Board meeting minutes 30 January 2020 - The Planning Inspectorate
Updated 17 September 2024
Applies to England
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Minutes FINAL 19 March 2020
| Title of meeting | Planning Inspectorate Board Meetings |
|---|---|
| Date | 30 January 2020 |
| Venue | Morph, Temple Quay House, Bristol |
| Chair | Trudi Elliott (TE) |
| Present | |
|---|---|
| Sally Dixon (SD) | Non-Executive Director (NED) |
| Rebecca Driver (RD) | Non-Executive Director (NED) |
| Sarah Richards (SR) | Chief Executive |
| Navees Rahman (NR) | Director of Corporate Services |
| Graham Stallwood (GS) | Director of Operations |
| Christine Thorby (CT) | Director of Strategy (dial in) |
| Simon Gallagher (SG) | Director of Planning, MHCLG (dial in) |
| Neil Hemington (NH) | Chief Planner, Welsh Government |
| In attendance | |
|---|---|
| Karin Takel (KT) | Strategy and Corporate Governance Lead |
| Joanne Butcher (JB) | Head of Finance and Commercial (items 4 & 5) |
| Rachel Graham (RG) | Head of Data and Performance (item 7) |
| Tim Guy (TG) | Director of Transformation (item 8) |
| Simone Wilding (SW) | Head of Operations (item 8) |
| Natasha Perrett (NP) | Board Secretary |
| Apologies | |
|---|---|
| Stephen Tetlow (ST) | Non-Executive Director (NED) |
1.0 Welcome and Declaration of Interests
1.1 The Chair welcomed the Board. Apologies were received from ST.
1.2 The Chair called for Declarations of Interest, of which there were none.
2.0 Minutes of November Board meeting
Actions 2.1 The Board agreed the following updates to actions:
- Action 15 (25/01) and action 2 (21/11) – Item 6 on January agenda – closed.
- Action 1 (24/10) – Communication issued to staff - closed
- Action 2 (24/10) – Contact with NED be made should critical incident occur – closed.
- Action 3 and 4 (21/11) – KT to confirm which elements are outstanding/ closed.
- Action 5 (21/11) – Item 5 on January agenda – closed.
- Actions 6 and 7 (21/11) – TG to confirm which elements are outstanding/ closed.
Minutes 2.2 No further comments.
Agreed: 2a) The Board agreed the minutes were an accurate record of the November Board meeting.
3.0 Ways of working
3.1 The Board discussed ways of working as we transition to a new Governance Structure and assurance reporting. The Board will remain an advisory Board, SR is accountable for the organisation.
3.2 The following was agreed:
- MicroSoft teams will be used for circulating papers and messages for meetings.
- Planning Inspectorate email address will be used for anything outside of teams.
- If IT fails – NEDs to contact the LittleFish and make Strategic Support team aware.
- NEDs to submit expenses on a monthly basis.
- NEDs to add leave/ events (attending in Inspectorate capacity) to Inspectorate calendar.
- Keep strategic assurance panels flexible and think about staff capacity and evolving business analysis.
3.3 The Board received an update on the decision to have a separate body for planning appeals in Wales. Key points are:
- The body will be in place by April 2021.
- Project Board has been set up and Project Manager is in situ.
Agreed:
3a) Board agreed the following actions:
- Resolve permission issues with papers – Natasha Perrett
- NEDs would like access to email on their mobiles – Natasha Perrett (via Digital Services)
- Provide more guidance to NEDs on using teams – Natasha Perrett (via Digital Services)
- Effectiveness review to include review of terms of reference for the Board to make sure we capture the right items (including Health and Safety) – Karin Takel
- Business Plan milestones to be mapped into the forward planning for the Board and assurance panels – Karin Takel/ Natasha Perrett
- Wales separation to be added to the forward look – Navees Rahman to signal when paper will be ready for the Board.
4.0 MHCLG update, including Brexit
4.1 The Board received an update from MHCLG on potential changes to planning policy which could impact on the Planning Inspectorate.
4.2 Work is underway through our Professional Leads to prepare for potential changes, what this means for Inspectors, what the training requirements are and when training should be delivered.
Agreed: 4a) SG and NR to discuss the work programme for the year ahead and impact on the Planning Inspectorate. NR to update CT on impact of work programme and next steps.
5.0 Business Plan
Plan on a page
5.1 The Board was asked to provide feedback on the plan on a page, the following points were made:
- Better staff engagement – add ‘with’ to the section about career progression – staff are empowered to develop with career progression and peer support.
- Add more focus on customer outcomes.
- Add an objective around embedding culture and values.
- Think more widely about how we could use this document. With a few additions and focus on customer outcomes, this could be used for external communication.
Business Plan
5.2 The business plan is an internally focused plan to drive delivery and will be used by the Senior Leadership Group (SLG) to manage the organisation throughout the year and to make sure we are delivering against our Strategic Plan. This is a draft version of the Business Plan; teams are still working on the key milestones and measures.
