Agenda item

Report No: OAS/FH/16/004

The Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance has been invited to the meeting to give a short presentation / account of his portfolio and to answer questions from the Committee.

As set out in the Council’s Constitution, at every ordinary Overview and Scrutiny meeting at least one Cabinet Member would be invited to attend to give an account of his or her portfolio and answer questions from the Committee.  Therefore, to carry out this constitutional requirement, members were asked to consider the responsibilities of the Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance, who had been invited to the meeting.

Report No: OAS/FH/16/004, set out the overall responsibilities of the Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance, which were:

• Business development / commercial
• Cabinet management and support
• Civic office (Mayor)
• Democratic services (including member’s support)
• Financial services (including audit)
• Health and safety
• Human resources (including payroll)
• ICT
• Learning and development
• Legal services
• Performance and risk management
• Procurement
• Scrutiny management and support.

Councillor Stephen Edwards, Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance opened his presentation by thanking the Committee for the invitation.  He then set out the overall areas of responsibility (legal and democratic services, finance and performance and human resources); current priorities for human resources, legal and democratic services; ICT Plan; finance and performance challenges; finance and performance plan; Anglia Revenues Partnership Plan; future uncertainties and member development. 

Members discussed the presentation in detail and asked a number of questions of the Cabinet Member and officers, to which comprehensive responses were provided.  In particular discussions were held on the following:

(1)     Pensions – Officers confirmed  in response to a question from Cllr Stanbury that the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) was now a ‘career average’ pension scheme and no longer a final salary scheme,  with some protections in place for members in the LGPS prior to 2014.  Pension projections had been built into the Council Medium Term Financial Strategy.  The Suffolk LGPS was in a financially sound position.

(2)     National living wage – Officers informed members that the Government legislation on the National Living Wage could have a considerable impact on the Local Government pay spine and therefore the Council in future years would carry out work to mitigate that risk. 

(3)     IT (paperless working) – Officers informed members that moving to a paperless system was a significant culture change and users needed to be confident on its reliability.  In response to a question from Councillor Ruth Bowman, it was the view of the officers that the progress of members towards paperless working had been slower than anticipated.  Progress of staff had been more significant with officers using mobile equipment and working ‘paperless’ more regularly.  Further training and support would be provided in the move towards more paperless working.

(4)     IT (resilience) – Officers informed members that the council carried out regular business continuity exercises to test the resilience of the various IT systems and was investing in resilience.  The council also held a list of IT systems which had service level agreements.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance for his informative presentation.

There being no decision required, the Committee noted the presentation by the Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance.