Agenda and draft minutes
Venue: Council Chamber, Maidstone Borough Council, Town Hall, Middle Row, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1TF. View directions
No. | Item |
---|---|
Minutes To note the Minutes of the last special meeting of the three Committees which took place on 12 January 2015. Minutes: The minutes of the co-located meeting held at Tunbridge Town Hall on 12 January 2015 were noted.
|
|
Declarations of Interest Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.
The Chairman will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:
(a) Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011. The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared. After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote. This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.
(b) Disclosable Non Pecuniary (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012. The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared. After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.
Advice to Members: If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Director of Corporate Services as Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting. Minutes: No interests were declared. |
|
Mid Kent Improvement Partnership Planning Support PDF 109 KB (a) Project Implementation Review – Rich Clarke, Head of Audit Partnership will be in attendance to present this report (Appendix I);
(b) Planning Support Implementation – Members of the MKIP Board will provide a response to the implementation review (Appendix II) For information, the membership of the MKIP Board is as follows: · Councillor Annabelle Blackmore, Leader of Maidstone Borough Council · Alison Broom, Chief Executive of Maidstone Borough Council · Councillor Andrew Bowles, Leader of Swale Borough Council · Abdool Kara, Chief Executive of Swale Borough Council · Councillor David Jukes, Leader of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council · William Benson, Chief Executive of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
Sandra Fryer, Interim Head of Planning Support Services, will also be in attendance.
(c) Update on the latest position – A verbal update will be provided by the MKIP Board and Interim Head of Planning Support Services.
Please note: For background information, a copy of the minutes of the Tri-Cabinet meeting, dated 12 June 2013, is attached. The following is a link to the agenda pack that formed the background to the decision set out in the attached minutes: http://services.swale.gov.uk/meetings/CeListDocuments.aspx?MID=313&RD=Notice%20of%20Meeting&DF=12%2f06%2f2013&A=1&R=0
If any member would like to have a copy of this agenda pack, could they please request this from Democratic Services on 01795 417360 or by e-mail at: DemocraticServices@swale.gov.uk
Additional documents:
Minutes: The Chairman, Councillor Mrs Gooch, welcomed the Swale Borough Council Scrutiny Committee and the Tunbridge Wells Overview and Scrutiny Committee to Maidstone for a co-located meeting of the three Committees.
The Chairman informed the Committees that nationally a great many councils were involved in sharing services, and that the government had strongly encouraged local Councils to share services and staff. The MKIP constituent authorities were early adopters of the shared service agenda. The function of scrutiny was to objectively challenge policy development and decision making, in order to provide constructive reflection in the name of public accountability. As such the purpose of the meeting was to provide reassurance to residents and the public that lessons had been learned and improvements made.
Project Implementation Review
The Committee welcomed the Head of Mid Kent Audit Partnership, Rich Clarke, who presented a report into the Planning Support Project Implementation Review. Mr Clarke outlined the three major issues identified in the report:
The project did not fully employ the project methodologies that had been well developed in-house by the MKIP authorities, nor did it fully employ formally recognised techniques such as PRINCE II. This resulted in the lack of a clear detailed project plan until late on in the process, inconsistent assignment of roles and responsibilities, and non-creation or monitoring of a project risk register. This lack of resilience made the project vulnerable to issues as they arose, and prevented the anticipation and mitigation of future problems.
The implementation of the Planning Support Shared Service (PSSS) required the physical relocation of staff, the procurement and use of a new software package, combining the services under a single manager without extensive experience in planning support management, and the simultaneous delivery of another shared service which put pressure on the availability of resources.
The approach to the shared service was novel. It split an existing service into two separate components, without a consistent understanding across the three authorities as to where the divide began and ended. This also required a complete reorganisation of business processes.
The software element of the project was understood to be separate, even though it became clear from the outset that ICT related matters were of importance to the implementation of the total project.
This increased pressure on key individuals, and led to projects being delivered without the required level of expertise or time needed.
Mr Clarke noted that the three authorities had enthusiastically taken on board the findings of the report and had each committed to making improvements accordingly.
The Chairman of the meeting, Councillor Gooch, invited Members to comment upon the report.
|
|
Next Steps Minutes: After the members of the MKIP Board had departed, members of the three Committees considered what further action was necessary at this stage, based upon the responses they had just received and the evidence before them.
This was seconded by Councillor Henderson (SBC).
|