Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 November 2009 be approved as a correct record.

Lisa Quinn – Borough Treasurer

Mark Nedderman – Senior Scrutiny Officer

Katie Smith- Scrutiny Officer

John Barrett – ICT Manager

Paul Bayley – Customer Services Manager

Councillor F Keegan – Resources Portfolio Holder

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests and for members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.

Note: In order for officers to undertake any background research, it would be helpful if members of the public contacted the Scrutiny officer listed at the foot of the agenda, at least one working day before the meeting to provide brief details of the matter to be covered. 

There were no statements from members of the public.

To consider a report from the Head of Policy and Performance.

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Policy and Performance containing an overview of the 2009-2010 mid year performance.

Mid year performance data had been received for 78 indicators out of the National Indicator set of 190. These included 21 indicators out of the 34 designated LAA targets.

Overall, performance for the 78 returns was reasonably good, with 47 of the targets having reached or exceeded their target, althoughit was reported that 31 had underperformed.

RESOLVED – That the report be received and noted.

To receive a presentation from the ICT Manager

The Committee received a presentation from John Barrett, ICT Manager on the harmonisation of ICT systems in Cheshire East.

The Council had inherited a number of ICT systems which involved a number of tasks to rationalise systems .

The network and data centre infrastructure was expensive to split – both in terms of capital investment and running costs and it was therefore currently  being run on a shared basis through a partnership with Cheshire West and Chester Council. The plan was to extend the partnerships to include the rest of the public sector.  Discussions were at an advanced stage with the Fire Service and the NHS.

A number of initiatives were underway to effect the harmonisation  including:

• Engaging with Local Strategic Partnership (LSP)
• Establishing a collaborative website
• Joint review of the future ICT requirements of each organisation in order to assess more fully, potential partnership projects.

An ICT partnership day had been held on the 26 November 2009, which had attracted over 40 IT professionals from 16 organisations. Agreement had been reached that the greatest return on Investment on undertaking Partnership working would be achieved by:

• Network Sharing and Data Centre Provision
• Procurement for ICT goods and services
• Pooling of skills and knowledge to enable improved service delivery.

An action Plan had been drawn up as follows:

·        A joint Member/Officer board to report on Development Management issues had been established.

• Formal mechanisms had been established, escalation process around problem management. Named individuals identified as first point of contact.
• Initial meetings had taken place with suppliers to discuss short term issues plus longer term strategies around the IT infrastructure to support Development Management. ICT Strategic recommendation is likely to be a full system rebuild in parallel to existing system to minimise disruption to business operation.
• Following recommendations from suppliers, design/document the architecture to support Development Management.
• Work with the ICT Shared Service to ensure the appropriate SLA’s are in place for agreed architecture.
• Ensure appropriate release management procedures are in place for Development Management applications.
• Project commissioned in ICT Shared Service to undertake above work. ICT Strategy will oversee the project throughout the full project lifecycle.
• Detailed Project Plan available mid December.
• Project commissioned in ICT Shared Service to undertake above work. ICT Strategy will oversee the project throughout the full project lifecycle.
• Detailed Project Plan available mid December.

To receive a presentation from the Customer Services Manager.

The Customer Services Manager outlined the procurement arrangements to secure a Customer Relation Management System (CRM) for Cheshire East.

The CRM would help to resolve the majority of customer enquiries at the first point of contact and to improve accessibility of Council Services in terms of locations, opening hours, access channels and links to other organisations.

The CRM would:

• Develop more responsive customer services; organised to reflect customer characteristics, preferences and life events such as starting school

• Improve the accessibility of Council services in terms of locations, opening hours, access channels and links to other organisations

To consider setting up a  Budget Task and Finish Group of 7 Members on a 4:1:1:1 basis.

The Committee considered putting in place, arrangements to manage Overview and Scrutiny involvement in the budget setting process for 2010/2011. The Committee had received a briefing on the budget consultation process to date, at an informal meeting prior to the meeting, at which it had been suggested that a panel of members drawn from all Overview and Scrutiny Committees should develop a programme after the Christmas holidays.

RESOLVED – That a Budget Consultation group be set up on a 4:1:1:1 basis consisting of the following members; the group be authorised to agree its own terms of reference with a view to advising the Borough Treasurer and Cabinet on the process to involve Overview and Scrutiny in the 2010/2011 budget setting process:

Councillors

A R Thwaite – Chairman Corporate Scrutiny (Con)

G Walton- Chairman Environment and Prosperity (Con)

R Westwood – Chairman Children and Families (Con)

S Wilkinson – Vice – Chairman Sustainable Communities (Con)

G Baxendale – Vice –Chairman Health and Adult Social Care (Con)

J Narraway - Vice –Chairman Corporate Scrutiny (LD)

S  Conquest -  Corporate Scrutiny (Lab)

P Edwards - Corporate Scrutiny (Ind)