Agenda item

Report of the Leader of the Council

Councillor David Mellen, Leader of the Council, gave a presentation and updated the Audit Committee on the Refresh of the Recovery and Improvement Plan. The following points were highlighted:

a)  the Together for Nottingham Plan (TfN), formerly the Recovery and Improvement Plan enabled the Council to continue to plan and manage its assurance activities against the relevant themes.

b)  the Plan had been approved by the Improvement and Assurance Board and had been approved by Council at the meeting held on the 10 January 2022 and was developed in response to the non-statutory review.

c)  The refresh provided the opportunity to reflect on the key milestones and activities and to consider the changes that provide further clarity on the Plan’s delivery following availability of improved information.

d)  The main areas of changes were the significant updates to sections on Assets, Companies and Transformation and the identification of additional actions on risk, scrutiny and financial management.

In response to questions asked, the Leader and Chief Executive made the following points:

e)  The TfN Plan focused on members and officers working together and was a self-directed improvement journey. Significant improvements had been made, the Council having moved towards having a stable medium term financial plan. Having avoided Government intervention, the Council remained autonomous allowing the approval and implementation of refreshed Strategic Council Plan.

f)  Work had been undertaken to develop the risk policy which was being developed as part of the improvement journey. Risk management plans were already in place for big projects with more reporting of risk and processes in place to monitor them providing much greater oversight for leadership and the executive throughout the activity. Further work was being carried out to ensure comprehensiveness of this approach.

g)  Debt reduction had been well managed and the Council’s borrowing had reduced; debt should not always be considered negatively as it also helps the Council perform its functions for example by lighting streets or providing the tram, however, there was some criticism that borrowing was too high overall and there was a need to get the correct balance in terms of the percentage of revenue servicing debt.

h)  Transformation savings have been based on outcomes achieved elsewhere, but conservative estimates have been used so as not to be complacent about the Council’s ability to replicate outcomes. Transformation will not be a mass shift to digital, the Council will continue to engage with citizens in other ways. The Improvement and Assurance Board will continue to provide challenge to the Council on its plans and progress including the detail of transformation and the response to the S114 notice.

i)  The Strategic Council Plan (SCP) is translated into service plans which will be carefully reviewed. The Council did not include anything in the SCP that it knew it would not be able to afford.

j)  Some mistakes made previously had not gone through sufficient due process and there was emphasis that this be remedied, ensuring that the correct processes and structures are in place. When reviewing the TfN Plan, assurance would be needed to demonstrate that effective, relevant controls were in place and the process to deliver the plan were detailed. The Leader encouraged the Committee to invite theme leads to attend and provide this assurance.

The Committee thanked both the Chief Executive and the Leader for attending the meeting.

Resolved to note the contents of the report, and invite individual theme leads within the Together for Nottingham Plan to provide assurance to the Committee.