Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 25 January 2018 be confirmed.

Please note that, in accordance with the Members' Code of Conduct, when declaring interests members must disclose the existence and nature of the interest, and whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) or personal and/or pecuniary.

Councillor Pat Vaughan declared a Personal Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Performance Quarterly Monitoring: Quarter 3'. Reason: His daughter worked in the Benefits department at the City of Lincoln Council.

Councillor Pat Vaughan declared a Personal Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Financial Performance Monitoring: Quarter 3'. Reason: His Granddaughter worked in the Finance department at the City of Lincoln Council.

Councillor Helena Mair declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Strategic Projects Implementation: Quarter 3'. Reason: Her husband worked as a local architect and was involved in the Transport Hub scheme. In the event that any discussion on these matters took place during the course of the meeting she would withdraw from the room at that stage. No such discussion took place.

Councillor Ronald Hills declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Strategic Projects Implementation: Quarter 3'. Reason: His property was located within the vicinity of the Western Growth Corridor. He left the room during the discussion of this item.

Pat Jukes, Corporate Policy Business Manager:

a)    presented a portfolio performance overview of Recreational Services and Health covering the following main areas:

·         Contextual information on Health and Recreation in Lincoln.

·         Performance measures from the key basket of strategic measures.

b)    invited members’ questions and comments.

Question: With regards to under 18 conceptions, was the survey based on people who were also in a relationship?

Response: No, it was purely based on age only.

Question: With regards to the percentages of people who were obese, had the figures increased dramatically?

Response: This information was not to hand at the moment, however the information would be sought and provided to members separately.

Question: Why had there been a decrease in Under 18 conceptions from 2014-15?

Response: Members were assured that this information would also be sought and provided separately.

Question: How were the life expectancy figures calculated?

Response: The figures were calculated by age of all death of all causes.

Question: Were there statistics on other gyms within the city boundary besides Birchwood and Yarborough Leisure Centres?

Response: As they were competitors no information was directly available.

Question: How were the health figures gathered for Lincoln?

Response: A health survey for England was carried out which was calculated on the height and weight of the individual.

Question: Were the statistics gathered in the same way at other local authorities?

Response: Yes.

RESOLVED that:

1)    The following information be provided to members separately:

·         Statistics on how quickly obesity had increased in 2017.

·         Reason for the decrease in Under 18 conceptions between 2014-2015.

      2) The contents of the report be noted.

The Portfolio Holder for Recreational Services and Health, Councillor Donald Nannestad:

a)    presented his report and highlighted the activity and performance within his portfolio

b)    reported on several achievements during the year which were as follows:

·         Regeneration of Boultham Park, mainly funded by the Heritage Lottery fund had been completed.

·         With regards to physical activity, the level of adult population aged 16+ counted as “active” was 70% in Lincoln, which was the highest of any district in Lincolnshire.

·         Life expectancy was 8.6 years lower for men and 7.5 years lower for women in the most deprived areas than in the least deprived areas.

c)    advised that the 2017 Lincoln 10K was again operated by a ‘not for profit’ organisation ‘Run For All’ and continued to be a success.

d)    stated that the campsite at Hartsholme Country park had received more visitor bookings than ever before with the exception of the month of October, figures for every month being higher than the previous year.

e)    invited members’ questions and comments.

Question: Were there more children solely relying on the foodbank?

Response: The information wasn’t available to hand at this time however officers would seek out the relevant data and forward to members under separate cover.

Question: Were there programmes available at Yarborough Leisure Centre for obese children?

Response: The City of the Lincoln Council was looking to increase healthy living and had contributed to this in a number of ways such as:-

• The cafés at both Yarborough and Birchwood Leisure Centres had been designed to provide healthier options.
• Ensuring that the both gyms were more accessible for activities such as soft play.
• Engaging with schools to increase accessibility of activities.
• Promoting the use of football pitches and ensuring that they were more accessible.

Question: Could it be quantified how many people were just moving to Birchwood from another gym purely for price reasons and not new people joining altogether?

Response: Other providers were protective over their statistics so it would be difficult to gauge. The Council offered a ‘pay as you go’ service which not all private sector businesses operated. People joining from deprived areas would be ideal customers, however people who wanted to swap from their current gym to Birchwood were welcome to do so. A breakdown of statistics for membership would be sought separately.

Question: What had the City of Lincoln Council done to help young people get active or engage in physical activity?

Response: In order to engage young people, the Council had helped promote the following:

• As part of the 10K contract, the Council had been involved in organising junior events, which were free of charge. It gave young people the opportunity to get involved in a competitive race or take part for fun.
• Swimming programmes at Yarborough Leisure Centre for local schools.
• Ensuring the facilities were suitable for youth/adult football teams.
• Discovery weekends including archery and various other sports etc.
• Cycling Sportif in Lincoln.

Question: Were there any plans in place to improve the car park  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

Pat Jukes, Corporate Policy Business Manager:

a)    presented the report summarising the operational performance position for Quarter 3 of the financial year 2017/18 (October to December 2017).

b)    advised that regular monitoring of the Council’s operational performance was a key component of the Local Performance Management Framework, this report covered key service performance measures identified by Members and CMT as of strategic importance.

c)    detailed the key headlines from the four corporate measures:

·         Sickness – split by long and short term

·         Corporate complaints including Ombudsman rulings

·         Employee FTE headcount, vacancies and turnover

·         Staff appraisals completed.

d)    referred to Appendix A which detailed all measures by individual directorate grouping with annual and quarterly measures split separately.

