Agenda item

To receive and consider the attached report of the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development.

The Head of Scrutiny and Member Development submitted a quarterly ‘Recommendation Tracking’ report updating Board Members on progress in respect of the recommendations arising from previous Scrutiny Inquiries in relation to Attendance Management, Procurement of Services and Member Development.

In addition to the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development, also in attendance at the meeting, and responding to Members’ queries and comments, were:-

-  Wayne Baxter, Chief Procurement Officer.

-  Richard Moss-Blundell. Environment and Neighbourhoods Department.

In brief summary, the main issues discussed were:-

Procurement of Services

·  The number of quotations normally sought for jobs 

It was considered that six to eight quotes or tenders would be the optimum – depending upon the EU tendering procedure adopted.

For tenders sourced from approved lists, it was normally six – three firms by rotation and three firms based on previous performance

·  Whether a ‘One Council Commissioning Framework’ could be enforced across all directorates

It was explained that category management was a key element of the ‘One Council Commissioning Framework’ approach and was a methodology advocated as best practice in the public and private sector.  Once the council had identified a best practice approach across a category of spend, it was anticipated that that approach would be enforced across all areas of the Council.  The Council was currently leading the ‘Smarter Procurement’ work programme of the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Programme (RIEP), and had secured funding to develop a regional approach to Category Management.  It was planned to develop the Council’s own in-house approach in tandem with this development

·  It was hoped that the RIEP approach would also benefit the Council in other key areas such as the Category Management, Contract Management Training and re-negotiation of existing contracts.to achieve improvements or efficiencies

·  Wayne Baxter undertook to arrange for Members to receive more detailed information in respect of PFI contracts from Dave Outram, Chief Officer (Planning, Policy and Improvement).  He also undertook to ensure that Members were supplied with a report regarding developing the challenge element of the one-council commissioning framework, which was due to be considered by the Council Leadership Team on 28^th July

·  It was too early to assess or measure any tangible improvements or savings occurring from this direction of travel, but ‘Savings’ and ‘Achievements’ registers were being established in order that tangible evidence was available as progress was made

Attendance Management

·  Action was continuing to progress the Board’s recommendations, which had been endorsed by the Executive Board on 13^th May 2009.  All Departments were carrying out checks in conjunction with the Council’s Business Support Centre (BSC) on the monitoring and progress of their own sickness absences, and also regarding the skills and competency levels of their managers in respect of attendance management

·  Similarly, there was an increased emphasis on line managers engaging proactively with staff, not only in a supportive way, but also in respect of emphasising adherence to policies and procedures and instilling an attendance culture

·  The direction of travel was showing encouraging signs, with an overall reduction in the total number of sick days recorded and good dialogue between management and the unions at senior level

·  The pilot shift swap system, involving refuse collection staff, had been delayed by some ‘service sensitivities’, but all the groundwork had been done to enable this to progress as soon as these issues were resolved

·  The Council’s new dedicated Occupational Health Service had embedded, and was progressing issues such as the ‘fit for work’ initiative and discussions with local health professionals on this and other areas of mutual benefit

Member Development

No issues were raised under this heading

RESOLVED – That, subject to the above comments and requests for further information, the monitoring report be received and noted.

(NB:-

1)  Councillor J Bale declared a personal interest in this item in his capacity as a Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Building;

2)  Councillor J Lewis left the meeting at 10.33 am, during the consideration of this item.)