There were no apologies.

Councillor Nick Carter moved and Councillor Glynis Phillips seconded that Councillor Liz Brighouse be elected Chairman of the Sub-committee for the remainder of the 2018/19 Council Year.

Councillor Charles Mathew stated that he disagreed with the provision in the Terms of Reference for the Chairman and Deputy Chairman to alternate chairing the meetings.  He abstained on the vote for Chairman.

RESOLVED: that Councillor Liz Brighouse be elected Chairman of the Committee for the remainder of the 2018/19 Council Year.

Councillor Liz Brighouse moved and Councillor Mike Fox-Davies seconded that Councillor Nick Carter be elected Deputy Chairman of the Sub-committee for the remainder of the 2018/19 Council Year.

RESOLVED: (nem con) that Councillor Nick Carter be elected Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the remainder of the 2018/19 Council Year.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Terms of Reference for the Joint Sub-Committee have previously been agreed by the Performance Scrutiny Committee and the Audit and Governance Committee and are attached for information.

Members asked for clarification of the provision in the Terms of Reference as to how the roles of Chairman and Deputy Chairman will “rotate at successive meetings where possible” and how this was decided.

Colm Ó Caomhánaigh responded that the Terms of Reference had been agreed by both the Audit & Governance Committee and Performance Scrutiny Committee.  The persons holding the titles Chairman and Deputy Chairman will not change during the year but it is expected that they will take turns to chair alternate meetings.

The Chairman added that this provision was introduced to ensure that both parent committees have equal status at the Sub-committee.

To receive a presentation from the Interim Transformation Programme Director to reach an agreed understanding of the progress to date with the Transformation programme, to understand the governance arrangements, the role of the sub-committee and areas of future input

Philip Dart gave a presentation on the current stage of the transformation programme and future plans.  Claire Taylor spoke about the IT aspects of the programme.  Officers responded to Members’ questions as follows:

·         The company working with the Council on IT is Entec Si Ltd.  They have a lot of experience with the public sector.

·         The first stage of the IT work is expected to finish at the end of January and then a road map will be developed with a longer-term strategy to meet the needs of residents.

·         The Council will choose the best partners for each piece of work and only where there is not internal capacity.  It is officers’ responsibility to ensure that they all knit together.

·         In working with partners, we will ensure that there is a knowledge transfer to our staff.

·         The current revenue budget for the ICT Service is £12m and we are reviewing how our business needs are funded in future, whilst bearing in mind the previous analysis carried out by PwC.

·         Some work will take place under the joint working agreement with Cherwell District Council.  Both councils have a small amount of income generation.  If they engage in any joint endeavour the share of income would be agreed.

·         The Sub-committee can make recommendations to Cabinet, the Transformation Cabinet Advisory Group or the parent committees.

·         There will be engagement with the unions at all stages of the process.

In relation to communications, Members asked for

·         better ways of capturing information from councillors

·         more all-Member briefings or a webpage to update all Members

·         reports using dashboards should always show which indicators have changed since the last report and be in formats accessible to all.

To receive a presentation in order to give the sub-committee the opportunity to provide comments on the proposed savings/budget implications associated with the transformation project as part of this year’s budget setting process. Comments will be included as an addendum to the Performance Scrutiny Committee’s comments which will be considered by Cabinet on 22 January.

Lorna Baxter gave a presentation and officers responded to issues raised by Members as follows:

·         The figure for additional income generation is cautious and reflects where we are now.

·         It is hoped that redundancies can be minimised through redeployment and the general turnover of staff but it is too early to tell.  The Sub-committee will be provided with information once it is available (bearing in mind consultation requirements).

·         It is expected that the transformation programme will take three years to implement in full.

·         Better management of council property should result in further savings for the Council.

Members expressed satisfaction with progress so far and noted that it is clear that previous comments from Members have been taken on board.  They noted that it can be difficult to fill job vacancies in certain areas and requested that the Council actively seeks to engage younger people in our communities to attract the right people with the right skills into the organisation.

To agree future meeting dates of the Sub-committee which will take place at 10am on Thursdays:

·         18 April

·         13 June

·         25 July

·         17 October

·         5 December

It was agreed that the schedule of meetings needs to be flexible in order to be able to arrange to meet at key moments in the programme.  The list of dates circulated needs to be checked against officer availability before being adopted.