Item 12 - Appendix 1
West Dunbartonshire Council · 2 November 2022
Back to Corporate Services Committee — 2 November 2022 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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2022/23 SUPPLY, DISTRIBUTION AND PROPERTY – Corporate Procurement Unit Extract Appendix 1
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Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 2. Performance Review ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 3. Strategic Assessment .................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 4. Resources ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Appendix 1: Action Plan ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 9
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1. Introduction Supply, Distribution and Property comprises a wide range of services covering Corporate Asset Management, Building Services, Housing Asset & Investment and the Corporate Procurement Unit (CPU). It is one of 8 strategic areas responsible for delivering the Council’s Strategic Plan. Key actions to help achieve that are set out in this Delivery Plan, together with actions to address any performance issues and service priorities identified in the planning process. The progress of this Plan for will be monitored and managed by the management team and reported to Corporate Services Committee twice yearly, at mid-year and year-end for Corporate Procurement Unit (CPU). 2. Performance Review The Supply, Distribution and Property management team completed a detailed review of 2021/22 performance, focusing on the following: • 2021/22 Delivery Plan year end progress; • 2021/22 Quality Standards year end progress; • Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) comparative data; • Telephone Survey feedback; • Complaints; • Continuous Improvement (Fit for Future reviews) • Other benchmarking/feedback. This review highlighted our key achievements in 2021/22 as well as the challenges to be addressed in 2022/23. These are summarised below. Key Achievements in 2021/22 Listed below are some of the major achievements in each service area. Despite the unprecedented challenges the coronavirus pandemic has created including restrictions and additional duties, each service within SD&P has found new ways of continuing the delivery of critical front line services. The service achieved many other outcomes throughout the year which are not recorded here but are as important.
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Corporate Procurement Unit • Delivered a new 5 year Procurement Strategy. • Increased the procurement spend compliance to 98% in 2020/2021 and at the first six months of 2021/2022, was also 98%. • Delivered annual performance procurement savings of £0.732m. • Increased procurement spend on local enterprises and suppliers who have a presence in West Dunbartonshire to 43.1%. • Collaborated with partners to make a positive contribution to sustainability through procurement decisions • Collaborated with partners and suppliers to deliver and increase local social and community benefits. Key Challenges from 2021/22 Workforce. • The principle challenge has continued to be in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Including adapting to changing legislation and guidance to ensure continued delivery of front line services and safe working conditions for employees. • The turnover coupled with the time taken to replace, recruit and train employees across Supply Distribution and Property was a particular challenge in 2021/22 when demands on all services were higher than normal as a result of the pandemic. • Exceptionally high levels of sickness/ isolation particularly in Building Services had significant impact on our ability to deliver maintenance and repairs and projects. • The national skills shortage of qualified and experienced officers in Building Services, Procurement, and Corporate Asset Management, resulted in reduced workforce numbers, increased demands on existing teams and a high staff turnover. This has resulted in alternative service delivery models being introduced. Corporate Procurement Unit • Increased scrutiny at both local and national level including funding applications, monitoring and reporting required a significant amount of management time impacting on service delivery.
