Agenda item

PRE-DECISION SCRUTINY OF EXECUTIVE REPORTS

Members of the Committee are requested to bring their copy of the agenda for the Executive meeting on

Minutes:

The Committee considered the following reports on the Part 1 agenda for the meeting of the Executive on 28th November 2018:

 

(6)  BUDGET MONITORING 2018/19

  Report FSD18085

 

The Committee considered a report which provided the second budget monitoring position for 2018/19 based on expenditure and activity levels up to the end of September 2018.  The report also highlighted any significant variations which would impact on future years as well as any early warnings that could impact on the final year end position.

 

In response to a query concerning the length of time it would take to fill the two vacated  shops in Bromley the Director of Corporate Services confirmed that work was underway with regard to one of the properties.  The Chief Accountant agreed to make enquiries and provide Members with an update.

 

RESOLVED: That the Executive be recommended to:

 

(a)  consider the latest financial position;

  (b)  note that a projected net overspend on services of £1,506k is forecast based on information as at September 2018;

(c)  consider the comments from Chief Officers detailed in Appendix 2;

  (d)  note a projected variation of £98k credit from investment income as detailed in sections 3.5 and 3.6 of the report;

  (e)  note a projected variation of £1,454k in the Central contingency, as detailed in section 3.2 of the report;

  (f)  note a projected reduction to the General Fund balance of £1,085k as detailed in section 3.3 of the report;

  (g)  agree to the release of £165k from the 2018/19 Central Contingency relating to the cost of Local Elections as detailed in para. 3.2.2 of the report;

  (h)  agree to the release of £500k Improved Better Care Funding from the 2018/19 Central Contingency as detailed in para. 3.2.3 of the report;

  (i)  approve the drawdown of £1.5m Health Funding to the CCG from Health and Social Care earmarked reserves as detailed in para. 3.9.1 of the report;

  (j)  recommend to Council that £3.5m be set aside in the Technology Fund earmarked reserve from underspends in the 2018/19 Central Contingency for the Council’s IT Transformation scheme as detailed in para. 3.2.6 of the report;

  (k)  note the full year cost pressures of £5.2m as detailed in section 3.4 of the report;

  (l)  identify any issues that should be referred to individual Portfolio Holders for further action.

(7)  CAPITAL PROGRAMME MONITORING – 2nd QUARTER 2018/19

  Report FSD18094

 

The Committee considered a report summarising the current position on capital expenditure and receipts following the 2nd quarter of 2018/19 and seeking the Executive’s approval of a revised Capital Programme.

 

A Member raised concerns around the proposals to remove £8k from the Betts Park Canal Bank Stabilisation Project as a recent visit to the site had indicated that the project was not yet fully complete.  It was agreed that the recommendation should be removed and the situation further investigated prior to the Q3 Capital Programme Monitoring Report.

 

RESOLVED: That the Executive be recommended to:

 

(a)  Note the report, including a total re-phasing of £28,311k from 2018/19 into future years, and agree a revised Capital Programme;

(b)  Approve the following amendments to the Capital Programme:

(i)  Reduction of £192k to the Transport for London (TfL) funded Traffic and Highways schemes;

(ii)  Removal of £4k from the Woodlands Improvements Programme Scheme;

(iii)  Note that a report elsewhere on the Agenda requests the addition of £100k to the Capital Programme for Housing Development Feasibility;

(iv)  Note that a report elsewhere on the Agenda requests the allocation of £800k to the Affordable Housing capital scheme and £206k to the Property Acquisitions scheme from Housing Payment in Lieu Funds;

(v)  Note that a report is due elsewhere on the Agenda which requests the addition to the Capital Programme of the IT Transformation scheme; and

(vi)  Note that the Council has been allocated funding of £1.1m from the Department of Transport, and that a report will be submitted to a future meeting of the Executive detailing the proposed use of this funding.

 

(8)  COUNCIL TAX SUPPORT/REDUCTION SCHEME 2019/20

  Report FSD18082

 

The Committee considered a report advising Members of the resent consultation exercise and seeking approval of the scheme to be forwarded to Full Council for approval.

 

In response to a question, the Head of Revenues and Benefits confirmed that the Local Authority could adopt a scheme with different discounts for different bands.  The Committee requested that a breakdown of the number of people claiming in each band be provided.

 

Action Point 17:  A breakdown of the number of people claiming in each band be provided.

 

With reference to the response provide by the GLA and the comments made relating to collection practices; the Head of Revenues and Benefits confirmed that where small sums of money were owed the Local Authority worked with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and applied for liability orders where necessary.

 

The Committee noted that in relation to the Hardship Fund, in 2017/18 £28k of the £100k fund was used.  Members noted that it was not possible to accurately ascertain the number of applications.  Officers often signposted residents to the fund and the number of completed forms did not bear any relation to the number of applications.

 

A Member suggested that the impact of Universal Credit on working families needed to be taken into consideration.  It was suggested that a more sophisticated approach needed to be taken with increased spending to support families in order to save more in relation to the cost of temporary accommodation.  In response the Chairman reported that Bromley had a low council tax with high collection rates of at least 80%.

 

The Chairman proposed that the recommendations in the report be supported.  The motion was put to a vote:

 

11 in favour

2 against.

 

The motion was CARRIED.

 

RESOLVED: That the Executive be recommended to:

 

(a)  Note the updated Impact Assessment at Appendix 1 of the report;

(b)  Note the responses of the public consultation exercise at Appendix 3 of the report;

 

(c)  consider that the Council Tax Support/Reduction scheme for 2019/20 retains the calculation of entitlement for working-age claimants on 75% of the households Council Tax liability. Thereby the maximum assistance provided to a claimant of working- age is 75% of his/her Council Tax liability.

