Agenda, decisions and minutes

The agenda and reports associated with this minute can be found here.

Please note that if any changes are made to this minute at the point of approval, these will be outlined in the subsequent minute and this document will not be retrospectively altered.

The Convener proposed that the Committee consider item 12.1 (Workplans and Business Cases – Exempt Appendices) with the press and public excluded.

The Committee resolved:-

in terms of Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, to exclude the press and public from the meeting during consideration of item 12.1 on the agenda so as to avoid disclosure of exempt information of the class described in paragraph 6 of Schedule 7(A) of the Act.

There were no declarations of interest nor transparency statements made.

The Committee had before it the minute of its previous meeting of 23 June 2022 for approval.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the minute as a correct record.

The Committee had before it the committee business planner as prepared by the Chief Officer – Governance.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       in relation to the three ALEO annual reports delayed from the meeting, to note that there would be no Aberdeen Sport Village report presented in February 2023 and the planner would be amended accordingly;

(ii)       in relation to item 27 (Annual Committee Effectiveness Report), to note that the timing for the presentation of all annual effectiveness reports was currently under review, and that the performance for Strategic Commissioning Committee would be reported to the appropriate committee in the new structure, which would likely be Council as part of the overall consideration of the effectiveness reports; and

(iii)      to otherwise note the planner.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Customer Services which presented the status of key performance measures relating to the Commercial and Procurement cluster.

The report recommended:-

that Committee note the report and provide comments and observations on the performance information contained in the report appendix.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the report.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Customer Services which presented the annual report which highlighted progress in respect of the Council Delivery Plan for the year 2021/22, which had been approved by the Council at its meeting on 10 March 2021.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee note the report and provide comments and observations

on the information contained in the report, set out at appendices A and B.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       in relation to the Developing the Young Workforce projects (page 35 of the report), to note that the Council was a Young Person’s Guarantee employer and therefore signed up to the practices within that, but that the Chief Officer – People and Organisational Development would review the projects to ensure that fair work was embedded;

(ii)       in relation to pages 59/60 of the report, to note that the Chief Officer – Data and Insights would review the commissioning intentions against Stretch Outcome 2 to ascertain if they were listed against the correct stretch outcome;

(iii)      in relation to page 68, to note that the Chief Officer – Education would circulate information to Members outwith the meeting in respect of the figures relating to day nursery places and childcare provision to provide context to the data included in this section;

(iv)      in relation to page 82 and the increase in household waste compared to the drop in recycling figures for the reporting period, to request that the Chief Officer – Operations and Protective Services provide information outwith the meeting to Members on any initiatives being undertaken to address this; and

(v)      to otherwise note the report.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Commissioning which presented the Annual LOIP Outcome Improvement Report 2021/22.  The report advised that the document was the sixth Annual Outcome Improvement Report since the Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP) had been published in August 2016, and the first to be published since the refresh of the LOIP in July 2021.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee approve the Annual Outcome Improvement Report 2021/22 as a representation of the Council’s contribution to partnership working in delivery of the Local Outcome Improvement Plan 2016-26.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendation.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Commissioning which provided an update on the inclusion of a climate weighting in contracts the Council procured in financial year 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022, in line with the instruction from Council in 2020 that an annual report be provided.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note the statistics for climate weighting included within contracts in financial year 2021-2022;

(b)      note the positive outcomes achieved through procurement activity as outlined within the report; and

(c)      note that in future the Annual Procurement Report would include a section on Climate Reduction outcomes achieved through procurement and contracting activity.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Commissioning which presented procurement workplans where expenditure was included for the Commissioning, Customer and Operations Functions and sought approval of the total estimated expenditure for the proposed contracts as contained in the Procurement Business Cases appended to the report, as contained at item 11.1 of the agenda.

The list of procurement business cases was as follows:-

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note the workplans as detailed in the Appendices for the Commissioning, Customer and Operations Functions;

(b)      approve the procurement business cases, including the total estimated expenditure for the proposed contracts; and

(c)      note the content of Appendix 3 - 3.10 Memos (Exemption Urgency) and Appendix 4 4.1.3 Forms (Technical Exemption).

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

In accordance with the decision taken under article 1 above, the following item was considered with the press and public excluded.

The Committee had before it exempt appendices relating to the Workplans and Business Cases Revenue report on the agenda (article 9 of this minute refers).

The Committee resolved:-

to note the exempt appendices.

The Convener noted that it was the last meeting of the Strategic Commissioning Committee, following the decision of Council in August 2022 that it be disestablished.  He thanked officers and Members who had been involved with the Committee over the years and noted that scrutiny of commissioning activity would continue at Finance and Resources Committee and at Council itself.

-      COUNCILLOR IAN YUILL, Convener