Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive apologies for absence from Committee members.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Paul Diviani – Leader - East Devon District Council.

To sign the minutes of the meeting held on 27 September 2016.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 27 September 2016 were taken as read and signed by the Chair as correct.

Councillors are reminded of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests that relate to business on the agenda and which have not already been included in the register of interests, before any discussion takes place on the item. Unless the interest is sensitive, you must also disclose the nature of the interest. In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, you must then leave the room and must not participate in any further discussion of the item.  Councillors requiring clarification should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer prior to the day of the meeting.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest were made.

To consider the report of the Director (Finance Lead)

The Director (Finance Lead) presented the report advising Members on the financial progress of Strata during the first nine months of 2016-17, including a project outturn assessment against savings agreed in the budget.  

Members were advised that at the nine month stage the Board was projecting a revenue saving of about £70,000 against the target of £254,052 in the original business case. At the start of the financial year a revenue saving of only £27,000 was projected due to the approval to move staff to new Strata Terms and Conditions and the main reason that the savings had now increased were that the planned redundancies were now lower than estimated in the Budget.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

RESOLVED that, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of items 8 and 9 on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1,2, 3 and 4 of Part I, Schedule 12A of the Act. 

RESOLVED that, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Part I, Schedule 12A of the Act. 

To consider the report of the Chief Operating Officer, Strata and Strata Board.

The report of the Chief Operating Officer, Strata and Strata Board was submitted which advised Members of the progress that Strata had made in the Implementation Plan, sought approval for changes to the Business Plan and approval for capital expenditure.

The Chief Operating Officer gave a presentation, Members were updated on the following:-

·         Main aims of Strata when it was formed in 2014

·         Staff restructure

·         New Data Centre

·         savings target would now be achieved in year 13

·         possible risk of Pension liability

·         reduced costs to all Councils

·         risk reduction

·         increase capacity for change

·         main work streams

·         infrastructure

·         issues with software.

The Director (Finance Lead) advised Members of the revaluation of the Pension fund liability and that Strata had been treated as a high risk although the three Councils had given an undertaking to cover the pension liability. The Board would be looking to challenge the recovery of the deficit over the three years as this had implications for the three Councils. 

Members discussed the implications of the revaluation and supported the Board in approaching Devon County Council for a review of the recovery of deficit in the Pensions Fund.

The Chief Operating Officer advised Members that Strata Officers had been working with the software provider to address the bugs that had occurred in the system which had cause a delay in the roll out of the Global desk top.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 16 January 2017 (3pm) and Councillor Howe reported that Scrutiny had raised some concerns regarding paying for the maintenance of software when it was still causing issues in the roll out of the Global Desk Top.

RECOMMENDED that the three Councils approve:-

(1)          the Revised Business Plan for Strata;

(2)          the adoption of the revised Business Plan for Strata which includes a revised savings profile; and

(3)          the following additions to their capital programmes to allow the 2017/18 convergence plan and new contact centre software to be delivered

To consider the report of the Strata Board.

The Teignbridge Strata Director presented the Strata Internal Audit Governance Arrangements 2015/16 report produced by the Devon Audit Partnership.

Members were advised that the Devon Audit Partnership opinion was that the Governance Arrangements were good. The Board would address the actions as identified in the report.

In response to Members, the Teignbridge Strata Director commented that report would be brought to the JSC and JEC regarding the appropriateness and level of reporting.

RESOLVED that the report be noted and requested that Strata implement actions as identified.

As this was Chris Powell’s last meeting before his retirement the Committee thanked Chris for his vision in the setting up of Strata and his hard work on the progress that Strata had made. They wished him well for his future.