To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 4 February 2020.

Decision

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 4 February 2020 as a correct record.

Report of the Director of Policy, Performance and Reform

This report provides an evaluation of how the Our Manchester Strategy and approach is helping to deliver the required Council savings targets.

The Committee considered a report and presentation of the Director of Policy, Performance and Reform that provided an evaluation of the Our Manchester approach, including how Our Manchester was helping to deliver the required Council savings targets. This report sought to illustrate what progress to date had been made, through the supporting Our Manchester Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.

The Strategic Lead for Intelligence and Data Science referred to the main points and themes within the report, which included: -

·                Describing what the Evaluation Framework had delivered;

·                Information on the Bringing Services Together for People in Places (BSTPIP) programme;

·                The approach to monitoring and evaluating BSTPIP and next steps;

·                Information on a range of work streams;

·                Our Manchester Voluntary and Community Sector Grants Case studies;

·                Information on the Our Manchester Investment fund (OMIF);

·                Workforce training, and culture, to embed the Our Manchester behaviours in everything we do;

·                Communications and Engagement; and

·                Analysis of the impact of Our Manchester in delivering Council Savings.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were: -

·                What was the difference between the OMIF and the Neighbourhood Investment Fund;

·                How was resident feedback captured and measured to enable the benchmarking of satisfaction with neighbourhoods;

·                How would Members be informed of resident engagement events;

·                How were the priorities for respective wards, as referred to within the report, identified;

·                Whilst recognising the positive outcomes for individuals and the challenge in quantifying those outcomes, the report did not provide the Committee with sufficient detail on financial investment and savings achieved to effectively scrutinise; 

·                Was Our Manchester a strategy or a branding exercise, noting that resident voluntary work and community projects had existed prior to the introduction of Our Manchester;

·                Acknowledging the improvements in providing health and social care services in multidisciplinary teams at a neighbourhood level, however the anticipated financial savings were not realised; 

·                Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were working towards consistent Neighbourhood footprints but were not yet fully aligned operationally;

·                Had staff absenteeism improved as a result of the introduction of Our Manchester; and

·                All Members should undertake the Our Manchester Experience training.

The Director of Policy, Performance and Reform informed the Committee that the Our Manchester Investment Fund was additional funding that allowed for the scaling up of those resident projects that demonstrated Our Manchester values and were sustainable. He commented that once established they could apply for future funding for projects through the Neighbourhood Investment Fund.

He stated that the Our Manchester approach involved fundamentally changing how the Council and partners worked across the city and the relationships with residents and communities, in order to deliver the Our Manchester Strategy for the city.  The approach therefore needed to become embedded in everything that we do. 

On BST PIP, he further stated that partners, including GMP were committed to aligning themselves to the neighbourhood model, however due to issues with their IT systems GMP had not operationally aligned to this service model as yet.

The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer commented that it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer

This report provides an update on the progress of work and outcomes of the Our Transformation Programme. The report includes practical examples of the difference being made as part of this piece of work.

The Committee considered a report and presentation of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer and City Solicitor that provided an overview of recent progress on the Our Transformation Programme and next steps.

The main points and themes within the report included: -

·                Describing that Our Transformation was the work to modernise and digitise how the council operated;

·                Providing an overview of the strategic context of Our Transformation;

·                Providing an overview of the five programmes which together made up Our Transformation;

·                Providing an overview of the how Our Transformation was resources; and

·                Further detail on each of the programmes.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were: -

·                How were residents involved with the programme, in particular the design and development of digital processes, commenting that not all residents had access to digital services;

·                Expressing concern that some services were digital only and this could contribute to digital exclusion;

·                Making reference to a positive experience that included accurate and timely information when applying online to renew a passport, and could a similar model be implemented in Manchester;

·                Was there any conflict between empowering officers to take decisions and reduce bureaucracy and statutory requirements;

·                Was the resourcing of the programme sufficient to deliver the work and ambitions described; 

·                What was being done to support staff through technological and system changes; and

·                How was carbon reduction being addressed through this activity.

