Finance, Resources, and Corporate Committee - Thursday 5 September 2024, 11:30am - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

Finance, Resources, and Corporate Committee
Thursday, 5th September 2024 at 11:30am 

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  1. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  2. Jocelyn Manners-Armstrong Independent Member
  3. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  4. Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council)
  5. Cllr Denise Jeffery (Wakefield Council)
  6. Caroline Norreys
  7. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  8. Cllr James Lewis (Leeds City Council)
  9. Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  10. Jo Dent (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  11. Jenny Sharpe (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  12. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
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  1. Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council)
  2. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
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  1. Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  4. Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council)
  5. Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  6. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  7. Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  8. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
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  1. Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  3. Cllr James Lewis (Leeds City Council)
  4. Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  5. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  6. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  8. Jocelyn Manners-Armstrong Independent Member
  9. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  10. Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  11. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  12. Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council)
  13. Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  14. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
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  1. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  4. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  5. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  6. Asma Iqbal, West Yorkshire Business Board (Private Sector Representative)
  7. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  8. Jocelyn Manners-Armstrong Independent Member
  9. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  10. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  11. Jo Dent (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  12. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  13. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  14. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
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  1. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  2. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Presentation Slides
  4. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  5. Presentation Slides
  6. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Presentation Slides
  8. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  9. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
  10. Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council)
  11. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  12. Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council)
  13. Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  14. Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire
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  1. Presentation Slides
  2. Webcast Finished

1 Apologies for Absence

Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:00:16
and burning all afternoon, or and good to see you, thank you so much for coming to this finance resources and corporate Committee and Adam, I know there's a few apologies, would you maybe talk us through them, thank you.
apologies for absence were received from Councillor Susan his.
Councillor Carole Pattison Councillor James Stuart, thank you so much and I wonder whether we could just quickly canter round the table as there are some subs and introduce each other, because of course this is the first FCC since the election, so there are also potentially some changes to personnel so if we could start please with an Jocelyn,
thank you.
I'm Justin Madders Armstrong, it and the Independent Member for this Committee.
Jocelyn Manners-Armstrong Independent Member - 0:01:03
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:01:07
thank you, Sylvia hello and Councillor, Sylvia daycare, I'm not sure
Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council) - 0:01:11
whether, on, strictly speaking, a sobering observer for Councillor don't scorn from Calderdale.
Cllr Denise Jeffery (Wakefield Council) - 0:01:18
Denise Jeffery, Leader of Wakefield.
Caroline Norreys - 0:01:24
Caroline Norris, Assistant Director, legal governance and compliance.
I'll reach Chief operating Officer, you know me, Tracey the man.
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:01:31
Adam Tomkins, who support?
I'll James Lewis leader of Leeds council.
Cllr James Lewis (Leeds City Council) - 0:01:39
carried out and head of finance at the Combined Authority.
Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:01:47
hello and Jordan, a new Assistant Director for people in
Jo Dent (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:01:52
transformation.
moaning and Jenny Shaw HR operations Manager, and I'm stuck in flood,
Jenny Sharpe (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:01:59
Joanne grey, Cadboll HR, today.
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:02:04
thank you so much, and can I make a formal welcome and hello to the Combined authorities, new Assistant Director of people and Transformation Jordan, you joined us yesterday, so you've been or a member for a matter of hours, sorry, it's very good to see you and also, if I may say, Angela Taylor, Director of Finance and Commercial Services isn't here today, but I just wanted to thank her for her over 20 years of dedicated service to the Combined Authority and she is taking a very well deserved retirement. We wish her well on her new adventure
into retirement, but also, as I mentioned, we are post election and we have seen a really exciting change at the centre of government and a greater commitment to further deeper devolution. That's why this committee is incredibly important because I know that we are single settlement ready. That's what we want from the Labour government in the same way that Greater Manchester and West Midlands have a single settlement and I know that doubling down on delivery and scrutinising our budgets, and so on will be
additional evidence of the fact that we are single settlement ready and, as you know, this next term there were only three words. We need to think about and that's deliver deliver deliver, so any opportunity, whatever is stopping us from delivering for the people of West Yorkshire, we will move it out of the way will will go under it rounded or over it, but we will find a solution to the thing that is stopping as delivering and at the heart of that is of course, the finances, so I'm really pleased to see you all here and thank you so much for your interest in the FCC committee

2 Declarations of Pecuniary Interests

3 Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

moving on to Item 3, the exclusion of Press and public no items on the agenda require the exclusion of Press and public.

4 Minutes of the meeting held on 7 March 2024

turning to the minutes of the meeting held March, the seventh that feels like a century ago.
is there anything anybody would like to raise any comments or questions from their meeting March 7th?
are we happy to confirm that these are an accurate record?

