Caroline Holland, Director of Corporate Services, introduced the report which sets out the council’s approach to the target operating model (TOM) and emerging themes from the most recent refresh.

In response to a question about the extent to which there was an element of challenge, Caroline Holland explained that the Directors, of whom two were new to Merton, provide challenge to each other’s TOMs. She added that the model is getting stronger with each iteration and that outcomes were being used more effectively than previously.

Ed Wildish, Head of Continuous Improvement, and Caroline Holland responded to questions about the timeline for the TOMs, explaining that this was adjusted to provide time for the incoming administration to make changes following the May 2018 local elections. Caroline Holland undertook to consider whether the future timeline should be aligned with the electoral timetable and to feed this into the evaluation of the TOM process. Councillor Mark Allison, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, said that the council should seek to continue to act in a business-like way in the lead up to and aftermath of local elections. ACTION: Director of Corporate Services

Members also asked questions about the process and timetable for producing  a refreshed Community Plan and suggested that the Commission would use its annual scrutiny of Merton Partnership’s Annual Report to inform members more fully on what the local strategic partnership is doing and what impact it is having.