Policy And Resources Committee - 04/06/2018

At a MEETING of the POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 4th June, 2018.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Councillor John ALEXANDER, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 23rd April, 2018 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Councillor Hunter declared a non-financial interest in Article XII by virtue of being the Council's representative on the Ardler Village Trust.

Councillors Hunter, Dawson and McCready declared non-financial interests in Article XIV by virtue of being the Council's representatives on Leisure & Culture Dundee.

Councillor Marra declared a non-financial interest in Article XIV by virtue of his employment with Dundee University (UNESCO rep).

II ESTABLISHMENT OF RECESS SUB-COMMITTEE

There was submitted Agenda Note AN33-2018 intimating that the Council's Recess commenced on 30th June, 2018 and ended on 11th August, 2018. To facilitate the smooth, continuous conduct of the Council's business it was proposed that a Recess Sub-Committee of the Council be set up to deal with matters of an urgent nature which the Chief Executive or Head of Democratic and Legal Services believed could not wait for the next ordinary meeting of the Committee concerned during that period.

The Committee approved the undernoted operating arrangements:-

(i) Membership - 5 members of the Administration, 2 members of the Labour Group, 1 member of the Conservative Group and 1 member of the Liberal Democrat Group;

(ii) Chair - Leader of the Administration or nominee;

(iii) Substitutes - in terms of Standing Order No 45(3) it shall be competent for substitutions to be intimated and effected for individual meetings;

(iv) Quorum - 3 members;

(v) Dates - to be arranged when required;

(vi) Remit - to deal with any urgent business arising during the recess period; and

(vii) Power - full delegated powers to deal with business laid before it.

The Committee also noted that, notwithstanding the above, it may be necessary in view of their quasi‑judicial nature to arrange meetings of the Personnel Appeals Sub-Committee and Licensing Committee.

III FAIR WORK CHARTER

There was submitted Report No 120-2018 by the Chief Executive recommending the adoption of a Fair Work Charter.

The Committee:-

(i) agreed to adopt a Fair Work Charter for Dundee City Council as appended to the report;

(ii) remitted the Chief Executive to discuss and agree the development of further service‑specific charters, within the principles of this overarching document, with the relevant trade unions;

(iii) remitted the Chief Executive to advocate and influence the development of similar charters by other employers in line with the Council's commitment to fairness and tackling inequalities; and

(iv) instructed the Chief Executive to report back to Committee on progress on the Fair Work Charter and on the further service-specific charters, including their application to Council procurement activity, and on progress with other employers' charters and tackling fairness and tackling inequalities.

IV DUNDEE FAIRNESS ACTION PLAN PROGRESS REPORT

On a reference to Article III of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 21st August, 2017, there was submitted Report No 132-2018 by the Chief Executive providing an update on the progress of the Fairness Action Plan for Dundee.

The Committee noted the contents of the report.

V UPDATE ON UNIVERSAL CREDIT AND WELFARE REFORM

On a reference to Article VI of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 13th November, 2017, there was submitted Report No 183-2018 by the Executive Director of Corporate Services providing an update on the rollout of Universal Credit Full Service and the latest outcomes following on from preparations made to prepare support services and residents in relation to the changes it brought. The report also highlighted other recent developments concerning the UK Government's Welfare Reforms and their impact on Dundee.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the content of the report and considered the impact on individuals and families within Dundee;

(ii) noted that Universal Credit Full Service was implemented within Dundee on 8th November, 2017 and had been in operation for over six months;

(iii) noted the implications in terms of increased debt and demand for advice services from various organisations and the voluntary sector;

(iv) noted the update on the workstreams which had been in operation to assist in managing Welfare Reform changes and Universal Credit Full Service in particular;

(v) noted the work and progress the Council and partners within the city were taking to continue to mitigate aspects of the UK Government Welfare Reforms; and

(vi) noted the impact the UK Government Welfare Reforms would result in an estimated annual loss of 94m by 2021 within Dundee.

VI DISTRICT HEATING STRATEGY 2018-2028

There was submitted Report No 166-2018 by the Executive Director of City Development introducing the Council's first District Heating Strategy 2018-2028.

The Committee agreed the District Heating Strategy 2018-2028 appended to the report.

VII A CONNECTED SCOTLAND: TACKLING SOCIAL ISOLATION AND LONELINESS AND BUILDING STRONGER SOCIAL CONNECTIONS

There was submitted Report No 169-2018 by the Chief Executive informing members of the Scottish Government's consultation on tackling social isolation and the response which was submitted.

The Committee:-

(i) noted that the Scottish Government issued a consultation document on tackling social isolation as part of the process of developing a national strategy on this issue; and

(ii) noted the response which had been submitted by officers following consultation with the Lord Provost and leaders of each political group.

VIII PROTECTION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS AND THE DISCLOSURE OF CRIMINAL INFORMATION - PROPOSED RESPONSE TO CONSULTATION

There was submitted Report No 189-2018 by the Chief Executive seeking approval of the proposed response to the Scottish Government Consultation of Protection of Vulnerable Groups and Disclosure of Criminal Information.

The Committee approved the response to the consultation as appended to the report.

