Agenda and draft minutes

·         16 February 2023

·         2 March 2023

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 16 February 2023 and 2 March 2023 be confirmed.

·         2 February 2023

·         9 March 2023

RESOLVED that the minutes from the previous Housing Scrutiny Sub Committee’s held on 2 February 2023 and 9 March 2023 be received.

Councillor Pat Vaughan declared a Personal Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Financial Performance - Outturn 2022/23'. His Granddaughter worked in the Finance Department of the City of Lincoln Council.

Colleen Warren, Financial Services Manager:

a)    presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee with a summary of actual income and expenditure compared to the revised budget and how any surpluses had been allocated to reserves

b)    provided information on the Council’s:

·         General Fund Revenue Account – for 2022/23 the Council’s net General Fund Revenue Budget was set at £8,907,490, including a planned contribution from balances of £60,700 resulting in an estimated level of general balances at the year-end of £2,262,761 (Appendix A provided a provisional General Fund Summary. There were a significant number of provisional year-end variations in income and expenditure against the approved budget. Full details of the main variances were provided in Appendix B.

·         Housing Revenue Account – the financial performance quarterly monitoring report for the 3^rd quarter predicted an underspend of £961. The provisional outturn for 2022/23 now indicated an improvement of £119,614, resulting in an overall budget underspend of £120,575 (including additional transfers to/from earmarked reserves). This would result in HRA balances as at 31^st March 2023 of £1,184,447. There were a significant number of provisional year-end variations in income and expenditure against the approved budget. Full details of the main variances were provided in Appendix D.

·         Housing Repairs Service – For 2022/23 the Council’s Housing Repairs Service net budget was set at zero, which reflected its full cost recovery nature.  The outturn for 2022/23 showed a trading deficit of £221,845, a movement of £198,439. The movement was as a result of the delay in billing of void jobs as highlighted at Q3, which made forecasting the outturn position difficult. Appendix E provided a forecast summary, with full details of the main variances provided in Appendix F.

c)    provided information in the following areas:

·         General Investment Programme – the last quarterly report approved a General Fund Investment Programme for 2022/23 of £17,860,202. Movements in the programme since revised budget approval decreased actual capital expenditure in 2022/23 to £10,871,844. A summary of the budget changes were shown at paragraph 7.2.

The overall cumulative spending on the General Investment Programme excluding externally delivered schemes for 2022/23 was £8,602,314 which was 57.6% (including externally delivered schemes overall spending was £10,817,967, which was 60.57%) of the revised 2022/23 programme as per the MTFS 2023-28.

·         Housing Investment Programme – the last quarterly report approved a Housing Investment Programme for 2022/23 of £20,498,524. Movements in the programme since approval of the revised budget decreased actual capital expenditure to £12,647,269 in 2022/23. A summary of the changes was shown in paragraph 7.9 with a detailed breakdown of the Programme being shown at Appendix J.

d)    invited members’ comments and questions.

Question: Referred to the reduction in income as a result in the decline of bin sales in relation to garden waste and asked if this would have a knock on effect on the Biffa contract and would a cost increase be passed on to the customer.

Response: There was less take up on green bins last year due to the dry  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Colleen Warren, Financial Services Manager:

a)    presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee on the Council’s treasury management activity and the actual prudential indicators for 2022/23

b)    explained that the Council held £49.85million of investments which was £13.165million lower than at 31^st March 2022 as detailed within the investment profile at Appendix A, and section 4.3.

c)    highlighted that the Council’s total debt (including leases and lease-type arrangements) at 31^st March 2023 was £121.962 million as detailed within Appendix A, and section 4.4.

d)    invited members’ questions and comments.

RESOLVED that the report be noted

Graham Rose, Senior Strategic Policy Officer:

a)    presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee with an outturn summary of the council’s performance in Quarter 4 of 2022/23

b)    explained that the full report was attached as Appendix A of the report, with the full list of performance measure outturns and supporting performance commentary provided at Appendix B of the report

c)    invited members’ comments and questions.

The committee discussed the report in detail and asked the following questions, it was agreed that answers would be provided from the relevant officers following the meeting:

·         Asked for further information on why the numbers of new apprentices starting on the Council’s apprenticeship scheme were so low and if this was linked to staffing issues?

