Lead Member – Councillor Julian Dean – Chairman of the Task and Finish Group

Report of Tom Dodds, Scrutiny Manager

RESOLVED:

To prepare a report from Cabinet to the next meeting of the Transformation and Improvement Overview and Scrutiny Committee setting out its responses to the various Recommendations made by the Capital Task and Finish Group.

The Chair of the Capital Strategy Task and Finish Group presented the report and the following recommendations:

Recommendation 1 – Realistic Capital Project Timelines, avoiding slippage and improved reporting of delivery, progress and impact

· That the planned timescales for the delivery of capital projects should be made on robust forecasts to help identify realistic programme and project plan timescales to deliver the Shropshire Plan priorities and the transformation of the council.

· That measures (including KPIs) which evidence capital being used to meet the revenue challenge and demonstrate the impact of slippage of capital projects and programme on the council’s budget and future service delivery, should be developed and reported as part of the quarterly financial reporting.

· The importance of accurate planned timescales for capital projects and the avoidance of slippage in their delivery and the realisation of related financial and non-financial benefits should be reinforced.

· That this focus should form part of Getting Leadership Right.

Recommendation 2 – Local member awareness and input.

· Local Members should be notified, at the earliest possible stage, by the relevant senior manager in the operational directorate about emerging proposed capital projects in their area, helping to utilise their knowledge of the communities they represent, and identify issues and delays that could be avoided at the earliest opportunity.

· That the collation and presentation of the Capital Strategy and Programme should include the confirmation that Local Members have been notified about the projects proposed for their Electoral Division or their electoral area, where projects might be in a neighbouring division but potentially impacts on theirs.

· That a mechanism for issues to be raised with the relevant Portfolio Holder should be also put in place, providing a member-to-member route.

Recommendation 3 – Systematic review and learning from capital project delivery.

· That there is a systematic and robust process of review for capital projects to ensure that learning is identified that can be used to inform future projects. This review should be undertaken by Officers directly involved in the capital project, with input from local members and the Cabinet Member, and take place at the appropriate time to ensure that both the process and the realisation of the planned benefits can be taken account of. There needs to be transparency through a more open process which includes this assessment and feedback loop.

Recommendation 4 – Establish an ‘opportunity register’ and central external funding team.

· That the council should establish an opportunity register that sets out a pipeline of projects that enable the delivery of the council’s priorities, including projects identified by communities and partners such as the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector. There should be a corresponding register of known grant funding opportunities that can be used to match with projects.

· That the council should establish a corporately located External Funding Team that looks across all funding opportunities to the council and local stakeholders, with the expertise and capacity to identify the relevant funding opportunities to deliver the projects in the pipeline.

Recommendation 5 – Geographic visualisation of capital projects.

· That, for transparency, the criteria to identify and prioritise capital projects should be set out alongside a geographic presentation of the places where these projects are being delivered. This information and understanding should be used by local members to inform their answers to questions from their communities.

Recommendation 6 – Highways Capital Programme

· That there should be an all-Member briefing on how the highways capital programme is managed, covering:

-        identification and prioritisation of projects,

-        local member awareness and engagement, and

-        the delivery of the projects including contract management and how they deliver investment into council assets to save on future costs e.g. of repair and maintenance, as well as social, economic and environmental benefits.

Recommendation 7 – Responding to recommendations and delivery actions

· That an action plan setting out all of the accepted recommendations should be presented to the meeting of the Transformation and Improvement Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 19 February 2024, including an update on any actions already taken.

· That the members of the task and finish group should be used as a reference/testing group to inform the development of actions.

· That the approaches for the delivery of the accepted recommendation should be in place by April 2024 to ensure that the delivery of the capital programme in 2024/25 and the development of subsequent capital strategies and programmes is in line with the recommendations.

· That the delivery of the recommendations should be reviewed and reported annually to the Transformation and Improvement OSC as part of mapping of capital spend including against the Shropshire Plan and the tracking of projects.

The Portfolio Holder thanked the Chair for the report and requested further information on a number of the recommendations to ensure that they did not conflict with the Target Operating Model and that they were deliverable.

The Task and Finish Group were congratulated on the report, which was welcomed by all members.

RESOLVED:

To prepare a report from Cabinet to the next meeting of the Transformation and Improvement Overview and Scrutiny Committee setting out its responses to the various Recommendations made by the Capital Task and Finish Group.