Agenda item

The Committee received a report, presented by Scott Cardwell, Assistant Director of Development and Dave Stimpson, Head of Property Services which provided Members with a quarterly progress update on the 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. The report was the sixth update provided to Members since the last update to the Committee in July 2022. Details of the key milestones to be completed for the period were set out at Paragraph 9 of the report.

The Head of Property Services outlined the key headlines from the report, in particular regarding the appointment of the new Stores Manager which was anticipated to be in place by the end of November 2022 and the ongoing work taking place by the interim stores manager, the customer and the SPT in making improvements to the stores in relation to the renewal of the contracts which had brought improvements at the stores and had reduced the number of stock lines, the value of stock held and had freed up space, therefore had obtained value for money.

The Committee welcomed the appointment of the Stores Manager post, the improvements made in relation to the accuracy of the half yearly full Stocktake, the progress made on the Key Performance Indicators to those previously reported to the Committee, and progress to date on the Implementation Plan. In referring to the Appendix of the report, Members noted that the Implementation Plan progress had been re-titled as the ‘Stores Project Masterplan Summary’ and in order to provide consistency and to avoid any confusion requested that in future that both the report and Appendix correspond.

Members acknowledged the reasons for deferment of the Stores User Survey and looked forward to seeing the results of the second survey in Quarter 3 to ascertain the feedback received from customers regarding the improvements made. In order to receive up to date information and provide real time feedback from stakeholders on an ongoing basis improvements made at the stores, Members felt that it would be useful to have a continuous and dynamic survey of the stores customer user base and whether the software used to analyse the results could accommodate this, as this would provide up to date information and alert Officers of any issues that may arise at an early stage as part of the improvement plan. The Head of Property Services agreed to explore this and advised that the next quarterly reporting period would allow for a benchmark to be set, therefore if any slippage to the improvement plan, could be raised at the stakeholder management meetings. He added that in relation to the KPIs, the targets in the plan for the last 4 to 5 months were soon to be met, therefore would provide the opportunity for the rest of the year to make the KPIs more challenging so progress could be reviewed in the future

Further to clarity being sought regarding the themes showing as ‘0%’ progress on the project masterplan summary, why a breakdown of the figures relating to items listed as outstanding / in progress / future, as set out in the Appendix to the report had not been provided and whether the dates for completion of the actions as identified as December 2022 was realistic.  It was explained that the actions had been rated and were showing as ‘Amber’ because they were yet to be progressed therefore, they had not commenced in the project plan. It was further noted that the number of actions relating to items listed as outstanding / in progress / future, had been condensed in to one page document. The Head of Property Services gave an undertaking in future to more accurately update Members on the actions. Once the Stores Manager post was in post would then provide the opportunity to review the status of progress of where we are.

It was explained that pre-emptive work was taking place in some areas, therefore the actions that had been rated as ‘Amber’ were to be progressed and had yet to be commenced in the project. The Assistant Director of Development further outlined the progress and improvements made at the stores which was now in a better position and provided assurances that the progress would be closely monitored going forward.

In response to a query regarding contradictory information contained in paragraph 10 and the Appendix to the report regarding training, the Head of Property assured Members that there was ongoing delivery of training and that the information contained in the Appendix 1 relating 0% was incorrect. He gave an undertaking to inform Members outside of the meeting of the current position in terms of training undertaken. It was noted that a training needs assessment for staff members via a PDR had taken place during the summer and further training was being embedded as part of the Standard Operating Procedures. 

Concerns were raised that training had not been provided to staff on the ICT system which Members felt was a significant risk to the overall operation of the Stores. Following further clarity being sought on progress in relation to training undertaken and the stores operating procedures, Members reiterated the inconsistencies in the report and were disappointed that the information in the report did not reflect the current position of progress made and requested in future reports provide up to date information regarding the current position. The Head of Property Services gave an undertaking to provide up to date reports and provide Councillor Shaw with information regarding the current position with regard to the operating procedures.

Following further questions the Head of Internal Audit updated Members on Internal Audits work since the last report to the Committee. It was noted that Internal Audit continued to have oversight of the project and had attended monthly meetings to track progress. It was confirmed that the audit of the Stores had been deferred until 2023/24 and provisional timescales had been put in place to allow for the new Stores Manager to assess the current situation at the stores and consider the actions that had been put in place. Discussions would take place to ensure that the required arrangements were in place to implement the plan and then it was anticipated that at that juncture Internal Audit would carry out the audit at Quarter 1 2023/24 reporting period.

During further discussion, the Head of Property Services further clarified that in terms of future reporting, the issues and concerns raised by Councillor Shaw would be included in the progress plan regarding the specific schedule of training for the Stores staff across the service, which was to be delivered alongside the staff structure by the newly appointed Stores Manager. In answer to the questions and concerns raised by Councillor Shaw regarding the operating procedures, the Head of Property Services was unable to provide this information at the meeting, however he gave an undertaking to examine the lines relating to the operating procedures used and the monitoring of operating procedures for implementation and report back to Councillor Shaw. It was agreed that an update on the information requested by Councillor Shaw be communicated to Members of the Committee by email and be included as an update in the Audit Committee Action Plan for the next meeting. The Assistant Director of Development added that the lines of communication with the Stakeholder Board meetings were still taking place.

Members were satisfied that arrangements were in place to continue improvements at the stores.  It was agreed that the next progress report on the North Bridge Stores scheduled for the January 2023 meeting, be deferred to allow time for the new stores manager to get established and to coincide with Internal Audit’s report on the Audit of the Stores to Committee in 2023/24. Going forward it was agreed that progress reports to the Committee on the North Bridge Stores be stepped down and any matters to be reported as part of Internal Audit’s progress report.

RESOLVED that

(1)      to note the updates on the progress at the North Bridge Stores Transformation Project and support the outlined approach;

(2)      the progress report on the North Bridge Stores scheduled for the January 2023, be deferred to allow time for the new stores manager to get established and to coincide with Internal Audit’s report on the Audit of the Stores to Committee in 2023/24; and

(3)      an update on the information requested by Councillor Shaw regarding the operating procedures be communicated to the Committee by email and be included as an update in the Audit Committee Action Plan for the next meeting.