Agenda and decisions

County Councillor P.A.  Fox declared a personal, non-prejudicial pursuant to the Members Code of Conduct as he had been the Council’s representative on the CMC² Board.

County Councillor R.J.W. Greenland declared a personal, non-prejudicial interest pursuant to the Members Code of Conduct as CMC² Director appointed by Council.

Purpose: To seek member approval to the proposal to restructure the current payroll/HR transactional service.

Author: Tracey Harry, Head of People and Information Governance

Contact Details: traceyharry@monmouthshire.gov.uk

Cabinet approve the proposed restructure outlined in appendix 2, which will provide the payroll/HR transactional service with some resilience and a modest developmental capacity, which is needed to deliver aspects of the people services work programme, linked to the whole organisations development, previously agreed by Council.

Members agree to reserve fund the part year cost of c25k, depending on timing of implementation, associated with implementing the recommended restructure and recognise the full year pressure of the revised structure in the 17/18 budget round.

Division/Wards Affected: All

Purpose: To provide Cabinet with the latest quarterly update on how the council is performing against a set of measures that are important when forming an opinion on the current effectiveness of council services.

Author: Sian Schofield, Data Analyst

             Richard Jones, Policy and Performance Officer

Contact Details: richardjones@monmouthshire.gov.uk

That Cabinet use this report to help their continuous monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of services and the extent to which they are contributing to the council’s priorities of the education of children, support for vulnerable people, enterprise and job creation and maintaining locally accessible services.

That Cabinet use this report as an opportunity to identify any action that may need to be taken to drive improvement, ensuring that services are as effective and efficient as possible in the context of current resources.

Division/Wards Affected: All

Purpose: To agree the Council Tax base figure for submission to Welsh Government, together with the collection rate to be applied for 2017/18 and to make other necessary related statutory decisions.

Author: Ruth Donovan – Assistant Head of Finance: Revenues, Systems and Exchequer; Sue Deacy – Revenues Manager

Contact Details: ruthdonovan@monmouthshire.gov.uk

That in accord with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Tax Base) (Wales) Regulations 1995, the amount calculated by the Council as its Tax Base for 2017/18 shall be notified as £45,537.71 and the Collection Rate set at 99.0%.

That no Special Resolution declaring Drainage Rates as Special Expenses be made.

That any expenses incurred by the Council in performing in part of its area a function performed elsewhere in its area by a Community Council shall not be treated as a special expense for the purpose of Section 35 of the Local Govt. Finance Act 1992.

That Council Tax setting continues to be a function of full Council.

Division/Wards Affected: Magor and Undy

Purpose: To seek approval for the commissioning of parts 1 and 2 of the Governance for Railway Investment Projects (GRIP) 3 process from Section 106 capital balances.

Author: Mike Moran, Community Infrastructure Coordinator

Contact Details: mikemoran@monmouthshire.gov.uk

That the Council proceeds to commission parts 1 and 2 of the GRIP 3 process (project 97362) for a new walkway rail station in Magor at a total cost of £62,352 utilising funding from Section 106 balances from the Greenmoor Lane, Magor contribution (£32,346) plus financial contributions from Magor with Undy Community Council (£10,000), the Railfuture Fund (£10,000) and the local Magor Rail Group (£1,500).

That £12,000 be added to budget code 97362 to meet the identified shortfall in funding for part 2 of the GRIP 3 process and this contribution will include further estimated consultancy expenses of £3,494. That these costs are funded by a corresponding contribution from Section 106 balances held by the Council from the Magor West (Kingfisher Rise) development (Finance Code N579);

That, should the Welsh Government agree to reimburse the funding for part or the whole of GRIP 3, then the funding identified in 2.1 above be reserved to support further stages of the GRIP process for the proposed new Magor Walkway Station, without the need for reference back to Cabinet;

That the area of benefit for using the remaining balance of the off-site recreation funding from the Kingfisher Rise S106 Agreement (£219,710) be defined as “the administrative boundary of the Magor with Undy Community Council”.

Division/Wards Affected: All

Purpose: To seek approval from Cabinet to implement revised staffing arrangements in the Individual Support Service.

