Agency Management Board Minutes 21 December 2006

Mr Keenan (Chair)  
Mr Davis  
Mr Boyle
Ms Cousins
Dr Donnelly
Mr Sinnamon
Mr Kelly (Observer)
Mr Harvey (Observer)
Mr Hickland (Minutes)  

Mr Keenan welcomed Mickey Kelly and Alan Harvey to the meeting.

Mr Keenan welcomed Margaret Boyle and Michael McGinn to the meeting.  Mr Davis provided the background details and stated it was recognised that there was scope for the Agency to improve performance in light of systemic accuracy issues and the presentation aimed to outline suggested improvements.  Margaret and Michael provided the detail and advised the Board on the key initiatives that would lead to improved accuracy.

After discussion the Board thanked them for their informative presentation and noted that this was a worthwhile exercise.  It was agreed that all Board members would provide Margaret and Michael with their views to enable them to return to the Board at a later date with further details on options.
(Action Point 100/06:AMB)

The previous minutes were agreed subject to minor amendments.

Mr Keenan referred to the Status of Action Points on AMB 131/06 and the Board noted the items that had been cleared since the previous meeting.

Financial Report - (AMB 146/06)
Ms Cousins outlined the details of the Financial Report showing the position at November 06.  She reported that the current projection of the Baseline Admin and Other Current funding indicated a £2.7m easement and a £1m easement in Capital.  The Modernisation Admin and Other Funding indicated an easement of £0.4m and £0.9m in Capital.  She outlined the explanations for declared easements/pressures and provided detail on the General Reserve outturn figure.  She reported that there were no major concerns and asked the Board to note the current position.  

After discussion the Board was content to note the report.

Manpower Report – (AMB 142/06)
Mr Sinnamon introduced the Manpower paper and reported on the staffing position for all grades as at November 06.  He stated that vacancies at the SO grade fell from 19.58 to 11.84 as a result of promotions from the remaining tiers of the SO supplementary list.  He added that the deficit at EO2/SSO1 had reduced from 108.58 to 93.11.  Mr Sinnamon summarised the current situation in relation to the overall declared vacancies within the Agency and provided detail regarding promotion lists.  He added that work was ongoing to secure 13 EO2/SSO1 as imports from other Departments following the recent supplementary list and that liaison was ongoing with Central Personnel Group regarding the SSA’s deficit position at this grade.

After discussion the Board noted the Manpower Report. Mr Sinnamon agreed to provide draft letters from Mr Keenan and Mr Shannon, to Derek Baker and John Hunter of DFP, respectively before the Christmas break.
(Action Point 101/06:Mr Sinnamon)

Operational Division Performance Report - (AMB 145/06)
Mr Davis outlined the details of the Operational Division Report.  He stated that information on financial accuracy performance reflected the position on the rolling year July 05 to June 06, and outlined the details on performance against the service delivery targets and advised that updated results would be included in next month’s report.  Mr Davis stated that while financial accuracy figures are not fully available to mid January, figures are based on underlying casepaper accuracy results to December.  Mr Davis reported on the likely outturn position for the key targets and qualified that changes in the monitory value of errors could however impact adversely on the final financial accuracy outturn.

at 97.7% - outside tolerance which is the range from 98.3% - 99.7%.  Underlying casepaper accuracy has risen to 95.5% in December.  Experience suggests that final financial accuracy is usually some 3-4% percentage points higher than casepaper accuracy therefore the estimate is that financial accuracy is on target to be met.

at 93.2% - outside tolerance which is in the range from 96.5% - 99.5.  Underlying casepaper accuracy has risen by 1% from October and now stands at 84.3%.  Experience suggests that final financial accuracy is usually 3-4 percentage points higher than casepaper accuracy therefore the estimate is that final accuracy target will not be met.

at 95.2% - outside tolerance which is in the range from 97.1% - 100%.  Underlying casepaper accuracy has risen by 1.6% and now stands at 94%.  Experience suggests that final financial accuracy is usually 3-4 percentage points higher than casepaper accuracy therefore the estimate is that the final accuracy is on target to be met.

at 95.5% - outside tolerance which is in the range from 97% - 99%.  Underlying casepaper accuracy stands at 94%.  Experience suggests that final financial accuracy is usually 3-4 percentage points higher than casepaper accuracy therefore the estimate is that the financial target will just be met within tolerance.

The Claims clearance targets missed were in respect of Pension Credit and Disability Living Allowance, all other Service Delivery Operational Targets had been met for November and Mr Davis provided the following detail:

Mr Davis stated that overall, underlying information demonstrated a continued improvement in casepaper accuracy and outlined the issue with “errors in stock” which was affecting the overall accuracy rating.  Mr Davis outlined the concerted efforts that were being made to reduce deemed errors and that while additional resources had now been allocated to deal with this there were still concerns regarding SSO1 vacancies.  Mr Davis also reported on the performance of Belfast Benefit Centre for the two London Districts for which Belfast processed work.

After discussion, the Board noted the performance against the targets and asked for continuing focus on improving performance.

Progress Against Additional Key Targets - (AMB 144/06)
The Board noted the progress against the Additional Targets.  

HR Strategy
Mr Sinnamon reported on progress on:

and agreed that consultation on these be brought to an urgent conclusion in early January.

Mr Sinnamon also agreed to consider the handling strategy of ‘legacy’ term time cases and agreed that this needed to be developed urgently to fit with the SBR Phase 2 Project Plan.
(Action Point 102/06:Mr Sinnamon)

Modernisation
Colum Boyle advised that the meeting with DCS (GB) IS Director scheduled for December 2006 had now been rescheduled to February 2007.