Invited members’ questions and comments.

Question: In relation to employees working from home, were there any breakdown statistics of people logging in at City Hall or elsewhere?

Response: The information wasn’t available to hand at the moment however it was agreed that the figures would be sought separately.

Question: How many people didn’t take part in the Anti-Social Behaviour survey?

Response: The people who hadn’t completed the survey had been contacted and completed it over the telephone.

Question: What had the City of Lincoln Council done to tackle long-term sickness?

Response: A copy of the list Claire Burroughs had put together would be circulated to members separately.

Question: With regards to the processing of new Housing Benefit claims, would the time to process them improve once the new system came in?

Response: It would improve measures for homelessness and other measures but wouldn’t resolve any of the issues.

RESOLVED that:

1)    The draft performance targets would be presented at the next Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting.

2)    The following information be provided to members separately:

-       Breakdown data of numbers of employees logging in to work from home or another location.

-       A list of long term sickness initiatives employed by the council to tackle long-term sickness.

3)    The report be referred to the Executive noting concerns raised by members with regards to long term sickness.

4)    The content of report be noted.

Rob Baxter, Interim Chief Finance Officer:

a) presented the Financial Performance Quarterly Monitoring report for the

second quarter (up to 31^st December) which covered the following main

areas:

• General Fund
• Housing Revenue Account
• Housing Repairs Service
• Capital Programmes
• Key Budget Risk Assessments.

b) highlighted a forecast underspend of £457,856 in respect of the financial position of the Council at the end of the second quarter for 2017/18 as highlighted in section 3.2 of the report.

c) reported that the HRA (Housing Revenue Account) was currently projecting an in-year underspend of £211,970 which would increase the general balances to £1,235,030 at the end of 2017/18.

d) detailed the earmarked reserves and their forecast balance as at the 31^st March 2018 as outlined in section 6.1 of the report.

e) stated that the last quarterly report approved a General Fund Investment Programme for 2017/18 of £30,899,090, due to movements in the programme the overall planned expenditure had increased to £31,418,986.

f) referred to the last Housing Investment Programme report for 2017/18 approved by Executive as detailed in paragraph 7.9-7.13 of the report.

g) invited members’ questions and comments.

Question: How much had the budget increased for the new CCTV system?

Response: The original budget was £300,000 and it had increased to £385,000.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

Rob Baxter, Interim Chief Finance Officer:

a)    presented a report updating members on strategic projects against their milestones for the third quarter of 2017/18.

b)    advised that of the 20 strategic projects monitored, 18 projects were on track in terms of their physical and financial milestones and risk profiles, of these a further 8 projects had been completed and were awaiting a Post Implementation Review to be submitted and signed off, there were also no projects off track in terms of all three of the areas of monitoring: physical progress, financial position or risk analysis.

c)    stated that there were 2 projects currently off track in one or two of the areas of monitoring as detailed in paragraph 2.4 of the report.

d)    reported that 1 new project was reviewed and recommended to the Executive for approval in the third quarter.

e)    updated members on the following two mega projects:

·         Western Growth Corridor

·         Transport Hub.

f)     highlighted the work of the Section 106 Group and annual ongoing projects at paragraphs 6 and 7 of the report.

g)    invited members’ questions and comments.

Question: What was prolonging plans for the Western Growth Corridor and why was it taking so long?

Response: The traffic study had been received and the results were being generated. The project plan would be produced once the results had been collected however the data wasn’t confirmed yet.

Question: With regards to the new multi storey car park, why was floor 4 shut? When would floor 5 open?

Response: Floor 4 was shut due to paint issues and would be opened in April along with floor 5.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

Rob Baxter, Interim Chief Finance Officer:

a)    presented the report ‘Strategic Risk Register – Quarterly Review’ and provided members with the revised Strategic Risk Register as at the end of the third quarter 2017-18.

b)    advised that the Strategic Risk Register was developed under the risk management approach of ‘risk appetite’, which was last presented to Performance Scrutiny in November 2017 and contained seven strategic risks.

c)    highlighted that since it was last reported in August 2017, the Strategic Risks Register had been reviewed and updated.

d)    further highlighted that the updated Register contained seven strategic risks an outlined in Appendix A of the report.

e)    updated members on the key movements which were outlined as follows:-

·         Engaging with Strategic Partners, staff and stakeholders to deliver the Vision 2020.

·         Delivery of sustainable Medium term Financial Strategy.

·         To ensure compliance with statutory duties and appropriate governance arrangements were in place.

·         Delivery of the Towards Financial Sustainability programme savings targets.

f)     identified the risk implications as outlined in 6.1 of the report.

g)    invited members’ questions and comments.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

Members received the feedback from the Budget Review Group regarding the Draft Medium Term Financial Strategy 2018-23.

RESOLVED that the content of the minutes be noted.

RESOLVED that this item be deferred to the next meeting.

RESOLVED that the content of the work programme be noted.