Agenda and minutes

Councillor Fishwick declared a personal interest in that part of Minute No. 50 which related to the AONB, being a member of the AONB.

Minutes of the meeting held on 23^rd February 2010 (previously circulated)

The Minutes of the meeting held on 23^rd February 2010 were signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

There were no items of urgent business.

It was noted that Councillor Fishwick had previously declared a personal interest in that part of the following item which related to the AONB, being a member of the AONB.

The Panel received the report of the Corporate Director (Finance and Performance) to provide Members with an overview of the work undertaken during 2009/10 to evaluate the partnerships that the Council is involved in and to establish a framework for partnership performance and governance.  The report also set out a proposed work programme for 2010/11.

The Principal Auditor advised that a ‘mapping’ exercise had been carried out to identify the purpose, type and importance of all the Council’s partnerships in the delivery of the Council’s priorities and objectives.  This exercise was the basis of a work programme approved by the Panel in February 2009 for the completion of two partnership assessments that were underway at the time and the evaluation of a further eight of the Council’s major partnerships.

Since then, the use of the Partnership Development and Evaluation Toolkit had been used to provide a consistent means of assessing the impact and effectiveness of working with individual partnerships and the Council’s contributions to them.  

It was reported that four partnerships had been evaluated, two partnerships had been withdrawn, three evaluations had been deferred, and one partnership had been evaluated and was currently being assessed.  The completed evaluations had shown that the toolkit was most effective when used to evaluate those partnerships involving the delivery of common objectives and priorities arising from the Sustainable Community Strategy and the Corporate Plan, rather than those involving contractual arrangements. 

It had also been shown that the overall governance arrangements within partnerships were underdeveloped and/or inconsistently applied.  A Code of Practice for Working in Partnership had therefore been drafted, and a detailed summary was attached at Appendix A to the report.  The Code would be published and mainstreamed into the Council’s overall partnership working arrangements.

It was reported that the Assistant Head (Partnerships) in the new Community Engagement Service would be responsible for partnership evaluations in 2010/11.  The proposed reduced programme of evaluations for 2010/11 would cover four partnerships, namely:

• LDLSP Health and Wellbeing Thematic Group
• Children’s Trust (incorporating LDLSP Children and Young People Thematic Group)
• Vision Board
• Arnside/Silverdale AONB

Resolved:

(1)        That the work undertaken and lessons learned from the evaluation of partnerships during 2009/10 and the ongoing development of a framework for partnership performance and governance be noted.

(2)        That the proposed work programme for 2010/11 be endorsed.

(3)        That the responsibility of the new Community Engagement Services for partnership evaluations be noted.

Report of Procurement Manager (to follow)

The Panel received the report of the Procurement Manager to report on the Sustainable Procurement Policy and the sustainable benefits of procurement decisions in accordance with the principle of best value.

Members were advised that the Sustainable Procurement Policy, which was appended to the report, had been approved in April 2007 and updated in September 2007. 

The contracts that had been let by the authority within the last 12 months were set out in the report, being a mixture of lowest price and Most Economically Advantageous Tenders (MEAT).

It was noted that procurement and sustainable procurement within the authority and within local and central government were still evolving, and it was hoped that officers involved in the commissioning and procurement process would increase their knowledge and include sustainability within their contract documentation and evaluation criteria through the Climate Change Working Group.

Members considered the report and requested that some demonstration of value for money over the long-term be shown with the development of whole life-cycle costing (WLCC) approaches.  Reference was made to the DEFRA publication ‘Procuring the Future’, which advised that the public sector must build capacity by developing its capabilities to deliver sustainable procurement.  It was requested that a sense of how the Council was practising sustainable procurement be shown using the DEFRA framework that had been developed (called the ‘Flexible Framework’), which recommended that all public sector organisations reach level 3 (or above) across the board with level 5 in at least one category within a specific timescale.

Resolved:

(1)        That the report be noted.

(2)        That the Procurement Manager develops whole life-cycle costing (WLCC) approaches and benchmarking to progress through the levels set out in the DEFRA Flexible Framework.

(3)        That a report on progress to-date be presented to the Panel in six months’ time.

Presentation by Head of Corporate Strategy and Sustainability Co-ordinator

In a detailed presentation entitled ‘Positive Action on Climate Change and Energy Efficiency at Lancaster City Council’, the Climate Change Co-ordinator reported the four strands of work that underpinned the Council’s Climate Change activity:

- Corporate Commitment from the Council in recognition of the importance of setting and achieving challenging targets to reduce carbon emissions through NI 185 (CO₂ reduction from local authority operations).

- Climate Change Strategy, which had been adopted by the Council, based on a 5-year action plan, which began in April 2008. 

- Partnerships across the district, including working with the Energy Saving Trust and Carbon Trust, to tackle Climate Change.

- A corporate programme proposed with Lancashire County Council and the Lancashire Climate Change Partnership to develop local responses to Climate Change.

It was reported that the Council’s Climate Change Cabinet Liaison Group had been formed in 2006, which was a cross-party group supported by officers.  The Climate Change Officer Working Group had been set-up in December 2009, with a nominated lead officer from each Service, and Bright Sparx had been established in December 2009, comprising energy and waste reduction champions in each Service.

The extensive actions the Council was taking to achieve energy efficiency were comprehensively reported to the Panel in areas such as housing, sustainable transport, waste reduction, sustainable procurement and through the raising of awareness to meet targets.  Members raised questions on the details reported. 

It was reported that the Council had signed up to 10:10 and was committed towards a low-carbon future and reductions in carbon emissions by 10% in 2010/11 and 3.4% per annum until 2019/20, and there was the possibility of these targets increasing at any time.  National indicators and local targets were relevant to Climate Change, being NI 185 - CO₂ reduction from local authority operations, NI 186 – Per capita reduction in CO₂ emissions in the local authority area, and NI 188 - Planning to Adapt to Climate Change. 

Resolved:

(1)        That the Climate Change Co-ordinator be thanked for her presentation.

(2)        That the Climate Change Officer Working Group be requested to consider sustainable staff travel plans as part of their remit and report back to the Panel in 3 months’ time.

Presentation by Head of Corporate Strategy

The Head of Corporate Strategy gave a detailed presentation on the findings of the City Council’s Place Survey.  The Survey had been conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Council and was carried out by a postal self-completion approach.  A total of 3,165 people had been randomly sent questionnaires to obtain their views and perspectives and 1,267 responses had been received.

It was reported that the National Indicator Set launched by the Government in 2008 had contained 25 indicators that were informed by citizens’ views, and 18 of these, which required the views and perceptions of local residents in areas such as perceptions of local quality of life, anti-social behaviour and community cohesion, were collected through a single Place Survey administered by each local authority and carried out every two years at the same time, using the same method and questionnaire.

The key findings of the Council’s Place Survey were that four residents in five were satisfied with their local area as a place to live (80%), which was an increase of 6% compared to 2006.  The most mentioned local priorities were to improve activities for teenagers, followed by traffic congestion and road and pavement maintenance. 

Four out of five respondents agreed that local people from different backgrounds got on well together (80%), which was significantly higher than the County figure of 74%.  Three people in five answered that they felt they belonged to their neighbourhood (60%), which was similar to the county average (24%). 

One Lancaster resident in six (17%) rated anti-social behaviour as high locally, which was similar to the same score in 2006.  Twenty-eight per cent of people perceived drunk or rowdy behaviour as a problem was 28%, and this had stayed the same since 2006.  Perceptions of drug use or dealing as a problem had fallen significantly in the district to 27%, and three-quarters of Lancaster residents rated their own health as very or fairly good (75%), which was similar to the county and national average.

Members were advised that there were two areas for future focus, which would be taken forward by an officer group, focusing on the visible services that mattered most to the public.  These were understanding what drove public perception and looking more carefully at local neighbourhoods within authorities.

It was reported that work would be taken by the Council in relation to quality of life, which impacted heavily on citizens’ sense of belonging, and in conjunction with the Police and Health Authority in regard to anti-social behaviour, respect and livability.

Resolved:

That the Head of Corporate Strategy be thanked for his presentation.

Councillor Whitelegg left the meeting at this point.

Report of Head of Economic Development and Tourism Services

The Panel received the report of the Head of Democratic Services to present the annual review of Thumbprint as part of the monitoring of service level agreements (SLAs) undertaken by the Panel, in accordance with its terms of reference.  The annual review had been undertaken by the Head of Economic Development and Tourism Services, and was attached as Appendix 1 to the report.

The Head of Corporate Strategy reported that the new Community Engagement Service would have responsibility for SLAs in future, and the Panel would be advised of developments in this regard.

Members considered Appendix 1 to the report.

Resolved:

(1)        That the SLA with Thumbprint remain unchanged, subject to review in 2010/11.

(2)        That, subject to the approval of the Chief Executive and Member editorial team, consideration be given to including an article on Thumbprint/One Voice and other organisations that the Council funds in Your District Council Matters to publicise the City Council’s support for Thumbprint and help promote a positive image of disabled people and raise awareness of their needs.

Report of Head of Democratic Services

The Panel received the report of the Head of Democratic Services to provide Members with an update of the Budget and Performance Panel Work Programme.

Members considered the matters for future consideration contained in the Work Programme attached to the report.

Resolved:

That the Work Programme details be approved.