Agenda and draft minutes

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 17/01/2025

The Minutes of the meeting on 17 January 2025 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interests as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct. In making their disclosure councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either 1 question or 1 statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via MS Teams to read out your question and to receive the response.   If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting. The first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.  Further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council

All submissions must be emailed in full to antony.nash@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk  by 8.30am on 17/03/2025

When submitting your question or statement please note that:

•         You can submit 1 question or 1 statement.

•         a question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.

•         It must be a single question and any sub-divided questions will not be permitted.

•         Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you will be given up to 3 minutes to present your question.

•         when submitting a question please indicate who the question is for (e.g., the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder)

•         Include your name, address, and contact details.  Only your name will be published but we may need your other details to contact you about your question or statement in advance of the meeting.

•         questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda.

•         all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.

Question from Becky Brookman from Unison

As a union representing the workforce, we have several concerns regarding the "Our Future Council 2024" transformation programme outlined in the report:

1. Lack of Engagement and Communication:

The report highlights the rapid scaling of the transformation programme and the engagement of external expertise to achieve savings. However, there is no mention of meaningful engagement with the union or the workforce to gather input and address concerns. This lack of involvement isn't shown as a lesson learned from the failures of 2024.

2. Unrealistic Savings Targets:

The initial savings target of £8.6 million for 2024/25 was not met, and the new target for 2025/26 is set at £10 million. The report acknowledges the high-risk nature of these targets and the challenges faced in achieving them. The transformation programme is heavily focused on achieving financial savings, with less emphasis on the well-being and development of employees. This approach can lead to a disengaged workforce and higher turnover rates

3. Impact of Organisational Changes:

The report mentions significant organisational changes, including the change of political leadership and the introduction of a whole-council transformation programme. These changes can create uncertainty and instability within the workforce, affecting morale and productivity.  The change of Chief Executive may also impact the ability to deliver savings.

4. Resource Constraints:

The report indicates that additional capacity was required to complete the whole council discovery phase, leading to the engagement of external consultants. This raises concerns about the capacity of internal resources and the potential for over-reliance on external support, which may not be sustainable in the long term, there is potential to upskill our workforce using apprenticeships if we know what skills are needed.

Given these concerns, we urge the council to engage more effectively with the union and the workforce to ensure that the transformation objectives are met in a manner that supports both organisational goals and employee well-being.

Question: The council have been very clear in discussions with Unison that the longer OFC savings take, the more jobs that will need to be cut. How many additional jobs will be lost due to the councils’ failure to deliver any savings from OFC 2024?

Response from Aidan Dunn, Executive Director Corporate Development:

1. We consider our engagement and communication as positive with full and regular engagement continuous throughout 2024/25. This has included many meetings with unions and a multitude of engagement sessions and information sharing with colleagues throughout the organisation that are all catalogued.  

2. Turnover has not been impacted, and a People and Culture strategy has been developed alongside a refresh of our values to underpin our journey. Financial resilience is just one of the outcomes for our future council. Finance is the focus for this report in response to the key lines of enquiry. 

3. Our interim Chief Executive has shared his priorities, including providing a steady hand over our future council transformation as one of his three priorities with full cooperation of our senior leadership team who meet weekly as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49.

To receive questions submitted by councillors.  

Councillors can submit up to two valid questions at each meeting and sub divided questions count towards this total.   Questions and statements received will be published as a supplement to the agenda and all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting. 

The submissions must be emailed in full to antony.nash@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk  by 8.30am on 17/03/2025 

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13

There were no questions from Councillors.

At the request of the Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee at the meeting on 17/01/2025 this report has been prepared by the Head of Change for consideration.

The Executive Director Corporate Development introduced the report and the key parts of the Our Future Council (OFC) programme as requested by the committee.

Following the scene setting councillors were invited to debate the item. Several key areas were discussed such as;

·       shared recognition for transformation teams across the council in the delivery of transformation to date

·       the priority placed upon savings and programme delivery in 2024/25

·       the source of funding for the consultants engaged being from an external central government grant

·       the change of administration and the impacts of this on multi-year transformational projects.

·       the formal process of handover if there is a change of administration or portfolio holder.

·       the recognition of risks as part of budget setting transformational savings and the role of the Section 151 Officer in that process.

·       the evolution of the OFC programme and the savings identified to include the whole organisational to meet the savings targeted

·       the allocation of resources and funding for roles to deliver the programme

·       how the structure of the organisation’s delivery transformation has changed to one centralised space rather than directorate PMO’s

·       the additional recognition of the complexity of the programme and how the learning from the external consultants raised the awareness of that complexity and realistic timescales

·       the impact of OFC on employee morale and service provision

·       the governance structures around OFC

·       the decision to instruct Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC)

Recommendations

The committee requested that the Place and Resources Overview Committee look at the potential of a policy of transition during changes of portfolio holder or political leadership

A 6 monthly performance update as part of the OFC programme delivery to the Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee

The Cabinet member for transformation to inform the Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee with details of the decision making around PWC

The Place and Resources scrutiny Committee to receive the PWC business case.

To consider the report by the Corporate Director for Finance and Commercial

The Corporate Director for Finance and Commercial introduced the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Policy and outlined the impacts of this on levels of debt and how debt is financed over time.

Following the introduction the councillors debated the paper covering areas such as;

·       the timeline of this change and the rationale for it coming to the Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee

·       the confidence in the value of the assets and the impact on prudence of the change of the MRP

·       the risk profile of changing MRP

·       the definition of and understanding of useful economic life and its connection to the condition of assets

·       the discrepancy between the current useful economic life of assets and the current time period for which the debt is written down

·       the external views of external auditors and the Council's treasury management advisors

An extension to the meeting was proposed by the Cllr Lacey-Clarke and seconded by Cllr O’Leary

The recommendation that the review of the Minimum Revenue Provision be not approved by Council and that it be considered as part of setting the 2026/27 budget setting process was proposed by Cllr Lacey-Clarke and seconded by Cllr O’Leary and passed with 4 votes for and 2 abstaining.

To review the Executive arrangement forward plans.

Forward Plans are provided to members of the Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee to review and identify any potential post decision scrutiny to be undertaken, by scheduling items into the work programme to review after a period of implementation.

The Committee reviewed the Executive Arrangements Forward Plans.

To review the Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee Work Programme and plan key areas of focus for future meetings.

The Committee discussed the forward plan arrangements and added an item around vacant properties for the 24 July 2025 meeting and suggested a Joint Scrutiny item on the Councils vacant housing stock.

To consider any items of business which the Chair has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To move the exclusion of the press and the public for the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph x of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.  

There are no exempt items scheduled for this meeting.

There was no exempt business.