Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 April 2009 were approved as a correct record. 

The Chairman referred to the Committee’s previous request for information following the recommendations of the Communications and Media IMG, as set out on page 12 of the agenda, Mrs Taylor agreed to chase the items up.

Mr Hart referred to the Mosaic report which the Committee requested sight of at their last meeting.  The report stated that Freedom Pass holders from more affluent areas were dominant compared to young people in less affluent areas, this was an issue that the Committee wanted to address.  The Chairman reported to the Committee feedback from the Cabinet meeting on 20 April - comments regarding Kent Freedom Pass were noted but for clarity Cabinet wished to record that fact that whilst it fully supported the review of the existing scheme it could not give any form of commitment to it being extended to cover the 16 – 18 year old group, because of the significant effect that would have in terms of the budget.  A possible source of some funding could be through the colleges of further education and that possibility should be investigated.  Mr Truelove suggested that the Committee should continue to sustain the argument that the scheme should be extended to the 16 – 18 year old year groups and to children who travel outside of Kent.  Mrs Dean referred to a previous request for proposals from the Cabinet Member about how the County Council might address the promotion of the Kent Freedom Pass scheme and asked that this be followed up.  Mr Simmonds suggested that these points be taken up by the review in September.  Mrs Dean had concerns over the timing, new passes were due to be issued in June and Mr Sass confirmed that the IMG that the Committee had previously agreed to set up could take up the point of publicising the Freedom Pass.  The Chairman suggested that a note be sent to the Cabinet Member and the relevant Officers pointing out the issues around the timing of the IMG and the distribution of Freedom Passes in June and also to asking them to give some preliminary consideration to improvements in the publicity of the Freedom Pass.  Mrs Law suggested that the Youth Advisory Group should be involved in any review of the Freedom Pass.

Members noted the information contained within the report.

Mr Chard and Ms McMullan were present for this item.

An addendum report relating to the Council’s treasury management function had been tabled for Members’ consideration.  Mr Simmonds summarised the debate at the Budget IMG and explained that the discussions around treasury management had been superseded by the tabled paper which contained a proposal from the Leader of the Council – that an Advisory Group should be formed. 

Mr Smyth explained to the Committee that he supported the original proposal of the Budget IMG that treasury management would be scrutinised by the Budget IMG on a quarterly basis, it was a dynamic and useful way of involving Members in the treasury management process.   The proposal within the addendum report was to create a sub committee of the Cabinet and Mr Smyth had concerns that this group would not have the degree of detachment that a group dealing with treasury management should have.  In his opinion it was an inferior proposal to the recommendation of the Budget IMG.  Mr Simmonds considered that it was right that the Cabinet was aware of the Council’s actions regarding treasury management at the earliest opportunity, but that the proposal did not preclude the Budget IMG being involved.  Mrs Dean explained that she did not agree with the recommendations of the Budget IMG, her preference was for this role to be undertaken by the Governance and Audit Committee.  Mrs Dean requested that in relation to the membership of the proposed Treasury Advisory Group, group Leaders had the flexibility to nominate Members onto the group with special expertise.  She also requested that the minutes of the meetings of the Treasury Advisory Group be reported to the Governance and Audit Committee and the Budget IMG as a matter of course. 

Mrs Dean stated that her understanding was that the Audit Commission stated that reports should at least go to the Governance and Audit Committee, which did not happen at KCC.  Ms McMullan clarified that reports did go to the Governance and Audit Committee and KCC did comply with all the best practice guidelines.  The Treasury Advisory Group was vital for pre-scrutiny in a private and confidential setting.  The Governance and Audit Committee was a webcast meeting so the information that was able to be shared would be more restricted.

Mr Chard stated that he supported the proposal within the addendum report and he was relaxed about the membership of the Treasury Advisory Group. 

Mr Northey asked that the options paper relating to the POCs involvement in the budget setting process and the paper detailing the locations of all cash deposits be circulated to all Members of the Committee – this was agreed by the Committee.

The Cabinet Scrutiny Committee endorsed the Leader’s proposal that a Treasury Advisory Group (TAG) be set up with the following conditions:

1. The minutes of the TAG be sent to the Governance and Audit Committee and the Budget IMG for discussion;

2. Where appropriate, group leaders be allowed flexibility on membership of the group to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 144.

Ms A Beer, Director of Personnel and Development, will attend the meeting from 10.30 am to 11.15 am to answer Members’ questions on this item.

Ms Beer and Mr Carter were present for this item.

The Chairman read a section from the constitution (Appendix 4 part 2, Para 2.3) which stated that no discussion should take place in a meeting about the terms or conditions of employment or the conduct of any officer of the Council unless the meeting had first considered whether to exclude the public.  The Committee were happy to proceed with the item on the public side of the agenda as the three spokespeople had previously taken advice from the Head of Legal Service and the Head of Personnel.

Mr Hart raised the issue of the Chief Executive’s ‘other allowances’ which related to the sale of untaken annual leave.  He considered it to be an incredible figure and he questioned whether the sale of leave should be allowed in such a senior position.  Ms Beer responded by confirming that the ability to buy or sell annual leave was within the Kent Scheme Terms and Conditions and applied to all members of staff, on those conditions.  Mr Truelove asked the Leader of the Council whether he considered that budgets relating to senior officer salaries might need to be tightened up in the future.  Mr Carter explained that the responsibilities of the Council had increased and that the Council could be considered to be ‘leaner’ against the backdrop of the demands placed upon it. 