5 Governance Arrangements

we are thank you so much Okido, so moving on to Item 5 or governance arrangements, this is the first meeting, as I said in this municipal year, this report sets out the details of the governance arrangements for FCC terms of reference and membership due to the sequencing of meetings Carol Parsons, membership of this Committee is due to be formally approved by the sea or at the next meeting of 19th September and so isn't formally on this committee but she sent apologies anyway.
but all observers are welcome as Sylvia to contribute to the conversation, so please do feel free to speak, can we note the governance arrangements?

6 2023-24 End of Year Financial Position

Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council) - 0:05:11
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:05:17
yes, thank you so much Okido item 6 2023 24, end of year financial position, this update on the finance has provides confirmation of the draft results for 23 24, so could I ask Gary Dawson to take us through the paper, please thank you and then I'll be coming to any questions from the Committee.
Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:05:35
thank you for so the purpose provides the 23 24 euro position for both Revenue and Capital in terms of the headlines, then at a quarter 3 of last financial year, the forecast revenue position was a surplus of 180,000 compared to a budgeted surplus of of 93,000 so both less than a 10th of 1% of income.
the the actual year end position was a net surplus of 7.1 million, which was just under 2% of of income and that movement from forecast was primarily driven by three things. One was additional investment income of of 3.1 million the second. The second element was additional income from enterprise zones again of 3.1 million and the third element was made up of various director underspend which totalled just over 900,000 pounds that the result does allow funding of those currently our pressures which were presented to the July see a meeting as well as allowing us to replenish a general reserves to around 12 million pounds.
which is a prudent level of around 3% of revenue turnover, those pressures that have been identified are likely to continue to need further funding and these are touched on further in the quarter one report which follows this, so in terms of the final capital position for 23 24 taught spend was just over 276 million which is 95% of the quarter 3 forecast and almost 88% of the capital spend budget for last
Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:07:10
year some 87% of capital spend is transport related who spend funded by sea or SDF.
transforming cities and the West Yorkshire Transport Fund accounting for around 80% of our total capital spend when compared to the previous financial year, so 22 23 capital expenditure last year increased by some 28%.
thank you so much, and it's quite something, isn't it, that the
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:07:35
forecast for 24 25 in Sierra SDS is 166 million increase of 70% on 23 24, we are really getting to work now, are we on delivering on our transport plans and,
you know that as an organisation ready to deliver mass transit and all those other transport infrastructure plans really pivotal to success and growing our economy in West Yorkshire, so any questions may I take some questions.
yes, Sylvia, thank you so.
Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council) - 0:08:17
the the two main reasons for the difference in the outcome of the investment in community enterprise ceremony, and so I had a finance asks widows, weren't better predicted his particular, I mean I can understand that the difficulty with the Capital delivery sometimes, but particularly the Enterprise Zone,
thanks.
Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:08:38
thanks so, yes, Zobi, the Enterprise Zone income, was subject to a lot of discussion during the course of last financial year which which is one of the the reasons why it was picked up late, what what what we have done for this financial year is focused more on risks and opportunities across the organisations we are better able to forecast those and avoid the
surprises, I guess, that we encountered at the end of last financial year, so it has been being noted, and we are looking to address that within the forecasting regime that we've got in place for the closure.
thanks can I ask why is?
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:09:17
Bradford literature festival from 2022 in this
23 24, isn't it?
I forgot my debts it if it is, it is 23 24.
Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:09:32
it just says to support the festival in 2022, so it went out this
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:09:36
year, yet I handy I'm yet here and with you.
okay, joke any further comments.

