Agenda item - To receive and consider a report from the Leader of the Council without Portfolio (retaining Overarching responsibility for Governance/Policy and Performance/HR)

Agenda item

To receive and consider a report from the Leader of the Council without Portfolio (retaining Overarching responsibility for Governance/Policy and Performance/HR)

Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item; no longer than 10 minutes for  presentation of the report and then up to 3 minutes for each question to be put and answered.

 

Minutes:

The Leader presented his annual report and explained that he had broken it down into three main areas, Overarching Governance, Policy and Performance and Portfolio responsibilities regarding HR and OD.

 

In respect of performance, the Leader advised that he had recently instigated a series of review meetings to assess current performance across all portfolios and thought it fair to start with an assessment of his own areas.  Part of that review is included within the report and he was particularly interested in reviewing performance against budget to date and following up on any restructuring to monitor achievements against the original plans.  He acknowledged that some of the areas looked at also fell under Councillor Cooper’s remit and confirmed that this would be reviewed to ensure clarification.

 

The Leader advised that he was pleased with the new support structure for Members at Bromsgrove and it had certainly served him well and the more permanent presence than before was welcomed.  Savings had been made as proposed and the addition of our Procurement Officer to the team had enabled reviews of the Council’s existing contracts to ensure value for money.  The Legal Services team continued to exceed budget targets from external income and were on target to exceed an increased budget this year.  He also advised that to support the commercialism agenda the Council was obtaining ad hoc advice from various different professions until the nature of the post had been properly determined.

 

In respect of Governance, Officers had been working with the Constitution Review Working Group to review and tidy up our Constitution to be more user friendly and easier to access relevant areas.  Specific work has also been carried out regarding delegations, which is a large piece of work.  Progress has been made and specific recommendations with be forthcoming later this year.  One aim is to ensure Members are kept informed of Council activity in their area.

 

The Leader went on to say that he believed there had been an improved and constructive working relationship between Cabinet and the Overview and Scrutiny Board, additionally the role of the Finance and Budget Working Group had been particularly helpful.

 

Members were advised that they would be receiving governance suggestions from the recent Corporate Peer Review, which although received, was currently embargoed due to the elections in Redditch.  It would be release as soon as possible.

 

In respect of Performance the Leader advised that the first performance report had been made available to Cabinet using data from the Measures Dashboard.  Each report covered one of the strategic purposes from the Council Plan as well as a set of corporate measures.  In respect of HR the Leader advised that the response rate to the revised staff survey had shown a 54% return rate compared to the previously low rate.  He understood that CMT would be receiving details from this next week.  It was also noted that the Agency Supply Contract with Matrix had been reviewed and a two year with one year possible extension has been agreed.  It was anticipated that this would reduce the agency costs over the term.  It was anticipated that the implementation of the HR21 self-serve system would be a large step in reducing the old paper-based system and allow managers more speedy access to figures.

 

The Leader advised that there had been a review of the Gender Pay Gap and ways in reducing this further had been identified.  The UK figure was currently 18.1% which was much higher than the Council’s figure of 4.3%.

 

Following presentation of the report Members asked a number of questions to which the Leader responded.  These included:

 

·         Why the Peer Review report, which had been requested by this Council should be subject to an embargo from Redditch Borough Council.  It was also highlighted that as purdah had not started until March, there had been time prior to this for the report to be circulated.  The Leader confirmed that he had received this advice from the LGA who had written the report.  He assured Members he would seek further advice and if possible, release the report to the other Group Leaders as soon as possible.

·         It was noted that a CIPFA report received at Worcestershire County Council had been released, upon request, despite it being during the purdah period.

·         It was noted that the Legal Team provided Legal advice to other authorities, but Members questioned how much was paid to other legal bodies as a retainer for legal advice.  The Leader advised that he was not aware of any retainer being paid but he would clarify the position to Councillor P. McDonald outside of the meeting.

·         The Gender Pay Gap compared to other local authorities.  The Leader confirmed that Worcester City was the leading authority for Worcestershire followed by Wyre Forest and then Bromsgrove.  Regionally it was understood that the Council was in ninth place and the Leader acknowledged that there was still some way to go but progress was being made.

·         Members also requested further details in respect of the Gender Pay Gap, specifically the number of staff affected by it.  The Leader advised that he was not aware of the exact figures but would provide these outside of the meeting.

·         Discussions around opportunities for higher grade jobs for women.

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