Policy And Resources Committee - 23/01/2012

At a MEETING of the POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 23rd January, 2012.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Councillor Ken GUILD, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 9th January, 2012 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I EMPLOYABILITY SERVICES WITHIN DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL

There was submitted Report No 31-2012 by the Director of City Development regarding the operating model for the employability services within Dundee City Council.

The Committee approved the undernoted:-

(i) that the current Personnel Employment Unit and Social Work Supported Employment Team be merged into one new employment service delivery model for people with health problems and disabilities. This service would be part of the Social Work Adult Service;

(ii) that the new service be physically located at the present Employment Unit offices;

(iii) it be remitted to City Development to monitor the Council's asset portfolio for appropriate offices to accommodate both the new employment service and Discover Opportunities Centre in one building in the future;

(iv) that the project would now move to an implementation phase where Social Work and Personnel would organise the transition to the proposed new operating model by April 2012;

(v) that the new Social Work Employment Service and the City Development Employability Programme Team would continue the work started in this project to further strengthen their working relationship and explore opportunities to gain further service improvements/integration of service for clients and the Council; and

(vi) that after six months of operating the new delivery model (ie October 2012), the Strategic Management Team be advised of the final savings achieved plus any additional opportunities identified for greater service integration between the Social Work Employment Service and the City Development Employability Programme Team.

II OPERATING MODEL REDESIGN PROJECT - MAIL HANDLING AND DISTRIBUTION/COURIER SERVICE

There was submitted Report No 30-2012 by the Depute Chief Executive (Support Services), outlining a proposed centralised mail handling distribution/courier service to manage incoming mail more efficiently across the Council.

The Committee approved the undernoted:-

(i) Two courier posts (one in the Social Work Department, the other in the Communities Division) be transferred into the Support Services Division to work together with the mail room operatives in a new team to provide a centralised mail handling and distribution service under the management of the Principal Administration Officer - effective from 1st February, 2012;

(ii) Two courier posts be deleted from the establishment (one in the Housing Department (vacant post), the other in the Education Department (temporary employee);

(iii) An implementation plan be drawn up by the CeRDMS Project Team in conjunction with individual departments for the scanning and routing of all incoming mail (with agreed exceptions) to Dundee House and it be subsequently rolled out to all other Council locations;

(iv) Departments continue to make efforts to further reduce incoming paper and inter‑departmental paper mail; and

(v) Directors instruct their staff to use CeRDMS, e-mail and multi-functional devices, where possible, for scanning/e-mailing internally to minimise paper mail between departments/locations.

III OPERATING MODEL REDESIGN - REVIEW OF PERSONNEL FUNCTION

There was submitted Report No 29-2012 by the Depute Chief Executive (Support Services) summarising the findings from the review of the personnel function within the Council.

The Committee approved the undernoted:-

(i) a move towards a fully centralised HR business partnering operating model;

(ii) the renaming of the function from Personnel to Human Resources (HR) and the redesignation of the staff accordingly, eg from Personnel Officer to Human Resources (HR) Officer;

(iii) the transfer-in to the central HR function of four departmental staff who were identified as in the main carrying out professional personnel activities and who were CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) qualified;

(iv) the transfer of the post of Organisational Development Assistant to the Information and Research Team based in the Corporate Planning Section - the post was currently on loan to that section; and

(v) the formal review of the model 12 months after implementation - around April 2013.

IV OPERATING MODEL REDESIGN - REVIEW OF FINANCIAL SERVICES

There was submitted Report No 34-2012 by the Depute Chief Executive (Support Services) summarising the findings from a review of the accounting services function, both central and departmental, within the Council.

The Team agreed:-

(i) that each Service Department would have a suitable person responsible for financial, budgetary and accounting matters on its Senior Management Team;

(ii) that each Service Department would have a suitably qualified member of staff responsible for liaising with central Finance and supporting their own Department on financial, budgetary and accounting issues;

(iii) that all other staff in Service Departments whose main duties fell into categories of Final Accounts preparation, Revenue Budget preparation and Revenue Monitoring be transferred to the central Finance Division within the Corporate Services Department. It was expected that most staff would require to spend a portion of their time located within central Finance and a portion within the Service Department.

(iv) that the structure within central Finance to accommodate this transfer would be part of the forthcoming Corporate Services restructure report; and

(v) that staff who remained in Departments would have professional accountability to the Director of Finance for the financial, budgetary and accounting information they provided.

