Agenda item

The report was submitted by Cllr Ioan Thomas.

DECISION

The information in the report was accepted and noted.

DISCUSSION

It was explained that the report was slightly dated as the performance challenge meeting had been held since July.

It was confirmed that Cyngor Gwynedd had realised over £39.1m in savings schemes since 2015/16. It was detailed that a formal review of Council departments' budgetary position in 2023/24 would be undertaken at the end of August 2023 and a report from that review was on the agenda of the Governance and Audit Committee on 12 October 2023.

Attention was drawn to the 2023-28 Digital Plan as several developments had taken place as part of the 2023-28 Cyngor Gwynedd Plan. It was confirmed that a further report on the Digital Plan would be submitted to the Cabinet on 7 November 2023 and that the matter had already been scrutinised by the Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee in September. The observations of that committee would be incorporated in the version that would be submitted to the Cabinet.

Members were reminded that the Department was responsible for operating the system of paying invoices submitted to the Council. It was explained that invoices were arranged to be paid as soon as possible, rather than using a 30 day system. The performance of the Department in the period up to the end of June was to pay local invoices within 16 days and any other invoice within 26 days. It was emphasised that this field received regular attention as part of the Department's performance challenge meetings and it was a key delivery measure.

An update was shared about the performance of some of the department's services, which included:

·       Digital Learning Service (which was under the Council's control since the Cynnal company ended). It was noted that the team's capacity to support schools had been lower than expected in the period in question due to staff absences but it was expected for this to improve over the next few months. It was recognised that the department had been dealing with the challenges of attracting applicants to the Council's information technology posts, due to their specialist nature, but that the situation had now been resolved.

·       Investment and Treasury Management: It was confirmed that the performance of the Gwynedd Pension Fund was within the highest quarter of local government pension funds in the United Kingdom. Based on a three-year performance, it was noted that the Fund was in the 3rd position out of nearly 100 funds and had been in the 7th position for over 5 years. It was confirmed that this showed that the performance of the Fund had been very strong.

·       Pensions Service: It was reported that the service had visited the Pensions Service stand at the National Eisteddfod this year and a large number of people had taken advantage of the opportunity to understand their pension and receive support.

·       Payroll Service: It was acknowledged that there had been a number of challenges, which included dealing with unconsolidated payments to teachers. Due to a lack of guidance from the Welsh Government, salaries had to be calculated individually and fed into the payroll system. The officers were thanked for their work and to ensure that there was no delay in Council staff payments.

·       Taxation Service: It was confirmed that telephone lines were now open until 5pm. Members were reminded that telephone lines had been closing at 2pm in the past as a result of staff capacity. It was hoped that this would increase the quality of the service.

·       Insurance and Risk Management Service: There had been a concern that reports from Council departments did not reach the service on time, and without sufficient details included in them, which prevented the service from operating effectively. It was considered that this process needed to be amended to improve the situation.

·       Finance and Accounting/Payments Service: It was confirmed that six full sets of accounts had been prepared and Audit Wales would report back on these in November. Gratitude was expressed to the department's staff who had been interviewed as part of the ESTYN inspection.

It was confirmed that the Department had delivered all its savings schemes for the period between 2015/16 and 2022/23.

It was noted that one savings scheme remained in the 2022/23 programme, namely 'Attract additional income via an Internal Collection Agency'. It was recognised that this scheme would not realise its savings target of £25,000, therefore, the Department was continuing to look for an alternative scheme.