Category: Council Excellence

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 4 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)

There were one or two projects that had been initiated as a result of the Wirral’s Future – Be a Part of It in relation to fees. He said there could be scrutiny by the overview and scrutiny committees regarding emerging ideas. Regarding resource implications, a lot could be contained within existing resources. The board … Continue reading “Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 4 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)”

There were one or two projects that had been initiated as a result of the Wirral’s Future – Be a Part of It in relation to fees. He said there could be scrutiny by the overview and scrutiny committees regarding emerging ideas. Regarding resource implications, a lot could be contained within existing resources. The board had stepped back to monthly meetings which was better. Most problems were smoothed out before reaching the board. He said lots of people were working hard and that the appendices don’t list the individual status of projects. There was approval at each gate which was enshrined within the governance arrangements. He was happy to answer and questions from councillors.

Cllr Gilchrist started by referring to section 4.9.1 in relation to skills and capacities. He said he had had problems when emailing people who had left. He asked if Wirral Council had retained people to manage things? He queried whether consultants would be needed and highlighted that Chief Officers could hire consultants up to a certain figure, without approval by councillors.

Mr. Green responded that the strategic change office had 4 1/2 staff, but it would be nice to have more. Of all the projects initiated and that had moved through the process none had needed consultants. However consultant support could be added. He said Friday’s board meeting was considering six projects. Some were still held at the project approval stage and resource requirements needed to be considered. Ideally the resources could be found from inside the Council.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 3 – Strategic Change Programme update (continued)

He outlined the cautious approach referring to section 4.5 of the report in relative to savings in 2011/2012. The savings were agreed by Chief Officers, Mr. Green, the project managers and the Director of Finance (Ian Coleman).

The program could be accelerated, but they didn’t want to overstate the benefits. They had made sure there was no double counting as a result of the EVR (Early Voluntary Redundancy). They were following good project management protocols and the papers for the next Board meeting were an inch thick. 4.8 showed they were making sure deadlines were met of the business as usual projects. 4.9 detailed the efforts to make sure there was no double counting as a result of the EVR. He thought they had found a delivery mechanism that works. There was oversight of individual projects.

At this point, 6.30pm Cllr Kearney arrived (late). Mr. Green continued by saying they were expanding the program. 4.9.6 outlined the strategic importance of the change program. Each have risks and a risk register. The oversight was provided by the Strategic Change Office and there was an overall risk register with oversight provided by the Strategic Change Board. There was quality assurance and it was an evolving process which was being constantly reviewed. There would be some “bumps along the way”. It was not realistic to say that every project will deliver every penny of savings.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 2 – Strategic Change Programme update

Cllr Green joked that the chair “doesn’t want to do that”, Cllr Gilchrist pointed out that this item had been before us several times and there were revisions to the report in the supplementary agenda.

He said that councillors were anxious to see the meat on a lot of projects and were well disposed towards Green and Green. He referred to the monthly board meetings with the next one being on Friday. Cllr Davies asked (directed to Cllr Green and Mr. Green) if the committee could refer to you as the Greens?

Mr. Green said he was happy to go home. He apologised regarding the original report. He had been on holiday when it was written. It was not possible to include details of actual programs. He talked about the approach to governance, risk management, project management tools and administrative processes. The same report was going to Cabinet on Thursday to note the progress and agree the content. There would be a budget resolution seminar. He referred to the efficiencies outlined in section 4.4 of the report which can be read here.

In total there were £10.725 million of savings made from £1.4 million of SCP projects, £2.6 million of business as usual efficiency projects and £6.8 million outlined in appendix C regarding reform of adult social services.

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 31/1/2011 Part 1

Present at the start of the meeting was Cllr Meaden (as a deputy for Cllr McArdle), Cllr Brighouse (Vice-Chair), Cllr Stapleton, Cllr Kenny, Cllr Davies (Phil), Cllr Gilchrist (Chair), Cllr Keeley, Cllr McCubbin and Cllr Williams.

In addition the following Cabinet members (who aren’t part of the committee but their presence can be requested by the committee were present):- Cllr Jeff Green (Finance), Cllr Simon Holbrook (Corporate Services), Cllr Bob Moon (Social Care and Inclusion) and Cllr Lesley Rennie (Streetscene and Transport).

The agenda and associated reports for the meeting are here.

The meeting started with Cllr Meaden declaring an interest regarding her daughter and Children’s Services.

The minutes of the meetings on the 18th November, 22nd November and 8th December were agreed.

The meeting proceeded to item 3, an update on the Strategic Change Programme. The Chair also reordered the agenda so that item 7, a presentation on performance management would be heard after item 3.