V FIVE YEAR HOUSING CAPITAL BUDGET FROM 2012/2013 TO 2016/2017

There was submitted Report No 32-2012 by the Director of Finance and Director of Housing, setting out the revised Five Year Housing Capital Estimates which would allow the Council to achieve the Scottish Housing Quality Standard by 2015 and maintain it thereafter.

The Committee:-

(i) approved the Housing Capital Budget for 2012/2012 and the budget for the four years from 2013/2014 to 2016/2017;

(ii) approved the action as detailed in paragraph 4 of the report;

(iii) instructed the Director of City Development, in conjunction with the Director of Housing, to invite offers for the projects included in these capital estimates and authorised the Director of Housing, and the Director of City Development to continue with established alternative methods of procurement with contractors and develop new initiatives where these were necessary to achieve the value for money that would be required to meet with Scottish Housing Quality Standard (including partnering arrangements with contractors, where appropriate); and

(iv) authorised the Director of Housing to accept offers as detailed in paragraph 4.3 of the report.

In addition, it was remitted to the Director of Finance to incorporate the information relating to spending on disabled adaptations into the monthly report submitted to the Policy and Resources Committee.

VI REVENUE BUDGET 2012/2013 - HOUSING REVENUE ACCOUNT

There was submitted Report No 42-2012 by the Director of Finance relative to the above.

The Committee approved the 2012/2013 Revenue Budget for the Housing Revenue Account appended to the report and agreed that it be remitted to the Housing Committee in order that it may set the 2012/2013 rent levels.

VII APPOINTMENT OF SUPPLIERS OF SMARTCARDS

There was submitted Agenda Note AN14-2012 intimating that Dundee City Council provided the 'lead authority' role for administering the National Entitlement Card (NEC) scheme on behalf of the Scottish Government and all 32 Scottish local authorities. The Council received an additional grant from the Improvement Service to deliver a managed service to support Council users and Council developments, other potential users/developments, and to manage the third party contractors who provided goods and services to the NEC scheme.

Following a comprehensive tender evaluation involving officers of the Council and the Improvement Service, the Committee was asked to note the appointment of Novacard Informationssysteme GmbH as the supplier of smartcards to the National Entitlement Card Programme for the next four years with the option to extend for a further one year.

External funding awarded to Dundee City Council to manage the NEC scheme would be used for the purchase of the smartcards, which was estimated to be 2,209,750 over the four year period.

The Committee noted accordingly.

VIII PROVISION OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH SERVICES

There was submitted Report No 45-2012 by the Head of Personnel seeking approval for the appointment of SERCO to provide occupational health services to the Council from 2nd April, 2012 until 31st March, 2017.

The Committee approved the appointment of SERCO which had successfully come through the Council's corporate procurement process and would enable the Council to effectively manage occupational health responsibilities.

IX COSLA AND IMPROVEMENT SERVICE ANNUAL CONFERENCE

It was reported that the above conference would be held in St Andrews on 16th and 17th February, 2012 at an estimated cost of 395 per delegate.

As the conference was not linked to the convention this year, the Administration proposed that no delegates attend.

The Committee approved accordingly.

X CLASSROOM EXTENSION TO KINGSPARK SCHOOL

On a reference to Article II of the minute of meeting of the Education Committee of 23rd January, 2012, there was submitted Report No 39-2012 by the Director of City Development and Director of Education.

The Team approved the additional capital expenditure to be included within the next update of the Council's Financial Plan for 2012/2016 and approved the partnering contract offer from the Environment Department (Construction Service).

The Convener agreed that the undernoted item be considered as a matter of urgency in terms of Standing Order No 17(b) in view of the timescales involved.

XI POLICE AND FIRE REFORM - LOCAL SCRUTINY AND ENGAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION NETWORK

After considering Agenda Note AN17-2012 relative to the above, the Committee agreed:-

(i) that Dundee City Council register its interest in joining the Network as a Pathfinder for new local scrutiny and engagement arrangements with the Police, and a Networker for new arrangements being trialled elsewhere for scrutiny and engagement arrangements with the Fire and Rescue Services. It was noted that expressions of interest would be reviewed by the project board in February 2012, following which the Scottish Government would contact the Council for an introductory meeting; and

(ii) that it be remitted to the Chief Executive to bring forward proposals for local scrutiny and engagement arrangements with the Police, which would be trialled and evaluated.

Ken GUILD, Convener.