7 2024-25 Quarter 1 Financial Position

no Okido right, moving on, thank you so much, are we happy to note the financial position as reported we are? Thank you very much Okido, moving on to 24 25 quarter 1 financial position, this finance paper provides the financial position at quarter 1 of this financial year along with a forecast position for the full year. obviously there's a little bit of uncertainty ahead with the autumn spending review, etc and some.
uncertainty as yet about the single settlement and so on, so things could change but overdue Gary to talk us through this, but you
Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:10:25
altogether or so, yes, absolutely so this this is predicated on the quarter 1 forecasting exercise that we did.
at the end of June, so again the paper provides both revenue and capital positions for the first quarter of the financial year and gives us a forecast year-end position for 24 25, so I'll start with the actual revenue position at the end of June the end of quarter 1, this was a net expenditure of 2.4 million against the budgeted net expenditure of 2 million,
the variance is largely due to timing differences across the project portfolio, so while we have profiled budgets to reflect the expected incidents of income and expenditure, some differences do do remain and work is ongoing with budget holders to further improve this profiling.
the forecast revenue position at year end and shows a very small surplus of under under 100,000 pounds. But the year-end position does include some risk, adjusted estimates of financial pressures that we are experiencing, which totalled 3 3.4 million the bulk of these pressures some 3.3 million are in transport, with around 100,000 in digital technology services, so the pressures in transport primarily relate to Bradford Interchange and the the details pressures relate to software in terms of funding. These pressures are released from the Transport reserve of 3.5 million was agreed at the July meeting of the Combined Authority and when coupled with the release of 3.8 million that was agreed at the February budget, setting meeting of the Combined Authority to fund existing pressures, including those around bus tendered services
the forecast year-end position as one material break, even
in terms of forecasting, or as I've as I've said, we are now focusing much more on risks and opportunities to add some flavour and colour to the expected during position, so we can avoid potential surprises.
a number of risks do remain this financial year and into 25 26 and beyond.
and those are centred around transport primarily in top and are still moving with Bradford Interchange, was tendered services Bradford bus operated as an operator, reimbursements likely to result in further cost pressures as we move through the year.
these areas, along with others, are being kept under constant review,
in terms of capital, expenditure, at quarter 1 was nearly 51 million pounds, which is just over 11% of the total forecast spend for the year.
this compares very favourably with would spend at this time last year, which was just over 41 million, and total forecast spend is expected to be 446 million again largely flow across the
transport related programmes as well as brownfield housing.
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:13:32
thank you, Gary and of course the story about Bradford Interchange is not over when making the decision at the next Combined Authority about next steps, but also we are not just to transport authority, are we and I just to alert Members to the 3.12, which is where we're talking about existing the pressures on capital programmes and how we also are committed to delivering non transport projects in support of net 0 in housing and where funding options need to be.
identified him, the work that is ongoing behind the scenes, how we determine the strategic priorities are delivered and funding available, and reports on this are going to come to this committee, because that's also the part of the priorities and manifesto commitments that I was elected on with my mandate in May, so we will make sure there are I is not off the ball when it comes to our other projects and expectations.
any questions on this first quarter report James
Cllr James Lewis (Leeds City Council) - 0:14:37
thanks to you, as is the very quick question on the table, Quarter 1 revenue position the table on 3 point to
the actual spend on employee costs is quite a bit down from the budgeted spend, I wonder if you could just explain that please.
so that's what that's one of the areas that we talked about in terms
Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:14:58
of we have profiled budgets where we, where we can, to to matching common expenditure, but of course the the incidents of recruiting staff different changes throughout the year, so it it's it's a mismatch, I guess between what the budgeted position and the incidence of stuff actually being employed and taking up post.
OK, so is at current vacancies, then I'm being that haven't been filled.
that's that's part of it yesterday.
thanks to Alan, do you want to just give us a little bit more detail
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:15:34
on that, because I know that there was a recruitment pause as we introduced CIA anywhere and that meant that the recruitment timelines stretched S from 177 days to one 90 I gather, so would you talk to that? Please yeah well, so there was a brief recruitment process last
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:15:56
December which then had a knock-on effect into this financial year, which caused some delays in bringing people on board. The next paper on the agenda is the HR management. Information for the quarter wish to address that point directly and I'm pleased to say we'll get through it in a minute, but that figure and time taken to recruit has fallen very substantially. Now it was, it was at the level. You've just you've just said in the
the in the final quarter of last year in the first quarter of this year has fallen significantly, so we have brought where we have accelerated the pace at which were bringing people on board. The part of the reason for the for the the budget. The spend on employee costs below profile is is also aware. We've we know, we need to recruit into positions during the course of the year, but it then so they're in the budget, but then it takes time for them to come on board, and so that's one of the read, so it's so it's part of it is the there's potentially a vacancy issue where someone has left and it's taken time to fill Philip, but there's also a we've created. We we've put space in the budget in order to bring the person in, but it's just taken time to bring them in in the first place and the good news stories see
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:17:00
I anywhere is now up and running and really adding to our deliver, deliver deliver missions and also our E D. I capacity
where we can get much more information about colleagues, about recruitment, about diversity within our organisation, age profile, and so on, all of the things that will help us reduce our gender pay gap, I'd have asked to pay gap, etc so whilst it did take a bit of time we are there and I'm really pleased to see that colleagues are taking to it any further comments yes, thank you Jocelyn,
yes, similarly on the go to an revenue table, France and agency costs
Jocelyn Manners-Armstrong Independent Member - 0:17:40
was a very, very large overspend.
I'm presuming, you've said that it's all timing, but that seems to me that excessive, even for timing differences and are the agency costs, because partly we weren't recruiting so more agency workers be used, or is this entirely grants, and if that two different things could we have them split out?
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:18:06
yes, thank you, Gary absolutely so at yet we will split that out. It
Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:18:10
is primarily grant it is we have over achieved in terms of timing of grant income and that to be matched by expenditure, but I do I do take the point that we do need to split our granting agency because we will do that for the next report. That's very helpful, thank you, because
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:18:26
it is a bit startling had laid out as it is, so thank you for raising that any yes Celia
thank you Chair.
Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council) - 0:18:35
so the other one, that some a big difference, I think, is the tendered services.
where way above budget, although you predicting that by the end of the year you'll get that one budget, so what's the reason for that being so out of kilter at the moment, so there are there are pressures on
Gary Dowson, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:18:56
untended services and that that is one of the that is one of the areas that we whether we need to keep under constant review.
the the other issue is that that is one of the areas that we do need to revisit the profiling of of of the budget to match it with the expenditure that come through to there are two issues on unintended services, but again we will look at that for the next report.
that's going to be increasingly important, isn't it, bringing buses
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:19:19
back into public control as well, that we have absolute at diligent oversight on on?

