Agenda and minutes

The Minutes of the meeting held on 9 September 2006, having been printed and circulated, were signed as a correct record.

The Board received an update report on the progress made to introducing better procurement in Halton.

Earlier in the year the Council had adopted an updated Procurement Strategy for 2006-2009. The report outlined the:

§         key objectives;

§         progress made to date;

§         procurement and commissioning group;

§         procurement & the Web;

§         P Card pilot;

§         E-Marketplace;

§         document imaging;

§         working with Directorates, NWCE and others;

§         training for procurement; and

§         procurement improvement plan and strategic targets.

The Board had a wide ranging discussion regarding agency workers, stationery contracts, specification of refuse vehicles and the possibility for savings in various areas of the Council.  It was felt that there was not enough information of what the potential was in certain areas for procuring that service at a lower rate. The Board requested that more detail on the spend analysis undertaken by the procurement and commissioning unit be brought to the next meeting.

RESOLVED: That

(1)               the report be noted  and the approach taken be endorsed; and

(2)               a more detailed report on the spend analysis undertaken by the procurement and commissioning unit be brought to the next meeting.

The Board received a report from the Strategic Director, Corporate and Policy on the contents of the IDeA Peer Review report and how the report was used to develop an Efficiency Strategy for the Council.

The report set out the following:

§         background;

§         key findings;

§         recommendations;

§         issues raised; and

§         efficiency strategy.

RESOLVED: That the report be received.

The Board received a report which outlined the current Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) framework and arrangements for the 2006 assessment. The next corporate assessment was to take place in March 2008 and would be the subject of a further report.

The annual assessment would normally be published in mid December; however, for 2006, it had been put back to February 2007 to allow up-to-date Best Value user satisfaction data to be taken into account.

The results of the annual service assessment for Children and Young People and Adult Social Services were expected over the next two months. The use of resources assessment had been completed following a self-assessment and a number of interviews with Councillors and Officers. The score would be published in February and the Direction of Travel assessment would be conducted in November.

RESOLVED: That

(1)               the progress on the 2006 CPA assessment be noted and approved; and

(2)               a further report be made in due course in preparation for the 2008 Corporate Assessment.

            The Board considered:

(1)           whether Members of the press and public should be excluded from the meeting of the Board during consideration of the following items of business in accordance with Sub-Section 4 of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 because it was likely that, in view of the nature of the business to be considered, exempt information would be disclosed, being information defined in Section 100 (1) and paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972; and

(2)           whether the disclosure of information was in the public interest, whether any relevant exemptions were applicable and whether, when applying the public interest test and exemptions, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed that in disclosing the information.

RESOLVED: That as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, members of the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business in accordance with Sub-Section 4 of section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 because it is likely that, in view of the nature of the business, exempt information will be disclosed, being information defined in Section 100(1) and paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

The Board received a progress report against the 2006/7 Internal Audit Plan which gave a summary of the audits completed in the second quarter July – September 2006 and which gave details of other initiatives Internal Audit had been involved in during this period.

RESOLVED: That the Internal Audit Progress Report be accepted.