Councillors will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members in accordance with the code of conduct.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting held on 12 December 2018.

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2018.

To receive reports on business which in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

Andrew Hardingham (Service Director Finance) presented the Capital and Revenue Monitoring Report – Quarter 3 to the Committee.

This report outlined the finance monitoring position of the Council as at the end of December 2018.

The report detailed how the Council was delivering against its financial measures using its capital and revenue resources, to approve relevant budget variations and virements, and reported new schemes approved in the capital programme.

The estimated revenue overspend was £1.323m. The overall forecast net spend equated to £186.878m against a budget of £185.555m, which was a variance of less than 0.72%. This needed to be read within the context of needing to deliver in excess of £11.000m of savings in 2018/19 on the back of balancing the 2017/18 revenue budget where £18.000m of net revenue reductions were successfully delivered.

Additional management solutions and escalated action to deliver further savings from the council’s savings and efficiency programme were to be brought to the table over the coming months in order to address the in year forecasted overspend.

The key areas of questioning from Members related to –

(a)   how Plymouth City Council overspend compared to other Local Authorities;

(b)  where the savings from this quarter and previous quarters had come from;

(c)   whether there had been any response relating to budgetary pressures from the Government.

The committee noted the report.

Councillor Jon Taylor (Cabinet Member for Education Skills and Transformation), Councillor Haydon (Cabinet Member for Customer Service and Community Safety), Andy Ralphs (Strategic Director of Customer and Corporate Services), Ross Johnston (Programme Manager) and Lewis Walsh (Architecture Development Officer) presented The Way We Work Programme to the Committee.

The committee were provided with an update on the progress of The Way We Work Programme’s plans in delivering technology modernisation and transformation for Plymouth City Council.

In 2018 the programme had made significant progress in delivering towards its vision and had achieved:

• A roll-out of over 600 devices in 2018 (480 mobile devices supporting increased flexible working, supporting a reduction in desk ratios and reducing technology infrastructure related contacts to DELT, furthermore,

•  a 120 desktop pc’s replaced in the 1^st Stop Shop (New George Street) and Contact Centre (Taylor Maxwell House) enabling significant productivity which improved serving customers from these locations;

• A reduction in printing of 28% in 2018 compared with the comparable print statistics from 2017 enabling a reduction in printers supported and maintained;

• A review of mobile phone usage and the decommissioning of in excess of 1100 sim cards enabling a reduction in mobile technology supported and maintained and the delivery of new contract saving an estimated £35k against the previous Vodafone contract;

• Developed high-level strategic plans for PCC’s accommodation and delivered some quick-win accommodation projects to reduce desk ratios in Ballard House from a baseline of 9.3 / 10 (April 2018) to 7.4/10 (December 2018), which enabled staff to work flexibly across multiple locations through drop-down zones;

• Increased compliance through improved management processes and increased awareness of record management processes by clearing up and destroying out-dated records in Windsor House;

The key areas of questioning from Members related to –

The capital expenditure when purchasing new technology;

How do we make staff more paperless;

How asset management could be managed and improved.

The Committee noted the updated and agreed to Identify opportunities for further value to be added to service delivery and customer experience through the deliverables of The Way We Work Programme.

Councillor Pete Smith (Deputy Leader), Alison Mills (Head of HR Specialist Services), Lorraine Slinn (ICT Training Consultant), Andy Ralphs (Strategic Director of Customer and Corporate Services), Andrew Hardingham (Service Director Finance), Siân Millard (Oversight and Governance Manager), Sarah Lees (Consultant in Public Health), Matt Garrett (Service Director for Community Connections), Andy Sharp (Programme Manager) and Neelam Bhardwaja (Service Director for Children Young People and Families) presented the Staff Survey 2018 report to the Committee.

Provide an overview of the results from the Staff Survey 2018, when employees were asked to complete an online questionnaire or paper questionnaire anonymously.

During three weeks in November and December 2018, employees were asked to respond anonymously to an online questionnaire with 40 questions across 9 categories. The 9 categories were:

§  My Job

§  My Customer (new section for 2018 following the peer review)

§  My Career

§  My Employer, the Council

§  My Team

§  My Line Manager

§  Senior Managers

§  The Council

§  Equality and Diversity

For staff without computer access at work, paper copies were made available either via their line manager, direct staff engagement, or posted to their home address.

This year the neutral response option was removed from the survey. This meant that staff could only be either positive or negative in their responses. This clarity enabled managers to more effectively action plan their responses to the results in their areas.

The key areas of questioning from Members related to –

·       How the response rate could be improved particularly relating to staff who don’t regularly access computers.

·       How incentivisation could be used for staff to complete the survey.

Members noted the report and requested a Staff Survey update at a future meeting to discuss the outcomes of the action plans.

Councillor Haydon (Cabinet Member for Customer Service and Community Safety), Andy Ralphs (Strategic Director of Customer and Corporate Services), Faye Hambleton (Service Director for Customer Services) and Amanda Macdonald (Strategic Development Manager) presented the Registration Service update report to the Committee.

The Committee were provided an update on the Registration Service, specifically the successful completion of a restructure consultation, the service activity and performance.

The report set out and distinguished between the statutory requirements and discretionary services provided, which helped inform decisions on how the service might best be delivered once Lockyer Street is vacated in 2020 and the land sold for a capital receipt.

The Committee agreed that the following recommendations were submitted to Cabinet for consideration –

1.            The Registration Service proceeds with plans to move the repository and the majority of office-based registrations (births/deaths/still-births/notices of marriage) to Building 1 by the end of September 2019. This will ensure:

·         that Building 1 is fully-utilised after being under-occupied for almost 4 years

·         alignment with Coroners Service already based at Building 1

·         that accessibility is improved for customers

·         closer working relationships with the Coroner’s Service who share the same end-users and stakeholders

·         improved communications with Derriford Hospital to improve GRO KPIs 

2.            The Registration Service investigates whether it is viable to continue to provide non-statutory ceremonies (currently delivered in the Drake Suite, Lockyer Street). The following points need to be considered:

·         customer demand for this type of non-statutory ceremony

·         maintaining income

·         the days of the week we might offer this type of non-statutory ceremony

·         a suitable PCC location in the city centre which will mean revisiting use of the Council House or Guildhall

·         a city centre location to support local businesses and revenue within the city

3.            The Registration Service fully promotes licensing to premises across the city so more have the opportunity to be approved for ceremonies which will:

·         improve choice for those wishing to get married or enter into a Civil Partnership in Plymouth

·         increase business and revenue with the city

4.            The Registration Service further investigates provision of office-based registrations (births/deaths/still-births/notices of marriage) in the city centre and other areas of the city if customer demand is proven.

The Committee noted its work programme for 2018/19 and agreed to schedule the following item for the next municipal year

1.    Staff Survey update.

The Committee noted the progress of its decisions.