8 HR Management Information - Quarter 4 2023/24 and Quarter 1 2024/25

boss, tendered services. Thank you for raising that, Sylvia. Any further comments lovely are we happy to note the financial position as reported we are super? Thank you. Moving onto HR management information quarter 23 for Quarter 4 23 24 and quarter 1 24 25, and this paper provides an update on dates relating to the CIA's workforce relating to staff sickness turnovers, stability, ID I profiles and recruitment timelines, and the paper in the Polish package for January to March this year. We've now also got the report for April to June, and this is hard copy on your table so that does refer to wow Alan was saying about the way that things have changed owner or even in the last few months so there are notable improvements between January and June, it's a good news story around sickness turnover, stability, recruitment timeline matrix while continuing progress towards a more representative workforce has been noted, but our challenge is as always that we have diversity.
in in early career roles within our organisation, what's really important to us is when we go out to recruitment for those senior roles.
that we are mindful that the challenges that we get diversity at the very top of our organisation and it's something that is a personal challenge for me, and I will continue to press officers to deliver, so that, as an organisation we represent at all levels,
the the communities that we serve, Alan.
thanks Lord Mayor and I can make a few comments on on on that
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:21:14
particular points, so rather than take everybody through slide by slide, the two packs I sit on our maxim, some overall remarks on what I think the story is here so.
we are in the, we are in the position that we're growing organisation and we have, we have grown in size, both between 2016 to 2020 and then since 2020 as we have been given greater powers, flexibilities funding and become a fully devolved Meryl area.
so there is a that there is.
it is really important to us that this package of information is collected presented and that we act on the findings.
a few points in terms of summary so.
the recruitment times, this has been a real issue that we identified late last year, where we we, we recognised that, between the point of a post being approved, to go out for recruitment, to the point at which the person actually started in the organisation took six months which,
often meant that by the time for kind of time you have the debate about the need was moved on, but and it was, it was a very unsatisfactory, so we've taken some steps to accelerate that now, sometimes there's notice periods and so on which people will have to work but many of the posts that we recruit to the people coming in to them are not on nice day notice periods.
so we've taken some action, and the Packers on your table shows that that figure has dropped now from a high of 190 days to 126 in the last quarter so much improved and we'll yeah wow, there will always take some time, the issue is on average are we are we doing it as quickly as we can do and and so it's really pleasing to see that that figure has,
come down.
as you said, sickness absence has fallen during the quarter and our stability as an organisation in terms of turnover, and so on, has continued to improve,
we talked previously around this table about the mix of.
how people are appointed into new roles, so there's a really healthy mix, there continues to be a healthy mix of people progressing within the organisation and new talent coming in, so the data shows almost a 50 50 split, so where there is a vacancy for this fulfilled half the time it's from somebody internally progressing or maybe moving sideways in order to develop their career and half the time it's bringing into much from from outside.
and I think that's a good, a good position for us to be in in terms of diversity.
a couple of things on this one.
we are still building our data on this, so one of the things the report says is that there are there are quite a lot of people within the organisation who are choosing to say, prefer not to say or across a across several diversity characteristics, so we haven't got a complete picture, the data is showing that we are improving with regards to our mix on ethnicity so we are now recruiting more black, Asian and minority ethnic staff and we used to
and as separate to this report, but obviously related we, we publish annually and ethnicity pay gap alongside the gender pay gap and have an action plan to to help narrow that, and one point of note to to the next point about seniority we are, we are very conscious of historically the lack of ethnic diversity at senior levels, within the organisation, and so, and this is something we are continuing to work
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:25:15
out, of course I wanted to make two points for the for the Committee on this.
the first is that sitting here 12 months ago, maybe slightly longer if you ask me how many
black or Asian members of staff that we have a head of service level of 0 or above the answer would have been 0, and now it's 4, so that is an improvement is not where we want to be, but it is an improvement yeah,
the and then the second thing is in recognising this one, one of the issues is.
