Agenda and minutes

Mr Cooke has replaced Mrs Cole as a Member of the Policy and Resources Cabinet Committee.

The Chairman announced that Mr Cooke had replaced Mrs Cole as a Member of the Committee.

To receive apologies for absence and notification of any substitutes present.

Apologies for absence had been received from Mr Bird, Mr Bond, Mrs Dean and Mr Murphy.

Mr Brazier attended as a substitute for Mr Bond, and Mr Daley attended as a substitute for Mr Bird.

To receive any declarations of interest made by Members in relation to any matter on the agenda.  Members are reminded to specify the agenda item number to which it refers and the nature of the interest being declared.

No declarations of interest were received.

To consider and approve the minutes as a correct record.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Policy and Resources Cabinet Committee held on 18 January 2019 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

To receive a report which sets out the Strategic Delivery Plan which will be the Strategic Business Plan for Kent County Council, supporting the delivery of the outcomes in the Strategic Statement.

Mr Whittle (Director of Strategy, Policy, Relationships and Corporate Assurance) and Ms Sanderson (Strategic Business Adviser (Corporate)) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Mr Hotson (Cabinet Member for Corporate and Democratic Services) and Ms Sanderson introduced the report which set out the Strategic Delivery Plan which would be the strategic business plan for Kent County Council and would support the delivery of the outcomes in the Strategic Statement.

Mr Whittle and Ms Sanderson then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Mr Whittle provided useful background information in relation to the Strategic Delivery Plan and confirmed that the plan was part of a three-year cycle to drive a step change in business planning and progress activity through the appropriate informal and formal governance arrangements.

b)    Mr Whittle talked about the key objectives in relation to the Strategic Delivery Plan and confirmed that key projects and programmes would be reported through new monitoring arrangements that were in the process of being carried out.

c)    Mr Whittle briefly explained the decision-making process in relation to Business Plans and the decisions which the Executive were responsible for.

d)    Mr Whittle confirmed that he would liaise with Corporate Board to find out whether or not they wished to include recommendations from recent Select Committee meetings relating to social isolation within the Strategic Delivery Plan, as the Select Committee had not been concluded during the timeframe in which the plan had been developed.

e)    Ms Sanderson referred to the review of the Strategic Delivery Plan process which would be reported to a future meeting of the Committee and confirmed that the work to be undertaken in relation to the review would commence over upcoming weeks. Mr Whittle added that as part of the review, updates could be provided to Cabinet Committees.

f)     Mr Whittle confirmed that there were no General Data Protection Regulation issues concerning the retention of internal data within Kent County Council.

g)    Mr Whittle talked about the potential challenges in relation to reviewing the business planning process.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which sets out the progress made against targets set for Key Performance Indicators within Strategic and Corporate Services.

Mrs Beer (Corporate Director Engagement, Organisation Design & Development), Mr Godfrey (Strategic Commissioner – Public Health), Mrs Spore (Director of Infrastructure) and Mr Watts (General Counsel) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Miss Carey (Cabinet Member for Customers, Communications and Performance) and Mr Godfrey introduced the report which set out the progress made against targets set for Key Performance Indicators within Strategic and Corporate Services.

Mrs Beer, Miss Carey, Mr Godfrey and Mr Watts then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Miss Carey confirmed that the number of visits to the Freedom of Information section within Kent County Council’s website had increased and said that there was more information on the Council’s website in relation to Freedom of Information than ever before.

b)    Miss Carey explained that many Freedom of Information enquirers did not wish to be referred to the Freedom of Information section of Kent County Council’s website and expected Kent County Council to provide information in a format which suited them, despite the requested information being available on the website.

c)    Miss Carey said that some Freedom of Information requests contained more than one question within a request.

d)    Mr Watts confirmed that Kent County Council had seen an increase in the number of Freedom of Information requests by more than 10% since 2017 and referred to the complexity and the multi-departmental nature of the requests. He referred to Kent County Council’s Freedom of Information page on the Council website and said that information relating to the types of Freedom of Information requests that Kent County Council received was available.

e)    Mr Watts said that whilst guidance in relation to Freedom of Information was under review, it was a statutory entitlement for individuals to make Freedom of Information requests.

f)     Mr Watts confirmed that a further report would be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee in relation to addressing the ever-increasing number of Freedom of Information requests that the Council received.

g)    Miss Carey said that the increase in Freedom of Information requests was an issue which affected many other Council’s in the country.

