Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from County Councillors S. Jones, A. Webb and S. White.

None received.

To scrutinise the the People Strategy together with “A county that Serves”

Context:

The purpose of the report is to present a progress report for the People and

Organisational Development Strategy for Member scrutiny and to seek approval for the next steps for the concluding year of the current strategy.

Key Issues:

Modern day local government is moving at pace, and our people and organisation need to keep up with the changes in order for the Council to support sustainable communities and economies. The People and Organisational Development Strategy was agreed through the Council’s committee approval process and is rapidly changing to meet the ever emerging needs, in essence demand is driving design.

This being the ultimate year of implementation, the business plan has evolved and has been refined through learning and experience, as well as sharing working practices with other organisations to ensure the strategy is robust, sustainable and fit for purpose.

Whilst we have achieved significant outcomes in the last twelve months, through our collation of evidence we are now in a position to present a new way of working across the whole of People Services. We have created an offer to meet the needs of those people both on and off our payroll and organisation, permitting us to future proof our approach.

Member Scrutiny:

Concerns were raised that the strategy was senior leader led and a member of the committee commented that a random selection of staff should have been invited to come along to the Strong Communities Select Committee meeting to see Members in action scrutinising issues.

Although Officers appreciated that Members may feel that staff feel disconnected, we were reassured that staff have various ways of keeping aware; live streaming, social media, web chat, videos and information on the Hub.

The Chair asked if this would be repeatedly annually and we were told that it would, with each directorate driving it forward for their own staff.

Context:

To introduce the Draft Volunteering Strategy 2016-19

          Key Issues:

Monmouthshire ACTS is the draft version of our Volunteering Strategy, we feel it’s a strong starting point, leading a different way of thinking about how ‘we’ – our staff teams and communities can support and enable volunteering and social action in Monmouthshire.

Our belief is that through the Volunteering Strategy and associated Delivery Plan we can ‘professionalise’ and improve our ‘volunteering offer’ which focusses on our four stage model of support for volunteers.

 Plan – Looking at how, where, when, and why we involve volunteers.

 Recruit – Providing clear, consistent guidance to ensure safe and supportive recruitment of volunteers.

 Manage – Providing volunteers with all of the tools, information, support and recognition they require.

 Develop – Challenging volunteers to learn new or build existing skills, motivating and enabling impact. Understanding Monmouthshire’s rich social capital and local activism we feel our approach will contribute to our core purpose as an organisation – to deliver sustainable and resilient communities – working together with our communities towards shared outcomes that matter to our county.

This strategy aims to bring together departments and projects involving volunteers from across the council, also the third sector and community together with a shared vision. It is worth noting that we already have ‘pockets of brilliance’ across Monmouthshire, with some volunteering activities and programmes achieving great outcomes already. Whilst other volunteering programmes are emerging, it is imperative to share best practice and learning to provide a clear consistent offer to our volunteers in Monmouthshire. This is where the Volunteering Network plays a vital role engaging and supporting our Volunteer coordinators.

Our people both staff and volunteers must be enabled with the right tools to operate at their best in what is a permanent state of transition and this is not an easy ‘measurable’ task. The aim is for this strategy to make a key contribution to embedding good volunteering standards and practices across the county, raising the level of support for volunteers is key. Our goal is to support talent development both within and outside of our organisation and to engage all the people with whom we can create value.

Monmouthshire ACTS gives the story of our ambitious evolution – formed as a direct result of the People and Organisational Development Strategy – it describes our journey through the various necessary stages of growth and development. Lessons learned from mapping, consultation and rapid prototyping gives us the confidence and evidence base to scale our volunteering model up across the county.

Monmouthshire ACTS outlines measures that will allow us to capture information and importantly measure impact. They are not all quantitative methods, we have found success qualitative methods which can convey emotion for example through recent video interviews. The positive impact was publicised and as such more volunteers have expressed an interest in engaging with us.

The strategy is importantly built upon a number of key themes and priorities. These describe the ethos of our work. The five key  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To review the financial situation for the directorate, identifying trends, risks and issues on the horizon with overspends/underspends).

Context

The purpose of this report is to provide Members with information on the forecast revenue outturn position of the Authority at the end of reporting period 3 which represents month 9 financial information for the 2015/16 financial year.

Key Issues

That Members consider the position concerning the third period of revenue monitoring in 2015/16 (£162,000 overspend), and seek assurance that Chief Officers will continue to work on delivering the £1.6 million Recovery Plan reported to December 2015 Cabinet.

That Senior officers follow the requirement of the Protection of Employment Policy which requires that all redundancy and pension costs must be reported to and agreed by Cabinet before final approval.

Members consider the position concerning period 3 (Month 9) Capital Monitoring 2015/16 of an estimated £23.8million spend against a net budget of £23.9million, after proposed slippage of £37.7 million, notes the improvement in a need for slippage reported by managers (after excluding 21c schools), and the reservation that this necessitates managers incurring £12.5million expense during the last quarter, when collective they only spent £11.3 million in preceding periods this year.

Requests the addition of two wholly funded section 106 funded capital schemes to the capital programme, which managers’ report will be fully utilised by the end of March 2016:

 A capital budget of £40,000 to allow for the construction of a Puffin crossing in the vicinity of the development at Saw Mill house funded from S106 contributions from the development at Saw Mill house, Little Mill.

 A capital budget of £6,800 to continue the implementation of the Monmouth Links Connect 2 walking and cycling network funded from Section 106 contributions received from the development at the Almshouses, St James’ square Monmouth

Member Scrutiny:

Members asked for clarification on redundancy costs in school and were advised that the average redundancy cost is £15 – 20, 000.

A Member asked for a full breakdown on the money going to the Borough Theatre (ACTION M.H.).

A Member asked about advertising on highways and we were told by the Head of Operations that when the scheme was first brought to planning, concerned were raised about the locations suggested. Another meeting was taking place shortly to discuss more suitable sites.

It was stressed by a member that it was of the upmost importance that members were kept aware of what is happening in all directorates to ensure members see the whole picture.

Final monitoring report on progress to date prior to new SEP being implemented.

Context

The Equality Act 2010 was introduced in April 2011. Within the Specific duties is the requirement to publish an annual report on the progress made by the Council in its compliance with its Strategic Equality Plan, equality objectives and action Plan. The Act’s principles and processes ensure that the Council remains true to its corporate values of Openness, Fairness, Flexibility and Teamwork.

Key Issues

One of the specific duties in the Equality Act 2010 requires Public Bodies to publish an Annual Report detailing the progress on achievement of the actions outlined in the plan covering the period 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2015.

Member Scrutiny:

A Member asked why people questioned were reluctant to answer the question of religion or marital status. In answer we were told that in terms of getting to fill in the forms, a push was required from the Chief Executive’s office. The results are anonymous and help us form a picture of our organisation. Unless people reveal their issues, we cannot help them.

It was asked who are the 6 employees we don’t pay and were advised this would be graduate volunteers.

It was commented that working with people services may improve completion rates in future.