Meeting documents

SSDC District Executive
Tuesday, 18th April, 2017 1.00 pm

  • Meeting of District Executive, Tuesday 18th April 2017 1.00 pm (Item 167.)

Decision:

 

RESOLVED:

That District Executive recommend that Full Council agree to:-

 

i.

Approve the further revision to the senior leadership structure as set out in section 2 of this report;

 

 

ii.

Note the revised cost of the senior leadership structure which will produce a further saving of £30,134 per year on top of the £200,537 saving outlined in the report to Council in October 2016;

 

 

iii.

Agree the revised Business Case for Transformation and note the headline risks included in this report;

 

 

iv.

Agree the award of a contract to CIVICA UK LTD for a technology platform and services in support of the future model;

 

 

v.

Note the progress to date and the programme for delivering Transformation;

 

 

vi.

Agree the revised Transformation Programme governance arrangements as set out in section 3 and Appendix A of this report;

 

 

vii

Approve that additional net savings of £539,800 be added to the Medium Term Financial Plan for 2018/19 and 2019/20;

 

 

viii.

Allocate a further £756,585 from capital receipts reserved within the capital programme for transformation;

 

 

ix.

Approve the use of Revenue Support Reserve for 2020/21 of £1,508,000 to fund revenue once-off costs (£564,570) and contribute to Redundancy Reserve (£943,430);

 

 

x.

Approve the use of £231,270 of General Fund Balances to support the Redundancy Reserve;

 

 

xi.

Note that the Redundancy Reserve has a target of a further £1,100,000 to find through underspends and the MTFP;

 

 

xii.

Note that a further £400,000 in capital receipts that can be utilised for revenue spend remain to be found to fund the Transformation Programme.

 

Reason:

To report on progress with the Transformation Programme and seek approval of the revised business case for the programme, the award of the technology partner contract and a revised senior structure.

 

Minutes:

The Chief Executive introduced the report and advised that the three main parts to note were the revised business case, structure and technology supplier.  He drew members attention to a projection of the headline and revised business cases costs profiles comparison (graph circulated at the meeting) which demonstrated a faster return under the revised business case which should realise the required £4.7m savings.

 

In response to questions from the Scrutiny Committee, the Chief Executive and Chairman advised:-

 

·         The funding allocated to redundancies was a reserve and not a budget.  There were a number of staff over the age of 55 and the Council needed to plan for this risk as it would trigger the pension strain for them. 

·         The Transformation Programme was now more refined and there was more certainty that the contingencies detailed were a prudent provision.

·         The proposed change to the management structure was driven by a late notification of an additional lump sum pension cost, and to preserve strategic capacity it was proposed to remove the post of Assistant Chief Executive and replace it with one Director

·         There was currently a review of SSDC property being undertaken and some may be sold.  SSDC had consistently produced budget underspends however, it was time to look at utilising reserves.  

·         The Transformation team were committed to providing quarterly reports to the Executive and a monthly report to Councillors.

·         The base line for counting the number of employees was June 2016 and there were a number of vacant posts being held which would reduce the overall number of redundancies.  However, because of the commercial income generation invest to earn, some areas of the Council would grow. 

 

The Technology Implementation Manager advised that the proposed technology supplier, Civica, were operating live in Eastbourne, however, there had been some mobile connectivity issues in South Hams and West Devon where staff had to work off-line if there was a low broadband signal.  It was likely that this could also occur in parts of South Somerset. 

 

At the conclusion of the debate, Members agreed to propose the recommendations be adopted by Full Council.

 

RESOLVED:

That District Executive recommend that Full Council agree to:-

 

i.

Approve the further revision to the senior leadership structure as set out in section 2 of this report;

 

 

ii.

Note the revised cost of the senior leadership structure which will produce a further saving of £30,134 per year on top of the £200,537 saving outlined in the report to Council in October 2016;

 

 

iii.

Agree the revised Business Case for Transformation and note the headline risks included in this report;

 

 

iv.

Agree the award of a contract to CIVICA UK LTD for a technology platform and services in support of the future model;

 

 

v.

Note the progress to date and the programme for delivering Transformation;

 

 

vi.

Agree the revised Transformation Programme governance arrangements as set out in section 3 and Appendix A of this report;

 

 

vii

Approve that additional net savings of £539,800 be added to the Medium Term Financial Plan for 2018/19 and 2019/20;

 

 

viii.

Allocate a further £756,585 from capital receipts reserved within the capital programme for transformation;

 

 

ix.

Approve the use of Revenue Support Reserve for 2020/21 of £1,508,000 to fund revenue once-off costs (£564,570) and contribute to Redundancy Reserve (£943,430);

 

 

x.

Approve the use of £231,270 of General Fund Balances to support the Redundancy Reserve;

 

 

xi.

Note that the Redundancy Reserve has a target of a further £1,100,000 to find through underspends and the MTFP;

 

 

xii.

Note that a further £400,000 in capital receipts that can be utilised for revenue spend remain to be found to fund the Transformation Programme.

 

Reason:

To report on progress with the Transformation Programme and seek approval of the revised business case for the programme, the award of the technology partner contract and a revised senior structure.

 

Supporting documents: