To receive a report from Nicky Fiedler, Commercial Director.

The Chair, Councillor Levy introduced the Commercial Strategy October 2018. The Strategy will be presented to Cabinet on Wednesday 17 October 2018. As a subject of pre-decision scrutiny, the views of Overview & Scrutiny were requested.

The Chair reminded Members that tonight’s meeting was for the Committee to play the role of critical friend and to make comments, observations and constructive criticism. The primary intention however is to assist and guide Officers and the Cabinet Member on how best to present this report to Cabinet next week.

The Strategy sets out how the local authority will take a holistic approach to stimulate the innovation and enterprise from within and working with its partners that will play a key role in securing future service delivery.

The following was highlighted:

·         Enfield like many councils is facing the difficult challenge of managing funding reductions, coupled with increasing demand for essential services.

·         The Strategy sets out how the local authority will take a holistic approach to stimulate the innovation and enterprise from within and working with its partners that will play a key role in securing future service delivery.

·         It is vital that this culture is nurtured within the council to ensure the robustness of the local authority, forming a fundamental part of how it plans and does business in the coming years.

·         The new strategy document sets the vision for Enfield to be a resilient, innovative and enterprising Council delivering sustainable services that meet resident needs. It will be a vital guiding asset for the local authority as it seeks to achieve these goals.

The following issues were raised:

·         Members supported the principles of the strategy and agreed that everyone wanted to see a more innovative and holistic approach to service delivery. However, concerns were raised regarding the lack of detail in the report, for example, there were no ‘Key Risks’ identified. For a document to have none identified was of considerable concern to Members.

·         The document talks about a new innovative approach; however, it is still written in a very public-sector way. It was felt that the document needed to be shorter and more ‘pithy’ as it was far too ‘corporate’ and ‘woolly in places’.

·         Questions were raised around the impact of generating income. Clarification was sought as to whether this was a short or long-term outcome, and it was felt that more information around this was needed in the document. It was also felt that the report lacked financial context, and this is key to measuring outcomes.

·         Have other councils implemented such changes and if so what were the outcomes. Do we as a council have the skills and knowledge to implement this new, innovative way of working.

·         The intention is to visit other authorities with Officers to look at how they are doing and how they have implemented the changes.

·         The core focus of the strategy is to bring about a new way of thinking and working that will help create and capture the opportunities and expand the ways the council can secure income, explore new ideas, and implement alternative ways to acquire and use available resources to be more effective in meeting needs in the borough.

·         This strategy impacts on all departments and services across the council, but it is recognised that no one approach can be applied to all and consequently different actions and areas of improvement can be expected. Cultural changes do not happen overnight, it is very much about changing the mindset of those involved in delivering the strategy.

·         Further clarification was sought in relation to the Commercial Board. The document does not explain whether we intend to utilise the experience we already have or alternatively look to seek experts from the wider business. It would be helpful to include more detail on this in the document.

·         It was suggested that it might be helpful to include some good test cases in the document to show how the strategy’s principles would work in practice as this may be easier for people to understand.

·         Page 22-Measuring Success. This section very much lacks detail and further detail/information was needed. It was suggested rewording this to ‘Value for Money’ so information on Key Performance Indicators could then be included.

·         With regards to Impact on Council Priorities- Good homes in well-connected neighbourhoods (Item: 7.1 page 5 of report) no information is included as to how this will be achieved. Some examples would be useful.

·         In relation to the Public Health Implications (Item 9 page 6 of the report) it is not ideal to continuously use the word ‘should’ in a document that is intended to be so transformational. If you believe it ‘will’ then say how and why.

·         It was felt that the report was focused too much on income generation and this needed to be addressed. Councillor David-Sanders suggested re-wording the Executive Summary part of the report so that it is less income focused.

·         Nicky Fiedler Commercial Director responded that income generation is only one strand of the strategy and it is about more creative use of the resource that we have and how to focus on future need. The core focus of the strategy is commissioning, procurement, contract management, assets and investments, income generating services, traded services and trading companies.

·         Another big piece of the strategy is working with our partners, influencing our partners and improving outcomes for our residents. It is not just about producing a paper but very much about putting things into a document that are doable and can deliver an outcome. This strategy is vital for Enfield Council going forward.

·         Are there any costs involved in setting up a separate Commercial Board to oversee this process?

It was stated that the whole point of this is to have a large internal resource. It will be part of Officers’ jobs and will be a very different approach of that previously seen where consultants are brought in.

It was noted that:

·         All comments made were purely observational rather than critical, to potentially inform and enhance how the report might be better articulated at Cabinet.

·         The report is a starting point and given the feedback there are some points for the Cabinet Member and Officers to consider in taking this strategy forward.

·         If it was felt that there is a need for a supplementary bullet point or two in response to what has been discussed tonight, then it would be a good idea to attach this to the original document.

AGREED:

1.    The Committee agreed to the recommendations of the report with consideration being given to the inclusion of the suggestions/comments made at this meeting.

2.    Updates to be provided to future meetings of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee.