Appendix 4 – Strategic Projects Q4 / Year End 2016-17

STRATEGIC PROJECTS REPORT: QUARTER 4 2016-17 (as at Mar 2017)

Project Status is defined as follows:

  • Red - Out of tolerance with no current approved plan
  • Amber - Out of tolerance and with a plan in place to bring back under control
  • Green - Under control and within tolerance

The reason for each Project’s Status is detailed under each Projects summary.

Overview

A portfolio of projects, selected by Directorate Leadership Team’s (DLT’s), are internally supported by a major projects team. Each Project has its own governance and reporting mechanism in place, and it is the responsibility of the relevant Board to approve the assessment as to the Project Status.

Detailed reports are created each month and reviewed by DLT’s on the progress and project health. Every quarter a snap shot of these project updates is included in the Council Performance Report.

Performance

Of the 27 projects reported below –

  • 3 are Red;(pages 3 to 5 – summarised below)
  • 11 are Amber;(pages 6 to 12)
  • 11 are Green;(pages 13 to 17 and pages 19 to20)
  • 2 Projects have been completed (page18)

The number of Greens and Ambers are not significantly out of line with a normal / expected distribution of the ratings; these continue to be controlled and manged by the relevant teams.

Projects of real concern are those that are Red as they are out of tolerance and have no current approved plan. Those projects are summarised as:-

  • Libraries and One Stop Shop Continues to report Red as directed by Programme Board until Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) is refreshed with revised savings projections. Finance are monitoring, and updating savings tracker monthly.
  • Localism as an overall programme is progressing well, the programme is now reporting as amber as there is a delay in delivering some of the identified budget savings with ancillary projects e.g. public conveniences.
  • The status of the Better Care Fund programme has been kept at Red as a result of the continued delay in revising and agreeing the Section 75 agreement. It is understood that the latest draft is with National Health Service Kernow (NHSK) to review and confirm that it is acceptable. Status reports from all work streams have not been received. The April Finance reports have not been received as the budget has still to be finalised. Consequently the BCF Programme Manager has not been able to fully complete the April Highlight report in time for circulation to the ICP for the third month in a row. The status of KPI performance remains at Red as the Delayed Transfers Of Care (DTOC) position in March (4,901 delayed days) is worse than February (4,316).

