Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Bell, Fernando and Ward-Booth.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 19 July 2022.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 19 July 2022 were unable to be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman as the Members present were not in attendance at the meeting.

The Chairman therefore deferred the approval of the Minutes of the meeting held on 19 July 2022 to the next meeting of the Committee, to be held on 15 November 2022.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chairman reminded all participants to kindly use their microphones when speaking as the meeting was being webcasted.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property introduced the report, which was approved by the Executive in July 2022 and sets out the Transforming East Herts Business Case, principally for the new Customer Service Model/ Customer Relationship Model (CRM).

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that there were currently only four functions which could be completed by customers online. He said that this was not customer friendly (especially to those who were shift workers), raised the burden on council resources and increased the council’s telephone call volume.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that the council could not afford to provide more staff to answer telephone calls, and that currently only seven in every ten calls were targeted to be answered. He said that taking advantage of automation would not only free up resources but would also allow those who were unable/ did not wish to transact online to get through to the council by telephone.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said the investment would also see the council’s financial and telephony systems move to the Cloud. This would eliminate the need the for the double keying seen in the current procurement system and allow staff to answer the telephone from any location via ‘soft phones’ on their laptops. He said that taking advantage of technology would make the council more efficient and effective. 

The Deputy Chief Executive told the Committee of her recent experience of moving house from East Herts and into another district. She said that the East Herts online form which she completed covered only one service area and asked her for irrelevant information. She said that in contrast the CRM used by her new authority was seamless, linking services and giving automated confirmation and advice. The Deputy Chief Executive said that this seamless CRM experience was what was wanted for the residents of East Herts. She acknowledged that such a system would require an initial investment but said that she believed a CRM was needed to enable the council to offer a better service to its customers going forward, allowing those who could self- serve to do to so twenty-four hours a day and those who were unable to, or who did not wish to self-serve to get through to the council via the telephone.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that the use of a CRM was not new, having been implemented at many councils following austerity. He said that fundamentally a CRM gave better value for money, giving better customer service at a price which the council could afford. He reiterated that it was not good enough that currently three in every ten customers did not get their telephone calls answered, and that it was not viable to employ more staff to answer the current call volume.

Councillor Huggins said that all Members agreed that there was a need to modernise, but this should not be at the expense of flexibility. He said that the CRM  ...  view the full minutes text for item 164.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property briefly introduced the report for 2021/22 which covered the principles of good governance.

He said that the report included an update on the position of IT, the delay in the National Procurement Strategy and the completion of the Social Value Policy. He said that assurance mapping had proved to be very useful, that Asset Strategy was to be approved, with Commercial Strategy already approved.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that a workforce plan was now in place for the Joint ICT Service, which included a Joint ICT Committee with Member oversight. He said that 2023 would see district elections, with preparations underway for a possible substantial change in membership.

The Chairman said the report was very thorough and useful, he referred to page 96 and asked if the Committee needed to see an assurance map. The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that there was no visual assurance map, but a summary was included in the internal audit report which had been presented to the Committee.

Councillor Huggins referred to page 95 of the report and asked if clearer timelines could be applied to all of the governance issues which were outstanding. The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that all items were attempted to be completed within the financial year, but that some issues where beyond his control, for example the delay to the national procurement strategy.

It was moved by Councillor Huggins and seconded by Councillor Alder that the recommendations, as detailed, be approved. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED. 

RESOLVED – that (A) Members review and comment on the draft Annual Governance Statement for 2021/2022.         

The Finance Business Partner introduced the report which set out the provisional revenue and capital outturn for 2021/2022. She referred to the provisional £91,000 surplus in revenue and the £4.1 million of budgets to be carried forward to due to slippage on projects.

The Chairman asked for further information regarding the Shared IT Service underspend. The Finance Business Partner said that this was due to projects not being delivered as expected within the year.

Councillor Huggins asked why there was no capital carry forward for the Ward Freeman pool which had seen no spend for the year. The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that these funds had already been carried forward in full as it was unlikely that Ward Freeman would have had a spend for this year. He said that this could be seen in the Capital Programme for next year, as approved in March. 

The Chairman referred to page 9 of the report and asked if the underspend reported against the net cost of services was a symptom of posts being unfilled due to possible changes. The Deputy Chief Executive said that any non-essential posts had not been filled to avoid possible redundancy costs. She said that short term contracts had been used rather than filling vacancies with contractors as this was cheaper and also managed people’s expectations.

The Chairman asked if the level of grant funding seen on page 9 of the report was normal. The Finance Business Partner said that the level of grants received by the council changed every year and this made budgets difficult to set. She said that recent times had been very different due to Covid. 

The Chairman asked if the projected decrease in business rates income were a concern. The Finance Business Partner said that the additional Section 31 Government grants were not counted as business rates income.