IX HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE STANDARDS

There was submitted Report No 188-2018 by the Chief Social Work Officer informing the Committee of the new Health and Social Care Standards which would inform future models of external scrutiny of health and social care services and advising of work being undertaken in preparation for the standards. A report on the revised standards had already been considered by the Scrutiny Committee (Article III of the minute of meeting of the Scrutiny Committee of 18th April, 2018, Report No 140-2018 refers) and to the Performance and Audit Committee of the Integration Joint Board.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the content of the new Health and Social Care Standards as detailed in Sections 4.3 and 4.4 of the report and the appendix thereto; and

(ii) noted the planned approach to incorporating the content of the new standards into the scrutiny of health and social care service as detailed in Sections 4.5 to 4.7 of the report.

X UPDATE ON DUTY OF CANDOUR PREPARATIONS

There was submitted Report No 187-2018 by the Chief Social Work Officer informing the Committee of ongoing and planned work in relation to the implementation of the Duty of Candour procedure which came into force on 1st April, 2018 and advising that the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016 had received Royal Assent on 6th April, 2016 and introduced a new organisational duty of candour on health, care and social work services.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the preparations that were being undertaken by Dundee City Council for the implementation of the Duty of Candour (Scotland) Regulations 2018; and

(ii) noted that the responsibility for the reporting of the Duty of Candour events remained with the responsible person.

XI COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT (SCOTLAND) ACT 2015 ANNUAL REPORT ON ASSET TRANSFER

On a reference to Article II of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 13th March, 2017, there was submitted Report No 161-2018 by the Executive Director of Neighbourhood Services advising the Committee of the first annual report on Part 5 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 in relation to Asset Transfer and also informing Committee on the progress of the implementation of the Community Asset Transfer Strategy.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the contents of the first annual report, as detailed in the appendix to the report, which covered the period from 23rd January, 2017-31st March, 2018; and

(ii) noted the progress made in relation to the implementation of the Community Asset Transfer Strategy.

XII MACMILLAN ARDLER HUB

There was submitted Report No 151-2018 by the Executive Director of Neighbourhood Services setting out proposals for establishing a Macmillan Ardler Hub, in the cafe adjoining Ardler Complex, for a period of three years.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the establishment of the Macmillan Ardler Hub; and

(ii) approved a three year lease, on an internal repairing and insuring basis, to the Macmillan Ardler Hub at a rental of 1 per annum, if demanded by the landlord. Otherwise, the lease would be subject to the Council's normal terms and conditions.

XIII MEASURES TO REDUCE OR ELIMINATE SINGLE USE PLASTIC ITEMS FROM COUNCIL OPERATIONS

There was submitted Report No 162-2018 by the Executive Director of Neighbourhood Services proposing that Dundee City Council agree to support the Scottish Government's aim to remove the use of plastic straws from Council operations where practicable and to consider longer-term measures to reduce or eliminate other single use plastics.

The Committee:-

(i) recommended that a letter of support be submitted to Kate Forbes MSP;

(ii) instructed all departments to determine current use of products containing straws in locations providing catering facilities to staff, pupils and members of the public;

(iii) required all departments to support this initiative and, where possible, to seek alternative products such as paper straws when serving drinks;

(iv) approved the alternative procurement arrangements to be put in place to support the above; and

(v) instructed officers dealing with licensing of hotels, public houses and restaurants to examine any ways in which the unnecessary use of plastic could be eliminated from these premises and to report back to Committee on progress.

XIV UNESCO CITY OF DESIGN AND CULTURAL STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

On a reference to Article VI of the minute of meeting of this Committee of 12th January, 2015, there was submitted Report No 171-2018 by the Director, Leisure & Culture providing a brief overview of proposals to secure the future of the staff team who delivered UNESCO City of Design Dundee and support for Cultural Strategy implementation. The report further provided a summary of the progress to date of the designation, which had been running since 2014.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the progress being made in developing Dundee's designation as the UK UNESCO City of Design over the last four years; and

(ii) agreed an annual contribution of 60,000 as its contribution to partnership funding to secure the future of the UNESCO designation and cultural strategy implementation.

XV CENTRALISED COMPUTER MAINFRAME AND STORAGE PURCHASE

There was submitted Report No 186-2018 by the Executive Director of Corporate Services recommending the purchase and supply of centralised computer mainframe system and storage facilities.

The Committee:-

(i) approved procurement of the Private Cloud for Linux, customer owned, hosted and managed via a direct award under the Crown Commercial Service G-Cloud 9 framework - Lot 1 Cloud Hosting (IaaS) and (PaaS) to purchase two IBM Z14 mainframe computer systems and two IBM Flashsystem A9000 storage systems to be hosted by Dundee City Council; and

(ii) agreed the expenditure described in paragraph 3 of the report for the capital costs of the new system and the five year licensing, maintenance and support contract.

XVI LOCAL CODE OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

There was submitted Report No 190-2018 reviewing and updating the Council's Local Code of Corporate Governance.

The Committee:-

(i) approved the review and updated the Local Code of Corporate Governance as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report;

(ii) noted the progress against the 2017/2018 Improvement Action Plan detailed in Appendix 2 of the report; and

(iii) approved the implementation of the improvements listed in Appendix 3 of the report for 2018/2019.

John ALEXANDER, Convener.