Agenda item

The Committee considered the Chief Executive’s Departmental Business Plan 2021-22 which outlined the priorities for the department and identified how they supported the 5 Ways of Working and the 7 Goals of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.Due to the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic this was an abbreviated plan, usually it would include a review section but this had been covered in the Service COVID-19 Impact Assessments previously submitted to the Committee.

Amongst the issues raised during consideration of the report were the following:

ICT and Corporate Policy

·       It was noted that the experiences and feedback from staff and Members over the past year in terms of home working etc would contribute to the development of the future work programme and ‘new ways of working’;

·       It was clarified that the highest risk score possible under ‘Key Divisional Risks’ would be 25 with the matrix utilized;

·       In response to a concern over the reporting of ‘Key Measures of Success’ as percentages rather than targets it was clarified that this was set at an all-Wales level and monitored by Welsh Government. The ‘high level’ Departmental Plan was in fact underpinned by operational divisional business plans which contained significantly more detail and operational performance measures. These were reported to Committee on a quarterly basis. It was suggested that a refresher session on the PIMS system be arranged for the Committee;

 Legal and Administration

·       In regard to ‘pooled budgets’ with other authorities it was clarified that presently each authority retained control of its own proportion of the budget but that discussions on its spending were undertaken on a partnership basis;

·       The Head of Legal and Administration, in response to a question, commented that the Legal Section was currently under-resourced and some legal work associated with social care and education in particular was having to be outsourced and paid for by the relevant services. Discussions were taking place with client departments with a view to identifying funding which would allow the in-house legal team to retain more work in- house;  

People Management

·       In response to a query the Assistant Chief Executive agreed to relook at the omission of the TIC team’s performance from the ‘Key Measures of Success’ particularly in view of the efficiency savings identified to date and the possibilities for building upon that success in untapped areas such as commerciality;

·       Reference was made to the current difficulties experienced by new employees due to the lack of in-person engagement with their colleagues and the need to create a team ethos. It was highlighted that Heads of Service could allow staff to return to the office for reasons associated with welfare issues, lack of space or broadband at home, training/induction and support for apprenticeships and new staff, or work requirements e.g. paper based working or the need to meet the public in-person;

Regeneration - Property

·       In response to a query as to whether there was anything the authority could do to ensure any property it sold was actually utilised for the purpose originally proposed by the purchaser the Head of Regeneration commented that whilst this was difficult there were, in some circumstances, ways in which future use could be influenced such as the retention of freehold of land until development was completed satisfactorily;

·       In terms of quantifying the benefits to tourism from regeneration the Committee was advised that the County-wide economic recovery plan was based on 11 key themes which included tourism/events etc..  

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED to note the Plan.