Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence from those Members who are unable to attend the meeting.

All Members of the Committee were in attendance.

To approve the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 9^th January 2024.

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 9^th January 2024 be approved as a correct record.

The Chair updated the Committee as follows:

(i)    The new Flood Risk Management Strategy had been submitted to Cabinet on 20^th February 2024. The report had included the comments and recommendations made by the Committee, at its meeting on 5^th December 2023, and Cabinet had agreed to adopt the new strategy.

(ii)   At the meeting of the Committee held on 5^th September 2023, the provision of further detail had been requested in respect of the partnership work on tree planting and the Council’s participation in the ‘Vision Zero’ road safety management initiative. This information had now been shared with Members.

Members will be asked to say if there are any items on the Agenda in which they have any disclosable pecuniary interests or any other interests, which may prevent them from participating in any discussion of the items or participating in any vote upon the items.

No Interests were declared.

Most agenda items take place in public. This only changes where there is a need to consider exempt information, as contained at Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. You will be informed at this point which items are to be recommended for exclusion and to be resolved by the Committee.

All items were considered in public session.

The Committee will receive any petitions and/or deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also submit a petition at the meeting relating to a matter on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10, Members of the Public must submit a deputation in writing, at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting and shall subsequently be notified if the deputation shall be heard. A maximum of four deputations shall be heard at any one meeting.

No deputations or petitions were received.

To receive any public questions.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, the period for the asking and answering of public questions shall not exceed 15 minutes.

Any questions must be submitted in writing at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting.

No public questions were received.

The Service Director, Finance will give a presentation in respect of the Corporate Financial Monitoring Report – Quarter 3 and the Annual Budget Report 2024-25.

Contact: Isabel Brittain, Service Director, Finance

The Service Director - Finance, Isabel Brittain, submitted the Corporate Financial Monitoring Report – Quarter 3 and the Annual Budget Report 2024-25.

Councillor Turner, Cabinet Member for Finance and Regeneration, introduced the item explaining that the Council’s financial situation had improved significantly and the predicted overspend by the end of the financial year had been reduced due to the savings achieved.

The following points were highlighted in the presentation:

·       The Budget Report would be presented to full Council on 6^th March.

·       It had been a challenging year but a balanced budget had been produced.

·       The budget included significant new savings which equated to £34 million.

·       There had been a contribution to reserves from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

·       There had been an improvement in the position at the end of Quarter 3, with an overspend of £9.9 million pounds compared with £16 million in the previous period. This had been achieved through undertaking a number of central budget challenges including reducing the costs of capital financing and service expenditure from reduction of non-essential spend.

·       There were still a number of pressures, particularly in Children and Families, Adults and Health and Growth and Regeneration.

·       Further work would be undertaken with the aim of achieving an outturn position with a further reduced overspend.

Questions and comments were invited from Committee Members, with the following issues being covered:

·       Detail in respect of the pressures on Children and Families, and Adults and Health services and the mitigations, which included:

-       Work to provide integration support across all elements of Children Services

- Reviewing the careers contract for the Kirklees and Calderdale joint  partnership.

- Reviewing the mental health offer to families

- A re-design of youth work within Children and Families.

- A significant project to review the delivery of adult services, across a number of areas of work, to ensure that financial costs were relevant and realistic and achieved best value. This might include review of the direct payment policy, community based integrated library redesign, older people and physical disability services redesign and cultural fees and charges.

·       In response to a question in respect of the approach and opportunities for income generation in the future, it was acknowledged that additional income streams could be investigated further but a cautious approach should be taken to ensure that there would be no financial risk to the taxpayer.

·       It was suggested that consideration could be given to the establishment of a vehicle to deliver direct services to residents, or the use of Municipal Climate Bonds, which had been adopted by a number of other Councils; such initiatives being considered to be of lower risk. 

·       The aim was to reduce the projected £9.9 million further by the end of the financial year and there were some opportunities to achieve this. If the overspend was reduced this would retain more money in reserves and place the Council in a more resilient position for the future.

·       It was acknowledged that spend in Quarter 1 of the new  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76.

A report will be presented which provides an annual review of activity in respect of local flood risk management.

Contact:

Paul Farndale, Acting Team Leader, Flood Management and Drainage

A report was submitted which provided an annual review of activity in respect of local flood risk management.

Councillor Turner, Cabinet Member for Finance and Regeneration, introduced the item stressing that, particularly in light of the increased risk due to climate change, this work was very important in order to try and mitigate flood risk as much as possible for local residents.

Paul Farndale, Acting Team Leader - Flood Management and Drainage presented the report highlighting the following points:

·       The Local Flood Risk Management Strategy, that had been presented to the Committee on 5^th December 2023, had now been approved by Cabinet and replaced the 2012 version.