about external recruitment and another issues of our internal progression, and so to assist with the internal progression we have taken advantage of a programme that's run by solace Society of Local Authority, Chief execs, called amplify, which is,
which it which is exactly about
supporting the progression, the future direction of our future leaders from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, and so we have engaged in that we have been given.
we've got eight people on it at the moment.
and they, and though there was a huge amount of interest from within the organisation and solace, are now going to be or are looking at running a regional programme just for us on that, exert on that on that issue, so.
so we've got more to do, but.
the data is heading in the right direction and we're taking and we're taking lots of actions to help support our ambition, the final thing I just wanted to say just to to acknowledge this is that on disability, the the data is showing that that has fallen so the number of people joining the organisation with a disability.
is is a lower proportion than the current staff mix, so that's something that we want to look at, and also anybody that would add
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:27:10
declared disability is guaranteed an interview with our organisational
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:27:16
they that if they meet the minimum criteria, yes, so we are part of the Disability, confident scheme so and brand and have guaranteed interviews. So if somebody declares they have a disability and they meet the minimum criteria, they get an interview, there are a couple of other things, so we are now a Disability confident Level 2 employer and we are taking steps to become a level 3 employer
that takes time, because there's a you you have to be at level 2 for a period before you become Level 3, and we are also signed up to someone will help me out if I get the name of this wrong. The business Disability Forum
which is a and an organisation which support which helps businesses organisations to be more inclusive employers of people with disabilities, and they provide us with advice about how we.
about how we can improve, and also the we can staff Network Group is is very active within the organisation that's the staff Network Group that that helps to provide a support network for people with disabilities and and advise the organisation about how we can improve things, they have been very active and made a number of recommendations which we have adopted.
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:28:30
Good stuff and just finally, on recruitment, obviously as the police and Crime, Commissioner, police and crimes, anybody that is close to any detailed information, it takes 60 days, on average for vetting to to go through, obviously I'm constantly pushing that surely be faster.
but if you've got, if you've got access to any of the papers of police and crime you, it does often take 60 days to be vetted, Okido any questions asthma and then Jocelyn, thank you just on retention from
Asma Iqbal, West Yorkshire Business Board (Private Sector Representative) - 0:29:07
EDI perspective, do we carry out exit interviews for those that are leading to better understand?
around exit and how we can better retain ethnic minority staff and put them through the programme of progression.
yes, we do everybody who lives, the organisation has an exit interview
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:29:24
which is shared with the HR team and they look for trends and issues which are then rated management.
thank you, I just.
have a couple of things, firstly, well done on getting a recruitment
Jocelyn Manners-Armstrong Independent Member - 0:29:35
time down, because I know that is a challenge.
secondly, on the recording statistics to get the data on diversity.
is the is there, a possibility will not asking the right questions, because if people don't feel that they are able to answer the questions, then maybe there needs to be in with a rock another option or a box where people can solve described. Do we pick people that option respect? It might be that there isn't an answer that is appropriate for them to give, and obviously people have to feel confident as well, though it's entirely confidential, don't know, especially when therefore starting an organisation, and they don't really know what the culture is and they might feel sensitive about what they want to put down.
the other thing I wanted to raise with us on the paper the sickness absence.
why is it so high in transport option passenger experience compared with other sectors I wondered if it was a statistical anomaly, but it is quite a large cohort of people, so I don't think it can be that.
and how does it compare with other transport authorities?
OK, thank you on the.
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:30:46
so on the point about the correct, the the sharing personal characteristics.
a few thoughts, firstly, are we asking the right questions and the answer that is we have done quite a lot of work over the last couple of years to change the descriptions, descriptors so that people are better able to see themselves in all circumstances.
because the answer would have previously been no that he's there are some people who can't who wouldn't see themselves in in the answers and we have we have.
taking steps to change that,
the there is that there is, then an issue about trust and what the information is used for we give reassurances about it being entirely confidential, except that.
