Agenda item

Report of the Strategy and Engagement Manager

The Strategy and Engagement Manager introduced the report as circulated with the agenda. The objective

and outcomes framework had been retained, though as the council’s budget had reduced significantly from last year, the scale of activity had reduced with fourteen less improvement actions. Government had lifted the national indicator set which had been welcomed as it presented an opportunity to reflect on indicators used to measure corporate performance and choose new indicators which could be more meaningful. 

The corporate strategy had been prepared in the context of the commissioning programme and the various commissioning reviews were starting to inform the actions in next year's plan and future reviews were also included as distinct improvement actions in the 2012-13 strategy. The next set of priority projects for commissioning were:

• Housing options
• Supporting the review of asset management being led by Leadership Gloucestershire
• ICT services

He concluded that it was an ambitious and challenging agenda. This year the resources needed to support the action plan had also been estimated and as a result several pinch points had been highlighted in HR, One Legal and the commissioning division. These would continue to be addressed and monitored by the Senior Leadership Team.

Councillor Cooper asked how the commissioning reviews for next year had been selected as he had not seen any details on how they were prioritised and it seemed rather ad hoc rather than strategic. He asked why parks and gardens was not on the list as he considered it would be a good one to ‘test’ the private sector. In response, the Strategy and Engagement Manager advised that the Strategic Commissioning Programme Board had devised a scoring mechanism covering five criteria which included potential financial savings, timeliness and scope for doing something different. Regarding parks and gardens, the Executive Director advised that this had been scheduled to be looked at in 2013/14 as it was important that the new local authority company had time to bed down.  She was not able to detail the criteria but would be happy to supply this detail to all members outside the meeting.  

Councillor Cooper questioned why the agendas or minutes of the Strategic Commissioning Board were not made public. The chair requested that a briefing note on how the commissioning strategy was determined should be circulated to all members.

The Leader added that the timing of the Asset Management review was to enable the council to be ready for any recommendations which might come out of the Leadership Gloucestershire review of Asset Management across the county. With the housing review and changes to the housing benefit scheme, the housing options commissioning review was very important. Similarly the commissioning review of ICT tied in with the ICT review currently in progress and the implementation of the shared ICT platform for GO. The Leader agreed to provide information on the commissioning prioritisation process and the criteria used as an appendix to the Corporate Strategy report to Cabinet on the 15 March and then to Council on the 28 March for final approval.

Councillor Jeffries suggested that there should be a link in the action plan to delivering the financial benefits from the new local authority waste company as well as outcomes for improving services to residents. The Strategy and Engagement Manager acknowledged that both were important.

The Chair thanked the Strategy and Engagement Manager for his attendance and commended him on the new improved and concise nature of the report. 

Resolved that a briefing note on how the commissioning strategy was determined should be circulated to all members.