Any county councillor may, by giving notice to the Proper Officer by 9 am on the working day before the meeting, ask a question on any matter in respect of the Cabinet’s delegated powers.

The number of questions which may be asked by any councillor at any one meeting is limited to two (or one question with notice and a supplementary question at the meeting) and the time for questions will be limited to 30 minutes in total. As with questions at Council, any questions which remain unanswered at the end of this item will receive a written response.

Questions submitted prior to the agenda being despatched are shown below and will be the subject of a response from the appropriate Cabinet Member or such other councillor or officer as is determined by the Cabinet Member, and shall not be the subject of further debate at this meeting. Questions received after the despatch of the agenda, but before the deadline, will be shown on the Schedule of Addenda circulated at the meeting, together with any written response which is available at that time.

Councillor Fooks had given notice  of the following 2 questions to the Deputy Leader of the Council

“1.        When will the HR module of SAP be implemented? Will its implementation require new staff or extra agency staff or consultants?”

Councillor Robertson:

We already use SAP to support HR operations in the Council. However we do recognise that implementation of Employee and Manager Self Service (ESS/MSS) will further enhance the capability of the organisation to deliver best in class HR services and will be key in supporting culture change across the Council.   SAP Employee Self-Service (ESS) supports employees in maintaining  their own personal information and to control many administrative transactions and other processes previously handled by HR staff. SAP Manager Self Service (MSS) helps managers by automating many routine managerial tasks and thus increasing managers productivity. 

It is too early to say when ESS/MSS will be implemented as work needs to be completed on producing the business case for these enhancements but, assuming that the business case is proven and that appropriate resources are available, our aim will be  to implement as quickly as possible. Benchmarks indicate that a phased implementation can be beneficial and we intend to explore all options available to ensure success.  At this stage it is not envisaged that new staff or extra agency staff/consultants will be required for implementation - this will be further tested via the business case production.

Supplementary question:

Any idea of the timescale for implementation?

Councillor Robertson: He  would wish to see it happen sooner rather than later but that it was dependent on a business case being made showing that it would provide value for money.

“2.        What has happened to the Change Board? Can we have an update on the state of the change agenda now and what is the member involvement?”

Councillor Robertson:

The Change Management Board was established in November 2005 ‘To Take Forward the Change Agenda’ The role of the Change Management Board is ‘to design and drive the overall programme at a strategic level, ensuring cohesiveness between the different elements of the programme, and managing any risks.’  It is also to be responsible for championing change in the authority and making sure that there were appropriate links from the different elements of the programme back to the Council’s Corporate Plan. 

            The change programmes currently monitored by the Board are:

·         Better Offices Programme (ends June 2010)

·         Facilities Management (business case being developed)

·         Information Management (ends January 2011)

·         Customer Contact (business case to be considered, replaced 21^st Century customer))

·         Lead Oxfordshire (ends April 2010)

·         Transforming Adult Social Care (ends September 2011)

·         Re-tendering of Transportation Services (ends July 2010)

The Board also monitors the progress of Shared Services’ delivery of its savings targets and has oversight of the business efficiency strategy..

The Board signed off the Children, Young People & Families Directorate Restructuring programme in July 2009.

For four years the Change Management Board has been pivotal in defining and driving the change agenda for the authority, and in transforming the way the Authority goes about its business and delivers its services to all customers. However, taking into account progress made on the change agenda it is timely to consider if the Board is still fit for purpose and whether the change programme can be delivered In a different way.

The Board will be considering the options in the near future.

The current members on the Board are The Deputy Leader of the Council (Chairman) The Portfolio Holder for Finance and the Leader has a standing invitation to attend Board meetings.

Councillor Tanner had given notice of the following question to the Cabinet Member for Growth & Infrastructure:

“Would Cllr Hudspeth accept my congratulations for the reduction of 4% in the County Council’s carbon footprint in 2008/9? Will he say by what percentage the Council’s carbon footprint is likely to be reduced in 2009/10? Will he also say how much money the County Council would have spent had these reductions not been achieved?”

Councillor Hudspeth:

Oxfordshire County Council remains committed to hitting its 18% carbon reduction target by 2012, which was based on a 2005/6 baseline.  The plan to achieve that, developed in association with the Carbon Trust, envisaged gross savings of £9.4m (£5.9m net), although the actual savings achieved will obviously depend on such things as future energy prices.

Councillor Mathew had given notice of the following question to the Cabinet Member for Growth & Infrastructure:

“Is the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development content that the procedures currently being pursued by Oxfordshire County Council Planning Department follow the principles of democracy in view of the recent developments, inter alios, at Finmere, Controlled Reclamation, Longworth and Northmoor?”

Councillor Hudspeth:

He considered that the Planning & Regulation Committee was part of the democratic process and so he felt that the principles of democracy had been shown.

Supplementary Question:  Are you aware that at the Stonehenge Farm appeal last week planning officers discussed with Hansons new revised plans that had not been the subject of a planning application? Could this be considered ultra vires?

Councillor Hudspeth:  There  was always discussion with planning officers and developers about proposals that could come forward at future times.