Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Bowerman.

To receive and record any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting held on 02 June 2021.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 02 June 2021 were confirmed as an accurate record.

The Leader reported that there had been a disruption to waste collection services across the Borough over the past 3 to 4 weeks, due to a national shortage of drivers and that the council was working extremely hard to reinstate services as soon as possible.  There have been several meetings held with Norse, and the council have set out a number of recommendations for them. 

The Leader requested for residents to continue to raise issues.

The Leader introduced the item which followed a decision taken by Cabinet in September 2020, to move forward with the transformation programme and reported officers efforts to deliver on goals set out by Cabinet resulted in the outline plan presented to Member today.

Within this item was a report submitted from the Overview & Scrutiny Committee and Cllr Francis attended Cabinet to thank officers for their through response to the questions raised by the committee as part of the scrutiny process and confirmed to Cabinet that the committee had looked at the report very thoroughly.

Proposed by Cllr Rennie and seconded by Cllr Satchwell, following a vote, it was RESOLVED that Cabinet note the recommendations made by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee;

a)    The latest version of the Transformation Programme as per the Shaping Our Future Report dated September 2020 be noted.

b)    The Committee note that all costs and potential saving associated with the Transformation Programme are estimated at this time. The relationship to the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) is, currently, based on research of other authorities who have conducted a similar programme.

c)     The Committee recognises the work that has gone in to producing the Target Operating Model and how it can lead the Programme towards its goals and requests sight of the Project plans through a Task & Finish Panel on a quarterly basis, starting in September 2021.

d)    The Committee supports the drive towards the furtherance of a partnership between EHDC and HBC through ‘One Workforce’ with the aim of delivering maximum opportunity for streamlined service delivery at reduced overall cost and maximum efficiency.

e)    The Committee supports the delegated authority, in line with Financial Procedure Rule G.35, to the Director of Corporate Services to approve drawdowns from relevant Reserves, up to a maximum of £383k in 2021/22 and that retrospective reporting to Cabinet via Programme updates and routine Budget monitoring reports be scheduled.

Cabinet debated the Shaping our Future report and discussed the importance of stakeholder engagement. Cabinet requested quarterly reporting to Members and for ‘inclusion’ to be added to the report alongside ‘equality & diversity’.

Proposed by Cllr Rennie and seconded by Cllr Bains, following a vote, it was RESOLVED that Cabinet;

a)    Agree the latest version of the Programme structure and plan (4.5, 4.10-4.14).

b)    Agree the estimated costs and savings associated with the Programme and the relationship to the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) (Section 3).

c)     Agree the overarching concept of the Target Operating Model (TOM) (Diagram 1, 3.6, and Appendix 1).

d)    Agree to drive the East Hampshire and Havant partnership to deliver maximum impact and hence opportunities for reinvestment through a more detailed analysis over the next three months (5.1-5.6).

e)    Agree to delegate authority, in line with Financial Procedure Rule G.35, for the Director of Corporate Services to approve drawdowns from relevant reserves, up to a maximum of £383k in 2021/22, with retrospective reporting to the Cabinet via Programme updates and routine budget monitoring reports (5.3).