Agenda item

The minutes of the meeting held on 24^th August 2016 were agreed, and signed as a correct record.

In considering matters arising, the Chairman sought an update on whether the implementation of the database for the Contracts System remained on track for December 2016.  The Director of Commissioning reported that the implementation of the system was going well and was on track for December 2016.  It was agreed that a live demonstration of the system would be provided to Members at the meeting of the Contracts Sub-Committee in January 2017.  The Director of Commissioning confirmed that once the system was fully operational, in March or April 2017, Members would be in a position to fully interrogate the data on the system and drill down into individual contracts.  In response to a question, the Director of Commissioning confirmed that the system had been developed by the London Borough of Bromley and therefore had the potential to be marketed to other Local Authorities in the future.

The Chairman confirmed that he had written to the Chairman of the Audit Sub-Committee in regard to ensuring a more active dissemination of audit reports to PDS Chairmen.  The Contracts Sub-Committee stressed the importance of adequate scrutiny of audit findings in order to ensure that lessons were learnt and practices changed to guard against similar errors arising in the future.  The Sub-Committee noted that PDS Chairman were made aware of reports considered by the Audit Sub-Committee that affected their service areas although it was not always clear that these reports were then scrutinised by the relevant Committee and that all members of the Committee were aware that there were Audit Sub-Committee reports relating to the specific service committees.  It was agreed that the Chairman would write to the PDS Chairmen to stress the need for adequate scrutiny of Audit Sub-Committee reports in order to drive improvements in contractual procedures.

In relation to leaf fall clearance (Minute 16), it was agreed that the Sub-Committee should consider this issue, along with wider issues relating to street cleansing, in more detail.  In line with its remit, the Sub-Committee would only seek to review and consider contractual issues, leaving service specific issues to be considered by the Environment PDS Committee.  The Head of Neighbourhood Management should be invited to the meeting to provide the Sub-Committee with an overview of ongoing and emerging contractual issues.  In addition to this, the Director of Commissioning reported that a paper had been written setting out the difference between contract management and contract monitoring.  The paper was designed to support staff with understanding the distinction between the two different processes.  The Sub-Committee agreed that it would be helpful for the paper to be circulated to Members of the Sub-Committee as soon as possible to enable detailed consideration of the paper at the Sub-Committee’s next meeting as part of discussions surrounding the street cleansing contract.

In response to a question concerning processes and policies for mitigating against known and unknown risks, the Chairman highlighted that there was an extensive Risk Register which set out risks to the Council, copies of which were available to Members on request.  A Member suggested that in addition to departmental risk registers, a Corporate Risk Register, sitting across the Council as a whole and setting out strategic as well as departmental risks, should be developed.  The Director of Commissioning highlighted that Contract Summaries also required Assistant Directors to undertake a detailed evaluation of risk.

In relation to Minute 17 (Contracts Register), the Chairman queried whether any further action had been taken in terms of ensuring that key dates were highlighted.  The Director of Commissioning reported that this was being worked on and that key dates should be picked up as part of the contract monitoring process.