Agenda item

To consider the report.

RESOLVED

Scrutiny Corporate and Resources agreed the recommendations within the report which were:

• To note the progress made in the month from 11 November – 6 December 2024.
• To note the current assessment of programme risks which includes those with a score of 16 or higher that may arise during the change process, along with the status of actions to mitigate these risks, as detailed in Appendix A

Councillor Theo Butt Philip, Executive Lead Member for Transformation, Human Resources and Localities, welcomed Councillor Steven Pugsley to the Chair and handed over to Louise Routley, Digital Programme Manager, to take Members through the report. 

The report stated that since the last update was provided to the Committee, achievements included the following:

• Significant progress had been made across the various workstreams in particular the workforce programme and council restructure.
• The formal consultation was extended by one week, at the request of Trade Unions and as of 6 December, 1300 responses had been received. This has resulted in an additional risk being added to the risk register, deemed to be a Medium (amber) risk. The mitigating activity to manage the risk includes continued engagement with Trade Unions, providing additional resource to the Workforce programme to enable key programme milestones to be achieved, extending notice periods into 25/26 and Directors providing support to the programme where intervention is required.
• Issues identified by colleagues and Trade Unions had been reviewed midway through the consultation and where possible, structures were amended and addendums added for the remaining consultation period.
• Staff have continued to be supported through the delivery of:

• • Planning your Future roadshows
  • Confidential HR face to face drop-in sessions
  • Confidential virtual HR sessions
  • Online webinars provided by an external partner
• Implementation of a single Income Management System with all payments successfully processed.
• The Revenues and Benefits application consolidation continues to report as 'at risk' due to being behind schedule, following contractual delays. However, prior to the next reporting cycle it is envisaged that this issue will be resolved and a plan is in place to mitigate the impacts of the delay.
• A business case for the wider adoption of Microsoft CoPilot (Artificial Intelligence) has been developed and is ready for sign-off.
• Confidence remains high that the target from investment property disposals will be achieved within the financial year, exceeding early estimations of total redundancy costs.

The Committee was taken through the risk programme and it was noted that as requested at the October Scrutiny C&R meeting, all risks are now being updated monthly, regardless of the risk score, and the report includes more information regarding mitigation actions.

The current risk programme overview was highlighted as containing 16 live programme risks, split as follows:

• Programme Level/Cross Cutting             1 Red, 4 Amber
• Workforce                                             2 Red, 4 Amber
• Innovation & Change                                       1 Red
• Partnerships, Devolution & Localities                4 Red

Members of the Committee discussed the presentation and comments made included the following:

• Concern that some risks and scores have been downgraded. Would like to see the report include the scores from the previous reporting period so that changes can be easily noted. The Executive Director, Strategy and Transformation advised that this would be investigated. He added that it was anticipated that risks would reduce over time due to mitigating actions taken and if this didn’t occur, that would indicate that the mitigation was not working.
• Query over the use and cost of Microsoft Co-pilot.
• The capitalisation directive was discussed. Members were advised that there was still no Government response but were assured that the Council was having regular meetings with the MHCLG.
• Risk relating to devolution to parish and town councils was raised, particularly for smaller, rural parishes. Members were advised that the process was ongoing and that although the focus had naturally been on the bigger towns and parishes which had been able to offer more in terms of devolution, it was still a goal to include all parishes in the devolution process. Parish meetings were also included in the devolution reserve of £600k and the Council was using this as quickly and efficiently as possible.
• Concern was raised about the loss of key staff following the Council restructure and the motivation of staff. It was acknowledged to be a concern but that in the interim period, by having a broader approach regarding skill sets, it was hoped that this issue would be overcome.
• Members expressed that as the capitalisation directive was so crucial, downgrading risks at this stage seemed premature.
• More explanation was requested on the risk table, in particular, what was the benchmark that was used to allocate a risk as green, amber or red. The Executive Director, Executive Director Strategy, Workforce and Localities, advised he would provide this to all Members along with a glossary of terms and that there should be a consistent approach to reporting to all Committees.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Chair summed up and the recommendations within the report which were:

• To note the progress made in the month from 11 November – 6 December 2024.
• To note the current assessment of programme risks which includes those with a score of 16 or higher that may arise during the change process, along with the status of actions to mitigate these risks, as detailed in Appendix A

 It was proposed by Cllr Simon Coles and seconded by Cllr Peter Seib. All approved.

RESOLVED

Scrutiny Corporate and Resources agreed the recommendations within the report which were:

• To note the progress made in the month from 11 November – 6 December 2024.
• To note the current assessment of programme risks which includes those with a score of 16 or higher that may arise during the change process, along with the status of actions to mitigate these risks, as detailed in Appendix A