 46 Green Lane, Penge.