 

(d)  Recommend to Council the Council Tax Support/Reduction scheme for 2019/20.

 

(14)  IT TRANSFORMATION

  Report CSD18176

 

The Committee considered a report which provided details of a major re-fresh of the IT infrastructure supporting the Council’s core IT and business systems which was required as a result of the cessation of several manufacturers support during the next two years.  The report outlined the significant risks and the required changes that were needed to ensure that the Council retained a significant number of critical infrastructure platforms.

 

A Member noted that the move to Office 365 involved costs of over £300k and queried the additional costs.  In response the Head of ICT reported there were one-off licenses for Office 2010 however Office 365 was subscription based and this accounted for the additional revenue costs.  In response to a question about the cost of Office 2019, the Head of ICT agreed to provide the information following the meeting.

 

Action Point 18: Information concerning the cost of Office 2019 be provided following the meeting along with a diagram of the current Bromley network.

 

The Committee noted that the current total number of users was in the region of 1600-1650 LBB employees, 200 agency staff and 200 contractors who had equipment supplied.  Members noted that the number of users continuously fluctuated.

 

The Chairman raised concerns that Office 365 did not support PST files and that this wold have implications for Councillors who were Data Controllers in relation the personal data of residents who made contact.  The Head of ICT confirmed that consideration had been given to this and the recommendation from Microsoft was that PST files were not used. However, with the move to O365 PST files will be ingested into the mailboxes and therefore available to user that could be accessed at any time.  The Head of ICT confirmed that there would be a project plan around this issue involving full engagement with Members.

 

In response to a question, the Head of ICT confirmed that there had been extensive consultation with Departments prior to the report being drafted.  The report presented to the Committee was based on business requirements and the ambition to further facilitate mobile working for those staff who worked remotely.  The Strategy presented to the Committee was a Corporate strategy reflecting input from all departments across the Council.

 

Highlighting that the IT Strategy should deliver benefits to the Council moving forward, the Chairman raised a series of technical concerns concerning the need to give further consideration to alternative WAN and LAN connections.  In response the Head of ICT confirmed that a number of options had been considered in detail prior to the proposals being presented in the report.  Following an options appraisal by BT a recommendation had been made to pursue the MPLS route in order to deliver savings.  The Head of ICT confirmed that in layman’s terms the proposal was to move towards a cloud based system.

 

The Committee felt that to deliver the maximum benefits from the Strategy service transformation would be required across the organisation moving forward.  In response the Director of Corporate Services stressed that the IT Strategy before the Committee was one of many building blocks and there was a lot more work needed to be done.  However, agreeing the IT Strategy upfront would provide the flexibility that was necessary to develop other aspects.

 

The Head of ICT confirmed that a lot of work had already been undertaken.  Meetings had taken place with other local authorities who had gone down the route proposed in the report in order to ensure that lessons could be learnt.  As a result of the work that had already been undertaken the Head of ICT confirmed that he was quietly confident that the project would be delivered on time.

 

The Committee recommended that in the next phase of work consideration should be given to how IT transformation could be used to improve services, improve the lives of staff in terms of flexible and home working, and deliver efficiencies.  In addition to this the Committee recommended that all options concerning WAN and LAN connections should be considered further.

 

RESOLVED: That the Executive be recommended to:

 

(a)  Endorse the ICT strategy attached as Appendix 1 of the report.

 

(b)  Note the information and agree to the procurement of End of Life (EoL) IT infrastructure and the proposed work to be undertaken to upgrade and replace the platforms as set out in this report.

 

(c)  Recommend that Council approves the addition of £5.381m to the Capital Programme to undertake the delivery of the ICT transformation project between 2019 and 2022, funded from a total reduction of £1.925m to existing IT capital schemes, and £3.5m set aside in the Technology Fund earmarked reserve from underspends in 2018/19.

 

(d)  Agree a hybrid approach of ‘on premise’ and cloud IT infrastructure to facilitate the upgrade requirements as detailed in paragraph 3.6.7.

 

(e)  Agree that the Director of Corporate Services is given delegated authority in consultation with the Portfolio Holder to agree the cloud or 3rd party cloud solution, as needed for Disaster Recovery (DR) and for Business Continuity (BC).

 

(f)  Agree the use of Westminster Pan-London Framework and utilise the current service provider, BT, to deliver the upgrade and procure the services and supplies detailed in the report Where in the opinion of the Director of Corporate Services a separate procurement is required or desirable, agree to delegate authority to the  Director of Corporate Services in consultation with the Portfolio Holder, to authorise the use of an appropriate framework or alternative procurement route.

 

(g)  Agree the creation of up to 3 FTE temporary posts if required to support, coordinate and manage the delivery of the projects for a period of 27 months, as set out in the report.

 

(h)  Agree that any future development costs for systems will be funded from the Capital Programme, as and when new system development is required, enabling revenue saving of £170k to reduce the growth.

 

(i)  Agree additional net growth of £92k for 2018/19 and £394k per annum from 2019/20 to cover the licensing, support and system running costs.

 

(j)  Note that it is estimated that a further £250k may be required to undertake the reviews of the LoB Systems and the potential replacement costs for those Line of Business Systems could be up to £5m in the next three years;

 

(k)  Agree that in the next phase of work consideration should be given to how IT transformation could be used to improve services, improve the lives of staff in terms of flexible and home working, and deliver efficiencies; and

 

(l)  Agree that all options concerning WAN (including SD WAN and WAN over the internet) and LAN connections should be considered further.