(i)

a presentation submitted to the Panel in March 2010 and a written update in September 2010 outlined issues and challenges affecting how the Council communicated with residents and staff;

(ii)

the Council’s communication with local residents affected their view of the Council as a whole;

(iii)

a considerable amount of effort had been made nationally in improving the reputation of the council in eyes of residents;

(iv)

the Local Government Association had been providing support to local councils in their communication strategies and was campaigning for stronger media management and effective publications;

(v)

the Council had the difficult task of trying to provide better communication for less money by making better use of the resources it currently had;

(vi)

internal Council publications were limited to four a year;

(vii)

the Internal and External Communication Strategy included five themed objectives including keeping residents better informed, delivering better value for money communications, providing fast and efficient online services, promoting resident involvement and supporting staff in delivering excellent communications;

(viii)

the Council was currently below the national average on keeping residents better informed;

(ix)

over the last three years the number of residents who of people getting info from council through media has fallen by 12 %;

(x)

it was important for the Council to promote a strong corporate identity;

(xi)

communications needed to be appropriate to meet the needs of the audience; it was considered that some publications did not have a clear purpose;

(xii)

it was integral for the Council to ‘e’ enable all of its services on the website to provide a better service to residents;

(xiii)

the opinion of local residents towards Plymouth City Council was 1% below the national average however this was an improvement upon previous years feedback;

(xiv)

officers were currently promoting different ways for local residents to contact the Council;

(xv)

the reputation campaign launched in 2010 highlighted that the Council needed to be more responsive to the community and better communicate the work of the council;

(xvi)

the Council had learnt from other authorities the importance of publicising money expenditure;

(xvii)

there was a discussion around proposals regarding an Invest to Save Project  in the Council’s website which would provide better technology;

(xix)

the Councillors personal website pages needed to be promoted to Members; currently there was a lack of understanding with regards to the promotion and use of the websites;

(xx)

the four new strategic objectives were not currently on the Council’s website however this would be updated;

(xxi)

hundreds of people took part in the Plymouth points of view survey;

(xxii)

a budget consultation online programme was to be set up to enable the council to explain to local residents the comprehensive spending review, the affect this would have on the council’s budget and allocation of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

(i)

the business case for the Accommodation Strategy set out the next proposed phase of implementation recommending that the Council vacate six of its current office bases; investment in ICT and infrastructure was required to adapt the existing retained accommodation;

(ii)

the Council may work with the University of Plymouth in the near future to enable better business continuity;

(iii)

it was proposed that the first floor of the Civic Centre would accommodate the Chief Executive, Assistant Chief Executive and Directors as well as other sectors of the Council;

(iv)

as part of the strategy, it was important to consider where council officers were working, the amount of time they spent working at their desks and their ICT requirements;

(v)

several printers would be removed from offices as part of this strategy however a programme would be installed on all computers to direct officers to print remotely to the closest printer;

(vi)

the Council had already achieved £27,000 worth of savings through this strategy;

(vii)

currently the data centre and the hard wire data connection between the Civic Centre and Windsor House had not progressed as expected;

(viii)

an electronic questionnaire had been submitted to officers in different departments that had undergone a move from one building to another in order to understand what went well and what could be improved upon for future moves;

(ix)

it was expected that the ‘pilot office’, situated on floor 11 in the north end of the Civic Centre would be completed by December 2010;

(x)

flexible working spaces were already in place in floor 5 of the Civic Centre;

(xi)

training programmes were being initiated to ensure that council workers were confident to use the new ICT equipment.

(xii)

staff had not yet been informed of where they would be moved as this was not yet finalised; staff would be informed once contract issues had been finalised;

(xiii)

there would be a penalty for the premature surrender of the Ballard House lease however this was built into the Accommodation Strategy business case;

(xiv)

officers would feed back to the Corporate Management Team (CMT) the Panel’s disappointment regarding plans for the ‘Directors area’ on the first floor of the Civic Centre and would highlight the Panel’s reasoning that Directors should not be removed from the operational aspect of their role;

(xv)

it was planned that the ground floor of the Civic Centre would be opened up considerably with enhancements to fittings and additional lighting;

(xvi)

