The Chairman of the Council, the Chairman of Committees and Sub-Committees and Portfolio Holders to answer any questions on any matters in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affect the District of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12.
Minutes:
Question from Councillor Eburne to the Cabinet Member for Organisational Delivery
On 22nd September 2016 this council voted by a majority to “share accommodation in Endeavour House with Suffolk County Council and other public sector partners” (report C/70/16). No business plan was provided but an annual cost of £633,000 revenue and an estimated £50,000 capital cost was noted in the report. Separate costs were noted for two satellite offices.
Please can you advise what are the costs to date, both revenue and capital, and what are the expected revenue costs for 2018/19?
Note: This should include all costs incurred since the decision was made on 22nd September including all rent (whether locations are fully occupied or not), utilities, consultant time (both for the move to Endeavour House and the work around future use the Needham Market office), removals from Needham Market to Ipswich, security provision for the Needham Market offices, fit out of Endeavour House and other locations in Mid Suffolk (such as Creeting Road) but excluding the satellite office.
Answer
The following costs are total costs, Mid Suffolk will incur 50% of these costs:
Costs incurred to date
· Revenue £419k
· Capital £40k
Expected Revenue Costs in 2018/19 excluding Stowmarket CAP (satellite office)
· £665k
The costs and options for the future of the Needham Market offices have been separated out and will be included in a separate report coming to Members later in the year.
No security costs for Needham Market have been incurred to date, and the consultant’s costs for the future use of Needham Market office’s will follow from the Assistant Director - Investment and Commercial Delivery.
Supplementary Question:
As previously requested by Council, will Portfolio Holders be reporting to Council on progress within their areas of responsibility?
Answer (given by Councillor Gowrley, Leader)
Yes – I can confirm that a process is being put in place for Cabinet Members to update Council on a regular basis.
Question from Councillor Matthissen to Member for Planning
How many staff have left the planning department since 1/1/17 and how many vacancies are there currently?
Answer (given by the Chief Executive as Head of Paid Service)
13 staff have left the service since 1st January 2017.
There are currently 6 Vacancies across the service, all of which are in the process of being recruited to.
Background and further detail:
While 13 ‘have left’ as of today, a further 5 members of staff are expected to leave over the next three months.
There are a range of reasons for people leaving. It is important to note that of the 8 Planning Officers who have left since the beginning of the year, only 2 of those have moved to another Local Authority – 6 of them have either moved to private practice, retired or changed career.
Recruitment is underway for the following posts:
Development Management:
2 Grade 6 Principal Planning roles – adverts will go out imminently. These roles have been advertised recently and we were only able to recruit one of the applicants so we will be advertising again, with a revised advert.
2 Grade 5 Senior Planner roles – adverts will go out imminently.
Strategic Planning:
1 Grade 6 Senior Spatial Policy Planner (to provide extra capacity to deal with neighbourhood plans) – this is a new role to build capacity and respond to scrutiny review - advert being written
1 Grade 5 Infrastructure Officer – another new role to build capacity (advert about to go out)
1 Grade 4 Administrative officer (recruited, soon to start)
Bill Newman finishes at the end of this month. His replacement has been recruited and begins on 18th December.
Trevor Saunders has also finished his time with us but is not included in the above as that was wholly in line with the term of his interim appointment.
There are currently 3 consultants working within the DM team. We are trying to recruit a further 4 consultants in the immediate term to manage workload and provide cover during the transition from people leaving to being able to recruit their replacements. It is a challenge to find quality and experience in the marketplace, both for consultants and permanent positions.
Some general statistics about the challenges in recruitment:
As of June 2017 there were 147 vacancies for local authority planning staff across the East of England.
Almost 40% of senior planner vacancies across the East of England are covered by Agency staff.
Supplementary Question
Could we receive a regular update on the position?
Answer – Yes
Question from Councillor Matthissen to Cabinet Member for Finance
Question - What advice and information as to the effects on the council and partners of Universal Credit introduction and fuller roll out has been sought and received from areas piloting the changed benefit system, such as Waveney DC, and what measures are under way as Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury Job Centres implement now, and Stowmarket soon?
Answer
Thank You Chairman. I’d like to thank Cllr Matthissen for his question and for giving me the opportunity to update all Members on the great deal of work that is being undertaken by our staff to ensure that we are as fully-prepared as is practicably possible for the roll out of Universal Credit Full Service at Stowmarket Job Centre from February 2018.
First I’ll set out what have we done so far:-
· We are part of the Trusted Partner Pilot Scheme which was a DWP initiative to work closely with a range of different landlords to monitor issues and good practice
· Established a Project Group that is meeting weekly to attempt to mitigate the impact of the UC roll out
· Customer Service staff trained to ensure that they are equipped to deal with any questions at the Customer Access Points and prevent customers being turned away
· Housing staff were given in depth training from the DWP this week
· UC added to the Corporate Risk Log
· Working in conjunction with the Communications Team to develop a Communications plan.
· Officers are attending monthly review meetings with DWP, CAB and other local advice agencies
· Officers have held meetings with Waveney DC who have subsequently shared information documentation, which they are willing for us to adapt for our own customers.
· Sharing of best practice with other local authorities.
The implementation of Universal Credit and what actions Mid Suffolk are taking to ensure they are prepared for the significant changes ahead, is to be placed on the agenda for review at Overview and Scrutiny Committee (date TBC).
Looking forward, what will we continue to do? And, what else will we do?
· Ongoing liaison with the DWP Partnership Manager for Suffolk, who is the lead for delivery of the UC LA Learning & Development Pack to LAs
· Officers will continue to attend monthly review meetings with DWP, CAB and other local advice agencies
· Continue to monitor our progress against the project plan on a weekly basis, including careful risk monitoring and take action to mitigate risks as required
· Hold a briefing for all members on what UC is, what the impact is likely to be for our residents and what the impact is likely to be for us.
· All Mid Suffolk tenants to be sent leaflet highlighting the rollout of UC and sign posting to relevant advice services
Supplementary Question
Would you support the House of Commons Committee in its push for reducing the 6 weeks waiting time for Universal Credit to 4 weeks?
Answer
Yes, as it was originally envisaged that the target time would be 4 weeks.
Question from Councillor Killett to Lead Member for Health and Wellbeing
Thank you for your recent update on Health and Wellbeing projects. As a member of the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, what action is MSDC taking to contribute to the development in Integrated Out of Hospital Care, put forward in the STP’s Five Year Forward View, which aims to help people keep their independence, improve their quality of life and to stay at home for as long as possible?
Answer
This is a complex issue which is still being worked on. The schedule of planning within the guidance being produced for the delivery arrangements, workstreams and plans for the different elements of the STP means that the plans for specific elements are still being developed by the partnership.
As a partner within the STP the council will provide support, where it can, for the successful delivery of the STP but this is not yet reflected in a detailed specific plan.
Supplementary Question
Will we use all means possible to secure the delivery arrangements?
Answer – Yes