Agenda item

The Committee receiveda report which provided Members with a quarterly progress update on North Bridge Stores operational activities instigated 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. Scott Cardwell, Assistant Director of Development and Dave Stimpson, Head of Property Services were in attendance at the meeting and provided an overview of the positive progress made since the last update report to the Committee in January 2022, in particular in relation to:-

·         The results of the analysis of the end of year stock - take had shown a significantly improved position from previous stock takes in year and from previous years. The October 2021 stocktake had showed variances of 18.8% and following the stock take carried out in December 2021, the variances had reduced further to 4.15%. The end of year stocktake in March 2022 had significantly reduced variances down to 0.2%, However, further work was required to reduce the number of variances further.

·         47 perpetual inventory stock takes will be carried out by the Stores team throughout the year.

·         The format of the stock takes had been adapted to include the dates of the commencement and end dates of the stocktakes which would allow for larger stock takes to begin in a timely way.

·         A full suite of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) had been developed and implemented from 1st April 2022, which was to be reviewed monthly. The KPIs would be refined and the outcomes of which, would be reported monthly to management, the Transformation Board and the Audit Committee in order that the Committee can measure performance.

·         A second Stores User Survey was to be carried out at the end of June and the results would be reported to the Audit Committee in June;

·         Standard operating procedures continued to be embedded within the Stores team and with key stakeholders to ensure the most efficient practices were implemented into the Stores function.

·         Stakeholder management meetings continued to take place which were now to meet on a quarterly basis and monthly meetings were to take place with team leaders which had been adapted and continued to be embedded;

·         Recruitment of the permanent Stores manager post was ongoing and it was anticipated that the post would be advertised next week.

·         Embedding of the standard operating procedures. - A work programme was to be established to have oversight of and in order to review the work being carried out which would be reported to the Transformation Board.

Since the writing of the report, the Head of Property Services provided an update to the Committee in relation to the Next Steps in terms of the ongoing operational activity of the Stores on a day to day basis and the improvement of the Stores across the board. It was noted that an analysis of the Stores stock holdings was to be carried out and work was currently underway on reviewing Metro Cleans stock holdings, which formed part of the Stores day to day stock, and would review obsolete stock and write offs. Operational admin trackers had also been established to allow a thorough understanding and analysis of the operation of the Stores.

To conclude the presentation, the Assistant Director of Developmentprovided assurance to the Committee that when recruiting to the Stores manager post that the post holder would not only be able to manage the efficient operation of the stores function, but also to manage the transformation of the service.

In noting the results from the key stakeholder survey of the stores where there had been a recognition from management of the importance of feedback from the workforce, Kathryn Smart asked whether management planned to get general feedback from the Stores team. The Head of Property Services advised that there was an understanding from the Stores staff regarding the purpose and circumstances of the transformation of the stores function and that staff had been provided the opportunity to engage in the process and had provided suggestions in terms of positive changes to the stores. Feedback would continue to be embedded through staff PDRs and one to ones throughout the year.

The Committee welcomed the positive progress made to the North Bridge Stores which had been a long standing area of concern and Members were pleased to observe that some improvements were being achieved. However, in order to provide further assurance to the Committee that progress continued to be made and to retain momentum on what has already been achieved, it was agreed that going forward two further progress reports be provided to the Committee at future meetings. The Head of Internal Audit gave an undertaking to include the update reports on the Committee’s Work Plan for 2022/23.When the transformation of the Stores was completed and got back to business as usual, the Committee hoped that Internal Audit would be in a position to carry out an internal review of the Stores. If and when progress was maintained, the Committee would then consider stepping down this item at that time.

The Chair, on behalf of the Committee thanked Scott and Dave for presentation of the report.

RESOLVED that

(1)       the Audit Committee note the updates to the North Bridge Stores operational activities and support the outlined approach;

(2)       two further progress reports on the transformation of the North Bridge Stores be provided to the Committee at future meetings and further update reports be included on the Audit Committee’s Work Plan.