The Strategic Lead, Business Change stated that the reference to digital that the Member had referred to was specifically describing the activities to modernise, streamline and digitise how the council operated and communicated across a range of internal systems and services. She described that as this project progressed residents would be consulted with via existing channels such as resident forums and staff in Neighbourhood Teams. The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer stated that all channels of resident communication and access to the Council were important and this was recognised and that the work initially was looking that the internal CRM (Customer relationship management) system.

The Director of Policy, Performance and Reform acknowledged the experience of the Member when applying for his passport and stated that examples and systems of good practice were being considered, however he noted that the UK Government had invested significantly into the online digital passport service. The Strategic Lead, Business Change informed the Committee that work was ongoing to address digital inclusion, including work to support older residents and hard to reach groups and information on this work would be provided to the Committee following the meeting.

The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer provided an example of empowering officers to take decisions by explain that currently the arrangements were that she would have to sign off any honoraria payments. She stated that whilst this was appropriate for complex applications, managers should be enabled to make local decisions and be accountable for standard applications. She stated that this would also contribute to decisions being taken in a timely manner. The Strategic  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

Report of the Director of Policy, Performance and Reform

This report provides details on the priorities and performance of the Council’s Performance, Policy and Reform department for the 2020/21 Municipal Year.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Policy, Performance and Reform (PPR) that provided information on the priorities and performance of the Council’s Policy, Performance and Reform department for the 2020/21 Municipal Year.

The main points and themes within the report included: -

·                Providing a background and context to PPR;

·                A structure chart;

·                Describing the ambitions and priorities for PPR;

·                Information on the City Policy Service;

·                Information on resources and programmes;

·                An update on the activities of the Policy and Partnerships team;

·                Information on Reform and Innovation;

·                The vision for Performance, Research and Intelligence;

·                An update on the activities and vision of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Team; and

·                Equalities performance management.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were: -

·                Further clarification was sought on the statements contained within the report that described Manchester as a particularly difficult city to enumerate;

·                Did the team have enough capacity to undertake the enumeration;

·                Was the Residential Development Tracker and the Commercial Development Tracker available at a ward level and was this available to Councillors;

·                What plans were in place to deliver the Windrush day;

·                More resources were required to implement Green and Blue Infrastructure and what was being done to secure external funding to deliver climate change activities;

·                Were the number of upheld Ombudsmen complaints comparable with other core cities; and

·                What was the approach to utilising the services of external agencies to deliver consultations.

Officers described that work was ongoing so that the data used to produce the reports was aligned to the methodology of the ONS (Officer for National Statistics) and additional resources had been identified to support the national census work and due to the challenges in Manchester, including the nature of the housing stock and migration, the Chief Executive was currently in discussions with the ONS to ensure the appropriate number of enumerators were available in Manchester to deliver this work. Members noted that it was anticipated that, if carried out with appropriate resource, the Census would show Manchester’s population was much higher than projected by ONS. Members commented that this could impact on Local Government funding allocations and requested that a briefing note was circulated to Members on this issue. The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer stated that population data was also a factor when Local Government funding was calculated, adding that this was also factor for health service funding.

The Committee was informed that the Residential Development Tracker and the Commercial Development Tracker was an analysists tool and was not available in the current format for public consumption, however the outcomes were reported into other sources of data and information that was provided to Members, such as budget forecasting.

In response to the specific question on Windrush day, Officers described that Local Authorities could apply for a fund from the Government to deliver such events and Manchester had submitted a bid and had prepared a delivery plan in anticipation of an award. Members were advised that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit.

This report provides the Committee with details of key decisions that fall within the Committee’s remit and an update on actions resulting from the Committee’s recommendations. The report also includes the Committee’s work programme, which the Committee is asked to amend as appropriate and agree.

The report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit which contained key decisions within the Committee’s remit and responses to previous recommendations was submitted for comment. Members were also invited to agree the Committee’s future work programme.

Decision

The Committee notes the report and approves the work programme.