Agenda item
SCRUTINY SPOTLIGHT
The Lead Member for Resources, Councillor David Edgar, will attend to report on his portfolio.
(Time allocated – 30 minutes)
Minutes:
Councillor David Edgar, Lead Member for Resources, gave a presentation on the key issues, achievements, and challenges arising from his portfolio.
Councillor Edgar stated that the role of the Directorate was to help colleagues in Council and partners across the borough – including NHS Tower Hamlets – deliver the best public services with the resources it had at its disposal.
Achievements in 2009/10 included:
- Rushmead and Cheviot One Stop Shops completely re-furbished
- Recently independent monitored mystery shopping of One Stop Shops had given four out of five visits the maximum 100% score
- £100 pensioner discount delivered to nearly 4,000 pensioners
- The business rate deferral scheme – brought in to help businesses with the increase in business rates – implemented and over 700 local businesses supported
- £2 million additional benefit entitlements identified and paid to Tower Hamlets pensioners
- Continuing focus on establishing a workforce to reflect the community: 60% of staff were female; 50% BME and 20% Bangladeshi. Steady progress was also being made to ensure better representation of BME and Bangladeshi staff at more senior grades
- A 50% reduction in agency staff
- A 30% improvement in return rate on the staff survey - the overall results showed that the Council scored above average in half the key measures compared to similar organisations and average on the rest
- The first council in London to achieve compliancy to the government’s code of connection enabling secure interactions between local authorities and central government departments through GCSx and Encryption.
Councillor Edgar advised that the overarching challenge for the next few years was responding to a significant reduction in funding in ways that reduced costs while minimising the impact on the users of the services provided.
The challenges for 2010/11 included:
- Supporting the development of a balanced budget strategy for 2011/12 to 2013/14
- Working with Directorates to identify further opportunities for efficiency savings and reducing costs
- Implementation of the Council’s information management strategy – to lay the foundations for future improvements in services and reduced costs
- An increasing focus on workforce planning including the number of buildings occupied, levels of agency staff, and the number of management layers.
Members of the Committee asked questions on a number of related issues including the cost of the Rushmead/Cheviot refurbishments, the impact of the Business Rates Deferral Scheme, procurement methods, reductions in the agency staff, the use of S106 monies, financial control of Tower Hamlets Homes, waste minimalisation, levels of variance between Directorate’s budgets, and the impact of moving to 12 monthly instalments for Council Tax collection.
Councillor Edgar then responded in detail to the concerns raised, highlighting in particular:
- The Council were alert to the risks of reducing the number of agency staff and aware of when this was not appropriate
- The Council kept an oversight of the financial control of Tower Hamlets Homes
- The Chair of the Council’s Planning Committees had asked for more information to be provided on S106 monies when considering applications
- The possible introduction of a Waste Minimalisation Strategy would be looked into
- The overall budget position needed to be considered as opposed to individual directorates, and the total picture reflected well
- Moving to 12 monthly payments had been the right thing for residents as it enabled better household budgeting
The Chair thanked Councillor Edgar for his presentation.