The Mayor welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked all present to introduce themselves. He then also specifically welcomed the new Board Members and asked them to give a brief summary about themselves and the skills/knowledge they brought to the Board.

All Members were present and so there were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of interest.

Robin Beattie, Acting Director of Strategy, Improvement and Transformation, introduced the item on the LGA Peer Challenge. He highlighted how the review had come at a really useful time and the Council had fully embraced this as an opportunity to help shape the transformation journey the Council was embarking on.

Stephen Bramah, Head of Corporate Strategy and Improvement, then took the Board through a more detailed look at the initial response from the LGA  including the 17 recommendations received. The final report was expected soon and would be published by the end of the year. The Council would be publishing an Action Plan at the same time.

The Board reviewed the report and made a number of comments, including:

·       There is a lot that the Council already does well, as acknowledged by the LGA Challenge.

·       The Action Plan would cover new work as well as existing improvement projects.

·       It was important to think how Workforce to Reflect the Community was embedded.

·       Make sure the Council was structured to provided the necessary capacity to deliver.

·       Focus and pace was important.

·       Good governance and accurate delegations would speed up the proposed improvements.

Finally, it was noted that the LGA would return for a follow up review after six months.

It was agreed that the action plan would be brought to the Board for comment before it was published.

Ayesha Hakim Rahman, Acting Deputy Director of Strategy, Improvement and Transformation, introduced a draft proposed Transformation Dashboard for review and comment by the Board. She highlighted that a lot of work was linked to the Transformation agenda and so it was important to keep track of it to evidence and measure the progress.

The Board welcomed the proposals and made a number of comments, including:

·       There were quite a lot of indicators and some such as 3, 6 and 7 could potentially be reshaped and/or merged.

·       There are lots of potential reviews by different regulators coming up so it could be sensible to widen Indicator 9 to cover those.

·       Think about the timings for when indicators would report back to the Board.

·       Think about how best to present the information avoiding lots of lists of metrics.

The Board looked forward to receiving an updated version at future meetings.

Ayesha Hakim Rahman, Acting Deputy Director Strategy, Improvement and Transformation, took the Board through the proposal for a new Target Operating Model (TOM). In particular, she highlighted the extensive consultation that was being undertaken and that to ensure this could be done meaningfully the plan was to push the agreement of the final Target Operating Model into the Spring.

The Board welcomed the proposal and made a number of suggestions including:

·         Important to embed the needs of residents and communities into the Model.

·         The potential role of Scrutiny in monitoring the TOM.

·         How to bring in the views of young people including the Young Mayor and Youth Council.

·         How to undertake meaningful co-production.

·         The Transformation Advisory Board should not be seen as part of the core model, it is there to advise.

·         Community engagement is more useful when wider than just showing residents the TOMs and asking for comments.

·         Delivery work should continue without waiting for a final TOM to be agreed.

It was agreed that an updated TOM would be presented to the Board and they would be kept updated on the consultation results.

Stephen Bramah, Head of Corporate Strategy and Improvement, introduced a report on the recent Annual Residents’ Survey. This was seen as an important tool to help the Council understand the needs of residents and communities from across the borough. The survey had not taken place for a few years due to Covid and it was pleasing that it had now been relaunched. In general the questions were the same as from previous surveys to make trend analysis easier.

Martin Rogers, Senior Research Officer, then took the Board through the data in more detail.

The Board reviewed the report and made a number of comments including:

·       It could be worth undertaking even more frequent surveys and focus groups so that specific service changes can be monitored and new issues picked up quickly.

·       Where possible it would be good to understand why there had been such a noticeable increase in ‘don’t know’ responses. Officers would come back on whether there were patterns such as in relation to age, community or location or length of stay in the borough.

·       Noted that further consultation would take place with communities that were under represented.

·       An action plan following on from the survey would be prepared and circulated.

The Board looked forward to receiving further updates on future agendas.

Quarter 1 Budget Monitoring Report to Cabinet – initial presentation with full discussion at the next meeting.

A few issues were discussed during any other business including:

·         A suggestion that the agenda frontsheet sets out more specifically what feedback officers would like from the Board on each item.

·         Board Members were encouraged to submit ideas for items they would like to see on future agendas.

·         A future reports on income generation, on partnership working and on community engagement would be welcome.

·         Officers were asked to consider whether useful papers could be presented on key issues facing the borough such as on housing overcrowding, health inequality and similar especially where Board Members had specific skills/knowledge that were relevant to the issue.

·         It was asked that a forward plan for future agendas be circulated to Members before the next meeting.

Cabinet report presented for information and any initial comment. A full presentation and discussion will follow at the next meeting of the Transformation Advisory Board.

The Budget Monitoring Quarter One report was noted and the Board were advised that they would receive regular updates in future for their information.