·       An update, further to the presentation to the Committee in March 2023, in respect of the natural flood management partnership project at Wessenden Head. This work aligned with the ‘protect’ theme within the strategy, using various nature-based solutions to slow the flow of water and reduce the risk of flooding downstream. A high-level study had been undertaken to consider opportunities for such work across all areas of Kirklees and was due to be presented to stakeholders on 28^th February 2024. 

·       There was a rolling programme of schemes and the team worked very closely with the Environment Agency to attract funding.

·       An outline of the process that would be followed for larger projects.

·       The number of schemes had increased since the previous report in 2023.

·       One of the projects falling under the ‘recovery’ theme was a pioneering mental health and wellbeing project, led by Kirklees, which aimed to build resilience within communities where flooding was an issue.

·       The approach to flooding was centred on the management of risks and risk was a product of the likelihood of an event happening and the severity of its consequences. There was an increased focus on the detrimental effect of flooding on people, in terms of both local and national strategies, and the aim of making communities more resilient.

Jason Hanks, Project Officer - Flood Management, shared a presentation on the Mental Health and Wellbeing Project explaining:

·       This pilot project had been developed in partnership with the West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Project (WY FLIP) and alongside the Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme (ICASP).

·       WY FLIP was an innovative, collaborative approach, involving the five West Yorkshire local authorities, which had been developed to share ideas and experience and to identify innovative ways to secure investment into flood resilience.

·       ICASP was a support service with links to local universities.

·       Each local authority took a lead on a particular theme. Kirklees’ theme was ‘Community and Voluntary’, the main focus of which was to help the community and voluntary sector to be better prepared and recover more quickly.

·       The thinking behind the creation of the project with the purpose being to raise awareness of mental health amongst flood communities and to address the issues by working with mental health charity partners, providing a check-in service, psychological first aid training and support, facilitating regular events with a flood resilience focus or  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77.

The Committee will receive a presentation to provide an update on the Technology Strategy.

Contact: Terence Hudson, Head of Technology

Andy Simcox - Service Director for Strategy and Innovation and Terence Hudson Head of Technology gave a presentation highlighting the following points

· The current Technology Strategy covered the period 2020 to 2025.

· A refresh of the strategy was planned within the next 18 months with the aim of ensuring that it continued to align with the Council’s priorities and reflected the challenges being faced.

· Delivery of key strategic outcomes including:

· Face to face provision within the Civic Centre Campus.

· Progression of the procurement of a new corporate data network contract.

· Implementation of the new Adult Social Care system (which had just gone live).

· The deployment of additional cyber security controls.

· Ongoing work in respect of digital inclusion and accessibility.

· Access to gigabit capable broadband for 85% of the district’s households.

· Updates in terms of My Kirklees Account and digital transactions.

· Updates to the governance of IT investment projects, to ensure oversight at corporate level, including the formation of four strategic directorate boards.

· Details of the achievements in respect of tactical cashable savings.

· Re-profiling of the Capital Plan.

· An update in respect of telephony and the impact of changes in respect of the removal of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) infrastructure and turn-off of the 2G and 3G mobile phone networks, particularly for vulnerable residents.

· Maintenance of a view of risk.

Questions and comments were invited from Committee Members, with the following issues being covered:

·   The importance of ensuring that residents, particularly those who were vulnerable, were not excluded by the increased use of digital methods, with reference to the future operational model of customer contact centres; a consultation on which was ongoing. Assurance was given that an Integrated Impact Assessment would be undertaken in respect of any changes proposed and these issues would be taken into account in designing the future service model.

·   In respect of the potential utilisation of the heat produced by data centres, this could be considered. However, the current equipment used substantially less energy than in the past and was not generating a significant level of heat. There would also be a need to take into the potential longevity of this as an asset.

·   There was an awareness of the environmental impact of data centres and this was included within the climate plan. The authority’s data centre was naturally cooled and no air conditioning was required.

·   The current hybrid/flexible model of working was considered to be the right one for the authority to offer, both in terms of competition for recruitment and the personal wellbeing of staff. It was believed to be working both well and effectively. It was noted that the accommodation at Civic Centre I was now much improved.

·   The service worked closely with other teams to ensure alignment with other Council strategies such as those related to the environment and people.

·   PSTN lines were the traditional telephone lines and once that infrastructure was removed telephone calls would only be possible over the internet. This would mean that during an internet failure it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

The Lead Members for the Growth & Regeneration and the Environment & Climate Change Panels will update the Committee on the work being undertaken by their panels.

Contact: Sheila Dykes – Principal Governance Officer

Updates were submitted in respect of the work of the Growth & Regeneration and the Environment & Climate Change Scrutiny Panels.

The latest version of the Committee’s Work Programme for 2023-24 will be submitted for consideration.

Contact: Sheila Dykes – Principal Governance Officer

The latest version of the Committee’s Work Programme for 2023/24 was submitted for consideration.