Issue - meetings

Resolved: a) that the responses from Mayor and Cabinet should be noted; b) that (due to the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development being unavailable) the update on commercialisation and training would be deferred to the meeting on 16 December; c) the report from CLES on the Council’s approach to social value would be brought the Committee before the end of the financial year.

5.1    Katherine Nidd (Strategic Procurement and Commercial Services Manager) introduced the response from Mayor and Cabinet regarding ‘trading accounts’, the following key points were noted:

·         Previous versions of Oracle (the Council’s financial management IT system) did not allow for the creation of trading accounts. However, the latest version of Oracle would do so.

·         Options were being considered for the implementation of traded accounts alongside the work officers were doing on fees and charges.

5.2    David Austin (Director of Corporate Resources) addressed the Committee, the following key points were noted:

·         It was not the intention to carry out full accounting through Oracle.

·         There were no plans to re-impose full cost allocations through the system. It would be used with key services to assist in the process of allocating and identifying costs through the budget monitoring process.

5.3    Katherine Nidd responded to questions from the Committee, the following key points were noted:

·         The implementation of traded accounts fitted well with the work on cost modelling and on fees and charges.

·         The process provided transparency and the opportunity for critical challenge.

5.4    Katherine Nidd introduced the response to the Committee’s commercialisation and income generation (2018-19) in-depth review:

·         Detail had been provided on the budget monitoring process in response to the Committee’s recommendation on income generation and the cuts process.

·         The income generation strategy set out a multi-stage business development process, which could be used for the assessment and development of new ideas. Responses had been provided regarding the two new ideas recommended by the Committee in its review.

·         The Committee’s recommendation about commercialisation training had been considered and was addressed in the update to the Committee that was also on the agenda.

·         Corporate support had been made available for the strategic procurement and commercial services function. This included once off funding and an ongoing budget for this work.

·         Consideration had been given to the options to enable a ‘call for ideas’ from all staff. There might be options to do this through the work that was being carried out to roll out the new ‘Lewisham Way’.

5.5    Katherine Nidd and David Austin responded to a question from the Committee about the reliability of income streams and grants from central government. (Members were informed (by Petra der Man, Principal Lawyer) that the pre-election period commenced at midnight on 6 November). The following key point was noted:

·         Once funding from central government was agreed – it was very likely it would be received (in contrast to income from commercial services, which might have to be chased).

5.6    In the Committee’s discussion, the following key point was also noted:

·         Members welcomed the consideration that had been given to developing a commercial approach to managing agency services.

5.7    Katherine Nidd introduced the update on the delivery of the income generation strategy – the following key points were noted:

·         Two key areas of focus in the past quarter had been on fees and charges/income generation activity and the other had been on culture change (although Adam Bowles (Director  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5