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3. Strategic Assessment The Supply Distribution and Property management team completed a strategic assessment to determine the major influences on service delivery and priorities in 2022/23. These are summarised below. Financial Challenges The entire public sector is facing significant financial challenges. The Council are currently faced with an estimated cumulative funding gap in 2023/24 of £18.3m rising to £24.2m in 2024/25. Funding pressures relating to COVID-19 will continue in 2022/23, and whilst there is still some carried forward COVID-19 funding from the Scottish Government available for use in 2022/23, it is difficult to assess whether it will continue to be sufficient due to the ongoing unpredictability of the impact of the pandemic on people’s lives and local businesses. We will continue to monitor the overall financial position of the Council and updates on estimated future budget gaps will be reported to Elected Members throughout 2022/23. These challenges mean further action is required to balance our budget and protect services for residents. This will mean that, within Supply Distribution and Property available funding will be reduced and we will need to reconfigure how we work and what we do to deliver further efficiencies Budget Sensitivity Analysis In reviewing the service budget projections, consideration has been given to sensitivity of these budgets, in particular for higher risk/ higher value budgets which may have a significant impact on budgetary control and future budget projections. The analysis has considered sensitivity around demand, costs and charges, and income levels. Within this service, budgets which have been identified as being more susceptible to fluctuations include: • Building Materials; 2022/23 budget - £3.5M. Nationally there has been a significant inflation in cost of building supplies and materials as well as challenges with supply due to increased energy, transport and raw material costs. Higher material costs will be passed onto client budgets through service recharges and any cost increase will put pressure on client maintenance and investment budgets. • Labour costs; 2022/23 budget - £20.1M. Nationally there continues to be challenges in recruitment and retention of staff due to a skills shortage of qualified and experienced officers. This impacts both our workforce and that of sub-contractors. • Transport fuel costs - 2022/23 budget £750,000. The price of petrol/diesel can fluctuate a great deal based on market prices. Also changes in working practices to allow for social distancing will affect the costs since now, for example, two vehicles need to be driven to a job whereas one would have sufficed pre COVID-19. Higher fuel and hire costs will be passed onto client budgets through service recharges and any cost increase will put pressure on client maintenance and investment budgets.
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• Capital Plan - Nationally there has been a significant inflation in cost of building supplies and materials and in some cases shortfall in supplies. For some projects this may need to increased costs or slippage in delivery of the capital projects. Corporate Procurement Unit CPU – Improvement Plan Following the Fit for Future service review of Procurement an action plan is being progressed to address key findings over a 3 year period, 2021/2024. This includes streamlining the customer experience, improving on line guidance and forms, improving process and procedural documents, user training and service engagement together with team resilience and communication. Contract Supplier Management Policy The refresh of the Contract and Supplier Management Policy will be progressed and aims to ensure that suppliers and Council officers adhere to their agreed contractual obligations including social benefit delivery. CPU – Strategy The Councils Procurement Strategy sets out the vision, objectives and actions to direct procurement activity reflecting national and local policies, and key focus areas. Progress against these, including delivering savings and benefits continue to be monitored. Council Wide Climate Change Strategy The Council has developed a Climate Change Strategy in response to Scotland’s climate emergency and to provide a route map towards meeting Scotland’s national net zero carbon target by 2045. This Strategy has informed the development of a Climate Change Action Plan for 2022/23 to ensure environmental actions are devolved to relevant service areas and climate change action is mainstreamed across council policies, operations and the wider public. Progress against the actions assigned to SD&P will be monitored. Continuous Improvement To support continuous improvement, the Council has an established programme of Fit for Future service reviews. Using a range of tools, that encapsulates service design, maturity assessments and employee engagement, information is gathered and reviewed to identify improvements and to ensure our services are efficient and that we make best use of our resources. During 2022/2023 we will assess the performance of the services within SD&P with a view to determining if any service would benefit from a Fit for Future service review.
