This is a discussion item.

The Chair introduced this item and welcomed Councillor Maguire as Cabinet Member for Finance & Procurement. He asked Councillor Maguire to give a brief overview of what she considers to be the key objectives and priorities in respect of the portfolio.

Councillor Maguire thanked Members for the opportunity to attend the meeting and felt that it was a good time to come and talk about what she wants from her role as well as providing an update on progress to date.

She introduced Officers from the key areas of her portfolio; Fay Hammond, Director of Finance, Nicky Fiedler, Commercial Director and Kari Manovitch, Acting Director, Customer Experience & Change.

Councillor Maguire highlighted the following:

·         The main area dominating her portfolio at present is the Budget, with the other areas being Procurement & Commissioning, Customer Experience, ICT & Transformation, Revenues & Benefits and Audit & Finance.

·         She has asked for a review of all service contracts, looking at quality, control and what works best. It is very important to have control of the commercial levers therefore the preference is to bring services back in house where tighter control can be taken resulting in less time spent dealing with complaints and mapping.

·         Reviews are also taking place on the costs of agency staff and consultants. There is currently a big problem with recruitment, but this is being addressed as it is recognised that it is better to have permanent staff committed to delivering to Enfield and its residents. Enfield Council also has a responsibility to grow and develop its own staff and therefore the aim is to provide more apprenticeship and training schemes.

·         The Customer Experience Strategy was agreed by Cabinet in September 2018 following input from the Overview & Scrutiny Committee. This is therefore in its infancy but the key to the strategy is making sure that the service being provided to customers is the very best it can be.

·         A new Head of Service started this month in ICT and important proposals are now being developed. The IT & Digital Strategy will come to OSC before Cabinet in early 2019.

·         Market supplements have been introduced to address recruitment and retention challenges and reduce reliance on interims. 5 of 24 posts have currently been filled with a further 19 being advertised.

·         There had been problems in Audit with the external Auditors BDO, not completing the sign off of the Council accounts in time. As a result of this a letter of complaint had been sent to the Audit Authority.

Nicky Fiedler, Commercial Director provided some further information on Procurement & Commissioning highlighting the following:

·         2018/19 work plan

·         Contract Reviews- 272 providers relate to 80% spend

·         34 contracts identified and work commencing

·         Informed by spend and contract register

·         Strategic review of commercial strategies

·         Category Strategies – strategic approach to external spend £460m

·         Synergy between goods/services

·         Synergy in the supplier market

·         30 categories identified.

Councillor Smith raised concerns regarding the current procurement process and felt that this was failing in various areas. He asked who oversaw this area and whether it was a central function.

Nicky responded by explaining that the service was currently co-managed with Ernst & Young under a five-year contract. Moving forward the service is keen to look more at category strategies and commissioning and this should alleviate the issue of only getting one provider coming forward. The service is firmly looking to move away from a re-active approach.

Discussions took place regarding KPI (Key Performance Indicators) management in line with contract reviews and information was provided on how going forward, KPI’s will be utilised at the beginning of the contracts.

Kari Manovitch, Acting Director Customer Experience and Change provided further information on Customer Experience, ICT and Transformation highlighting the following:

·         A Customer Experience programme is now underway containing four projects plus the Digital Programme;

·         Updates on progress will come back to OSC in February and then future quarterly updates will be provided;

·         Customer Services is training staff in multiple service areas to improve performance and resilience, and exploring ways to retain staff and address high turnover;

·         In response to whether the retrieval of staff is possible Kari said she would explore this with her Head of Service. However, pay had been stated as an issue by staff who have left Enfield Council;

·         It was recognised however that it was cheaper to retain good, experienced staff then recruit from elsewhere. Promotional opportunities should also be looked at for staff as Corporate Policy is to seek to fill vacancies from within the existing workforce

·          ICT will shortly undertake a further restructure. There are also significant projects underway within the service including cost reduction via supplier savings, infrastructure programme and new device rollout.

·         There are 10 programmes and 43 projects underway within Transformation, delivering on behalf of senior officers on all levels.

·         The service is made of a central team of Programme, Project & Change Management specialist and a lot of activity is currently taking place around existing and new programmes.

The Chair thanked Councillor Maguire, Nicky Fiedler and Kari Manovitch for their informative updates and Members agreed that discussions had been most useful and constructive.