STRATEGIC PROJECTS – DETAIL
Code / Title / Senior Responsible Officer / Start Date / End Date / Previous
Status / Current
Status
Better Care Fund / Jonathan Price / 01/04/2016 / 31/03/2017 (Planned) / Red / Red
Project Description
The £3.8 billion Better Care Fund (BCF) was announced by the Government in the June 2013 Spending Round, to support transformation and integration of health and social care services to ensure local people receive better care. The BCF is a pooled budget that shifts resources into social care and community services for the benefit of the NHS and local government.
Cornwall Council (the Council) & NHS Kernow Clinical Commission Group (NHSK) submitted a joint plan to address the increasing challenges faced in the provision of health and social care in Cornwall financed from a pooled budget of £12.8M for 2014/15 and £44.512M for 2015/16.
The programme is to continue in 16/17 with a revised plan defined and implemented."
Achieved from the Current Review
The status of the programme has been kept at Red as a result of the continued delay in revising & agreeing the Section 75 agreement. Comments from NHSK (Kathryn Hudson & Trudy Corsellis) have been addressed and the document recirculated. The BCF Programme Manager will arrange a specific S75 meeting week beginning 10/4 to close off any final issues before seeking formal authorisation. The March status reports from Carers, Community Support & Housing Team, Integrated Personal Commissioning Personal Health Budgets (IPC PHB), Discharge to Assess (D2A)Short Term Enablement and Planning Service (STEPS) have not been submitted along with the Feb finance status report from NHSK. Consequently the BCF Programme Manager has not been able to fully complete the March Highlight report in time for circulation to the ICP for the second month in a row. The BCF Planning guidance 17/18 has still not been published which is impacting planning for 17/18/19.
The status of KPI performance remains at Red as the Delayed Transfers Of Care (DTOC) position in February is an improvement over January but it should be appreciated that February is a shorted month. (For full details refer to the Enabling Discharge DTOC February 17 report). The DTOC Sitrep for March has not been published in time for inclusion in the report but it is anticipated that March statistics will be poor.
Programme – The BCF policy framework 17/18 was published on the 31/3/17 but the planning guidance is still awaited. Work is underway to identify what projects will fall within the scope of BCF from within the Sustainability and Transformation Plan(STP), Adults Transformation Programme & NHSK Operational plan. It is anticipated that the planning guidance will be published by mid-April with an expectation that the first BCF planning submission will have to be made by the end of May. Adequate resources will need to be allocated to enable a robust submission to be formulated.
Community Equipment – Increasing demand is impacting costs with the budget (4% £200K overspend projected for EOY) being closely monitored. The recovery plan has achieved savings of £508k to date with rental costs reduced from £36k to £11k per month but significant pressures still remain. Following the launch of the new CELS software system it was establish that information was missing as a result of the data transfer exercise. This has now been rectified. Peripheral store project PID finalised and business case to following in May. CECOP training (intro) rolled out to operations & clinicians.
D2A Pathway 1 - The major issue remains in that the agreement to fund the 23 GSWs for next year has not been reached. This continues to result in not all the proposed GSW posts being advertised and filled (13.38 FTE in post). A bid for year 1 GSW funding has been made to Duchy charity but requires a commitment for ongoing funding thereafter from the system. The possibility of the iBCF (Adult Social Care Grant) funding being used for years 2 & 3 are being investigated. The number of referrals originating from RCHT ED/MAU continues to be low with the majority of the referrals being addressed originating from the community. To address this D2A is being relaunched via a specific comms initiative within RCHT.
Pathway 2 – SAFER principles are now embedded in all RCHT facing wards. Best practice packs issued to ward staff and ‘Modern Matrons’ responsible for monitoring safer principle adoption.
Pathway 3 – 5 beds available in Restormel 2 of which are EMI, additional beds in Penwith (5), Carrick (6) & Kerrier (6) being progressed awaiting formal agreement. GP engagement continues to be an issue that needs to be resolved to enable roll out.
Joint Complex & Supported Living Service (SLS) Clients – 10 new care and support plans have now been approved and agreed with providers (Bowden Derra Park, United Response and Brandon Trust) with a total annual saving of £284,412. A second health resource will begin on 3 April 2017 which should allow the team back up to the required 6 joint assessments per week (2 LD nurses, 2 project social workers).
Code / Title / Senior Responsible Officer / Start Date / End Date / Previous
Status / Current
Status
Library & Information Service Devolution / Allan Hampshire / 01/04/2016 / 31/03/2018 (Planned) / Red / Red
Project Description
Ensure access to Library and Information services across Cornwall through new community led models of service provision
Achieved from the Current Review
This is a complex programme that will not meet the agreed schedule and there will be a shortfall in the current medium term financial plan. These delays are caused by a number of issues which includes:
  • The condition and compliance of library buildings and identifying which work needs to be addressed before transfer
  • The complex legal contracts
  • Recent elections for Town and Parish Councils
  • Capacity issues within the Project Teams
    Devolution is being progressed where agreed with 16 libraries likely to transfer by April 18. Other partnerships such as the One Public Estate co-location at Helston should be implemented in the autumn and the property rationalisation at Bodmin was completed in March with the library moving into the new Council offices Chy Trevail.

