northlincs.gov.uk

61        (1)  ASYLUM AND IMMIGRATION CHECKS – The Assistant Director Human Resources submitted a report which sought approval for the council’s revised Asylum and Immigration Checks document.

The law required the council to check that all potential employees were entitled to work in the UK. The Asylum and Immigration Checks document outlined the process the council followed to ensure that appropriate documents were checked and copied before a person was allowed to start work.

Any person from a non-EEA country (a migrant) wishing to work in the UK required a ‘sponsor’, must meet the requirements of immigration rules and qualify through a points based system before taking up employment.  Certificates of sponsorship could only be issued where the council had been unable to fill a Tier 2 skilled job with a settled worker.

The council was an A* rated authority with regard to compliance on asylum and immigration checks and it was confirmed that this would remain unaffected by not renewing the sponsorship licence.

The revised Asylum and Immigration Checks policy was appended to the report.

Resolved – That the revised policy be approved and adopted.

62        (2)  LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME (LGPS) DISCRETIONARY OPTIONS AND COMPENSATION FOR TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT – The Assistant Director Human Resources submitted a report which sought approval for the council’s revised LGPS Discretionary Options and Employment for Termination of Employment document.

It was explained that the Local Government Pension Regulations (LGPS) required the council to review, amend and record the council’s decision upon the discretionary elements of the regulations relating to the termination of employment.  The LGPS pension regulations had been extended to include Regulation 30A, which required the council to decide whether to allow access to deferred pension benefits between the age of 55 and 60.

The policy identified that if the employee’s employment was to be terminated for the following reasons, redundancy or retirement in the interests of the efficiency of the service, then the East Riding Pension Fund would ask the council if the deferred pension was to be brought into payment.

The Cabinet Member was advised that early release of the deferred benefits would incur a pension strain cost. The council would be expected to pay the pension strain cost, irrespective of when the deferred pension benefits had been accrued.

The revised LGPS Discretionary Options and Employment for Termination of Employment policy was appended to the report.

Resolved –  That the revised policy be approved and adopted.

63        (3)  INSURANCE MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report to inform the Cabinet Member of the proposal to enter into a joint insurance management agreement with East Riding of Yorkshire Council and North East Lincolnshire Council from 1 June 2013.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council, North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire Council) had explored the potential opportunities presented from joint working in respect of their insurance sections. The work had focused on three main drivers:

·         Resilience;

·       Performance; and

·       Financial.

It was suggested therefore that a joint management agreement be developed as a precursor to exploring the extent that processes and arrangements could be aligned to enable a shared insurance service to be feasible.  The agreement involved East Riding of Yorkshire Council as provider of the management resource to both North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire Council. The agreement was due to take effect from 1 June 2013 for a period of 12 months after which time it would be reviewed and a way forward agreed by all participant councils.

It was considered that the proposals would provide the opportunity to build more resilience into the council’s insurance section and provide further shared service opportunity through greater alignment of processes and procedures.

Resolved – That the Cabinet Member approves the participation in the shared insurance management agreement and receives a report on the outcome of further work to explore shared insurance service opportunities.

64        (4)  IT AND DIGITAL STRATEGY 2013-2016 – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which sought approval of an IT and Digital Strategy for 2013-2016.

The IT and Digital Strategy was a three year plan which set out the council’s IT vision and strategic priorities together with key deliverables for both internal and external customers.

IT Services had appointed their chosen IT Partner and it was considered that the innovative new relationship model would add capacity and expertise enabling IT Services to deliver both its strategic and operational plans, together with supporting the service with its commercial development agenda.

A new strategy had been developed to reflect the council’s priorities for the coming three years and had been informed by extensive internal and external consultation including soft market testing.

The strategy outlined the challenges and opportunities facing the council and set out its strategic themes.

Resolved – That the IT and Digital Strategy 2013-2016 be approved.

65        (5)  MARKET POSITION STATEMENT 2013/14 – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which sought approval of an updated Market Position Statement for 2013/14.

The council’s corporate Commissioning and Procurement Plan had been updated and enhanced in consultation with directorates for 2013/14. This information formed the basis of the Market Position Statement (MPS).

The Localism Act came into force on 15 November 2011 and among its many provisions the Act provided new powers for local communities. One specific and key provision was the “Community Right to Challenge” (CRTC).

The council had put in place appropriate procedures, policies and processes to assist bodies in completing their expressions of interest.

The agreed CRTC process and timescales were formally incorporated in the council’s constitution through the update to Contract Procedure Rules in June 2012, and the Market Position Statement (appendix A to the report)was a key document developed to support the CRTC process.

Resolved –  That the 2013/14 Market Position Statement be approved

66        (6)  ENHANCING THE WEB CHANNEL – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which sought approval of a programme of improvements to the council’s website including the proposed decommissioning of Intralinc.

The council’s web presence had grown organically since 2001 and it was explained that the website had in excess of 9,000 live pages which were managed by some 60+ service area based web authors.

Despite a range of recent improvements including the provision of a new technical platform and self-service portal, the council’s website was falling behind both in terms of meeting customer expectations as well as the rate of development seen elsewhere in the sector.  A number of web related issues had been identified by an internal stakeholder group including Communications, Customer Services, WorkSmart, Information Governance and Customer Insight specialists.

Further details were outlined within the report.

Appendix A to the reportidentified the necessary work streams, key tasks and timescales for the next six months to deliver the vision and assist in delivering the council’s Channel Shift ambitions and associated savings, improved customer service and improving the council’s rating in future SOCITM Better Connected surveys.

Resolved – That the programme of improvements to the website be approved including the proposed decommissioning of Intralinc.

67        (7)  VIREMENTS 2013-2014– The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which sought approval for changes to the revenue and capital budgets for 2013/14.

On 19 February 2013 Council approved the revenue and capital budgets for the 2013/2014 financial year.  The report gave details of virements approved by the Director of Policy and Resources under delegated powers and those that required Cabinet Member approval.

Resolved – (a) That the virements at paragraph 3.1 of the report, approved by the Director of Policy and Resources under delegated powers be noted, and (b) that the permanent virements outlined in paragraph 3.2 of the report be approved.

Note:Reports are in Portable Document Format (PDF) and therefore require a suitable reader to view them. A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided on the site).

Where there is no report this is because it is exempt, as it contains information which is considered to be of a confidential nature, as detailed in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act.