5.3 During the discussion the following points were made:
- Measures are important, not just for the Inspectorate but also for MHCLG to focus on delivery and accountability.
- Whilst there are measures for timeliness, measures on quality are also needed. Consider how we serve the wider community. The Professional Leads Strategy will address quality and ensuring better outcomes for the planning system, needs to be more explicit.
- Work is already underway with MHCLG to look at better measures and to also focus on the customer, what does the customer want us to do. GS is leading this work.
5.4 The Board congratulated the team on the progress made on producing the 2020/21 Business Plan and to keep up momentum.
Budget
5.5 The 2019/20 budget is showing an underspend, this largely relates to staff costs. Our resource and casework planning show we could deliver our 20/21 business plan, with a rollover of our 19/20 budget.
5.6 The Executive Team (ET) have prioritised known projects, innovation and technology. As Transformation funding comes to an end, NR and team are working with the Strategy Directorate to identify funding.
5.7 JB and team are expecting confirmation of the budget, once received detailed allocation work will begin.
Agreed:
5a) KT with ET to:
- set out the key things that need to be tracked by Board, what measures ET use to hold delivery to account.
- What measures tell us we are delivering the Strategic Plan, including quality as well as timelines.
5b) KT/ NR to provide a covering report for future papers to assist NEDs and other attendees understand the underlying assumptions, how documents relate to each other and ongoing work.
5c) NR/ JB to notify NEDs when Budget confirmed.
6.0 Operations update
Operations
6.1 The key points from the Operations update are:
- A reduction in the number of older cases in the system continues.
- Customers submitting enforcement written representation appeals will start to see improvements at the beginning of the process.
- Good progress continues to reduce the number of planning hearing cases in the system.
- Area of focus will be performance improvements to Tree Preservation Order casework.
- MHCLG and Bridget Rosewell will host a ‘one year on’ event in February with customers.
Targets
6.2 GS is reviewing our list of measures and will discuss with SG and team when thinking has developed. Key focus is to reduce the number of measures and align where possible.
Resource
6.3 Following recent recruitment, we now have the number of inspectors needed for the 1st of April which will support our new organisation structure. Our focus will be on training and making sure they have the right skills for the casework we have in the system.
Performance recovery
6.4 Planning written representation cases are completed on average in 18 weeks. As we continue to reduce the number of older cases in the system the range will reduce.
6.5 As GS starts to focus on targets and measures going forward, SG offered to connect GS to networks and public services with experience in this area of work.
Agreed:
6a) To congratulate the team on progress, reports and supporting information are improving and clearly helping understanding. Improvements to management information is also helping teams at all levels to drive improved delivery.
7.0 Dashboard
7.1 RG presented the Dashboard to the Board and made the following key points:
- Created in a structure reflecting the strategic objectives. This has been under development to pin metrics to each.
- Developing suite and aligning to the business plan.
- The critical measures can be built into this dashboard and will provide the Board with assurance.
7.2 The Board reflected on a historical lack of management information being available to managers and noted the improvement. GS confirmed data is making a difference and is supporting business decisions and changes.
7.3 RG and the team are working with ET and Heads of Service (HoS) to identify the core business indicators which will flag issues to be raised with ET and Board.
Agreed:
7a) RG to:
- Consider how to highlight the core business indicators to the Board.
- Make sure the NEDs have access to the dashboard.
8.0 Operational Delivery Transformation (ODT)
8.1 In December the MHCLG Invest Sub-Committee approved our revised Business Case subject to conditions. The conditions were focussed around three themes, digital leadership, governance and reporting. To address these conditions a Tier 3 Governance group will be formed called the ODT Gate Review Executive (OGRE).
8.2 On reporting, as Chair of the OGRE, SG has set out what measures the group should to see, including better financial reporting, different perspective of benefits realisation - user based and organisation based benefits.
8.3 The Board agreed this approach will provide the right level of assurance. On measuring improved customer journey by 30%, TG explained this will be done by using information on the time take to engage with current and future systems.
8.4 The Board received the following system update:
- 132 cases have been received via the interim portal, 26 decisions have been issued.
- Development of the Portal continues to replace the GoPro solution.
- The National Infrastructure casework solution is progressing well and will be trialled at an examination ahead of the submission of the Heathrow application (expected Autumn).
Heathrow update
8.5 System developments to support the Heathrow application is on course, this is particularly important to support the number of submissions expected and ensure GDPR compliance.
8.6 The Health and Safety and wellbeing risk remains amber, we continue to collect learning from other controversial cases to reduce the status of this risk.
Agreed:
8a) TG to update Board on GoPro go live date.
8b) TG to add independent member to OGRE and update ST on why Head of Digital Services is a member of the Group.
8c) SW to monitor the impact of the Environment Bill on the Heathrow and system developments.
9.0 Forward agenda, review of meeting & AOB
Agreed: Meeting feedback to be sent to TE and NP.
Next meeting: 19 March 2020