Code / Title / Senior Responsible Officer / Start Date / End Date / Previous
Status / Current
Status
Devolution / Localism Project / Paul Masters / 01/12/2016 / 31/03/2018 (Planned) / Red / Red
Project Description
In order to make sure that Cornwall Council makes devolution happen at the pace and scale expected, within the Customers & Communities Service a Corporate Strategic Programme is being established.
The aims of the Devolution Programme are:
• To adopt a place based, rather than service based, approach to Devolution
• To ensure that Cornwall Council fulfils its leadership role in supporting and promoting positive discussions with local community groups, building the case for how public services in Cornwall can be preserved or enhanced through devolving responsibilities to local community groups
• To build the necessary confidence, capacity and capability within local community organisations so that they can engage positively in partnership with Cornwall Council to build devolution proposals which all parties can support.
• To align the culture and priorities within Cornwall Council’s organisation with the devolution programme; identifying and resolving conflicts and promoting the case for devolution and the role it plays in the achievement of the Council’s strategy.
• To develop and scale up the internal machinery and organisational focus necessary to enable Cornwall Council to successfully transfer public services and associated assets to willing and capable local organisations within Cornwall’s communities, acting with probity and responsibility in the process.
• To monitor the progress being made and to ensure that the benefits of devolving services are realised.
• Deliver substantial budget savings to Cornwall Council
Achieved from the Current Review
Project is reporting as Red.
Whilst work on the overall programme is progressing well, the programme is reporting as red because the identified budget savings have yet to be fully realised (in particular projects linked to libraries and public conveniences).
However during March work progressed on a number of major projects:
• Jubilee Pool, Penzance – significant progress made with Jubilee Pool Penzance Ltd community benefit society now a legal entity. Work to procure an operator for 2017 season is well underway and improved access works have commenced on site
• Camborne – Draft legal agreement issued and Japanese Knotweed investigation work completed although presence of a mining features on one site is causing a potential complication.
• St Austell – Major Agency Agreement signed and legal transfers completed on majority of sites with 6 “housing” sites under local management and awaiting Secretary of State approval. S106 schedule programme now underway and outstanding inspections / compliance work completed. Work well underway to progress the transfer of the car park, library etc. in Spring/Summer 2017.
• St Agnes – a long term solution has been identified as is being implemented.
In addition to this, work continues to deliver other smaller projects on the prioritised work programme in accordance with the principles agreed by the Localism Portfolio Advisory Committee.
• The Local Devolution Fund, which totals £608k allocated between the 19 Community Network Areas, is continuing to operate well. To date, 77 proposals (£448k) have been through the full process and been agreed by the Portfolio Holder (from 16 of the 19 Community Network Panels). £160k of the Fund remains unallocated. However, a further 31 proposals are currently under active consideration and at least half of these should be submitted to the Portfolio Holder during March 2017. Some funding agreements are waiting to be signed by Town Councils.
• We continue to support Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to work with the Cabinet Office and key national Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VSCE) bodies to develop a new national programme on social action and devolution and were keynote speakers at a national Social Action conference 16 February 2017. We are also looking to commission external evaluation of the devolution programme.
Code / Title / Senior Responsible Officer / Start Date / End Date / Previous
Status / Current
Status
3.1.11 / Town Parking Strategic Review / Nigel Blackler / 01/04/2016 / 31/03/2017 (Planned) / Amber / Amber
Project Description
A review within 7 towns to improve the management and flow of traffic and to address existing parking issues within the context of a wider transport strategy for each town. The aim will be on increasing the capacity for parking for customers and visitors within our towns.
Achieved from the Current Review
The town parking project status is Amber and has been placed on hold which reflects the decision around the strategic change in timeline made by Senior Management. The timeline will be reviewed following the May elections.
Code / Title / Senior Responsible Officer / Start Date / End Date / Previous
Status / Current
Status
3.1.13 / Integrated Bus Network Capital Project / Nigel Blackler / 01/04/2016 / 31/03/2017 (Planned) / Amber / Amber
Project Description
A customer focused public transport network is at the heart of our plan to deliver ‘One Public Transport System for Cornwall’ (OPTSC). Partnerships with local operators will bring about the integration of routes, ticketing and timetabling for bus with local rail services and deliver this system under one brand by December 2018, in line with the delivery of 2 trains per hour on the mainline. By significantly improving the offering to both existing passengers and non-users we will improve the appeal of public transport, drive up patronage on bus and rail and bring about an upturn in revenue to make the network as a whole more financially viable. Cornwall will take forward the development of OPTSC under the Cornwall Devolution Deal (CDD) utilising existing Growth Deal funding. Should we be unable to deliver the aims of OPTSC using this partnership approach, we would look to take up the franchising powers to develop a regulated bus market in Cornwall under the terms of the CDD.
Achieved from the Current Review
Following project elements have slipped behind schedule:
- Bus operation cost tool (delays with validation of the tool and negotiating data sharing agreement with bus operators)
- Bus operator data – some operators are yet to provide their service data
• Orders placed for infrastructure, digital displays and electronic ticket machines on bus to deliver smart & contactless ticketing
• Meeting with GWR (Great Western Railway) and First to be held to agree a process to introduce account-based ticketing, fare capping and ticket purchase via smartphones
• Bus Services Bill consultation response on the draft regulations and guidance and was submitted to Government on 21 March 2017
• Draft Report for Stage 2 of Bus Network Planning is under review
• Scoping exercise underway for the development of market testing
• Presentation to the Local Enterprise Board on revised Growth Deal 3 bid – awaiting news of award
• £400k award from DfT for smart and EMV (Eurocard MasterCard Visa) barcode terminals
Code / Title / Senior Responsible Officer / Start Date / End Date / Previous
Status / Current
Status
3.2.2 / Leisure Services Transfer / Kieran Topping / 01/04/2016 / 31/03/2017 (Planned) / Amber / Amber
Project Description
The transfer of leisure service provision to one or more operators on the basis of a nil revenue subsidy. A new contract will be procured on either a freehold transfer or long-term leasehold arrangement to take effect from 1st April 2017.
Achieved from the Current Review
The project status is Amber due to the two lease extensions required where the Council is a tenant; both sites are making progress towards a completed lease.
• A work around has been put in place to enable service delivery with the new contractor pending lease completion, the leases are set for completion before the end of June 2017.
• Legal documentation was signed on 31 March in time for contract commencement on 01 April.
Code / Title / Senior Responsible Officer / Start Date / End Date / Previous
Status / Current
Status
3.3.1 / Housing Development (part of Housing Investment Plan) / Phil Mason / 01/04/2016 / 31/03/2018 (Planned) / Amber / Amber
Project Description
New Cornwall Council model for the direct delivery of housing development in Cornwall
Achieved from the Current Review