sometimes it is actually not confidential.
and we have had this conversation with with the with the staff Network groups,
I'll give you an example. If we are to target development programmes towards staff with particular characteristics within the organisation, then we need to know who those people are right. So there is a there was, so we're doing a bit of work at the moment with the staff Network groups around how we can put in place a sensible data sharing or kind of a data sharing agreement which people can sign up to, which then enables them to be content to use their data for particular purposes, because actually the collection of the data it's there's on one, it's it's useful at a global level to understand our figures, but really to take action and target things. There's a there's a bit of a need to know who did so. There is a so it is confidential, but there is a, but we're also saying to people actually it's it's also in your interests to
to be content for us to use it in a proactive ways, and the other thing that we have done is when people join the organisation, we are explaining to them upfront in the kind of initial induction e-mail why we'd like to collect the data and and per and making 100 making it easy for them to do and we've seen a bit of an uptick in people doing doing that to Sosa so there's a whole there's a there's.
the what we're trying to do is explain to people why it's important how it's gonna be used to try and build trust with people against a background of generally speaking.
people, not lots of people not wanting to share their personal
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:33:32
information. I know you're going to come back to this sickness in transport, but I think this is quite an interesting topic because we won't be the only organisation that is struggling with this, that we want to be proactive and helpful and elevate our colleagues, but we also need the day-to-day not in order to do that, and there may be a question about people being confident the whether the right organisation to give that personal data to, so I know you've only because the job two days Joe, but I'm sure in some of your experience you'll have come across the similar challenges, I wanted just your early thoughts
Jo Dent (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:34:05
my early thoughts at the moment would be to actually contextualise quite bit of the information setting that will really help us so to actually benchmark and and Justin you've just mentioned that, and may you mentioned the police as well, in terms of both sickness and recruitment and everything,
so we need, so I'd like to put some benchmarks in place and then actually have our own targets and be able to Ashley contextualise the information that we're sharing with you. So we know where we are and I think with having more more data-led information, it will help as target the areas we want to, and my second point would be I'd like to try and do some proactive work, particularly around the recruitment areas where we're actually, we can go to people before they even going into work and actually try and encourage them. Getting to know about us get them on, are there radar so that we can get us in their mind early on and that will help us bring more people through the door in terms of trying to
encourage more diversity in our recruitment, so much more proactive approach, getting to people much earlier universities, schools where we want to target people and contextualising the information, and I and I need to understand and study the sickness again and again I think we've got things to learn from other places and I'd like to spend some time doing that for the next report.
thank you so much, Joan, sorry to land you in at 2.00 hours into the
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:35:33
role Alan would you I just speak to the transport sickness yeah, thank you, I'm not.
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:35:42
I don't know why it's higher what I would say, though, is that it's still well below the public sector average, so we so we will, we will look into that and we'll come back on on why, because the whole and the whole purpose of this is to we will use the data to identify issues and then take action.
in the you asked, how does it relate to other transport organisations, I don't know other transport organisations but generally speaking, in as a in relation to push our it compared with the rest of the public sector, that absence rates still quite low.
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:36:24
I mean my assumption and is just a first thought, it is a public facing role and their obviously subject to more, I would suggest quite stressful job when you're dealing with the public, but thank you for raising it Jocelyn, let's look into that in a little bit more detail will ask our managers what's what's going on, but I am reassured that it's under other other statistics so it's not necessarily an.
a panic moment, but we could do with a little bit more detail, thank you any further thoughts, thank you, so can they are do we?
it notes the content of their management, information, update and reflecting the performance period 1 January 24 to 31st of March 24 and, in addition to the overall review of the performance, 23 24 as attached and the period 1st of April 24 to 30th of June 24, are we content?

