Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Chris Allison (Commissioner).

There were no Declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.

The Best Value Programme Review Board Terms of Reference were noted.

Stephen Halsey, Head of Paid Service, introduced the 6 month update on Best Value Plans. He stated that the individual plans would be introduced by the relevant officers but that overall he thought the Council had demonstrated strong performance. He noted all the actions where progress had been satisfactory as well as a few areas of slippage.

He also asked the meeting to note the booklet setting out the role of the Commissioners that had been circulated recently at the Council’s Staff Conference. The main points of the discussion on the Update Report may be summarised as follows:

Statutory Officer Recruitment

Moving on to the individual plans, Simon Kilbey, Service Head, Human Resources and Workforce Development, introduced the Action Plan on Statutory Officer Recruitment. He reminded the meeting that this was to support the recruitment process for the three Statutory Officers. He reported that the processes to recruit to the Corporate Director of Resources (Section 151 Officer) and the Director, Law, Probity and Governance (Monitoring Officer) had been completed and that the officers were due to start in the next few weeks.

The process to recruit a new Chief Executive was on track to meet the deadline with the advert having now closed. Appointment Sub-Committees were due to meet shortly and the appointment would then be submitted to Council for final approval.

The Commissioners stated that the process to recruit the first two officers had been good and they were happy to endorse it. They were disappointed that the Council had needed further Directions to proceed on the Chief Executive recruitment process but noted that it was now on schedule.

Procurement Action Plan

Chris Holme, Acting Corporate Director, Resources, introduced the Procurement Action Plan. He explained that the report set out the issues that had been found and the actions taken to remedy them. He said that significant process had been made and many improvements had already been actioned.

In particular he highlighted that a lot of progress had been made in relation to ensuring ethical procurement and the social value of contracts. There was now much better information for officers and Members to help monitor contracts. Officers were also examining how to bring contracts together on a Pan London basis to look for better opportunities.

Following discussion Chris Holme agreed to present the Council’s procurement procedures to the new Executive to ensure they had an opportunity to review the arrangements.

The Commissioners noted the Action Plan

Grants Action Plan

Chris Holme, Acting Corporate Director, Resources, introduced the Grants Action Plan. He highlighted that this had been a resource intensive exercise with testing timescales but that significant work had been carried out. A new Mainstream Grants process had been developed with work to ensure it was seen as transparent and objective. There were opportunities for Members across the Council to be involved.

On the current grants round, he reported that the decision making meeting would be on 29 July with a cross-party meeting on 23 July.

The Commissioners acknowledged the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.