Author: John Brace

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Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 8 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)

Cllr Gilchrist referred to the Cabinet report of the 15th October 2009. He stated that this report had said by April 2011 the target was for 30% to have personal budgets. He then referred to project 33. He said Social Services reform had been more difficult. There were people that we had to help and … Continue reading “Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 8 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)”

Cllr Gilchrist referred to the Cabinet report of the 15th October 2009. He stated that this report had said by April 2011 the target was for 30% to have personal budgets. He then referred to project 33. He said Social Services reform had been more difficult. There were people that we had to help and look after sensitively and that there had been delays that weren’t envisaged.

Mr. Green said this was one of the benefits of this approach. This had been a project with no associated savings. As it had been no set out as a project there had been no oversight. It was not just about financial savings but transformation too. In the program was a major piece of work. They would measure the performance and learn lessons whilst applying project management skills. There was no reason why it couldn’t become a Corporate Project Delivery program.

Cllr Salter asked about the reprovision of in-house care services and the homes that would close. Had suitable alternative providers been found?

Cllr Green answered that to be precise he should ask the Director of Adult Social Services. However he was assured they had the right people in place. It was an amber but he was still confident it would be achieved.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 7 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)

Cllr green continued by saying that next Friday there would be pressure over some of the projects with £0 gains. If additional capacity was put towards these there would be added benefits. He said he was being honest and clear. He said he was to trying to be clear and careful regarding achieving the benefits.

Cllr Phil Davies said he had one more question about governance. In paragraph 5 he recognised the main risk was projects not being delivered. It was being carefully monitored by the Scrutiny Programme Change Board and office. Quality assurance was being provided by the Director of Fiance. He wanted some assurance that if things went “off the rails” that Scrutiny councillors would be told of problems during the year if the projects were not delivering.

Cllr Green said they were better at project management and there was a proper risk register. This was available for people to see. The risk management strategy led to a greater deal of transparency. Where there is a risk, the key thing was mitigation. He was confident at the moment. He would identify projects if they were missing key stages and tell individual scrutiny councillors.

Mr. Green said that there was a plan. The projects that made up the program featured in the performance monitoring reports which was reported on a quarterly basis to scrutiny committees. Performance was also monitored regarding the corporate plan, which would be coming to overview and scrutiny committees too.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 6 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)

Mr Green answered that he was very confident. Regarding the status across all project, the project manager had signed off as had the Chief Officer. In addition so had the Director of Finance and the SCP office. He said analysts had gone through, so had accountants and it had been signed off by all parties. The only caveat was being realistic and honest. He said there will be ups and downs. For example the £200,000 PACSPE saving might be £210,000 or £240,000. There was a reason behind the cautious approach. If brought forward some projects would bring added savings which might add up to more than £10.75 million.

Cllr Phil Davies referred to appendix C (the DASS transformation programme highlighting the two largest savings which totalled £7 million. He asked for the confidence that these two Social Services savings will be met.

Mr. Green replied that it was the same as before. Projects had been signed off and they had made sure there was no double counting as a result of the EVR. One reason why the market management project could fail would be if suppliers didn’t accept the new price.

Cllr Green said from he had years of experience in being told they would do things and then were not able to. The previous track record had been quite considerable amounts of savings. The work required discipline and analysts. The Director of Finance had spoken with DASS regarding how realistic the figures are. For example there were no amounts for assistive technology. Asking questions realised benefits over and above the savings that were originally claimed. Where things change they were keeping a record as to why and what so it could be tracked back.

Street level crime website up and running

Street level crime website up and running

Street level crime website up and running

                               

As mentioned yesterday there were initial problems with the new “crime map website”. However the problems have since been fixed and you can go to the website to see what types of crimes have been reported in your neighbourhood (for the month of December 2010) and the location.

Clearly there’s probably nothing new for people who have lived in an area for a while, although I did notice a link between locations of local off licences and crimes recorded. It does however show the Community Mobile Police Station is in the right place, although I would guess some of the crimes reported in the area around it are to do with the crowds that visit the strip of pubs and clubs in Birkenhead (again possibly alcohol related). It is an improvement over the current way of reporting statistics and gives a more visual feel to reported crimes.

Hopefully Inspector McGregor (or one of his sergeants) will be at the Area Forum tonight to answer any crime-related queries.

38 Degrees – Save Our Forests campaign

I have been contacted by a resident about the Save Our Forests campaign which is regarding the government’s plans regarding the Forestry Commission. Locally Lib Dem councillors recently voted to increase the size of the Bidston Hill site of biological importance (which is a material consideration when deciding planning applications). Also Norman Street and Upper Brassey Street have had fifty trees planted (which makes both streets look more pleasant). The current position of the Lib Dems (and the coalition government is outlined below).

The government wants to resolve the current conflict that exists within the Forestry Commission as it’s a supplier of timber and regulator of that industry. The forests will be protected for future generations, although commercial interests may get forest land this will be in the form of a lease with strict protections built in rather than a direct sale of the land.

Public access and biodiversity will be protected and there will be safeguards to protect the public interest. First refusal will be given to community bodies and civil society organisations. Land owners will still need a licence for felling more than five cubic metres of growing trees. 70% of England’s woodland is already in private hands, the Forestry Commission controls 18%. The overall aim is to allow those who live closer to the forests greater powers to protect them.

When in government Labour sold over 25,000 acres of woodland with barely any protection. However the Lib Dem/Conservative government will put in place safeguards to protect public access, the natural environment and the interests of local communities.

The government is also planning to plant one million trees in urban and suburban areas in the next four years, which will be the first government tree planting campaign since the 1970s. There is a consultation process and the Coalition Government is trying to reassure the public that they will protect our forests better than ever before.