Month: November 2011

Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 6

Cllr Harney said he agreed with all that, but he’d appreciate a flowchart with the key dates. He said the approach with reviews and milestones would be helpful as each stage was reached, this way he would know they were “all singing from the same hymn sheet”. Jim Wilkie agreed and said that in the … Continue reading “Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 6”

Cllr Harney said he agreed with all that, but he’d appreciate a flowchart with the key dates. He said the approach with reviews and milestones would be helpful as each stage was reached, this way he would know they were “all singing from the same hymn sheet”.

Jim Wilkie agreed and said that in the report perhaps he had not expressed himself clearly enough. Cllr Phil Davies said he agreed a dedicated budget, councillor involvement and prioritisation but he asked what the priorities are? He said it has “to be given time and space”. Cllr Foulkes mentioned the drafting in of external resource. Cllr Green said it would be subject to appropriate procurement. Jim Wilkie said it would have to do, they would revisit the prioritisation but as an organisation they needed to think where they wanted to be in six months or so.

Cllr Foulkes said that councillors needed to have discipline, be calm and that they couldn’t have Notices of Motion to Council instructing the Chief Executive to take on new work as this would be consuming lots of people’s time. The democracy issue and the budget reminded me of a quote from the Goon Show “quickly surround Africa”.

Jim Wilkie said the comments useful and that the fund would be open to the group under the new committee structure. Cllr Foulkes said he was anxious not to confuse the two. He talked about the perception of councillors and the Democracy Working Group. He was anxious to keep two strands and not to do that at this point of time. He needed to look at the consensus of the new system of governance and asked councillors if they were happy with what was decided?

Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 5

Cllr Foulkes said they had additional recommendations so that all councillors and all political parties were involved. He said they needed more work as part of a wider program specifically around councillor involvement at every stage. The Budget was serious and they would be putting resources in. The Cabinet committee agreed in principle to a specific budget, with further reports on how and where the money would be identified. He asked if they agree to delegate to the Chief Executive over the staffing?

Jim Wilkie said it would be helpful.

Cllr Foulkes said there would be a basic structure initially. Jim Wilkie said there would be the three statutory officers plus David [Smith] and Rob Beresford. He said one other officer was on holiday so he couldn’t mention the name, but they would allocate considerable resources to support the work which would include procurement and Internal Audit.

Cllr Foulkes asked if they could add at 2.6 to delegate to Jim and the initial team?

Cllr Green said with the program and portfolio there was a need for discipline and project management. He wanted to know how much it would cost and where they were getting to which would require targets and analysis. He said it would be useful to have clarity as a way for councillors and officers to identify costs.

Jim Wilkie said the work would be directed through the committee, but they needed to recognise it was currently not working.

Cllr Foulkes said they needed the team to sit down and create a project, so he was happy to delay. Cllr Phil Davies agreed.

Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 4

Chris Hyams agreed that she would report back next time. Cllr Foulkes asked if the report was agreed. Cllr Jeff Green asked if they would use an electronic or paper based system? He would prefer them to use an electronic system for the appraisals.

Chris Hyams said they would but not in the first instance, but once it was live they would link it and log it as complete.

David Smith said they needed to consider the kind of council they wanted in six to nine months time and what information would be held electronically.

Cllr Foulkes said everything would be interlinked and thanked Chris.

Jim Wilkie introduced the report on corporate governance. He said items three and four on the agenda were interlinked. He said the reports described how it would be organised. Mr. Wilkie also said there were comprehensive work plans, which had the capacity to be complex and confusing which set out the main issues and key lines of enquiry as well as what was to be done, who would do it and the timelines. Resources were required and there were interdependencies. There was enough work to do but a limited amount of time. They might need additional external support to supplement Anna Klonowoski which would give an external perspective as well as help with backfilling. He asked the committee for its initial views and secondly its views or reaction over the allocation of resources. He asked if there should be a dedicated budget and said it was important for councillors across the organisation to be involved in the process.

Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 3

Cllr Tom Harney said there were two things. The first was the business of when, he wanted a finite date and said it “can’t wait forever” and “if we miss the date we should do something about it”. The second was that [the Cabinet]’s job was to manage and they were responsible for managing people, this can’t wait six months.

Cllr Foulkes said their credibility hinged on redefining corporate governance. Imparting core skills on people he didn’t see as a problem. However there might be smaller adjustments at the end. He wanted to make as much progress as he could without damaging the integrity of the system. Cllr Foulkes said he noted the report fed into the wider discussion. He took on board Tom’s point, but there was enough in the Anna Klonowski Associates report. First they would deal with the two hundred top managers making small minor improvements, he said they would “not just carry on what we’ve done before” which was waiting for policy.

Cllr Ann McArdle said the worst thing they could do would be to destroy the integrity of the process.

Chris Hyams talked about the objectives and expectations and steering the meeting through a difficult conversation.

Cllr Phil Davies said he worried about launching a training program. He went on to talk about the culture, roles, responsibilities and behaviours which were linked. He worried that Chris’ training should look at all component parts.

Anna Klonowski said the tools and techniques used shouldn’t undermine what was a precursor to launching anything.

Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 2

The Chief Executive Jim Wilkie said it had been commissioned before Anna [Klonowski]’s work. He said that in the clear light of Anna’s report that there were important connections and this was an opportunity for the committee to give its view. He asked if it is correct and if not correct they would bring it back quickly. They would get on with the performance appraisals as soon as possible but were looking for guidance.

Cllr Foulkes asked if Chris wanted to add anything.

Chris said the paper had been received by Cabinet and mentioned individual performance appraisals, leadership and the performance framework. Cllr Foulkes said he had a suggestion and read his recommendation. The recommendation noted the report and asked for it to be considered holistically with the wider performance framework. He asked if work could continue or if this was part of the forward work stream and compared it to the chicken and the egg.

Cllr Jeff Green said he agreed and talked about transferable skills of top senior managers. He said unless they were careful they could “gum up” but that these were “good starting points”. Cllr Green said he would’ve thought they could train people to start giving people an expectation about how the appraisal interview will be done as well as discipline over how it happens. He said one of the key priorities was over moving forward, otherwise there would be a dam later on, so it needed to be delivered to the front end and subsumed into the work program.