Agenda item

Members received a progress report on North Bridge Stores operational activities following the Stores Management Review, in response to the Internal Audit carried out in 2019, and their involvement in the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) stocktaking in 2020.

The North Bridge Stores had been a long standing area of concern which had previously been brought before the Committee on numerous occasions due to a number of overdue recommendations.

Scott Cardwell, Assistant Director of Development and Dave Stimpson, Head of Property Services were in attendance to update Members on progress in implementing Internal Audit recommendations and to respond to questions.

It was reported that good progress was being made and more robust checks and balances were being implemented as part of the action plan in place and governance process, which was overseen by a Transformation Board. This comprised of senior management and was chaired by the Assistant Director of Development and accountable to the Director of Economy and Environment. The Board met on a monthly basis to monitor progress and review the actions that had been put in place and the impact on the Stores service. Stakeholder management meetings have involved key stakeholders within work areas that impacted, supported and used the Stores function. The Committee would be informed of progress through update reports at future meetings until the position was considered to be satisfactory.

Members raised a number queries in particular in relation to the following issues:-

·      Lessons learnt from St. Leger Homes of Doncaster stores arrangements, it was noted that a report had been commissioned previously to combine DMBC Stores with SLHD Stores, but this had not progressed. Officers were however, liaising with SLHD in terms of best practice.

·      Floods and Covid-19 related work, it was noted that the distribution and storage of PPE was a major operation for the service and had caused a shift in focus of the stores work and that this issue had been prioritised over other functions of the service. This had meant that the normal day to day business of the stores had changed the nature of the work in terms of the scope of the customer base, the receipt of large volumes of stock and how stock was processed and recorded, and changes to staffs working patterns. 

·      Internal Audit had recommended that a full management review be undertaken of the North Bridge Stores to initially get the stores operating effectively, to ensure that the stock was accurately recorded and ensure interaction with all the other operations and services that supported the stores function. Moving forward, the next stage would be to ensure that the stores was a modern stores function that was fit for purpose.

Members expressed their disappointment, that the issues regarding previous management actions had not been addressed and sought assurance that the failures in the stores was to be addressed as part of the review. Members were informed that positive feedback had been received from some Stakeholder groups who interacted with the stores service. The Assistant Director of Development assured Members that he was confident that the action plan and governance structure would bring about changes in the Stores service. This was welcomed by Members.

The Chair thanked the Assistant Director of Development and the Head of Property Services for their attendance at the meeting.

PROPOSED: to note the progress report on North Bridge Stores Transformational Project and that the outlined approach be supported.