Agenda, decisions and minutes

No declarations of interest were made. 

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meetings held on 28^th January, 31^st January and 14 February 2013.

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. 

The minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 28 and 31 January 2013 and 14 February 2013 had been circulated to Members with the agenda.

14 February 2013

            Councillor M. Bateman thanked officers for the response that she had received to her question on the overspend of £0.044m in relation to additional superannuation costs but explained that she required further information.  It was agreed that she would speak with the Head of Finance following the meeting. 

            Councillor H. Bateman asked whether the gas engines at the landfill sites had been inherited or purchased by Flintshire County Council.  The Member Engagement Manager explained that they were inherited when Flintshire County Council took over Alyn & Deeside District Council in 1996. 

            Councillor P. Shotton thanked officers for the response he had received on the Flintshire County Council Bond Scheme and welcomed the help that it provided to young people. 

            Councillor P.G. Heesom referred to the comments of the Leader of the Council at the previous meeting on the need to approach the redesign of the management structure in a methodical manner.  He felt that this was a high priority in the future of the Council and requested that it be taken forward as early as possible and that it be as inclusive as it could be.  The Leader of the Council reminded Members that the Chairman of this Committee was a representative on the Flintshire Futures Board and that updates would be reported back to Members. 

            Councillor A.I. Dunbar said that it was important that meetings were not arranged to clash with meetings already in the diary and referred to a recent meeting of Planning Strategy Group which had to be cancelled due to a clash of meetings.  The Member Engagement Manager advised that he would speak to Councillor Dunbar following the meeting. 

RESOLVED:

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. 

That the report be noted.        

The Chief Executive introduced Karen Lees from the Wales Audit Office (WAO) to the meeting.  He explained that the report had been approved by Cabinet and noted by the Audit Committee at its recent meeting.   

Ms. Lees introduced the report to advise the Committee of the Council’s Improvement Assessment Letter 2013 from the Auditor General for Wales.  She explained that the assessment had been undertaken to establish whether the Council was working effectively and efficiently. 

Ms. Lees provided a detailed presentation on the report and highlighted the following areas:-

• the Council had discharged its improvement planning duties under the Local Government Measure but it should ensure that it acted more in accordance with Welsh Government Guidance. 
• the 10 priorities which represented the Council’s Improvement Objectives complied with at least one of the seven ‘aspects of improvement’ described in the measure. 
• the presentation of the plan could be improved to achieve the delivery of two functions to provide an internal management tool and an external facing document for the public 
• the Council acknowledged that, in any particular year some of its Improvement Objectives would receive greater attention and priority than others so that its focus in a single year was more sharply defined to encourage citizens to engage more fully with the Council’s planning and performance. 
• The Annual Performance Report complied with the measure but it was reported the Council should ensure that it acted more in accordance with Welsh Government Guidance. 
• The report was published on time and included an explanation of how its content contributed to the Council’s statutory duty to ‘make arrangements to secure continuous improvement and account for it’. 
• Flintshire’s performance in 2011-12 was better than the national average in over two-thirds of the statutory and non-statutory national indicators. 
• The report included a clear overall assessment, using a ‘Red, Amber, Green’ (RAG) colour coding, of how well the Council considered that it performed during 2011-12 against each of its 10 Improvement Objectives. 
• it was a long and detailed document and although it was clearly written on the whole, it did not enable the reader to grasp readily a succinct evaluation of what the Council intended to achieve during the year, the resulting benefits to the public and what needed to be improved in the future. 
• Social Services and Education had produced mature service-specific analyses of their performance, but this maturity was not fully replicated in the Council’s Annual Performance Report.
• the Council’s on-going review of its governance arrangements was wide-ranging and well-evidenced and the accuracy of the Council’s performance data had improved but there remained scope to improve the use of data in the Council’s self-evaluation.

In conclusion, Ms. Lees said that there were no formal recommendations in the letter but four proposals for improvement had been suggested. 

Councillor A.P. Shotton, the Leader of the Council, reiterated the comments made at the Cabinet meeting and welcomed the comments made by the WAO in the Assessment Letter.  He emphasised the importance of taking the comments on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83.

(a)       That the report be received;      

(b)       That an annual report be submitted to the Committee on the new service and a further information report being made at the point of transition; and

(c)        That feedback following any major incidents be reported to Committee. 

The Chief Executive introduced a report to allow the Committee to comment on the report which had been submitted to Cabinet on 19 February 2013. 

