Agenda item

(1)       Mr Shipton introduced the 2009/10 financial outturn report and Mrs Hill introduced the annual operating plan outturn information, for each of the Service Units within the Chief Executive’s Department.  The report brought together financial and key activity and performance outcome information in the same place.

(2)       Members were asked to consider how the Committee should contribute to formulating the 2011/12 budget and medium term plan at an earlier stage than previous years.

(3)       Mrs Dean congratulated the Legal Department on the income that they had generated for the County Council. 

(4)       Mr Wild explained the comparison between the London rates for solicitors compared with the blended rate of £90m per hour charge by the County Councils solicitors for external work.  This rate was attractive to the public sector.  External rates were higher than internal rates and generated a surplus. External work subsidised internal legal work which was charged at below cost.  If the Legal Department only carried out internal work they would be operating at a loss.

(5)  Mrs Dean suggested that the meeting of the IMG to assist with the development of the Budget might wish to look at four areas of minor overspend (Strategic Management, Centrally Managed Budgets, Central Policy and Performance, Improvement & Engagement), which were showing an overspend that was small financially but high in percentage terms.   She also hoped that the large underspend on Public Consultation was due to an overestimation rather than a lack of consultation.  It was confirmed that it was not due to a lack of consultation.

(6)       In response to a question Mr McMullan confirmed that there was an internal audit programme. She offered to submit a report to the next meeting of the Committee on the Internal audit programme and how it impacted on the Chief Executives Department. 

(7)       The efficient way in which the Contact Centre dealt with calls was commended.  It was suggested that consideration should be give to using an 01 number to access the centre so that mobile phone users with inclusive minutes could contact the Centre at no cost.   Mrs Oliver explained that officers were currently exploring the use of an 03 number which was a low call number included in most mobile phone packages. 

(8)       The issue of the use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook was mentioned including the restrictions on access Facebook by officers unless a business case has been made.  The excellent facility provided by Yammer and the opportunity that it provides for Members to set up community forums was highlighted by Members.  Miss Clarke explained that in relation to officer access to Facebook it has always been possible to make a business case for access to it, there was ongoing work with Ms Beer to look at the whole issue of officer access to Facebook and she would report back to Members when there were clear recommendations.   Miss Clarke undertook to provide a briefing note for Member on the use of Yammer.

(9)  Members asked a number of questions on the figures relating to Freedom of Information (FOI) enquires.  Mr Wild explained that there was a significant  cost in providing responses to FOI enquires.  The cost of obtaining the information per request was £70 but this did not include the cost of administering the system. Officers were looking at ways of improving transparency and reducing the cost.   It was important to supply a response that avoided the need for requesters to come back again for additional information.

(10) In response to a question on whether it was possible to move the performance indicator for paying invoices for small businesses to 14 days, Mr Shipton explained that the challenge with this would be identifying which invoices were from small businesses as this was not currently identified on the payments systems.  

 (11)      Mrs Dean congratulated Commercial Services on having their most successful year ever and referred to the impending retirement of Mr Harlock, Director of Commercial Services.  It was agreed that the Committees best wishes to Mr Harlock on his retirement be recorded along with their thanks for the innovative work that he has carried out in Commercial Services to generate significant income for the County Council. She commended the work that he did to assist the Select Committee on Home to School Transport in formulating their recommendation to introduce the Freedom Pass.

(12)       Mr Gough acknowledged that there were issues with the search engine for the new website and that work was ongoing to resolve these. 

(13)       In response to a question on the Members Portal, Mr King explained that the Member and Officer Information Group was looking at this issue along with a number of other issues but until the way was clear on how a central source of information for Members, Officers and others was to be provide the Members Portal project was deferred. 

(14)       In relation to the Information Group Mrs Dean referred to the Member focus groups that had been assisting to define what information Members required, and that all Members were welcome to contribute to these focus groups.  An issue raised by these groups was whether there was a need to have a separate internet and intranet. The key challenge would be how to safeguard non public information on one website.   Mr Bole stated that he had been asked by Mr Gough to produce a report on the cost of combining the internet and intranet sites.

(15)       RESOLVED that :-

(a)         the revenue and capital financial outturn for 2009/10 including rollovers for committed projects and changes to capital programme and the  performance outturn for 2009/10 be noted.

(b)         an IMG of this Committee be established to contribute to the development of the 2011/12 budget which will meet on a regular basis over the next 6 months in order to get a fuller understanding of the implications of potential budget reductions and report back to the full Committee in November and January.

(c)         a report be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee on the Internal Audit Programme and how it impacts on CED.