Author: Ceri York, Group Manager Commissioning and Service Development; Shelley Welton, Lead Commissioner - Transformation

Contact Details: shelleywelton@monmouthshire.gov.uk

That Cabinet approves the creation of the following posts at Band D within the

Individual Support Service:

·         7 X 7 hour

·         6 x 14 hour

·         1 x 21 hour

·         1 x 28 hour

Division/Wards Affected: All

Purpose: To present the findings of the Amion Cultural Services Review; to request Cabinet approval of the 2017-2022 Forward Plan required for the on-going Accreditation of Monmouthshire Museums, subject to bringing forward individual business case submissions for approval as appropriate.

Author: Cath Fallon – Head of Economy and Innovation  

Contact Details: cathfallon@monmouthshire.gov.uk

That Cabinet:

·         Considers the findings and recommendations of the Amion Cultural Services Review in particular the key recommendations associated with Monmouthshire Museums (Appendix One);

·         Approves the Monmouthshire Museums 2017-2022 Forward Plan (Appendix Two) and associated Transition Chart illustrating the phased approach to delivery (Appendix Three);

·         Approves the centralisation of the service to include a new centralised team structure (detail to follow in the Enterprise re-structure report March 2017); coordination of budgets and income generation opportunities; revised and consistent all day opening hours and the implementation of a lone working policy with associated safeguards;

·         Receives future submissions of individual business cases enabling full delivery of the Forward Plan.

Division/Wards Affected: All

Purpose: To provide an update on Y Prentis activities and the benefits it has brought to the wider South East Wales region.  To approve the dissolution of CMC².

Author: Cath Fallon – Head of Economy and Innovation

Contact Details: cathfallon@monmouthshire.gov.uk

That Cabinet:

·         Receives a full update on the activities of Y Prentis;

·         Approves the dissolution of CMC²;

·         Agrees to novate outstanding debt to the Council for recovery purposes;

·         As a consequence of the above movements, agrees to formally pass ownership of Y Prentis from CMC² to Monmouthshire County Council.

Division/Wards Affected: None

Purpose: To seek approval for the establishment of a Digital Programme Office that enables the Council to advance the priorities and actions that relate to improving internally and externally facing digital capability. The focus and concentration of resource and proficiency provided through a Digital Programme Office will train and equip staff to deliver efficient and effective services that best respond to customer and community demand. This will involve:

·         A restructure of existing posts within the Digital Projects Team to create the flexibility to respond to needs and priorities;

·         Creation of two additional Whole Time Equivalents within the Digital Programme Office targeted at raising current capacity levels and building competency in areas where the greatest potential for improvement exists;

·         Re-alignment of digital posts across the Council, within a Digital Programme Office, in order to create the focussed capacity; co-ordination of resources and competencies that will enable a digitally-literate workforce. In turn this will help generate greater customer impact and the integrated technology platforms that manage data needed to solve complex problems; and,

·         Investment in essential software and hardware infrastructure that enables services to better respond to customer needs in as near to real-time as possible.

Author: Sian Hayward (Head of Digital) & Peter Davies (Chief Officer, Resources)

Contact Details: sianhayward@monmouthshire.gov.uk; peterdavies@monmouthshire.gov.uk

To establish a Digital Programme Office through the restructure of the current Digital

Projects Team in order to create the purposeful roles and activities required to demonstrate the biggest returns to the Council and community.

To create two additional Whole Time Equivalents to support and reinforce capacity within the Digital Programme Office, requiring:

a) The provision of £52,000 net additional investment, from 17-18 onwards.

b) The provision of £20,500 one-off investment for 16-17, funded from the ICT Transformation Reserve.

To access a one-off sum of £100,000 from the ICT Transformation Reserve to enable the development of software that connects our customer service interfaces with the systems that support our core services and functions. This will allow services to be more responsive to customer needs, demands and expectations.

To secure a further recurrent £50,000 from 17-18 onwards to provide the resource for ongoing server updates, refresh and essential maintenance within SRS as infrastructure and equipment progressively reaches the end of its useful life.