h)    Mr Godfrey and Mrs Spore said that the number of calls to Kent County Council’s ICT Help Desk had increased due to new ICT change programmes and software being installed.

i)     Mrs Beer talked about health and wellbeing within the workplace and said that it was a priority within HR. She referred to the HR cases that were supported by the HR team and confirmed that these cases covered staff that were unfit to work, disciplinaries and other capabilities.

j)     Mrs Spore referred to the Finance and Infrastructure ratings within the report and confirmed that she had been liaising with colleagues within Kent County Council’s Finance department to ensure that data provided to Members was as clear as possible.

k)    Mrs Spore talked about the costs that were incurred by Property and Infrastructure within Kent County Council.

l)     Mr Godfrey reassured  ...  view the full minutes text for item 144.

To receive a report which provides an overview of the Council’s Strategic and Corporate Services (ST) business continuity arrangements in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Firth (Policy Adviser) and Mrs Spore (Director of Infrastructure) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Mr Hotson (Cabinet Member for Corporate and Democratic Services) and Mrs Spore introduced the report which set out an overview of the Council’s Strategic and Corporate Services business continuity arrangements in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Mrs Beer, Mr Firth and Mrs Spore then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Mr Firth confirmed that the Strategic and Corporate Brexit preparations work started in approximately October 2017.

b)    Mr Firth referred to the general funding that Local Governments across England would receive from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to prepare for Brexit and to respond to costs that could potentially surface after the United Kingdom had left the European Union.

c)    Mrs Beer confirmed that managers should liaise with the Kent County Council’s corporate Human Resources team if they felt that a member of staff was taking advantage of Brexit.

d)    Mr Watts referred to the range of provisions that were available within Kent County Council’s constitution in relation to the decision-making process and confirmed that contingency plans were being put into place in preparation for Brexit.

e)    Mrs Spore talked about the preparations that were being undertaken within Kent County Council’s ICT department in relation to Brexit and highlighted potential risks.

f)     Mrs Spore confirmed that the upgraded remote access capacity would allow 8,000 concurrent users to be able to access Kent County Council’s network via A2K and talked about the costs that were associated with ICT’s no-deal Brexit contingency plans.

g)    Mrs Beer talked about the anticipated increase in demand and activity within Kent County Council’s Communications Team and said that additional staff could be recruited on temporary contracts to mitigate pressures within the team.

h)    Mrs Spore talked about the positive mapping work that had been undertaken which identified areas of poor broadband connectivity against where staff lived and their nearest Kent County Council buildings. The mapping work would allow Kent County Council to adopt a more targeted approach in supporting the members of staff involved in critical services and who may not be able to utilise remote working methods.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which sets out the strategic risks relating to the Strategic and Corporate Services directorate.

Mr Scrivener (Corporate Risk Manager and Interim Corporate Assurance Manager) and Mr Whittle (Director of Strategy, Policy, Relationships and Corporate Assurance) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Miss Carey (Cabinet Member for Customers, Communications and Performance) introduced the report which set out the strategic risks relating to the Strategic and Corporate Services directorate, in addition to the risks featuring on the Corporate Risk Register for which the Corporate Directors were the designated ‘Risk Owners’.

2.    Mr Whittle and Mr Scrivener informed the Committee of the work that had been undertaken over recent months to manage current risks within Strategic and Corporate Services and continued to provide comprehensive risk management reports to Members.

3.        RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which sets out an update in relation to the Contract Management Review Group, which is Chaired by the Cabinet Member for Strategic Commissioning and meets on a regular basis to look in detail at how a specific contract is being managed.

Miss Rankin (Cabinet Member for Strategic Commissioning) and Mr Godfrey (Strategic Commissioner – Public Health) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Miss Rankin and Mr Godfrey introduced the report which set out information relating to The Contract Management Review Group and explained that the contracts were reviewed using a methodology based on the National Audit Office guidance on how contracts should be managed.

a)    Miss Rankin talked about the positive involvement of Cabinet Committee Members in relation to contract monitoring and said that further reports could be submitted to Cabinet Committees to highlight the successes and impacts of contract monitoring.

b)    Miss Rankin noted the need to review Kent’s Youth Service contract.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which sets out the recommendation to enter into a new 999-year lease with Swale Academy Trust, for relocation of the new Meopham Library.

