Agency Management Board Minutes 25 January 2007
Minutes of The Agency Management Board Meeting Held in The Lighthouse Building on Thursday 25 January 2007
Present:
Mr Keenan (Chair)
Mr Davis
Mr Boyle
Ms Cousins
Dr Dixon
Mr Sinnamon
Mrs Hanna (Observer)
Mrs Matchett (Observer)
Mr Hickland (Minutes)
Introduction
Mr Keenan welcomed Dr Dixon back to the Board and welcomed Anne Hanna and Mandy Matchett to the meeting.
Previous minutes
The previous minutes were agreed subject to a minor amendment.
Status of Action Points – (AMB 03/07)
Mr Keenan referred to the Status of Action Points on AMB 03/07 and the Board noted the items that had been cleared since the previous meeting or were being taken forward through specific Business Areas. 99/06: was discussed and Mr Davis agreed to provide a paper to February’s Board to outline the implications of Devolution on the SSA. 102/06: was discussed and Mr Sinnamon agreed to write to Noel Kelly to request and urgent response.
Items for Discussion
Finances / Resources
Financial Report - (AMB 01/07)
Ms Cousins outlined the details of the Financial Report showing the position at December 06. She reported that the current projection of the Baseline Admin and Other Current funding indicated a £3.2m easement and a £1.1m easement in Capital. The Modernisation Admin and Other Funding indicated an easement of £0.6m and £1.5m in Capital. Ms Cousins outlined the explanations for declared easements and pressures, provided detail on the General Reserve outturn figure and reported that there were no other major concerns. She asked the Board to consider the bids for additional overtime resources as outlined in the paper and added that Disability & Carers Service now required a further £25k in addition to the £45k requested in the Finance Report to manage the impact of the introduction of clinical reports. Ms Cousins stated that overall Directorates bids for overtime totalled £127k. However, Directorates were surrendering a total of £56k this month so if the bids were approved the net overtime allocation would be £71k which would result in an uncommitted overtime reserve of £0.213M. After discussion Ms Cousins requested that the Board note the information and approve the bids. This was agreed.
Mrs Cousins provided the Board with an overview of the recent Leo O’Reilly presentation and agreed to put preliminary efficiency proposals to colleagues in mid March.
After further discussion the Board noted the report and easements to date and approved the overtime bids.
(Action Point 01/07:Ms Cousins)
Manpower Report – (AMB 05/07)
Mr Sinnamon introduced the Manpower paper and reported on the current staffing position for all grades. He provided detail on the limited levels of recruitment that had been undertaken to meet business critical vacancies and stated that the report also included information on recent promotion activity. He stated that there had been no significant change in the last month in the number of SO vacancies and added that EO1 vacancies had now reduced from 11.82 to 4.81 following clearance in December of tier 10 of the EO1 list. Mr Sinnamon stated that there had been an increase on the AO/SSO2 surplus following on the clearance of the AO promotion list in December. He added that the clearance of the AO list was the main reason for vacancies at the AA grade rising from 20 to 69.
Mr Sinnamon provided detail on issues raised and to be raised with with Central Personnel Group regarding the SSA’s deficit position at various grades. Mr Sinnamon also agreed to explore other options available in order to expedite the static manpower position.
After discussion the Board noted the Manpower position.
(Action Point 02/07:Mr Sinnamon)
Operational Reports
Operational Division Performance Report - (AMB 07/07)
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 October 05 to September 06, outlined the details on performance against the service delivery targets and advised that these figures reflect the underlying improvements in case accuracy which had previously been reported to AMB. Mr Davis stated that the main areas for concern for performance on the Financial Accuracy targets were Pension Credit, Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance and provided detail on the following:
- Pension Credit: Achievement of 93.9% against the target of 98%. Mr Davis reported that the September ’06 position showed an improvement of 0.7% points from 93.2% reported at June 06. He stated that management now have an accuracy improvement plan in place, and continue to challenge deemed errors. He also reported that SAU were showing gradual improvement in recent decision making results and management were working to ensure this improvement trend continues.
- Incapacity Benefit: Achievement of 96.9% against the target of 99%. Mr Davis stated that new results for September ’06 were showing good improvement and that results are currently 0.1% off meeting the target within tolerance. He added that monthly indicative case accuracy monitoring results continue to show underlying improvement since September ’06 and there had been a reduction in deemed errors since October ’06. Mr Davis also reported that the high level of vacancies at SSO1 and SSO2 and the inexperience of staff was hindering the Branch from realising the full potential from their revised accuracy improvement plan.
- DLA: Achievement of 96.9% against the target of 98%. Mr Davis reported that this result continued the improvement trend quarter on quarter. He stated that deemed errors were being maintained at a low level and stated that if deemed errors were excluded, this target would be met within tolerance. He added that indications showed that improvement had been maintained and pending the results from the final quarter, expectations are that this target will be met within tolerance by year end.
