Agenda and minutes

Venue: Bromley Civic Centre

Contact: Graham Walton  0208 461 7743

Items
No. Item

208.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND NOTIFICATION OF SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Kim Botting and Michael Turner, who was replaced by Cllr Ruth Bennett.

209.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Minutes:

Councillor David Jefferys declared an interest in minute 212 (Rochester Diocesan Board of Education – Revised Articles of Association) as his wife was a diocesan elected member of the Board.

210.

QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC ATTENDING THE MEETING

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions to the Chairman of 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 Thursday 1st December 2016.

 

Minutes:

No questions had been received.

211.

CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 14 SEPTEMBER 2016 pdf icon PDF 209 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 14th September 2016 be confirmed.

212.

ROCHESTER DIOCESAN BOARD OF EDUCATION - REVISED ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION pdf icon PDF 128 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report CSD16

 

The Rochester Diocesan Board of Education (RDBE) was proposing to change its Articles of Association and in particular to reduce the number of trustees serving on the Board. Four local authorities were currently represented on the Board (the London Boroughs of Bromley and Bexley, Medway Council and Kent County Council) and they had all been asked to nominate a representative to attend Board meetings, but these representatives would not in future be eligible to vote. 

 

No objections had been raised to the proposals by the Portfolio Holder for Education, the Council’s current representative on the RDBE, Councillor Kate Lymer, the Education Select Committee Chairman or the Director of Education.

 

RESOLVED that the Chairman be authorised to sign on behalf of the Council to consent to the removal of rights of appointment granted to the Council and agree that the proposed new Articles of Association may replace the existing Articles of Association.

213.

APPOINTMENTS TO OUTSIDE BODIES pdf icon PDF 153 KB

Minutes:

Report CSD16171

 

The Council appointed six representatives to the Beckenham Parochial Charites, with four year terms of office. The terms of office of half the representatives expired on 24th January 2017 – Mr A. J. Duncan, Mrs G. Scales and Mr M. J. Winsor. Mr Winsor had indicated that he wished to stand down; Mr Duncan and Mrs Scales wished to be re-appointed. The Charity had supported the re-appointment of Mr Duncan and Mrs Scales and requested that the Committee appoint Mrs Kathryn Strachan to the third post.

 

RESOLVED that the following representatives be appointed to the Beckenham Parochial Charities for the four year term starting on 24th January 2017 – Mr A. J. Duncan, Mrs G. Scales and Mrs Kathryn Strachan.

214.

LOCAL PENSION BOARD - ANNUAL REPORT pdf icon PDF 169 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report FSD16079

 

The Local Pension Board Terms of Reference required that an Annual Report was produced and provided to the Pensions Manager each year. In a report to the Pensions Investment Sub Committee, General Purposes and Licensing Committee and Council in February 2015, it was also confirmed that the Local Pension Board’s Annual Report would be provided to Council. The report had been considered by the Pensions Investment Sub-Committee at its meeting on 16th November 2016.

RESOLVED that the report be noted and referred to full Council.

215.

PENSIONS INVESTMENT SUB-COMMITTEE: MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 21 SEPTEMBER 2016 pdf icon PDF 195 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the Pensions Investment Sub-Committee meeting held on 21st September 2016 were received.

216.

LOCAL JOINT CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE: MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 26TH OCTOBER 2016 pdf icon PDF 282 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the Local Joint Consultative Committee meeting held on 26th October 2016 were received.

 

The Chairman noted that there had been problems on the staff-side in achieving a quorum, and requested a report to the Committee’s next meeting on how the issue could be addressed.

217.

LICENSING SUB-COMMITTEE MEETING DATES 2016/17 pdf icon PDF 57 KB

Minutes:

The Committee noted the dates of Licensing Sub-Committee hearings in 2016/17. Four review hearings had now been scheduled for the meeting on 26th January 2017 – the Chairman asked Members to send in their availability for this date as soon as possible. There was also a meeting scheduled for 12th January 2017, and officers were requested to clarify whether this date would still be needed.

218.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the Committee was timetabled to take place on 25th January 2017, but Members have been consulted on later dates. 

Minutes:

It was noted that the next meeting had been moved from 25th January to 6th February 2017 to allow the maximum available time for consultation with staff on the pay award for 2017/18.

 

Members discussed how changes to the agreed programme of meetings caused problems with their diaries, and how this would affect the attendance rates as reported each year to full Council. It was confirmed that the annual report on attendance did include working groups, and the schedule presented did have a column where special circumstances could be noted.

 

The Committee also considered the training programme on children’s services, and the importance of all Members recognising their corporate parent role, and also the contracts and commissioning training. A suggestion had been made that a record of attendance at training events should be reported alongside the meeting attendance statistics. It was suggested that Constitution Improvement Working Group could consider this.   

219.

APPOINTMENT OF EXTERNAL AUDITORS pdf icon PDF 163 KB

Minutes:

CSD16185

 

The Audit Sub-Committee at its meeting on 29th November 2016 had recommended that the Council should opt in to the procurement service offered by Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd (PSAA).

 

The Committee agreed that this item be considered as a matter of urgency so that the Council on 12th December 2016 could take the decision on whether to opt in to the Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd process by the January deadline. 

 

A Member commented that he was concerned at the dominance of the “big four” accounting firms; officers confirmed that PSAA’s procurement would seek to include a wide range of accounting firms beyond the “big four,” although eligible audit firms needed to be registered with a supervising body approved by the FRC. 

 

RESOLVED that Council be recommended to approve the proposal to become an ‘opted in’ authority with Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd. for the appointment of External Auditors.