Meeting documents

To receive an update from the LGR Programme Director.

The LGR Programme Director, Alyn Jones gave a PowerPoint presentation updating the Committee on the LGR programme, covering the following matters: -

-        Programme overview, strategic objectives, progress

-        PwC Monthly feedback report for July and August 2022

-        Activity during February

The Committee discussed the presentation, and the following was a summary of the areas raised: -

·         Clarification was requested on the term ‘recast’ mentioned on page 11 for Budget Milestones.

The LGR Programme Director advised that the budget for the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) had been cast when the business case was pulled together, this meant that some money had been put into this year and next year’s budget for redundancy as there was uncertainty as to when the money would be needed.  Recast meant that the budget may need to be moved into a different year once the redundancy costs were known.

·         Councillors queried point 3 on Contracts and when was the work completed and how many high contracts were due to end soon or could be extended.

The LGR Programme Director advised that all the contracts were now known across all five councils and that they had all been centralised to enable work to be carried out on efficiencies.  High contracts were not yet known but he was happy to bring the information to a future meeting.

·         Clarification was requested on point 5 for Capital Investments.

The LGR Programme Director apologised for the language used in the report, asset optimisation was a name given for one of the workstream groups.  He further explained that he wanted to ensure there was a good grasp of investments so that they were not impacted by vesting day.

·         Councillors raised concern on the delay to tier 2 and 3 appointments and the impact that would have on the rest of the staff.  They queried how long the delay would be and what was being done to address the concerns.

The LGR Programme Director advised that the staff structure was the responsibility of the Head of Paid Services, who started in his role on 3 October 2022.  His first task would be to meet with the Executive to discuss how to move forward with staffing and tiers 2 and 3 were important for the delivery of the project.

·         Councillors highlighted service alignment and the importance for vesting day to ensure certain services had been aligned.  They queried which services would be aligned first.

The LGR Programme Director advised that service alignment was a key area that was feeling the pressure of ‘business as usual’ (BAU) demands, which was causing a delay in the work.  He assured councillors that more programme support had been put into place to track resource to enable service alignment. He furtheradvised that the PWC report had identified that without a structure in place, there could be issues moving forward with the project.  However, a target model had been put in place to provide a guide.

·         Councillors queried the table on Asset Optimisation of Property on page 15 and how were officers ensuring that the project was not compromised.

·         Councillors queried why there had been an increase in product numbers in July and August and why some were under-resourced.

The LGR Programme Director advised that the increase in number of products was due to every task being allocated a product number to ensure that it was tracked within the programme.  He further advised councillors that if a product did not have enough resource, it should be identified by a workstream, which are managed by senior members of staff, who would ensure BAU and LGR work could be carried out and they would need to flag a concern if they required extra resource.

·         Councillors requested further clarification on some of the acronyms used in the report.

·         Councillors queried how fragile was manning the programme coming up to annual leave during the festive season and also sick leave during the cold and flu season.

The LGR Programme Director advised that if IT was not manned properly (for example), it would impact on the project, so therefore leave needed to be strictly managed.  Fragility was being assessed continuously and that work was being carried out in stages to minimise risk of work being done in one ‘big hit’.

·         Councillors queried whether the comment on page 21, with regards to the programme stage and legal position and medium-term financial plan (MTFP), were of concern.

The LGR Programme Director advised that the PWC comments were to ensure that the significant budget gap was addressed.

·         Concern was raised that councillors had not seen the culture of the New Council through any of the LGR work yet.

·         Councillors queried when the committee would see how public interactions would work and what the front facing image of the New Council would look like.

The LGR Programme Director advised that work on the culture of the New Council was done through the Executive and would form part of the Corporate Plan.  Most of the other work would start once vesting day had arrived and would be completed gradually due to the significance of the work, this meant that it could not be completed prior to vesting day.

·         Councillors queried how would the MTFP be protected.

·         Councillors requested reassurance on governance arrangements mentioned on page 19.

·         Councillors queried a comment made by PWC on Change Management Resource.

The LGR Programme Director advised that he had mobilised change management resource to ensure that from day 1 of the New Council, officers would know where to work and how to login etc.  He further advised that general capacity of the LGR Programme was a constant monitored challenge and he had asked PWC for more specific details on where they had identified risk and concern.

·         Councillors requested update on cashable and non-cashable benefits.

·         Councillors requested a work programme for the LGR Joint Scrutiny Committee, and that the cashable and non-cashable benefits be added to that.

The LGR Programme Director advised that a work programme was being produced and could be customised based on requests from the committee.  He advised he would be happy to give members a briefing on cashable and non-cashable benefits.

·         Councillor Leyshon gave reassurance that the new Chief Executive was definitely starting work on 3 October 2022 as he had completed all of his statutory duties with his former Authority.  She also advised that she had asked for a timeline for where reports would go to committee from now until vesting day.

The LGR Joint Scrutiny Committee agreed the following actions: -

·         The Work Programme for the LGR Joint Scrutiny Committee would be distributed.

·         Details on acronyms would be provided and better use of them within reports would be ensured by officers.

·         A briefing on cashable and non-cashable benefits would be given to members.