Agenda, decisions and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Cllr Tom Bygott, Portfolio Holder. The Leader, Cllr Ray Manning conducted the meeting in his absence.

None received. 

The Portfolio Holder is asked to sign the minutes of the meeting held on 20 July 2010 as a correct record.

Steve Rayment, Head of ICT was in attendance for this item.

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 July 2010 were agreed as a correct record subject to the following amendments:

Minute 5 – Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Internal Audit Action Plan

First paragraph, be amended to read:

·               4^th row – replace 31 March 2011 with 30 April 2011

·               7^th row – replace had the facility to with does

·               8^th row – replace Huntingdon with St Ives

Matters Arising

Minute 5 – Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Internal Audit Action Plan

At the previous meeting, the Portfolio Holder had agreed to a request by Cllr Douglas de Lacey that a report relating to the Council’s network security procedures including reference to an Internal Audit background report relating to the ICT Review, would be presented to the meeting on 21 September.

The Head of ICT informed the Leader that a report relating to the ICT Review per se had not been considered by the Corporate Governance Committee on 29 June 2010 as no such report existed. ICT operational procedures had been considered at that meeting, however, no discussion arose regarding the actual service review. It was also noted that Internal Audit reports were in the main for consideration by senior management only and in that particular instance the report contained sensitive staffing issues.

Notwithstanding the above, the Leader expressed his disappointment with ongoing problems that Members were experiencing since the introduction of the Council’s secure logging-in procedure and requested that a report be prepared for consideration at the next Portfolio Holder meeting indicating how the problems would be resolved. The Head of ICT acknowledged there were issues arising in the Member environment that were being dealt with, however, the service, in trying to resolve those issues, had to remain compliant with Government criteria.

Action: Steve Rayment

Cllr Douglas de Lacey and the Head of ICT left the meeting following this item.

The Leader

APPROVED the revised and updated Performance Improvement Strategy 2009-2012, subject to the amendments made at the meeting. 

Paul Howes, Corporate Manager, Community & Customer Services informed the Leader that the strategy was reviewed on an annual basis and that there were three main types of change contained in the refreshed document. The changes related to:

·               The coalition government’s removal of various elements of the performance management regime such as the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA), Place Survey etc

·               The removal of references to the Corporate Governance Inspection

·               General formatting, word changes and updating of information

The Leader, in considering the contents of the refreshed strategy, requested the following amendments:

·               p.11, para 2.7 – delete the words in its work of the Council

·               p.13, para 3.4 – add reference to the Member Training Charter

·               p.14, Link `Robust performance improvement arrangements in place with partners’ with chapter 6 relating to `Performance Improvement through Partnership Working’

·               p.14, para 3.6 – replace three with two

·               p.14, para 3.8(b) – add reference relating to accountability

·               p.16, para 4.5 – second bullet point, delete not casting blame, replace with and helping to put things right, promoting accountability

·               p.21, para 6.3 – add and develop robust reporting arrangements including the disaggregation of data where necessary

·               p.23, para 7.5 – add (d) Group Leaders should encourage continual and ongoing training for Members in order to understand their role and responsibility to the public

The Leader

APPROVED the revised and updated Performance Improvement Strategy 2009-2012, subject to the above amendments. 

The Leader thanked the Corporate Manager, Community & Customer Services and the Policy & Performance team for an excellent Strategy.

The Portfolio Holder will maintain, for agreement at each meeting, a Forward Plan identifying all matters relevant to the Portfolio which it is believed are likely to be the subject of consideration and / or decision by the Portfolio Holder, or recommendation to, or referral by, the Portfolio Holder to Cabinet, Council, or any other constituent part of the Council.   The plan will be updated as necessary.  The Portfolio Holder will be responsible for the content and accuracy of the forward plan.

The Leader NOTED the contents of the Forward Plan, with the addition of a report from the Head of ICT relating to Members’ ICT related issues at the meeting on 16 November 2010.

The next meeting is scheduled for 11am, 16 November 2010.

It was NOTED that the next meeting would be held at 11am on 16 November 2010.