The Claims clearance targets missed were in respect of Pension Credit, all other Service Delivery Operational Targets had been met for December and Mr Davis provided the following detail:
- Pension Credit Claims Clearance: Achievement of 17.2 Days (Month) and 14.8 Days (Ytd) against the month and Ytd target of 12 Days. Mr Davis reported that although Pension Credit claims clearance had missed the target this month, claims clearances had improved for the third successive month (18 days last month to 17.2 days for December). He reported that the situation had now stabilised and clearance times were reducing month on month. He stated that the overall improved performance was mainly as a result of remedial action by management and the hard work of staff which was very heartening.
Mr Davis stated that overall, underlying information demonstrated a continued improvement in casepaper accuracy and highlighted the month on month improvements in Decision Making for Pension Credit. Mr Davis also reported on the performance of Belfast Benefit Centre for the two London Districts for which the Belfast processed work. He stated that although the JSA claims clearance target had been missed with clearance of 12.1 Days in month and 14.1 Days Ytd, the month on month improvement trend continued. He added that given the clear Ministerial interest in IS claims, clearances had made a very good recovery with the clearance times reduced by 3 days resulting in clearance now being back on track. Mr Davis stated that prospects for the remainder of the business year looked positive.
After discussion, the Board noted the performance against the targets. After further discussion Mr Davis agreed to draft a paper to February AMB regarding DWP’s 5 year strategy on reducing Fraud and Error and the Agency’s arrangements for tracking this.
(Action Point 03/07:Mr Davis)
Progress Against Additional Key Targets - (AMB 04/07)
The Board noted the progress against the Additional Targets. Mr Sinnamon reported that HR Strategy had now been agreed with ATUS and had been published on the Personnel intranet site.
Other Reports
Direct Payment into Credit union Accounts - (AMB 02/07)
Ms Cousins introduced this paper and stated that the purpose of the paper was to advise AMB of the extension of the Direct Payment facility to Credit Union Branches. She provided detail on the Pilot Exercises following the acquisition of new IT systems by the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) and stated that the Pilot had a positive outcome. She reported that the Credit Unions were satisfied with the Direct Payment of benefits and had indicated that they would now seek the Agency’s agreement to increase the number of benefits payable and the number of Credit Unions who can receive payment by this means. Ms Cousins outlined the financial and resource implications for the Agency and asked the Board to approve the extension of Direct Payment to relevant Credit Unions with the necessary IT in place and agree to Bank Liaison Section producing an appropriate bulletin to announce this extension to Operational Branches.
After discussion the Board noted the current position and agreed to implement the recommendations. Ms Cousins also agreed to contact the Ulster Federation (UFCU) and offer to extend the Direct Payment facility to them.
(Action Point 04/07:Ms Cousins)
SSA Corporate Risk Register - (AMB 06/07)
Ms Cousins introduced the Agency’s 2006/07 Risk Register, covering the third quarter, October 06 to December 06. She asked the board to note the inclusion of two new risks to the Register on the introduction of the Employment and Support Project (ESA) (Risk 14) and the management of Central recruitment within the Agency (Risk 15). She also provided detail on the downgrading/upgrading of the Risks referring to:
- Risks 4, 5, 6 &10 – Likelihood of this risk occurring has reduced from ‘Medium’ to ‘Low.
- Risk 7 – This risk has been amended and refers only to Jobs and Benefits with the impact and likelihood increasing to ‘High’ and the manageability rating increasing to ‘Not fully managed’.
- Risk 9 – Considerable change has been made to this risk as Phase 1 of Strategic Business Review has been completed with work commencing on Phase 2.
- Risk 12 & Risk 13 – Modifications have been made to aspects of ‘How this risk is currently managed’ and an additional action has been added to fully manage Risk 13.
After discussion the board noted progress against the key risks and agreed that Risk 14 would remain in this year’s Register and that the Risk on effectively reducing staff absence levels (Risk 12) should be amended from Managed to Partially Managed.
(Action Point 05/07:Ms Cousins)
Any Other Business
IIP Re-Accreditation
Mr Sinnamon outlined the detail of the report submitted to December’s Board meeting and stated that the paper set out proposed arrangements for Investors in People (IiP) re-accreditation in the Agency.
After discussion Mr Sinnamon agreed to start the process to seek re-accreditation in January 2008 and tender a bid in March 2008.
(Action Point 06/07:Mr Sinnamon)
Varney Report
Mr Keenan updated the Board on his note to DMB regarding the Varney Report. After discussion Mr Boyle agreed to keep DMB and AMB informed and agreed to provide a paper to April ’06 AMB.
(Action Point 07/07:Mr Boyle)
Cold Weather Payments
Mr Davis confirmed that all appropriate measures were now in place to make payments as required.
DR Martin Donnelly
The Board extended their thanks to Dr Donnelly for his contributions in place of Dr Dixon.
Date of Next Meeting
The next AMB meeting would take place on Thursday 22 February 2007 in the 5th Floor Boardroom at 10.00am.
Below The Line Papers
There were no below the line papers.
Ian Hickland
AMB Secretary
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