Agenda item

Scott Cardwell, Assistant Director of Economy and Environment and Dave Stimpson, Head of Property Services, introduced a report which provided an update on the quarterly progress on the North Bridge 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. The report was the fifth update provided to Members on the activities that had commenced. Since the last update provided to the Audit Committee in April 2022, paragraph 9 of the report outlined the key milestones identified to be completed by the end of June 2022.

The Head of Property Services summarised the salient points in the report, advising that since the publication of the report, interviews had been held for the Stores Manager position and the Council had been successful in appointing a suitable candidate into the role.  However, due to personal reasons, the candidate had since decided not to accept the position. In light of this, discussions had been held with the Head of Internal Audit, Assistant Director of Economy and Enterprise and Board Members, at the recent Stakeholder Board meeting, where it was agreed that arrangements be put in place for a further recruitment exercise. It was anticipated that recruitment to the post would commence within the next week, with shortlisting for candidates during the first week in September and to have someone in post mid-September, with the Implementation Plan to be progressed thereafter.

The Head of Property Services then reported on the current progress made with regard to:-

Implementation of the Improvement Plan

Stakeholder management meetings had been strengthened to deal with routine issues and improvement areas by the creation of a third tier. Meetings were now being held with senior managers, in addition to the meetings being held with team leaders and respective key holder personnel on a monthly basis, which had proved a useful approach to strengthen relationships. Work continued with the stocktakes, with 35 stocktakes programmed before the next reporting period, which continued to show low variances of a small value.  Processes were also in place to map out a timetable for implementation of the Plan. Officers were currently looking at what further improvements to be made, pending the Stores Manager post being appointed to in September and at what point to re-issue the timetable for delivery of the Plan, to ensure that the Plan was deliverable, and was delivered in a timely manner, setting out the rigorous targets to be met. The Head of Property Services gave an undertaking to provide Members of the Committee with a copy of the revised timetable as an interim position, prior to the next scheduled meeting of the Committee, in order that progress be reported at future meetings.  He highlighted that the outstanding items mainly related to procedural issues in terms of strengthening the processes in place rather than the fundamental risks identified at the commencement of the audit process relating to stock control and variances.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

Further to the development of the Key Performance Indicators implemented in May 2022, two indicators identified were linked and related to call backs from customers on orders that had been received and goods awaiting pick up, which had scored low. Both issues had involved a resource intensive exercise. Therefore, provision had since been put in place for customers via a self-help process, in addition to the processes already in place, for customers to find out about the current progress of goods ordered and when or not they would receive goods ordered via a shared folder. This would allow the service to use the existing resource more efficiently and effectively to deal with calls regarding at what stage in the process orders were being dealt with.

Next Steps

The results of the mid-year stock takes to be carried out in September, would be reported to the Committee’s meeting in October.  Further to discussions with the Head of Internal Audit, monthly Stakeholder Board meetings would continue, with monthly key performance indicator information reported and reviewed at the meeting. It was anticipated that additional assurance would be provided to the Committee in the autumn. 

Following the presentation of the report, the Chair invited questions from Members.  In response to a question from Councillor Barry Johnson, it was reported that ongoing support had been provided to the interim Stores Manager, with weekly meetings taking place with the Head of Property Services. Processes had been established for management of the stores budget, supported by Officers in Finance and additional support from Human Resources. In the short term, the Head of Property Services was confident that appropriate support was being provided to support the Stores function.

Further to a query in relation to progress with regard to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Members were advised that whilst there had been a pause in terms of improvements being made in this area, which was due to staff sickness from Covid, staff were now clear of the expectations of the team in relation to the delivery of the SOPs, to ensure good practice. A consistent approach had since been applied, involving Finance for transactional processes, the Procure to Pay (P2P) team and the Stores team was working collaboratively to manage the SOPs and any variances emanating from this rather than working in isolation.  An initial interim review of the procedures would be carried out in September and at Quarter 4, a more fundamental review  would follow to ascertain whether the established systems were still relevant.

The Chair, whilst acknowledging that there had been a pause in implementing the actions in the Plan due to difficulty recruiting to the Stores Manager position and that some progress had been made in that the SOPs had been implemented and signed up to for all staff, raised concerns regarding the lack of supervision of staff, which he felt was fundamental to progressing the Plan and spoke of the need of the Store Manager position being resolved as a matter of urgency. He also asked whether a new training plan had been developed for staff in relation to SOPs. The Assistant Director of Economy and Environment provided assurances that the Stores Manager’s post would be to transform the Stores service and also to embed new practices at the Stores. Whilst an Improvement Plan was at a development stage, due to unforeseen circumstances, recruitment to the Stores Manager post had now been delayed. However, he advised there was a continued commitment from Senior management to ensure transformation of the Stores service. The Stakeholder Board continued to meet on a monthly basis to progress the actions in the plan. Officers were working to expedite to recruit to the Stores Manager post.

The Chair further highlighted that the report, initially submitted to the Committee in 2021, with a commitment by management that all operational issues would be resolved by December 2021 and the operational model was to be determined by March 2022, however, expressed his disappointed that some of the objectives in the Plan had not been met.  In addition, in noting the next steps for the July to September implementation period, the Chair sought clarity regarding the proposals for implementation for the next 2 month period (August and September) and the 3 months thereafter. In order that the Committee and Internal Audit could monitor progress and identify any slippage of actions against delivery of the set timescales, the Chair requested that management provide them with an updated Plan, clearly setting out the agreed actions, with realistic achievable timescales. This would provide assurance of the actions scheduled for delivery against the agreed and realistic timescales.

The Head of Property Services provided assurance and clarified that an Action Plan was currently being developed and would provide an indication of the progress made pre and post recruitment of the Stores Manager, including continuation of day to day issues, and what was expected to be delivered in the next 3 months and provided assurances that this was to be expedited. He explained that the operation of the Stores was in a transitional period and whilst changes had been made in relation to reviewing how the stores operated as a baseline position, Officers were not at a stage to implement the procedures. He gave an undertaking to provide the Committee with an update at future meetings on progress, in relation to the SOPs adopted by the staff, how they were being embedded and tested.

The Head of Internal Audit confirmed that the planned audit of the North Bridge Stores had been deferred until 2023, to allow progress to be made in this area. Following recent discussions, it was agreed that Internal Audit would maintain oversight over the operations and the interim management arrangements, and had agreed with the Head of Property Services that clear monitoring of the Stores operations would be undertaken and that the monthly stakeholder monthly Board meetings be maintained so that the KPIs could be reviewed, which would provide an indication of the progress being maintained, together with information in relation to ongoing quarterly reporting to the Audit Committee, to monitor the situation as it progresses.

RESOLVED to note the updates to the report and support the outlined approach.