Agenda item

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Enabling presented the report in respect of the establishment of a programme office and in doing so explained that the report helped to implement proposals agreed at the previous meeting of the Executive Committee.  The report detailed how a programme office would be set up at the Council and the role of key personnel in relation to managing the Council’s projects.

Following the presentation of the report, Members discussed the work of the project office and questioned which projects would be managed by the new project officers.  The Committee was informed that the programme officers would be required to project manage a range of existing projects as well as new projects in the future.  Whilst there would be some financial implications in respect of recruiting new staff to manage this process, Officers clarified that it was anticipated that this work would help to reduce financial costs associated with project management in the long-term.

Consideration was given to the staff who could be recruited into the new posts and questions were raised about the reporting lines for these staff members.  The Committee was informed that there were up to 20 members of staff employed by Redditch Borough and Bromsgrove District Councils who had a Prince2 Project Management qualification and they might be interested in applying for the positions.  There was also the possibility that the lower graded post could be linked to an apprenticeship opportunity, which was a suggestion that had been raised by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The staff would be based in the Business Transformation and Organisational Development department, which was already responsible for taking a lead on co-ordinating the delivery of Council projects.  Officers confirmed that it was possible that the work of the programme office could lead to a reduction in the Council’s need to use external consultants for specific work in the long-term.

Reference was made to the need for Councillors to be updated on the work of the programme office and Members questioned how this would be managed.  Officers explained that information on the work of the programme office and progress with the implementation of projects would be included in the quarterly finance and performance monitoring reports, that were presented for the consideration of the Executive Committee during the year.

In concluding their discussions in respect of this matter, Members questioned whether the officers employed to manage the programme office would be required to attend programme board meetings for all of the Council’s projects.  The Committee was advised that Officers employed in this service would be expected to attend board meetings.  This would be necessary as many of the projects that were delivered by the Council had implications for other Council projects and there therefore needed to be strategic oversight of their co-ordination.  In addition, the officers would be helping to manage scarce resources at the Council and would need to ensure that the work that was undertaken was timetabled appropriately.

RESOLVED that

1)          formal reporting of all projects be undertaken on a monthly basis by Officers and this information be fed into the Quarterly Finance and Performance Reports for Members; and

2)          a compliance structure be put in place to ensure delivery of projects and management of the multiple interdependencies across projects.  This includes:

a)          a council programme office be established to provide oversight and validation of the delivery of projects across the organisation; and

b)         the roles of a programme manager and a programme officer be established to provide support for the delivery of this oversight, especially for ICT and Organisational Change projects across the organisation.