Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Watkins (Dover), Councillor Fairbrass (Thanet) and Councillor Todd (Canterbury).

Under the operating arrangements the Chairman for the municipal year 2016/17 will be a representative of Canterbury City Council and the Vice-Chairman will be a representative of Thanet District Council.

By virtue of standing orders Councillor Cook was appointed Chairman for the year and Councillor Wells was elected Vice-Chairman.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no interests declared at the meeting.

The Chairman to report any notifications received prior to this meeting regarding the attendance of substitutes for the named Members of this committee.

There were no substitute members present at the meeting.

TO CONSIDER – the report of the Director of Shared Services.

The Director of Shared Services summarised the annual performance report for East Kent Services (EKS), who provide a shared service to the three councils that includes Revenues and Benefits, HR, ICT and customer services. A presentation of the key findings was provided, which covered customer satisfaction, key performance indicators, finance and an update on key projects.

The financial appraisal indicated that significant savings had been delivered over the last five years. Approximately £2m had been saved through reduction in the management fees paid for the services and a similar sum had been returned to the client councils as cash surplus over the period. A further £1m had been saved as EKS had absorbed all growth over the period. A reserve had been built up, which had been earmarked to a range of projects and work streams.

Functions had been audited on a regular basis and at the end of year, five awarded substantial or reasonable assurance, six were ongoing work in progress and two unscored.

At the end of the presentation Members asked a number of questions and the Director responded, as follows –

i)              In response to a question about the sickness absence figures, the Director said that the figures were intended to demonstrate HR workload. He offered to provide a written response with additional information after the meeting. It was noted that Thanet were actively managing this topic as one of their HR priorities.

ii)             It was clarified that ‘eye tracking’ software was being used to improve the format and clarity of documentation, which had the effect of improving customer response rates.

iii)            A review of the ICT architecture was currently underway as part of the long-term transition from a server based model to a cloud based environment, which would involve consequential changes to the financial modelling.

RESOLVED – that the report be NOTED.

TO CONSIDER – the report of the Head of Legal Services (Canterbury), Director of Governance(Dover), Solicitorto the Council (Dover), DirectorofCorporateGovernance and Monitoring Officer (Thanet)

The report was introduced by the Solicitor to the Council (Dover). It proposed minor amendments to the delegations to the Director of Collaborative Services and Director of EK Services in the light of changes made to the delegations to the East Kent Services Committee by the three authorities since the revised governance arrangements for EK Services (EKS) and EK Human Resources (EKHR) were established in late 2014/early 2015.

RESOLVED –

That the delegation to each of the Director of Collaborative Services and the Director of EK Services effected by the approval of paragraph 28 of Schedule 5 to the Original Report be amended to read as follows:-

“Acceptance of the lowest or most economically advantageous tender or bid for the carrying out of works for the committee, the purchase, leasing or hiring of goods, materials and equipment by the committee, or the supply of services to the committee, provided that budget provision is available.”

And that the delegation to each of the Director of Collaborative Services and the Director of EK Services effected by the approval of paragraph 31 of Schedule 5 to the Original Report be amended to read as follows:-

“The assignment or novation of a contract (subject to the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015).”

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It may be necessary to exclude the press or public for this item.

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