The
Portfolio Holder for Resources, Contracts and Commissioning, Cllr
Graham Arthur, addressed the Committee highlighting that at the
start of the year, 2019 promised to be an exciting year of
significant change. The successful
outcome of the Ofsted Inspection of Children’s Services had
rightly provided a boost to Staff and Members across the
organisation.
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On 16th January 2019, the Executive would
approve the 2019/20 budget and four year financial
forecast. The report to the Executive
also identified the three major financial challenges facing the
Council which were: homelessness, learning disabilities, and adults
social care.
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Within the Portfolio, the increased workload in the
Legal Service would need to be monitored.
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Whilst the budget for 2019/20 was effectively
balanced, the medium term budget deficit would need to be
addressed.
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Three areas of growth pressure that had been
identified were: homelessness, learning disabilities, and adults
social care.
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8 years ago the Council had undertaken a core
service review which had identified statutory, desirable and
discretionary services. This had saved
operating costs of £9m per year.
However, as a result of achieving these early savings the Council
was now very efficient and opportunities for savings were much more
limited.
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The recent sale of the Old Town Hall had brought in
some additional revenue.
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There would need to be a major overhaul of working
practices in property in order to address increases in demand in
relation to temporary accommodation.
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The Boundary Commission would be undertaking a
review of Member numbers. The Portfolio
Holder noted that over the last 10 years the Council had gone
through many changes yet the Councillor and Staffing Structure had
largely remained unchanged and this needed to be reviewed and a
process of transformation was required.
The Portfolio Holder concluded his presentation by
affirming that the Council was well placed for what promised to be
a very successful year.
In
response to questions from Members, the Portfolio Holder made the
following points:
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Benefits of approximately £6m per year had
been generated by the Mears Scheme.
Under the programme the Council had acquired 400 properties which
were let to tenants for 2 years. This
meant that it was still classified as temporary
accommodation. A discussion now needed
to take place around those tenants whose tenancies were coming to
an end. Consideration needed to be
given to the next steps, such as selling the properties to the
tenants on a shared ownership basis.
The Portfolio Holder confirmed that this would not impact the
pension scheme as the Council would always look to retain 400
properties If a second iteration of the
scheme were to be embarked upon consideration would need to be
given to the new model as it was unlikely that there would be a
need to gift it to the pension fund.
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The Portfolio Holder acknowledged that Artificial
Intelligence was something to which the Council needed to give more
consideration. Whilst some staff had
basic knowledge it was likely that in order to pursue the use of
Artificial Intelligence the Council would need to bring in
additional expertise. The Portfolio
Holder had visited LB Harrow with some staff. Harrow was seen as Best Practice in this area and
it was hoped that some knowledge could be shared going
forward.
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The Portfolio Holder recognised that as part of the
commissioning process it made sense for PDS Committees to be
provided with the scoring evaluation matrices as part of contract
award reports. The Committee agreed to
recommend that detailed evaluation matrices should be included in
future award of contract reports.
Action Pont 23: that detailed evaluation
matrices should be included in future award of contract
reports.
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On the Civic Centre site both Joseph
Lancaster and Anne Springman were now
up for sale.
The Committee thanked the Portfolio Holder for his
update.