Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report

1. Executive Summary

1.1. This report assesses progress over the first full year of operating the new arrangements for Financial Systems Training, and recommends that the arrangements be made permanent.

1.2. This paper seeks to review revised arrangements for financial systems training, progress to date and the proposed way ahead.

2. Contextual information

2.1. In his meeting on 16 May 2008, the Executive Member considered the arrangements in place for financial systems training. A lack of buy-in from departments had led to concerns that staff were not receiving the training needed to make sure that best use was being made of the County's systems. Accordingly, revised arrangements were agreed so that funding is independent of attendance and there is maximum encouragement for departments to send staff on the relevant training. The Executive Member agreed that:

· £120,000 be allocated to County Treasurer's in 2008/09, on a potentially recurring basis to support the service (ie that £120,000 is built into the base budget as currently constituted)

· a progress report be made in six months (this led to confirmation of the arrangements for the rest of 2008/09)

· the position be reviewed further in May 2009, including giving consideration to extending the departmental levy to replace the corporate support proposed if the approach had not been successful.

2.2. In line with the new arrangements the package agreed (with 2008/09 original budget in brackets) consists of:

· a corporate IT levy on all Hantsnet users (£210,000)

· a contribution from the Executive Member's contingency (£120,000)

· a requirement for the training team to generate further income (£27,300).

3. Key issues:

3.1. The first year of operation has been encouraging:

· delegate numbers are up 50% from 2007/08 levels (from 2,000 to 3,000), and early indications from 2009/10 are that the increased activity is continuing

· net increase of 47 courses (+13%) against original schedule

· newly introduced local demonstrations of new developments were attended by more that 2,800 SAP users (MSS roll out, ESS online travel claims roll out, and EB upgrade to SRM)

· delegate feedback continues to meet the target of exceeding 90% positive ratings across all measures

· 30% increase in use of Council owned venues, so reducing venue hire costs

· over 30% increase in events staged at venues other than Winchester to reduce staff travel and to encourage broader based attendance

· schools SLA sign-up target numbers and income were met

· the number of delegates failing to attend has remained stable at 8% even though the expansion in numbers is likely to have increased the number of less motivated scheduled attendees. Normal sickness rates would account for around half of this, and of course numbers are set to take account of likely absence levels

· various efficiency improvements have been made in addition to generating additional training activity within the given net cost - including reducing administrative support from 1 full time equivalent (fte) to 0.6 fte and reducing payments use of external venues. Benchmarking has been carried out which indicates very favourable rates per delegate day compared with external alternative providers.

3.2. The Corporate Management Team set up a group of senior managers to monitor the new arrangements, and they have concluded that they have worked well over the year.

3.3. The new arrangements do, then, appear to be working positively, and there is judged to be no need to impose additional levies in order to add to the incentive for departments to support training programmes. It is therefore recommended that the current arrangements be made permanent.

4. Outline of options:

4.1. Option 1 - make current arrangements permanent.

4.2. Option 2 - request a further report back before making a decision.

5. Option analysis/comparison:

5.1. Whilst a decision as to permanent arrangements could again be deferred, it is felt that there is now sufficient evidence of the efficacy of the new arrangements to justify their permanent adoption.

6. Conclusions:

6.1. The new arrangements are working well and could sensibly be adopted as a permanent model.

7. Recommendation

7.1. It is recommended that the current arrangements which were introduced on a trial basis for 2008/09, should be made permanent.

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION:

Links to the Corporate Strategy

Other Significant Links

IMPACT ASSESSMENTS:

1. Equalities Impact Assessment:

1.1. Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

2. Impact on Crime and Disorder:

2.1. The County Council has a legal obligation under Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to consider the impact of all the decisions it makes on the prevention of crime. The proposals in this report have no impact on the prevention of crime.

3. Climate Change:

a) Proposals have no direct effect on climate change, but the permanent adoption of current arrangements may reduce travel to training venues as more dispersed venues have been used over the last year.