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Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 9

Cllr Foulkes moved the meeting on to the Policy Unit report. Jim Wilkie said he had been critical of the formation of a policy unit, but it would have to be at the heart of the decision making process. It would initially agree policies to be implemented. He was aware of the changes in circumstances, … Continue reading “Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 9”

Cllr Foulkes moved the meeting on to the Policy Unit report. Jim Wilkie said he had been critical of the formation of a policy unit, but it would have to be at the heart of the decision making process. It would initially agree policies to be implemented. He was aware of the changes in circumstances, the corporate pan, the work on child poverty and the discussion at the Employment and Appointments Committee which had referred it back to this committee. It would be established by seconding existing staff and somebody would be needed to head it up. He wanted feedback of views on its precise role which he would take into account. If people were seconded it would have an impact on the departments they were seconded from.

Cllr Green said he was not altogether clear on the policy unit as theoretically councillors should decide policy. He said there used to be a policy unit. He said people develop policy all over the place and if there was a central unit which everything went to it would just get bigger and bigger. This would then only look at what everybody ese was doing. He said was not clear and wanted to see how it would fit into overall governance. He asked “Why invent the wheel without clarity?” and how they had “let Carolyn go”.

Cllr Phil Davies said the benefit of a unit would be horizon scanning, which would give them the ability and capability to see what was coming down the track whether this be legislation or key issues. He said at the moment this was a struggle as people were busy operating services, but there were “big challenges on the way”.

Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 8

Cllr Foulkes said the report raised two issues. The first would help feed into the corporate governance work program, the other issue was to do with the work stream which would have to bid into the Budget.

Cllr Anne McArdle raised the issue of external customers, schools, what schools needs and school employment.

Bill Norman said his department provides human resources and a significant level of employment related advice to schools as well as legal and committee services. More work on the latter would limit their capacity to give advice to schools and deal with admission appeals.

Cllr Ann McLachlan said that 4.9 was a useful starting point. Bill Norman replied that David Smith had made a helpful point, Cabinet has bulky three-week agendas and it was a matter of deciding the best way of using time.

Cllr Foulkes raised the issue of Anna’s seminar to all councillors. He asked that they do their level best. Cllr Phil Davies said Bill had made a good start on the challenges, but asked what the options were of addressing the challenges? He asked if other councils had looked at the same challenges and how Wirral Council would go about addressing them?

Cllr Green said the wanted to highlight the requirement of making it clear how the review of services would be laid out and answering the question “What sort of Council do we want?”. He had a strong opinion but he wanted to avoid producing unnecessary reports which would be avoided by a clear and agreed set of requirements.

Corporate Governance Committee (Wirral Council) 26th October 2011 5.00pm (Committee Room 1) Part 7

Cllr Ann McLachlan said they should not be diverted from their primary purpose or stretching too thin. She said they needed focus. Cllr Foulkes said to tell him what they wanted but it would have a direct effect on resource implications (which he said was not unique to Wirral Counci). Cllr Phil Davies said Jim Wilkie would bring a report back to the next meeting about the turnaround team. Cllr Foulkes said there was an issue of resources and backfilling people if they were diverted from their job. Jim Wilkie said they would use whatever resources were necessary.

Anna Klonowski said they had to make sure they had the right people with the right experience. Cllr McArdle said [to Anna] that she “may be surprised at the talent”.

David Smith introduced the Internal Audit report and said it was important to mention Internal Audit and there were a couple of things in paragraph 4.2 that might justify diverting attention and it would be worthwhile to seek external views. Ian Coleman would be reporting back at the beginning of December which was a challenging timescale. Cllr Foulkes asked if people were happy, so the report was agreed.

Bill Norman talked about the review of Legal and Committee services. He said they had started the process of reviewing one of the key support areas and that Anna’s corporate governance report was a spear in terms of going forward. It did create additional areas of pressure, but the approach in 4.14 should help councillors take decisions and for them to be implemented.

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.