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Action Plan The challenges identified in Section 2 and the key factors identified in Section 3 have informed SD&P priorities for 2022/2023. Appendix 1 sets out the action plan to address them. It also includes: • performance indicators and targets that will enable progress to be monitored and reported to stakeholders; • strategic workforce actions to address workforce issues identified in the planning process; and • strategic and/or service risks, including those relating to the pandemic. The Council has identified risks at both a strategic and service level. Strategic risks represent the potential for the Council to take advantage of opportunities or fail to meet stated strategic objectives and those that require strategic leadership; while service risks relate to service delivery and represent the potential for impact on individual services, or the experience of those who work within the services, i.e. employees, partners, contractors and volunteers or service users and clients in receipt of the services provided. In identifying the relevant risks for 2022/2023 and actions to mitigate them, the aim is to improve or maintain the current position (i.e. the current risk score) set out in the appendix. 4. Resources Finance Supply Distribution and Property has a net revenue budget of £2.73m (net income) and a capital budget of £6.20m in 2022/2023. A breakdown by service area is set out below. We will make the best use of the resources available to deliver on key priority areas and secure external/match funding where this is possible. Function Gross Expenditure 2022/23 (£m) Gross Income 2022/23 (£m) Net Expenditure 2022/23 (£m) Capital Budget 2022/23 (£m) Consultancy Services 0.845 (0.235) 0.610 0.000 Corporate Assets 2.628 (4.781) (2.153) 0.000 Capital Investment Team 0.557 (0.719) (0.162) 2.785 Private Sector Housing Grant 0.525 (0.446) 0.079 0.000 Corporate Asset Maintenance 4.862 (5.128) (0.266) 3.337
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Housing Asset Maintenance & Investment 0.494 (0.412) 0.082 0.000 CPU 0.981 (0.500) 0.481 0.000 HMTA 18.395 (19.796) (1.401) 0.078 Total 29.287 (32.017) (2.730) 6.200 Employees Employee Numbers (data to be confirmed) The headcount and full time equivalent staff in each service area (as of 31st March 2022) are as follows: Absence in 2021/22 The quarterly absence statistics for Supply Distribution and Property are shown below together with the Council average for the same periods for comparison. The figures have been higher than the Council average overall in 2021/2022: Absence in 2021/22 Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 Annual FTE days lost per FTE employee Supply, Distribution & Property 5.4 5.00 4.41 4.56 17.20 COUNCIL WIDE TOTAL 3.27 3.58 4.5 5.03 14.55 Service Area Headcount FTE Corporate Asset Management 43 36.10 Housing Asset & Investment 10 8.80 Maintenance & Repairs 347 336.12 CPU 19 17.14 TOTAL 419 398.16
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Appendix 1: Action Plan 3. Our Economy Objective 7. Our area has the infrastructure for sustainable and inclusive growth where businesses can flourish Performance Indicator Owner % of Contract & Supplier Management scorecards delivered where the Supplier at a minimum, meets the Social Benefits expectations. Annabel Travers % of procurement spent on local small/medium-sized enterprises and SMEs who have a presence in West Dunbartonshire Annabel Travers Action Due Date Owner Continue to incorporate social benefits in the contract activity. 31-Mar-2023 Annabel Travers 4. Our Council
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Objective 10. Our workforce is resilient and skilled where digital technology supports service delivery for our residents Action Due Date Owner Develop and implement wellbeing, employee engagement, equality and training plans to enable capabilities, improved resilience and promotion of a diverse workforce. 31-Mar-2023 Annabel Travers Develop and implement employee life cycle plans in line with the People First Strategy to attract and retain the workforce. 31-Mar-2023 Annabel Travers Implement service review process including role design, use of new technology and new ways of working to add resilience, address gaps, and establish opportunities for efficiencies 31-Mar-2023 Annabel Travers Develop and implement training plans and development opportunities to improve capabilities and resilience within the workforce. 31-Mar-2023 Annabel Travers Objective 11. Our Council is adaptable and focused on delivering best value for our residents Performance Indicator Owner % of Contract & Supplier Management scorecards delivered where the Supplier at a minimum, meets the Cost expectations. Annabel Travers % of Contract & Supplier Management scorecards delivered where the Supplier at a minimum, meets the quality expectations Annabel Travers % of Contract & Supplier Management scorecards delivered where the Supplier at a minimum, meets the Service Annabel Travers
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Performance Indicator Owner expectations. % of C&SM scorecards submitted against the total number due Annabel Travers Annual Cash Savings target achieved Annabel Travers % of Contract award notices published within 30 calendar days from award letter being sent Annabel Travers Action Due Date Owner Implement the Fit for Future Action Plan for Procurement– P2P Phase 1 31-Mar-2023 Annabel Travers Deliver Procurement Savings and Benefits 31-Mar-2023 Annabel Travers Refresh the Contract and Supply Management Policy 31-Mar-2023 Annabel Travers Risk Description Current Assessment Target Assessment Date Reviewed Owner Failure to secure best value of procurement spend and ensure compliance with financial regulations Improved procurement management process, contract strategies, planning, monitoring and reporting in collaboration with services will continue to mitigate against non-compliant procurement spend 01-Sept-2022 Angela Wilson Failure to continue to achieve increased savings from procurement activity As second or third generation revenue contracts seldom deliver the same cost savings as first generation, the contract strategies need to focus on governance, operating models, total cost of ownership, service quality and innovation 01-Sept-2022 Angela Wilson