Unite would like to ask whether Members are satisfied that the processes around the commissioning of services, involve appropriate staff engagement and whether the performance reporting of contracts is sufficiently robust.
· Concerning the performance monitoring of contracts, Unite refer to the TLG/Iverde monitoring that was also reported to the Environment PDS on 24th January 2017.
· Unite also reference the operation of the cleaning contract.
Minutes:
The Staff Side wished to ask if Members were satisfied that the processes around the commissioning of services, involved appropriate staff engagement in commissioning. To this end Unite referenced the Executive report that was scrutinised by the Environment PDS Committee on 24th January 2017. This was report number ES17002 on the Environmental Services Procurement Strategy.
The report set out the Council’s procurement strategy for a range of environmental services, and sought the approval of Executive to commence the tendering process in April 2017. Most of the services had already been contracted to external suppliers, but there were still some in house services (provided by 32.5FTEs) provided by Council staff. These were in the areas of Enforcement, Waste Administration, Environmental Campaigns, Public Protection Enforcement and Highways Inspection.
The point made by the Staff Side was that this report had appeared in the public domain without any consultation with the employees. Staff had to contact Mr Dan Jones (Director of Environment) to confirm whether these were in fact their jobs which were already out in the public domain to be procured before the staff themselves had been made aware.
The Director of Human Resources observed that the three bullet points noted under the main agenda item of ‘Processes relating to the Commissioning of Contracts’ were all linked to Mr Jones. He suggested therefore, that a meeting be convened between Unite and Mr Jones so that the issues could be looked at in more detail. Ms Slater responded that she wished the question relating to the monitoring of contracts to be addressed on the night. To this end she referred to report ES17015, ‘Parks, Countryside and Greenspace Management-Contract Performance’. This was a report that was also presented to the Environmental Services PDS Committee on 24th January 2017.
The Executive had previously approved the variation to the current Grounds Maintenance Contract with English Landscapes Maintenance Limited (formerly The Landscape Group) and the company name had changed to Idverde Limited; the contract had been extended to 31 March 2019.
The report provided an annual review of the performance of the contract, valued at £36.59m, as required by CPR 23.3. The current performance of the contract was deemed to be satisfactory.
The Staff Side referenced section 4.6 of the report:
In addition to the Strategic Plan and accompanying Action Plan, the following plans and policies were completed and delivered within the agreed timescales
· Biodiversity Action Plan
· Forestry Annual Plan
· Play Strategy and Annual Plan
· Sports Annual Plan
· Grants and Income Plan
· Events Policy
The Staff Side expressed the view that the bulleted plans outlined above had not been completed and delivered as outlined in the report. They had drawn this conclusion as they had not seen any documentation to confirm that the various plans had been actioned, and also referred to an alleged conversation that had taken place with Patrick Phillips of Idverde confirming that this was the case.
A response to this matter from the Director of Environment is appended to the minutes.
Ms Slater continued by encouraging Members to play close attention to what was being written in monitoring reports, and to use the Risk Register.
The Chairman suggested that a Lead Officer or the Director of Commissioning was required to properly answer the question. Councillor Wilkins suggested that the matter be referred to the Contracts Sub Committee, whilst Councillor Colin Smith felt that the matter was an issue for the Environment PDS Committee.
Ms Smith then produced a document entitled ‘Audit Controls 2016’ which was available to all LBB staff via the Intranet, but which was not on the LBB website. She referred to various matters outlined in the report relating to deficiencies in overall contract monitoring and contract documentation. The Chairman responded that it was the role of the Contracts Working Group to deal with any deficiencies in contracts when any such deficiencies became apparent.
The Director of Human Resources pointed out that the Staff Side had once again produced a document without any prior warning, and because of this he had been unable to invite Officers to respond. It was the case that the Council did not get everything right, but consideration should also be given to the size and number of contracts that the Council managed.
Councillor Colin Smith stated that the fact that the audit report was freely available via ‘Doug’s Page’ showed that the Council were not hiding anything. Issues had been identified so that they could be dealt with.
Councillor William Huntington Thresher explained that a PDS Committee would look at services, but not specifically at contract details. He pointed out that not all service issues identified were related to commissioned contracts-some issues identified were internal. Some issues identified would be detailed in part 2 reports.
Councillor Fawthrop stated that Unite’s policy was to oppose the contracting out of services; he felt that it would be more helpful if they assisted the Council in the commissioning process, instead of getting in the way of Council policy.
The Chairman moved to close the item. Ms Smith asked that it be noted that she would have liked to have spoken more on this item before it was closed.
However, for clarity of context, it should be noted that the Chairman had previously given notice as to the number of speakers that he was going to allow to speak before closing the item, and Ms Smith had previously been allocated time to present her case.