Agenda and minutes

The decisions set out in these minutes will come into force, and may then be implemented at 12 noon on the fourth working day after the publication of the decision, unless the decision is subject to call-in.

Date of publication: 25 July 2012

CANTERBURY CITY COUNCIL

East Kent (Joint Arrangements) Committee

Minutes of a meeting held on Wednesday, 20th June, 2012

at 10.00am in  The Guildhall, Westgate, Canterbury

1                    APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies received from Councillor Paul Carter (Kent) and Councillor John Gilbey (Canterbury).

2                    DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

No declarations of interest were received.

3                    SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS

There were no substitute members present at the meeting.

4                    MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 14 MARCH 2012

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 March 2012 were agreed as a correct record.

5                    ACTIONS ARISING FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING

None.

6                    EK SERVICES PERFORMANCE REPORT 2011/12

The Director of EK Services summarised the performance report of EK Services for the period February 2011 to March 2012.  She said its purpose was to provide an update against identified performance indicators within the Service Level Agreements and progress against budget and savings targets.  She noted that the majority of performance had met Service Level Agreement targets.  A budgeted savings target of £1.27 million had been set including the containment of redundancy costs and the final outturn had seen these savings realised plus extra savings of £500,000 through a combination of vacancy management and initial efficiencies, which had been returned to the participating councils.  A service plan was also included for noting.  She said the National Audit Office (NAO) had recently carried out a health check on EK Services and whilst the report had yet to be published the preliminary findings were that EK Services represented a very good example of what could be achieved quickly and with minimal investment.

Members of the committee asked a number of questions as follows:

(i)         How detailed had the NAO audit been and had they identified any areas of improvement? It was confirmed the audit had been undertaken over a two week period by a team of six.  It had included meetings with client authority representatives, the Management Team and a detailed scrutiny of the budget.  They had highlighted concerns around the future investment plan, particularly for new technology.  It was pointed out that an audit of ICT equipment had been undertaken and EK  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.