Issue - meetings

The Chair of the Panel will introduce the Panel’s recommendations.

Note:  This item is for information only.  No implementable decisions will be made by Cabinet and the item will therefore not be subject to Call-in

The Chair welcomed Councillor John Bull (Chair of the Resources PDS Panel), and invited him to introduce the Panel’s recommendations.

Councillor John Bull explained that a cross-party group of four members of the Panel had worked on the report.  They had interviewed a number of officers.  The broad conclusions had been that there was not great abuse of the system.  They had identified clear criteria for the use of consultants in the Council although it was not always evident whether they had been applied.

He referred to the advice of the National Audit Office that agency accounts could be an efficient way of engaging consultants where necessary, because this would enable the Council to dip in and out of the agency provision as required.

He made two particular recommendations:

(i)  Council expenditure on consultants is of such public interest that it should be identified in Service Action Plans;

(ii)  The Resources PDS Panel should be given an analysis from the Staff Satisfaction Survey relating to working with consultants.

Councillor David Bellotti thanked Councillor Bull and his Panel for their work in bringing this to Cabinet’s attention, and agreed that this was a very timely debate.  He had arranged to attend the forthcoming Panel meeting, at which he would give a response to the Panel.  He assured the Panel that he would listen to their views and would report back to Cabinet.