Benefit Expenditure in the SSA (Updated from Nov’06) (AMB 128/06)
Ms Cousins introduced this paper and stated that the purpose of the paper was to advise AMB of the Agency Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) December 2006 monitoring position and to provide the Board with assurance that the Agency’s benefit estimates adequately covered the anticipated Agency spend for the financial year.   Ms Cousins raised a matter of concern in connection with the current AME estimate for Job Grant.  She advised that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in GB had estimated that the impact of the legislative change to their predicted Job Grant expenditure had resulted in an in-year increase in their estimate to £4.5m.  Ms Cousins stated that to maintain parity with GB, the Agency planned to increase its in-year estimate for Job Grant by £120k to £1.020m.  She added that this revision for Job Grant will therefore be written into the Spring Supplementary Estimates (SSEs), the first draft of which will be submitted to DFP in early January 2007.

After discussion the Board noted the AME December Monitoring Round position and the issue impacting on the payment of Job Grant.

Investors in People (IiP) Re-accreditation (AMB 141/06)
Mr Sinnamon outlined the detail of the report and stated that the paper set out proposed arrangements for Investors in People (IiP) re-accreditation in the Agency.  He added that the Agency first achieved the IiP Standard in 1996 and had successfully retained it through subsequent assessments, the last being carried out in November 1994.  Mr Sinnamon reported that work had been ongoing over the last 6 months between TDU and the Development and Training Liaison Officers (DTLO’s) to establish how the Agency measured up against the new standard in preparation for re- accreditation.  These activities include the production of High Level and Local Action Plans, the production of an IiP checklist and the provision of targeted awareness training for key staff.  

After discussion the Board noted the ongoing work in preparation for assessment and agreed in principle to the undertaking of re- accreditation but in light of the Agency’s new training approach from April 2007, Mr Sinnamon agreed to investigate the possibility of deferring re-accreditation until after November 2007 when the current accreditation expires.
(Action Point 103/06:Mr Sinnamon)

On-Time Solutions (OTS) Project Resources Advertising (AMB 147/06)
Mr Boyle outlined the details of the report and advised that In September 2006 AMB approved the Project Mandate for OTS (AMB 104/06).  He stated that project resource requirements had now been determined and AMB approval was now being sought to cover OTS project staffing complement and commercial licence costs.

After discussion the Board noted the paper and approved the allocation of financial resources to deliver OTS in the Agency.

Continuation of the Counter Benefit Fraud Advertising Campaign (AMB 148/06)
Mr Davis introduced this paper and stated the Board agreed in August 2004 that resources would be committed to an advertising campaign which was in keeping with the Agency’s commitment to a strategy to tackle fraud.  Mr Davis stated that research and evaluation had been carried out by MORI and outlined the findings which were provided in appendix 1 of the report:

Mr Davis reported that the Agency had been successful in reducing fraud by up to 50% over the last three years and that the current low level would be difficult to maintain.  He added that research had shown that the last Benefit Fraud advertising campaign was successful in changing the attitude to benefit fraud and the new refocused approach envisaged could only enhance the impact. Mr Davis also commented on the financial impact of a second phase campaign and confirmed that there were appropriate resources available.

After discussion, the Board approved the development of a second phase of counter fraud publicity campaign which should take account of any relevant comments in the upcoming NIAO report.

SBR: Revised Governance Arrangements (AMB 149/06)
Mr Boyle invited John O’Neill (SBR Project manager) to the meeting and stated that with the formal completion of SBR Phase 1 on 20 December 2006, it was now appropriate to review the governance arrangements for SBR Phase 2.  Mr Boyle provided details on the expansion of the Project Board and outlined the Terms of Reference.  Mr Boyle added that to assist with the work of the project team a, new key stakeholder group would be put in place in line with standard project governance arrangements.  

After discussion the Board noted the paper, agreed to the proposals as outlined and agreed that Mervyn Adair should join the key stakeholder group.  Mr Boyle also agreed to return to January’s Board outlining a Project Brief, Project Plan and Resource Plan.
(Action Point 104/06:Mr Boyle)

Benefit Uptake Programme Quarterly Report (AMB 139/06)
Bryan Davis outlined the detail of the quarterly progress on the Benefit Uptake Programme.  Mr Davis provided clarification on the indicative claimant data.

After discussion the Board noted the progress to date.  Mr Davis agreed to seek clarification as to why in light of the Fraud Act 1997, the Agency was unable to track the awarding of rates rebates through the Rates Collection Agency.
(Action Point 105/06:Mr Davis)

SBR Update on Feedback
Mr Boyle stated that between 13 and 19 December there were approximately 250 hits on the SBR internet page.  He confirmed that the cascade exercise to staff had been in the main completed and the Board thanked G7s for their efforts.

Interpretation Services
Mr Davis updated the Board on the range of Interpretation Services utilised by the Agency and stated that the current contract was due to end in December 2007.  Mr Davis stated that the Agency now needed to analyse how to best deliver these services and consider a review.
(Action Point 106/06:Mr Davis)

Fraud Unit
The Board requested that Fraud Unit consider looking at the use of Community Service Orders in terms of prosecutions.
(Action Point 107/06:Mr Davis)

Next Meeting
The next AMB meeting would take place on Thursday 25 January 2007 in the 5th Floor Boardroom at 10.00am.

Ian Hickland

AMB Secretary