9 Combined Authority Performance Q1 2024/25 and Q4 2023/24

Super. Thank you so much Okido, moving on to Item 9, this paper summarises organisational performance 23 24 and quarter 1 24 25 against objectives for last year, and these objectives are aligned to
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:37:41
Merrow pledges and to the West Yorkshire mission plans according an overview of delivery for the region as a whole. Again, it's a good news story is strong and positive. The successful delivery of major schemes and Meryl commitments and the performance for Quarter 1 24 25 is assured, with 92% of indicative measures satisfying key requirements for delivery. So Alan could you take us through the paper and I think we have a brief presentation. You can front some slides, if possible great. Thank you. Thanks for Adam
we
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:38:19
that the the presentation, just to reassure colleagues, contains no
Presentation Slides - 0:38:23
new material. It simply that we've sent you a report which is 100 pages long, including the appendices. So this is just to help help us work through, OK, so so today what we're gonna cover is, firstly, a summary of organisational performance for the last financial year. Ordinarily. We would look to do this closer to the end of March, while we haven't had a meeting so that for for completeness, we have published the the report, which is in full at the the final appendix of your pack. So I just want to spend a couple of minutes talking about the
the performance of last year and then it goes into the performance of quarter one for this year, covering April through to June, and then a brief word on future performance arrangements.
next time, please, so in 23 24 we because we we we've changed, can every year for the last couple of years how we've been doing business planning and performance and it is still evolving as the as the functions evolve and as we align more things more closely with the West Yorkshire Plan last year we had a set of internal and external outcomes and so that's why sometimes you'll see business plan objectives and corporate plan objectives in the Corporate Plan objectives whether with a big external indicators that we wanted to report against in 24 25.
we have aligned the corporate plan of the organisation with the West Yorkshire Plan missions, the West Yorkshire Plan hadn't been published at the point at which we did last year's Corporate Plan, which is why the business Plan wasn't aligned with it this year, everything is aligned with the delivery of the West Yorkshire Plan missions, and underpinning those are a number of measures of success.
a key thing to say is that this report is entirely about the the activity of the Combined Authority.
in delivering its business Plan, which is in turn in pursuit of the West Yorkshire Plan missions, what is not is a report on the economic, social and environmental indicators of West Yorkshire that comes through the state of the region right, so what you're not going to see in this report is statistics on how many people have moved into employment and how many let people in West Yorkshire got level 2 qualifications and how many houses there are without o how many
houses there are other have been that are that are under quality, now those kinds of issues aren't in this report, this report is about what we have delivered as an organisation next day, please.
and then it and then the next bit of context I just wanted to give, and this is a slightly technical point, but I just wanted to explain it for committee because it's because it's relevant to the papers.
we previously had a system of three grades
blue, amber and red.
colleagues will be familiar with this kind of challenge, but when you only have three RAG rating we're 3 3 ratings, there's a kind of there's a there's a temptation on the part of people to to go Amber.
and so it doesn't give you are a good picture, you end up with a few things that are that are that are claims to be doing really well and a few high low high risks and people hedge their bets on what things in November so we changed it halfway through last year to force people in to use a set of categories where you can't sit on the fence, we have to say no on balance, this is either in a in a in a positive place or in or in a less positive place, so that's why we've moved to a 4 a for rating system.
next time, please, so on end-of-year performance for 23 24, so the organisation fully or partially achieved around 90% of the objectives that were that it set itself at the beginning of the year, so key successes which are hopefully.
familiar with colleagues will be familiar with, so firstly, the decision to implement bus franchising in March and then and the submission of a strategic outline case for Mass Transit Come completion of a number of major transport projects, including Halifax, bus station.
we beat the target of a thousand homes developed on brownfield land being enable for development, that figure was around 3,100, we beat our targets for supporting new businesses.
we ran programmes to support students to grow careers in the creative industries. We met our targets around recruitment of police officers and reach a victim support services and installed solar panels on our on our bus on on the bus stations that the CIA, and so those are just some highlights there is. There is lots more in the report about the things we achieved last year, but they are the there's some headlines in, in summary and the overall message here I go to the next slides, please is that now, so of the
of the corporate plan outcomes that we that we, we set ourselves, only four were not met, and those four were around their on this there on this presentation, so embedding sustainable travel within SMEs. What that was about is something called the travel Plan network, which is supporting businesses to encourage people to take up sustainable travel. There's an alternative model for that that we we need to put in place, and so that target wasn't met. We didn't deliver a 111 0 emission and buses. That was a timing issue.
and things him and and so yeah, the the ambition that has moved into the coming year, and then there was also a target which was around our international trade portal, which also didn't wasn't met, because we changed the change, the approach, all of those were things that weren't surprises so they came up regularly during the year and we put in place mitigations and they have carried forward into 24 25 business plans so.
so the vast majority of the of the corporate plan outcomes were delivered in terms of the business Plan outcomes, it is a similar picture where 90% of what we had set out over 90% were either fully or partially delivered, so that's 23 24 history who moved to the future, so I'll go through the whole thing and then take questions if that's OK, that's OK, so performance in 24 25.
what we have done is, firstly, we've aligned our business plan for 24 25 with, as I said at the start, the West Yorkshire Plan missions, so everything that's within the business plan, you can draw a line between what is this, what's this outcome trying to achieve and,
and the West Yorkshire Plan missions. There are a number of things which contribute to all of them, so, for instance, within the business plans, there are a number of outcomes which are about improving the way the organisation works. Improving recruitment practice include improving ICT couldn't good bad or good budget management et cetera all at which all contribute to the delivery of the West. Yorkshire miss Plan missions.
