Agenda item

To consider a report by the Programme Director.

The Committee received a detailed overview of the Local Government Reorganisation Programme by the Interim Head of Paid Service which included:

·           Phase 1 of the programme to deliver the Shadow Dorset Council was largely complete except for final consequential orders, disaggregation delivery phase to undertake, and to appoint the Chief Executive.

·           Phase 2 workstream activity continued with Legal and Democratic on track; Finance progressing well with the draft budget and work on convergence; Human Resources moving forward on payroll and on a pan–Dorset basis towards TUPE with good engagement with Trade Unions; Customer services had started with a workshop on 13 July 2018; ICT strategy and technical elements progressing well with domain agreed as dorsetcouncil.gov.uk and a single directory being compiled; Information Governance working on data compliance and systems access; Communications and branding resources increased, the SharePoint site and other communications channels were up and running, and a workshop on visual identity would be held soon. 

·           Phase 3 transformation preparations were underway with a session for members on design principles held to help draft an operating model for the Council.

The Committee discussed the highlight report and asked questions about capacity of officers to meet the challenges of the programme.  It was clarified that efforts were in place to gain additional officer time from each of the Dorset councils, together with efforts to continue filling appointments within the programme team.

The Risk Register of the programme was debated in detail, and requests were made for the content to be updated including corporate risk register information from sovereign councils, and that key risks needed to take account of major issues such as TUPE, judicial reviews and budget. A request was made for regular workshops to review the risks facing the programme.  It was confirmed that an informal session was planned soon and that the main areas of concern were captured in the workstreams, such as Judicial Reviews within the Legal and Democratic Workstream, or the risk register in a different form of words.  A further suggestion was made that asked for risks to be identified as either ‘legal for day one’ or for ‘programme delivery’.  In relation to Information Governance, it was reported that approx. 20 risks and the associated work to mitigate them had been identified at a meeting on 16 July 2018 to be added to the risk register.

A further risk identified was that meetings were being cancelled.  It was generally accepted that it was imperative that meetings continued in order to continue the pace of the programme.

The introduction of lead members was raised as an important factor in managing risks and being able to provide assurance to other members about workstream activity.  Some lead members had already assumed roles, but it was clarified that the composite list and roles for lead members were being developed and would be confirmed shortly, with some workstreams having up to three lead members. 

A further suggestion was made to refine the highlight report by introducing a performance direction of travel indicator to show how performance was changing over time, and for timescales which would add context the risks and mitigations associated with actions.  It was explained that the highlight report and risk register would be available in real-time through the new SharePoint site, and other suggestions would be incorporated.

Decision

1. That the highlight report be noted.

2. That the highlight report and risk register be developed, as outline in the minute above.