Jackson Ng at Finance & Resources Select Committee, 8 October 2026

Right, good afternoon and welcome to the Finance and Resources Select Committee. I'm Councillor Ng, Chairman of the Committee. This meeting is being webcast and recorded, so please wait to be called and please use your microphone and turn all phones off. First item in the agenda, apologies for absence or changes in membership. Chairman, we have no apologies for absence or changes this time. Thank you. Thank you very much. Item number two, Decorations of Interest. I'll kick off.

I'm a member of Beaconsfield Town Council, but don't feel obliged to declare your membership of your parish council if it's on your register already.

Moving on. Minutes of the previous meetings. I've had a read through it, and I trust colleagues have had as well. I know that Councillor Capturary has picked up on Little Marlow being a parish council as opposed to a town council. I've picked up a couple of typing errors on page 5, 6, and 7, but nothing that goes to the material of the discussion. Do any other colleagues have any comments? Otherwise, happy for me to sign it, subject to... Sorry, there was also just the mention of High Wycombe Town Council, which obviously doesn't exist. So that needs to be changed as well. Right. So, okay. So you're happy for me to sign it with the amendments? I'll go ahead and do that. Item number four. I gather no public questions. That's disappointing. Okay. Well, this brings us straight into item number five, which is the HR People Plan update, which Sarah is next door, and she sends her late apologies, but she'll be joining us imminently. But Councillor Kerrington has very kindly offered to go straight into it. Thank you very much. I may regret my enthusiasm, but as a...

Welcome, Councillor Metter and Sarah. Thank you. I'll kick off, if I may. Now, I can't, as my vice chairman pointed out, this room's got great air conditioning and he's suffering from a bit of a cold. But I've picked up from reading report and from your oral report that the increase in workforce sickness is a result of the heat wave in the summer. I've got two areas of concern. One is that if I look at page 23, which shows the graph of sickness, I can see in ACE, which I understand is the mostly office -based staff, there's a huge increase from 4 .77 to 5 .79. Well, given that most of the jobs are office -based with air conditioning, why is there such an increase? But I'm generally also concerned that £378 ,000 per month is roughly about £4 .5 million that the council seems to be wasting or not saving in relation to staffing costs. So those are my sort of two areas of concern.

Thank you for the question. So in terms of...

Have any impact to it? Because it wasn't mentioned in the report, but I'm guessing that might be a reason, perhaps? Sorry, just to highlight, when you say you thought you were doing better last year, which is... No, no, no.

Four days per employee over the last 12 months compared to our 8 .7. That's the national average. So were we worse off last year? So last year the average was 8 .94. So we've actually gone.

Thank you, Chairman. I'd like to thank you for stealing my thunder in that...

It's probably much longer. Councillor Martin. In four years, to adapt to this in the next four years, or in two years for the Euros, we can add a...

I'm assuming sickness absence is sickness absence. I'm sick, I'm off work. If there's absence...

We need to know our workforce because we're accountable taxpayers. Who's off work? For what reasons? How much is it costing us? Because if what you're saying is right, that $378 ,000 per month figure is not accurate. It's just, I'm really glad, Sharon, you've articulated vastly better than I did my conundrum about this. This is sickness absence. It is not all absences. And we have no visibility as a committee, nor it appears to have seen the management.

And could they report back and maybe update the committee? Great. Clarification on this. Councillor Tatt, did you say you had a few questions? I have many, but I'm only going to go... We need to get on while we're on this point.

Whatever they might be, this committee would be grateful for a report on that. And there may be very, very good reasons. Yes, of course. Please don't read anything into what I'm saying. And can I just check that the CIPD...

I'll go back to you if there's enough time but we've got quite a number of councillors. Councillor Marima, thank you. Yes, thank you. I also have a couple of questions so I'm going to...

What are your thoughts on this topic? You can see Councillor Tett trying to bite his tongue. Mine wasn't specifically on the apprenticeship levy per se. I had an issue about adult learning and the...

What I've picked up from Sarah is that you're happy to come back with a further report on this to come back to the committee so that we have more information to discuss next time around. Thank you. Councillor Townsend, you have a question, I believe. Thank you. Yeah. I wanted to pick up on the fact the report highlights quite significant...

56 jobs professional manager post that's been effectively deleted, regraded or moved. Do we have a breakdown? Are they just made redundant or they've been moved to a different department or they've been regraded? I'm trying to find out after 56, as Councillor Townsend says, 56 professional manager roles being cut or deleted. Who's plugging the gap? Or is it effectively just moving job titles? And actually the job function is still very much there, but they're just not called professional managers anymore.

Cash as a manager job. And actually the savings is 16 jobs. It could be. But the point is we have to deliver the savings. This is all predicated around the MTFP savings. But it's also going to be linked to the...

Councillor Powell. Thank you. I wanted to go back. I didn't realise we were...

I think for all members of the committee that we'd be grateful if that takes place because we are concerned about the welfare of our colleagues and also the efficiency. Thank you. Councillor Daly. Thank you, Chairman. My question actually, is that working? Yes. I have questions regarding the Horizons programme and the work experience, please.

Thank you, Chairman. Thank you very much for the lovely report. I've got a question on development skills and through apprenticeship. On paragraph 3 .29, you mentioned about children homes and then 29 colleagues are enrolled. I want to know, is this the figure which is reduction in agency staff that we take? Is this the figure that we grow over on?

Thank you. I appreciate that, Chairman. I just want to pick up on the Council of Shadowing.