It was moved by Councillor Alder and seconded by Councillor Huggins, that the recommendations, as detailed, be approved. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that (A) the General Fund Revenue Outturn of £91k underspend to be transferred to the general reserve be noted.

(B) that capital budgets of £4.1 million are recommended to be carried forward to 2022/23 to fund ongoing capital schemes.

The Business Finance Partner introduced the report, which forecast an overspend due to an increase in inflation.

The Chairman asked if the increase in interest rates for borrowing referred to in the report related to future borrowing. The Business Finance Partner said this related to the short-term borrowing which had already been entered into to fund capital commitments. Explaining that these borrowing rates had increased from what was budgeted for.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that Treasury advice was to currently borrow short term (which was defined as 364 days or less) with other Local Authorities to avoid locking into long-term loan agreements. He said that the council sometimes acted as a lender itself dependent on its cash flow position, and that the increase in interest rates would also see an increase in the return on the council’s investments. 

The Chairman asked for an update on the council’s aged debtors. The Business Finance Partner said that these debts continued to be monitored by officers, which had reduced by nearly £500,000 since March. She said that some of these debts were unrecoverable and provision had been made to cover these.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that a restructure in the Finance Department would see jobs created in credit control, bringing back debtors from service areas to speed up processing and allow monitoring in house. He said that debt instruction through the Credit Protection Association cost £15.00 per case and had proved successful in the past.

The Chairman asked when these changes relating to debtors would happen. The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that the income management system needed to be changed and this was not wanted mid-year. He said that he was aiming for change to take place in April 2023 but it was more likely this would be April 2024.

Councillor Crofton asked why the council was not using alternative debt collectors. The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that the council’s debts were all different, with some requiring specialist recovery, for example benefit debts were recovered by the Department for Works and Pensions via a debtor’s ongoing benefit entitlement.

The Chairman referred to page 20 of the report and asked if the income received from Hertfordshire County Council in connection with landfill diversion could be quantified. The Finance Business Partner said that the amount of income received would be dependent on tonnages for all districts and can therefore vary.

The Chairman asked for a general outline of the council’s reserves. The Finance Business Partner said that the council held sufficient reserves, and that there were no specific comments regarding the reserves from auditors.

The Chairman asked if the predicted overspend could increase. The Finance Business Partner said that this a possibility, with Quarter 2 monitoring to begin next week. She said that officers would be in a better position to update Members following this.

RESOLVED – that the Financial Management 2022/2023 – Quarter 1 Forecast to Year End Report be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 167.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property introduced the report and welcomed questions from Members.

The Chairman said that the report showed that there had been few changes since the Committee last saw the Risk Register. He referred to page 104 of the report and asked if cyber related risks should be moved into the right-hand box of the matrix which housed the highest risk items. The Deputy Chief Executive said that the council was very well protected against cyber-attacks, with regular attempts being stopped. She said that it may be useful for Members to receive an update on failed cyber-attacks, to demonstrate how well the council was mitigated.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that as the category which included cyber-attacks was already in the red zone of the matrix they were constantly monitored by Leadership Team.

The Chairman asked if emerging risks should have a section on the risk register. The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that he would give this consideration.

It was moved by Councillor Alder and seconded by Councillor Huggins, that the recommendations, as detailed, be approved. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that (A) the Quarter 1 Strategic Risk register be reviewed and officers advised of any further action that could be taken to manage risk.

The Head of Strategic Finance and Property introduced the report, giving an overview of the Work Programme and his hopes that the agenda for the November meeting of the Committee would include the Auditor’s Accounts, and the Member training to accompany these.

He said that a letter had been received from the Auditor advising that the accounts would not be issued by 30 September 2022, although reasons for this delay had not been given. The Head of Strategic Finance and Property told the Committee that this letter had been published to the council’s website as was required.

The Chairman advised the Committee that the Auditor’s letter would be circulated by email to Members after the meeting by the Democratic Services Officer.

The Chairman asked the Head of Strategic Finance and Property for an update on the Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSSA). The Head of Strategic Finance and Property said that ninety five percent of procurement was out to tender, with the more difficult cases struggling to engage auditors. 

The Chairman referred to the meeting of the Committee on 19 July 2022 where a desire for cyber training for Members was expressed, as recorded in the minutes. He said that the Internal Audit Manager had said that he would make enquires regarding such training and asked if cyber training could be fitted into the Work Programme, possibly at the meeting of the Committee in June 2023. Members supported this request.

It was moved by Councillor Huggins and seconded by Councillor Crofton that the recommendations as detailed, be approved. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.   

RESOLVED – that (A) the work programme as set out in the report be approved; and

(B) that any training requirements be specified.

To consider such other business as, in the opinion of the Chairman of the meeting, is of sufficient urgency to warrant consideration and is not likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information.

There were no urgent items.