but they park their cross, cutting okay.
the Corporate Plan identified 50 measures for this year, which are our headline things that we will measure at this point of the
of the year after quarter 1,
we are reporting that all of them are either fully on track or partially, there are none which we consider are likely to be not delivered at this point, there are a few which are in the amber red zone which, as you can if it,
and this is set out in the report, those are those all relate to some individual transport infrastructure projects, car parks or rail
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:46:50
stations, it's on where the challenges in it is in capacity for individual projects, and those issues are in the process of being addressed, so we know about them actions being taken and the action is being taken to fix them.
Presentation Slides - 0:47:07
if you go to the next one, Adam, please, so the business Plan outcomes, this is where the that the the the business plans have got 350 individual outcomes in them, which is an awful lot, and so we're trying to distil it, distil it down into a way that is meaningful.
the key message to give is again, the vast majority of these are on track for delivery, so everything we set out to the Combined Authority at the beginning of the year that we will deliver this year the vast majority is on track for delivery, there are some areas where there is a need for focus in mitigation there are a few which are currently marked red.
some of those are at and they are all internal things.
some of them relate to.
there's one which is about an ICT projects, there's one, which is about an internal communications project, was probably need a bit of re-scoping, and so I wouldn't consider that any of those for outcomes that are red.
are of a hue of great concern,
the detail on all of this is, of course, in the report and then the final slide, this is the West Yorkshire Plan missions.
so
I said a moment ago that everything the organisation does is geared towards delivery of the five West Yorkshire, quite ambitions and it and it is there are a number of outcomes within the business plan which we can pull out as being very externally focused on delivery of those missions and we and and this this graph shows where we are at with respect to those so we've identified just over 100 indicators within the business plan assess progress against them and this is the picture so it's showing again the vast majority of
on track, nothing in the red and so overall, I would argue that we can provide a good degree of confidence that the committee that the business plan is making good progress and that we, where there are
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:49:13
issues we are mitigating, we're mitigating them next, Lead, please final thing I wanted to say was just about the development of this, so
Presentation Slides - 0:49:23
clearly we have given you today, like I said, a 100 100 pages of of information. It is a challenge to distil it all into a in in a way that is meaningful and related to outcomes, so
we are undertaking a piece of work to develop a performance management framework, ensured that we are aligning
that the whole organisation is aligned against the the emissions of the West Yorkshire Plan, whilst ensuring good organisational health, good governance of public money, et cetera, and that we are presenting the information in a way which is both effective for internal performance management and also enables us to be transparent and accountable publicly. So we just wanted to say at the Committee on the
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:50:11
fact that piece of work was underway and we will be consulting members on it as we develop and J. Thank you says, Helena, and certainly for
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:50:17
the work you've done to distil what is a very wide, ranging and broad set of dataset into something that is quite an a visual sort of guide of how we are currently and our plan for this year, and also the focus on having that transparency is really important for Meryl Combined authorities. We need to absolutely be open scrutiny
and to say where we get things wrong and to put mitigations in place where things are working.
because there will be things that we try, that don't work, that we have to then abandon and think again, so not everything is perfect, so we we have to be able to allow ourselves to fail, fail better and then learn as we go along to get more to get better outcomes for the people of West Yorkshire so,
any thoughts on that presentation
Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council) - 0:51:21
yes, Sylvia and thanks and yesterday it was extremely detailed and longer and I'm not sure I fully understood all of it, but just on page 85.
we've got the amber reds, Molly Amber's, and you, I think these are the ones that you mentioned were primarily transport and so, for instance, the 20 upgraded West Yorkshire railway stations up presumably includes Todmorden, where I gather, we've had another problem with the contractor,
it may well do, and that may well be wise, marked amber red.
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:51:54
Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council) - 0:51:58
and the other one was what, with the complete environmental scoping for the first phase of mass transit, is that capacity problem about finding the people who can do that environmental scoping up, yes, it is, but but the team are on with finding solution that will ensure
Alan Reiss, Chief Operating Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:52:14
that we don't miss any critical deadlines, views of it.
and we just about to recruit to posts as well in the Transport team,
Mayor Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire - 0:52:21
so I do hope that that that that capacity will really help us move along because the we can't we cannot be in a situation where environmental,
data and so on, that this the slowness of that collection of data holes' back from our delivery, so I do agree with you that it's really important, particularly on a scheme this size, that the environmental side of things is is done in a timely fashion.
Okido.
any further thoughts can I just say one thing around the it, just on the culture that I was a bit concerned, that only 15 schools had been Alec allocated or had taken up the poetry week, sorry, I've I've just checked with Helen Phoebe in the team and that action she agrees with me that for does not right just so just to flag that.
Okido, so are we happy to recommend that the Committee notes the performance against business plan reports 24 25?

10 Date of the Next Meeting

yes, and we know the performance against the indicative measures of success outlined in the Corporate Plan for quarter 1 24 25.
yes, thank you, the Committee noted performance against business plans 23 24 Super, and the day to the next meeting will be the 5th of December, really really, that's a long way, ways that, but is
Presentation Slides - 0:53:51
definitely Christmas time.
will all be wearing Christmas jumpers by then,
and I want to thank everybody for coming any other business, anything anybody anybody would like to raise, no thank you so much for your attendance, thank you so much having.