Agenda and minutes

Venue: Via Microsoft Teams

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 55 KB

·        25 November 2020

·        10 December 2020

·        8 January 2021

·        13 January 2021

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the following meetings were approved:

·        25 November 2020

·        10 December 2020

·        8 January 2021

·        13 January 2021

 

2.

Consultation on 2021/22 Budget Proposals pdf icon PDF 122 KB

Minutes:

An overview was received on the Corporate Services draft budget proposals 2021/2022, as detailed in the circulated report.

The total budget for Corporate Services in the current financial year was detailed to be £18.4millon, with £50k being identified as savings for 2021/22 and £30k for 2022/23. Members asked if there will be further analysis of how additional management savings could be redirected to front line services. It was confirmed that the future forward financial plan will be updated in the summer and will look at savings and income generation for later in the year and future financial years. It was added that this year one of the main focuses of Corporate Services had been delivering on front line effects of supporting and paying grants out to all the businesses in the community, with the support from colleagues in economic development; so far £36million had been paid out to businesses. Officers mentioned that the budget of £18.4million also included the costs associated with Members and Committee Services in the facilitation of the various meetings including the Scrutiny Committees.

In relation to procurement for Legal and Democratic Services, it was asked if the posts were expected to generate savings through effective procurement. Officers stated that this would not specifically generate additional savings, however instead would help to ensure compliance and best value for money going forward. It was noted that additional support was being sought to ensure the right contracts were put in place so that activities, such as the work around the new leisure contract to do with the income generation through the Margam Park development, were properly procured which will hopefully ensure the Council will have best value for money in terms of contracts going forward.

It was asked if consideration had been given to the redeployment or retraining of staff, given the flexibility achieved over working arrangements in the past year. Officers highlighted that the Councils current recruitment policy requires this to happen, all posts have to be considered for any members of staff who were at risk; only when full consideration had been given to prior consideration candidates, can posts be advertised to the internal workforce of the Council. It was added that if a manager wasn’t able to appoint at that stage, they could then complete a business case to seek approval to advertise the post externally; however, the Councils current policy requires full consideration to be given to trying to redeploy staff first.

In terms of Communication and Marketing, Members mentioned that the current high level of communication activity was recognised and appreciated, however asked was there an analysis of whether these new posts were needed on a permanent basis. Officers confirmed that the additional posts were linked to digital marketing and were originally created to support the exceptional demand that had been generated due to the pandemic. It was stated that over the next few months, staff would be looking at future planning and how the recovery phase of the pandemic could be shaped, which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Forward Work Programme 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 69 KB

Minutes:

The Committee noted the Cabinet Scrutiny Forward Work Programme 2020/21.