Agenda and minutes

Venue: https://youtu.be/J0Hj3vfJMZ0

Contact: John Cater
tel.no.: 020 7332 1407  Email: john.cater@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Dominic Christian, Oliver Lodge, and Alderman Lyons.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

2.

Members' Declarations under the Code of Conduct in respect of items on the agenda

Minutes:

There were no declarations.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 121 KB

To agree the public minutes of the meeting held on 10th July 2020.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 3.

Minutes:

RESOLVED - That the public minutes of the meeting held on 7th July 2020 be agreed as an accurate record.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Work Programme for future meetings pdf icon PDF 51 KB

Report of the Town Clerk.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 4.

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk which set out the work plan for future meetings.

 

RESOLVED – That the Sub-Committee noted the Report.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Departmental Performance Management - Department of Communities and Children's Services pdf icon PDF 182 KB

Report of the Director of Communities and Children’s Services.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 5.

Minutes:

The Committee received a Report of the Director of Community & Children's Services concerning performance management and monitoring within the Department for Community & Children’s Services (DCCS).

 

The Director began his presentation by providing a brief overview of his Department. DCCS provides a wide range of front-line services to the community, including, adult social care, children’s social care, state sector education, tackling rough sleeping, public health (including the City’s response to Covid), libraries and social housing. The department strives to deliver these services in the most effective and efficient way to deliver the best outcomes for City residents while securing value for money.

 

The Director emphasised that the Department is on a journey to improve its performance culture, to use data and intelligence to help improve and transform its services, and to commission services in more innovative and effective ways.

 

There followed a set of questions from Members:

 

What are the essential ingredients for a high-performance culture? Does this exist in DCCS and what is the evidence?

 

The Director responded that a high-performance culture starts with clearly defined values that fit with the Corporate Plan.

 

The overarching concern was to foster a culture where people felt both empowered to play a full role in influencing and shaping outcomes, and comfortable to take on board the lessons of when things have gone right or wrong. The Department takes training and development very seriously and wants to encourage a proactive culture where leadership at all at levels is embedded. The Director added that whilst recent indicators and benchmarking are positive for the department (notably, on recent Ofsted inspections and good staff and resident survey results), driving a high-performance culture is not static, and it would be complacent to imagine that we can’t continue to improve across different areas.

 

Are there possible changes in

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Guildhall Complex - Road Map for Return to the Office pdf icon PDF 188 KB

Joint Report of the City Surveyor, the Director of Information Technology and the Director of Human Resources.

 

 

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 6.

Minutes:

The Committee received a Joint Report of the Town Clerk, the Chamberlain and the City Surveyor concerning the road map and return to the office.

 

Before the meeting, it was envisaged that the focus of the discussion would be on the medium – longer term. In fact, after the City Surveyor’s opening introductory remarks, the discussion quickly turned to the state of the current arrangements, with Members expressing concern about the pace of getting officers and Members back into Guildhall in greater numbers.

 

Whilst recognising that the greater risk for officers came from using public transport to come back and forth to the Corporation’s operational buildings, Members were concerned that we were in danger of “gold plating” arrangements for officers and Members once they had made it into the office/place of work. For instance, the rules on the number of individuals allowed in certain areas at Guildhall struck Members as particularly overly prescriptive.

 

Given the Report would also be going to the meeting of the Establishment Committee on 17th September, the Chairman asked that, by the time of that meeting, officers are in a position to confirm i) the number of staff that, pre-Covid, used Guildhall as their primary workplace; ii) how many of these staff members, on average, were coming back to the office on a regular basis; and, iii) how many individual Risk Assessments (which allowed officers to return to the workplace) still needed to be completed.

 

Noting that similar discussions had taken place at the meeting of the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee and the Court of Common Council during the previous week, Members had concerns about the overall pace and willingness of some Chief Officers to embrace the call to encourage people to come back.

 

More positively, they were pleased that officers were examining

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Questions on matters relating to the work of the Sub-Committee

Minutes:

There were no questions.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Any Other Business that the Chairman considers urgent

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Exclusion of the Public

MOTION - That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 9.

Minutes:

RESOLVED - That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

Non-public minutes of the previous meeting

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 10th July 2020.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 10.

Minutes:

RESOLVED - That the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 7th July 2020 be agreed as an accurate record.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

Non-public questions on matters relating to the work of the Committee

Minutes:

There were no questions.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

12.

Any Other Business that the Chairman considers urgent and which the Committee agree should be considered whilst the public are excluded

Minutes:

There was no other business.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.