·         Referred to staff vacancies and asked why were any vacant posts with less than 37 hours per week removed from the outturn figure?

·         Asked that further information be provided as to why the number of appraisals completed at year end were so low? It was also noted that in 2023/24 the performance figures would look a little odd as the authority transitioned from an annual appraisal between April and Sept to a new approach where staff have an annual appraisal on the anniversary of starting with the council.

·         Asked why the sickness levels within the Directorate of Housing and Investment were so high when compared to the other directorates. Further asked for more context to be provided around the short and long term levels of sickness within the Directorate of Housing and Investment?

·         Asked if there were any particular reasons as to why  apprentice sickness levels were so high?

·         Asked that more detail be provided on what the issues were with the phone app system in relation to Birchwood and Yarborough Leisure Centres? Officers confirmed there were no penalties built into the contract, but noted the contract was written to incentivise Active Nation through the profit share element but also the loss share element – the latter heavily weighted to Active Nation underwriting the majority of any financial loss.

·         Referred to Yarborough Leisure Centre and asked how much had the outturn of 18% been impacted by the closure of the swimming pool?

·         Asked if it would be possible to provide information in the quarterly reports highlighting those directorates / service areas which were not raising purchase orders for invoices?

·         Asked if the hybrid working approach was having an impact on staff not raising purchase orders / following procedures?

·         Referred to the average time taken to answer a call to customer services and asked if the extremes of wait times could also be provided within the supporting commentary for each quarter?

·         Asked what were the issues with the system preventing the PPASB data being collected and were these issues likely to arise again in the future? Officers confirmed how the data was collected and offered assurance the system was now up and running.

·         Asked if it would be possible to send Councillor Christopher the text message which was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Claire Turner, Democratic Services Officer:

a)         presented the draft work programme for 2023/24 as detailed at Appendix A of her report

b)         advised that the work programme for the Performance Scrutiny Committee was put forward annually for approval by Council; the work programme was then regularly updated throughout the year in consultation with the Performance Scrutiny Committee and its Chair

c)         reported that items had been scheduled in accordance with the existing work programme and officers’ guidance regarding the meetings at which the most up-to-date information could be reported to the committee; the work programme also included the list of portfolio holders under scrutiny

d)        requested any relevant comments or changes to the proposed work programme for 2023/24.

RESOLVED that the work programme 2023/24 be noted.

Colleen Warren, Finance Manager:

a)    presented Performance Scrutiny Committee with a status report of the  Strategic Risk Register as at the end of the fourth quarter 2022/23.

b)    reported that the strategic risk registers currently contained twelve risks as follows:

1)    Failure to engage & influence effectively the Council’s strategic partners, council staff and all stakeholders to deliver against e.g., Council’s Vision 2025

2)    Failure to deliver a sustainable Medium-Term Financial Strategy (that supports delivery of Vision 2025).

3)    Failure to deliver the Towards Financial Sustainability Programme whilst ensuring the resilience of the Council.

4)    Failure to ensure compliance with statutory duties/functions and appropriate governance arrangements were in place.

5)    Failure to protect the local authority's vision 2025 due to changing structures and relationships in local government and impact on size, scale and scope of the Council.

6)    Unable to meet the emerging changes required in the Council’s culture, behaviour and skills to support the delivery of the council’s Vision 2020/2025 and the transformational journey to one Council approach.

7)    Insufficient levels of resilience and capacity exist in order to deliver key strategic projects & services within the Council.

8)    Decline in the economic prosperity within the City Centre.

9)    Failure to deliver key strategic projects.

10)  Failure of the Council’s key contractors and partners to remain sustainable and continue to deliver value for money

11)  Failure to protect the vulnerable in relation to the Council’s  PREVENT and safeguarding duties.

12)  Failure to mitigate against the risk of a successful cyber-attack  against the council.

RESOLVED that the Strategic Risk Register as at the end of the fourth quarter 2022/23 be noted.

Colleen Warren, Financial Services Manager:

a)    provided members with the revised Strategic Risk Register as attached at Appendix A.

b)    invited members’ questions and comments.

RESOLVED that the Strategic Risk Register as at the end of the fourth quarter 2022/23 be noted.