Mrs Spore (Director of Infrastructure) and Mr Wood (Head of Estates) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Mr Hotson (Cabinet Member for Corporate and Democratic Services) introduced the report which set out the recommendation to enter into a new 999-year lease with Swale Academy Trust, for relocation of the new Meopham Library.

Mrs Spore then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Mrs Spore confirmed that she would provide further information to Members of the Committee outside of the meeting in relation to the costs that Kent County Council would incur.

b)    Mrs Spore referred to the decision-making process within Kent County Council’s constitution and explained the reasons behind the key-decision. Mr Watts confirmed that the record of decision that would be signed by the Cabinet Member for Corporate and Democratic Services could state the length of the lease.

c)    Mrs Spore confirmed that she would provide further information to Members of the Committee outside of the meeting in relation to the tier in which Meopham Library was allocated.

2.          RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Corporate and Democratic Services to enter into a new lease of land at Meopham Academy and for the Director of Infrastructure to finalise terms and complete the transaction, be endorsed.

To receive a report which sets out information relating to the delivery of Kent County Council’s services since the establishment of Cantium Business Solutions in July 2018.

Mr Godfrey (Strategic Commissioner – Public Health), Mr Sage (Corporate Accountant) and Mrs Spore (Director of Infrastructure) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Mr Hotson (Cabinet Member for Corporate and Democratic Services) and Mr Godfrey introduced the report which set out the delivery of Kent County Council’s services since the establishment of Cantium Business Solutions in July 2018.

a)    In response to a question, Mr Sage referred to the development and delivery of the direct debit payments system for school travel mentioned within the report and confirmed that this related to Kent County Council’s young person’s travel pass.

2.        RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which updates Members on the future commissioning plan for the delivery of property services.

Mr Roberts (Head of Property Commissioning and Strategy) and Mrs Spore (Director of Infrastructure) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Mrs Spore introduced the report which set out the future commissioning plan for the delivery of property services.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which sets out the performance of the Total Facilities Management Contracts - Mid Kent with Amey, West Kent with Skanska, and East Kent with Kier.

1.        Members of the Committee indicated that they would be referring to information contained within the exempt report and therefore consideration of this item was deferred to the exempt part of the meeting (Minute 154 below refers).

To consider and agree a work programme for 2019/20.

1.        RESOLVED that the work programme be noted, subject to the inclusion of the following item:

·    ICT for Members

RESOLVED that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following business as it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Exempt Items

(open access to minutes)

Mr Bhatia (FM & PFI Lead – Property Commissioning), Mr Roberts (Head of Property Commissioning and Strategy) and Mrs Spore (Director of Infrastructure) were in attendance for this item.

1.          Mrs Spore introduced the report which set out the performance of the Total Facilities Management Contracts; Mid Kent with Amey, West Kent with Skanska, and East Kent with Kier.

Mrs Spore, Mr Hotson and Mr Roberts then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Mrs Spore confirmed that appropriate arrangements were in place, should financial difficulty arise.

b)    Mr Hotson (Cabinet Member for Corporate and Democratic Services) talked about the length of each contract and options to extend.

c)    Mrs Spore talked about potential future developments and said that Kent’s businesses and apprenticeships would continue to be supported in every way possible.

d)    Mr Roberts responded to a question in relation to the maintenance of the independent compliance tracker which had been referred to within the report.

2.          RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To receive a report which outlines the need to renew the Oracle support and maintenance contract.

Mrs Spore (Director of Infrastructure) and Ms Stevens (ICT Compliance and Risk Manager) were in attendance for this item.

1.        Mrs Spore introduced the report which set out information relating to the renewal of Oracle Support and Maintenance.

Mrs Spore and Ms Stevens then responded to comments and questions from Members, including the following: -

a)    Mrs Spore talked about current investments and the proposed arrangements set out within the report.

b)    Mrs Spore confirmed that she could provide further information to Members of the Committee outside of the meeting in relation to the timescales of the proposed arrangements.

c)    Ms Stevens answered questions in relation to the market and competitors.

2.         Members of the Committee thanked Mrs Spore for her hard work in supporting the Committee.

3.         RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Corporate & Democratic Services to delegate to the Director of Infrastructure, in Consultation with the Cabinet Member for Corporate and Democratic Services, the award of the Support and Maintenance contract(s) with Oracle, including the necessary contractual negotiations and enter into any subsequent necessary legal agreements, be endorsed.