This draws this item agenda to the end. I think, thank you very much, Councillor Carrington, Sarah and Vicky, for this report. As Councillor Tett said, I found it very helpful, useful. But there were a few takeaway points that I think the committee agrees that we would like a follow -up in relations to the clarification around absence, as Martin, as Councillor Tett has raised, apprenticeships. And I think we'd like to note that we would be interested in hearing at some point before the summer on what measures might be put forward for the heatwave protection or mitigation for our colleagues on the ground. Councillor Tett, have I got things wrong? No, never. I would never, never say that, as you know. I just think there's so much in this report. We've actually, you know...

That's when we get down to the work plan in the agenda item. Sorry. Sorry. I think, Councillor Tech, that the skills is actually goes through.

I'll be grateful if the officers can work with us on that. Thank you. Well, thank you very much, Sarah and Vicky, for your input today and your time. And welcome, Richard and Amy. Feel free to move up so that Councillor Carrington isn't feeling very left out on his own. All by myself. All by yourself.

All by yourself. Council's strategic asset management plan, which is what we asked for in July. So I'm very grateful, Councillor Carrington, to you and your officers for bringing Vic so quickly back to us. The floor is yours and your officers. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. That's my wife. As you've already mentioned, this was discussed. Thank you.

Thank you. Wow. Well, OK, let me put your hands up. I'll write it down one by one.

Right. OK. Councillor Townsend, first to kick us off. The floor's yours. Thank you. The report...

Councillor Tert. Yes, thank you, Chairman. I wanted to build a little bit on...

One of the things I might just put in at the moment is that I note that with the investment portfolio, it states that sometimes, or typically, most of it is with borrowing. I'm particularly interested to find out what kind of borrowing are they, what percentages, and how does it change with the investment strategy if interest rates move. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Tekt. So, we've got the strategic...

Councillor Daly. Sorry, we're still taking notes. Sorry for that. Generally a question before an asset.

Thank you Chairman. Can I start just by thanking the Officer?

Councillor Crabtree. Yes, thank you. I would echo that this is a useful report in terms of the information it provides, but I am interested...

What Councillor Crabtree has alluded to, and I think a bit of a Councillor Tad myself, is I know the SAM is pretty new. It's eight weeks in play. When do you think that this committee could have a further update as to how it's performed or an overview of the strategy? I'm wondering whether in part two, even, just so that members of this committee who are accountable to our electorate feel secure that the investment portfolio is being invested in the right way and the risks are being handled.

So what I would suggest would be a good time would allow a year to run and then I can keep it.

I mean, I don't know what's going to happen to the make -up of the committee then, who's going to chair it, but I think that would be helpful for the committee going forward, and I think we'll ask the officer to sort of note that. Thank you. I think this is a vital area, and it obviously needs the screws you need, so I think being a standard...

Councillor Poe, is there a question or comment on this? It's a comment on this, please. I think we shouldn't lose sight that...

Right. Councillor Marima and then Councillor Yupp. Thank you. Is it okay if I move from...

No, but it's the... It seems one more for full council, if anything. Well, it's the responsibility of this service to build into this...

Because I personally think that while it's a worthy cause, it's not one for this committee. Councillor Ayub, thank you. Thank you, Chairman. Page 69 will go, Assets Value, Annual Rental Income.

Thank you for bearing with us. Thank you, Chairman. So a lot of questions have been already asked, but just for my understanding, I want to...

Thank you, Chairman. It has been talked about before that we...

Questions or points of clarification? I just wanted to add two things. Firstly, to Councillor Huxley on the theatre. For those of you who are eagle -eyed, you will see...

I was just so impressed by the... Well, thank you very much, Councillor Carrington, Richard and Amy, for your wonderful presentation. And I can say the report on the SANG was very informative. I'm heartened to read it. And I look forward to a report in the future on how it performs. Thank you very much for your time.

Well, item number seven. We're moving on to the work programme.

Yes, Katie. The floor's yours. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. Just a few points to update the committee on. With regards to Budget Scrutiny Week, we have a set of budget...

What it says in the Constitution. My gut feeling is the finances fall within this committee and it's with this committee's remit to scrutinise the value, savings and the cost to this council. But I think it's a matter of courtesy. Perhaps it would be wise for me to liaise with the chair of that committee and clarify that point. And if so, update the rest of this committee by email and see if applicable to bring it back to this committee.

Chris. Thank you, Chairman. Yeah, it sort of ties in with a note that I made earlier about the adult learning part. And it does frustrate me at times that we are...

We have a limited bandwidth in terms of, I mean, unless members want to come in for more meetings, we have a limited bandwidth in relation to how many meetings we have for the next, you know, eight months or so. Well, not even eight months, six months.

We're all friends here. Oh, thanks.

of this committee and it does look like it's building up and I think we've asked for them to come back in relation to, you know, absence. Thank you Chairman. It's just any chance I get to raise that issue, I will raise it. I think the Cabinet Member has effectively given you his word. Thank you. Councillor Daly, Christine. I just wanted to say Councillor Carrington had a good idea there because the IT plan is on the agenda for November.

Any thoughts from colleagues? No? Okay. Well, agenda item number eight. Date of the next meeting is the second, wait, it's the second, it's this 2pm on Thursday, the 26th of November. Same building, somewhere in this building. But otherwise, thank you to all members, Katie, my Vice Chairman, and Councillor Carrington. Thank you. First meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you.