He reminded Members that it was a small service which had a low financial value and risk.  It was reported that in North Wales, the configuration was five separate service units with a shared service in Flintshire and Denbighshire.  He spoke of the recent issues which the Emergency Planning Service had been involved with which included the recent floodings at St. Asaph.  The proposal was to provide a regional service with a sub-regional service structure, a regional manager leading one hub and the other being led by a Deputy regional manager and an Emergency Planning Officer in each local authority.  The Chief Executive felt that the proposal for a regional service would give Flintshire a more resilient service, would lead to improved partnership working and would meet Ministerial expectations.  He suggested that an annual monitoring report could be considered by the Committee and that a report following any major incidents be submitted to Members. 

The Chairman spoke of his experience of emergency planning and explained that local input was still needed in the development of a regional plan.  He concurred with the suggestion for Committee to receive an annual update and a debrief report when necessary.  Councillor A.I. Dunbar raised concern that a regional manager would not be based at both hubs.  The Chief Executive responded that he was confident that this would work well and reiterated the comments about the need for local knowledge when developing the plan.  Councillor A. Woolley referred to one of the recommendations that Flintshire would host the new service and lead the transition to the new service.  He commented on the need to ensure that there were adequate resources in place to carry out the work required.  He raised concern that the reduction of regional costs to £75,000 per annum would be consumed by inflation but welcomed the overall intent.  The Chief Executive confirmed that updates would be provided to a future meeting in the transition and post-implementation stages.   

In response, the Chief Executive said that saving money was not the objective of the plan but said that there would be a minor cost benefit.  He explained that resilience and best use of resources were challenges for the future but commented on examples of cross border working, ‘gold’ incidents which involved many of the emergency services and on occasions mutual aid agreements.       

Councillor M. Bateman sought assurance that the Health Service would be able to cope in an emergency.  In response, the Chief Executive said that testing had shown that all of the emergency services worked well together but that it was likely that non-critical health services would be suspended during an emergency.  The Leader of the Council referred to paragraph 3.06 where it was reported that once the service was established, consideration would be given to the potential of joint services with Police, Fire and Health. 

Councillor R.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84.

            That the report be noted.          

Revenue Budget Monitoring 2012/13 (Month 9)

            The Head of Finance introduced a report to provide Members with the most up to date Revenue Budget Monitoring information (Month 9) for the Council Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) in 2012/13 which was being submitted to Cabinet on 19 March 2013. 

            The projected year end underspend of £0.856m on the Council Fund was an increase in the underspend reported at Month 8.  Appendix 1 showed a summary of movement from Month 8 and reported that the majority of changes were in Community Services.  Two requests for carry forward were being recommended to Cabinet for Legal & Democratic Services and ICT & Customer Services.  Appendix 7 provided details on the movements of unearmarked reserves to leave a projected level of Contingency Reserve at 31 March 2013 as £0.445m.  The Head of Finance explained that this amount was in addition to the Base Level of reserves of £5.564m and the amount of £0.770m approved by Cabinet on 19 February 2013 for the impact of the provision for Mutual Municipal Insurance scheme of arrangement.  An underspend of £0.471m on the HRA was also reported but there were delegated powers arrangements in place for it to be spent on investment in the housing stock. 

            Councillor P.G. Heesom referred to the two entries in appendix 7 for approvals made in 2011/12 and asked whether these had now been dispensed with.  In response the Head of Finance said that the £1.500m referred to in appendix 7 had been ringfenced at the end of the last financial year and had been the subject of a report to Cabinet in January 2013 which identified allocations to a number of Invest to Save projects.  Councillor Heesom highlighted the risk of planning decisions which were the subject of appeal which were reported as being costs for the appeal in relation to the Croes Atti site.  He said that he had been advised that the costs were £0.040m and not £0.020m as reported and were due to the Council’s failure to determine the application.  He also paid tribute to the work of the Head of Housing and the commitment that had been given following the result of the housing transfer ballot.

            Councillor A. Woolley queried whether any of the underspend on the Council Fund could be used to reinstate the swimming subsidy of £0.023m in 2013/14.  The Leader of the Council explained that an element of the budget underspend had already been included in the figures to achieve a balanced budget for 2013/14.  The Head of Finance advised that of the unearmarked reserves, £0.297m had been approved by Council on 1 March 2013 for funding of one-off costs in the 2013/14 budget proposals and said that it was important to reiterate the difference between one-off costs and recurring costs such as the swimming subsidy.  In response to a question from Councillor M. Bateman on whether the amount set aside for Single Status was adequate, the Chief Executive felt that the reserve was sufficient to pay  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85.