Mrs Dean stated that she welcomed the fact that the Chief Executive had made his salary public, she considered that a 15% performance related pay award was very high and that it might be time for the Personnel Committee to address and review the issue of performance related pay.  Mrs Dean asked what surveys were undertaken by the Council to ensure that the levels of performance reward grant were comparable with other authorities.  Ms Beer explained that KCC salaries were compared with other Local Authorities, particularly larger county councils.  KCC was a large authority and it was important to take the size of the organisation into account when considering the pay levels within the authority, unfortunately therefore direct comparators that reflected the size of the roles were relatively few.  Jobs within KCC were graded using the HAY job evaluation scheme which enabled jobs and salaries within the public and private sector to be compared.  Advice was also sought from the recruitment advertising agency on similar recently advertised jobs across the public sector but which also took into account directly comparable private sector roles.  Similarly, advice is sought from Executive Search agencies when senior position recruitment is put out to tender.  Overall there had been a steady increase in recognition of senior positions in the public service and KCC had not increased the majority of County Officers’ pay beyond the cost of living that applied to all staff within KCC.  The performance pay element reflected the fact that the base salaries compared favourably to other authorities in terms of the size of Kent. 

Mrs Dean asked whether the other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 145.

Mr P B Carter, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Policy and Performance; and Mr D Cockburn, Executive Director, Strategy, Economic Development and ICT, will attend the meeting from 11.15 am to 12 noon to answer Members’ questions on this item.

Mr Carter, Mrs Garton and Miss Purvis were present for this item.

Mr Smyth began the debate by referring to code CMA1 – within area for improvement 2 – communications, the inspectors’ comment stated that ‘the council was over-keen to claim credit’, the monitoring comment stated that “there was no need for separate action, given the recognition that this was ‘unintentional’” Mr Smyth challenged the word ‘unintentional’;  Mr Carter explained that in his opinion the monitoring comment was right and appropriate and he was keen to ensure that the transformation that the Council had been delivering was embedded and working.  The Council should be proud of its successes and not be afraid of publicising them.

Mr Smyth referred to code CPA1 – within area for improvement 6 – corporate practice/processes, it was acknowledged that it was not possible to revise the T2010 document at this stage but Mr Smyth asked for an assurance from Mr Carter that the next plan took into account the implications from the comprehensive performance assessment, ensured that KCC’s role in achieving targets was made clear and that they had SMART indicators against them.  Mr Carter explained that over the next four years the quality of performance management would be improved and the Council would work on limiting the bureaucracy involved. 

Mr Hart referred to code MMC3 and MMC4 and asked whether it was right that the Leader was the ‘lead director’ for those improvements?  Mr Carter explained that he had worked hard to ensure that the Chairmen and Members of the POCs made them more effective; he considered that it was up to the POCs to make themselves more vibrant and more exciting.  An Informal Member Group would look at and monitor the progress of the Performance Improvement Plan recommendations.  Mr Hart asked whether the Leader of the opposition group would be a more appropriate lead on that area for improvement.  Mr Carter stated that the leaders should work together to achieve the objectives. 

Mr Truelove referred to code CPB1, he stated that a recent Highways Advisory Board meeting showed that Kent Highways were still showing poor performance when it came to responding to the public, progress was being made but there was still a long way to go.  In relation to code OCC2 - Mr Truelove also considered that further thought needed to be given to action to adapt to climate change and congestion within Maidstone town. 

Mrs Hohler agreed with Mr Carter and explained that Members of the Communities POC, of which Mrs Hohler was the Chairman, were encouraged to input into the Committee and she had been impressed with a recent meeting of the Children’s Families and Education POC. 

Mr Harrison queried code WDD2; the monitoring of that area stated that reports would be made to the Kent Public Service Board and Mr Harrison queried who the Board comprised of.  Mr Carter explained that the Board was chaired by himself and included the Chief Executives of all the big public agencies in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 146.

The Chairman explained that the Committee were being asked to consider which Business Plans to recommend to the future Committee for scrutiny.  The following topics were suggested:

1. Kent Highway Services (including street lighting) (Mr Harrison, Mr Horne, Mr R King)
2. The Trading Standards Service (Mr Northey)
3. 14 – 24 Innovation, School Organisation (Mr Horne)
4. Kent Adult Education and KEY Training (Mr Smyth)
5. Supporting Independence Programme (Mr Smyth, Mr Gough)
6. Sport, Leisure and Olympics Service (Mr Truelove)
7. Special Schools Provision (Mr Simmonds)
8. Kent Youth Service (Mrs Dean)
9. How Kent Adult Social Services supplies a spot check service to ensure that elderly people receiving domiciliary care are getting the level of service which is being contracted for and is satisfactory to them.  (Mrs Dean)
10. Waste Management (Mr R King)
11. Joint Commissioning and priorities with NHS (Mr Gough)
12. Mental Health (Mr Cope)

Kent Highway Services was a popular suggestion, Members suggested that it include the issue of street lighting, white lines and signage and there was a general consensus that Kent Highway Services would be a priority, with interest expressed in items 2 – 10 above.  It was suggested that the HOSC might wish to take on the issue of the Joint Commissioning and priorities with NHS, and the Mental Health Services, Mrs Taylor agreed to consult the Chairman of the HOSC regarding that issue.

Resolved that:

The Cabinet Scrutiny Committee recommend that the future committee might like to consider the above suggestions for scrutiny of the business plans.