That the report be noted. 

The Chairman introduced a report to request that the Committee consider the 2012/13 Quarter 3 service performance reports and note the progress made against the Improvement Targets contained within the performance reports. 

Finance

            The Head of Finance gave a short presentation on the performance within each of the service areas, outlining work which had been undertaken to improve performance and areas where improvement was needed, as outlined within the report.

            Councillor P.G. Heesom commented on the Finance workstream of Flintshire Futures and the need to align this with work to be undertaken on the Medium Term Financial Plan.  He also highlighted problems with being able to access Lotus Notes and asked for an update on whether new software was to be purchased.  The ICT Operational Services Manager responded that he was aware of issues with Lotus Notes version 8 and that the continued use of Microsoft software was being considered. 

            Councillor A. Woolley raised concern at the evidence from the recent Universal Benefit pilot schemes held throughout the country where Housing Benefit had been paid to the recipient instead of the landlord and the problems that this had raised due to increases in rent arrears.  He asked if anything could be done to voice the concerns raised to endeavour to get the decision reversed.  The Head of Finance responded that the Head of Housing had spoken recently on the risk which was a concern for the HRA and explained that payment of rent to the tenant rather than the landlord was already in place for private tenants.  She gave assurance that the concerns had been, and would continue to be, registered through professional and stakeholder groups.   

            Councillor A.P. Shotton, the Leader of the Council, said that the issues around Welfare Reform had been raised at Group Leader’s meetings and he spoke of national lobbying through the Welsh Local Government Association on exemptions to the ‘bedroom tax’ for Foster Carers and those serving in the Armed Forces, which he welcomed.  He was due to meet with Iain Duncan-Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, and assured Members that he would raise the concerns of Members with him.  He reiterated the concerns following the results of pilot schemes which had been undertaken, particularly on Universal Credit.  He raised concern about social landlords who may experience difficulties if they did not receive the rental payments that they were owed because they were paid to the tenant.  He commented on the work being undertaken with the Flintshire Credit Union and the Discretionary Housing Payments which could be available to tenants in the short term.  

Legal and Democratic Services

            The Head of Legal and Democratic Services gave a short presentation on the performance within each of the service areas, outlining work which had been undertaken to improve performance and areas where improvement was needed, as outlined within each report. 

            Councillor C.S. Carver commented on problems that he had experienced recently about receiving electoral registration updates.  The Head of Legal and Democratic Services advised that he had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 86.

(a)       That the report be received;

(b)       That the Regional CCTV report be considered by the Committee at its meeting on the 18 April 2013;

(c)        That a report on the financial risks to the Council as a result of Welfare Reform be submitted to the Committee meeting scheduled for the 13 June 2013;

(d)       That a written update be provided to Members on Welfare Reform.  

The Member Engagement Manager introduced the report to consider the Forward Work Programme of the Committee. 

The Member Engagement Manager reminded Members of the Appraisals Workshop that had been scheduled for 10am on Thursday, 28 March 2013.  He detailed the items for the next scheduled meeting of the Committee on 18 April 2013 and explained that during earlier discussions it had been agreed that the Regional CCTV report and an update on the financial risks to the Council as a result of Welfare Reform would also be submitted to that meeting.  During a further discussion, it was agreed that the Welfare Reform Update would be submitted to the meeting scheduled for 13 June 2013. 

Councillor A.I. Dunbar asked for an update for Members to allow them to respond to questions that were being asked by residents on the effects of the Welfare Reform changes; the Chief Executive confirmed that a written response could be provided.     

Councillor P.G. Heesom raised concern about the effects of equal pay claims and Single Status.  The Chief Executive explained that confidential workshops would need to be held with Members to ensure that they were fully aware of the outcomes prior to consideration at a future Full Council meeting. 

The Chairman reminded Members that they could suggest items for future meetings of the Committee if there were any specific issues that they wanted to raise. 

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be received;

(b)       That the Regional CCTV report be considered by the Committee at its meeting on the 18 April 2013;

(c)        That a report on the financial risks to the Council as a result of Welfare Reform be submitted to the Committee meeting scheduled for the 13 June 2013;

(d)       That a written update be provided to Members on Welfare Reform.  

There was 1 member of the press and 1 member of the public in attendance.