ICT training packages were being initiated to aid officers in their understanding and adaptation of the development of ICT technology;

(xvii)

a significant part of the investment for the accommodation strategy was specified for remote ICT working  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

(i)

the Plymouth report identified challenges facing different partners across the city and examined the customer experience;

(ii)

the report identified that Plymouth had made progress in a lot of areas across the city however the current profile of Plymouth did not meet the expectation of being a vibrant waterfront city;

(iii)

there was still inequalities in the city, specifically with regards to health and housing;

(iv)

resources were not effectively shared between the city and partners; better management was required;

(v)

it was important for strategies to be streamlined as it was recognised that a lot of work was being duplicated across the city;

(vi)

the third sector wasn’t identified as being strong in the Plymouth report;

(vii)

it was important for more time to be spent on planning, scoping and risk assessments for work around the city and also for decision to be monitored.

(viii)

the Local Strategic Partnership would analyse how partners needed to operate in the current changing economic climate and ensure that the correct mechanisms were in place to deliver customer expectations.

(i)

the Environment Policy 2009/2013 was formulated to progress the sustainability and climate change action plans and was a citywide partnership document;

(ii)

five key themes for the Environment Policy consisted of reducing carbon emissions, promoting the sustainable use and protection of water supplies, protecting and improving air quality, reducing, reusing and recycling our waste and conserving and enhancing wildlife;

(iii)

the key objectives for the Environment Policy  consisted of managing and financing the changes needed, improving resource use and environmental management, promoting sustainable procurement, travelling sustainably, promoting economic prosperity through a sustainable economy, supporting strong, healthy, just and sustainable societies, managing resources effectively, reducing carbon emissions and tackling the impacts of climate change and enjoying a high and sustainable quality of life;

(iv)

the Climate Change Action Plan consisted of the following six themes, leadership, understanding, communicating, governing, taking action and measuring;

(v)

there was a target for Plymouth City Council to reduce its environment resource use of 20% by 2012;

(vi)

there was a citywide target to reduce its carbon emissions by 20% by 2013, 60% by 2020 and 80% by 2050;

(vii)

there was a citywide reduction in the ‘per capita carbon footprint’ of 6.9% by 2010 and 13.8% by 2011;

(viii)

Plymouth currently had one of the lowest carbon footprints in the UK.

(ix)

the Sustainability Manager was engaging people with the Environment Policy and Climate Change Action Plan by showing films

and hosting interactive events. An event had been organised to take place in December 2010, namely ‘Life in the Freezer’ which would consist of a debate between skeptics and believers regarding climate change.

(i)

the success achieved in the Carbon Management Plan consisted of the appointment of the Carbon Manager in 2009, the introduction of basic environmental management training, management of carbon legal compliance, the introduction of a transport working group, improved energy management and 24 new energy reduction projects;

(ii)

energy saving initiatives included replacing antiquated sterilizing equipment in schools, insulating valves in the Civic Centre, replacing halogen lamps in the Museum with LED bulbs and installing a building management system;

(iii)

the Council’s carbon footprint was 38,000 tonnes CO2 in 2009/10;

(iv)

the Council spent £6,500,000 in 2009/10 on electricity for buildings, electricity for street lighting, mileage, heating and natural gas;this would amount to £170 for every tonne of CO2 emitted;

(v)

the Council aimed to make savings of 1,500 tonnes CO2 per annum and savings of £200,000+ per annum as part of its Carbon Management Plan.

(i)

due to the abolishment of the Comprehensive Area Assessments, the Council was no longer required to report efficiencies to Central Government; hence, the Leader, the Chief Executive and the Director of Corporate Support were no longer required to approve the efficiency return;

(ii)

the Value For Money (VFM) efficiency saving is no longer required to be reported to customers as part of the Council Tax Bill documentation; however, efficiency achievements would still be described in the Council Tax Booklet sent with bills;

(iii)

a total of £29.14m efficiencies, against a target of £31.7m for 2010/11, had been identified for the latest return;

(iv)

work was continuing to progress across departments to identify additional in-year efficiencies;

(v)

a recent external audit report provided evidence that the Council had taken positive steps towards improving Value for Money across a number of services. Local Authorities would still be required to demonstrate the delivery of Value for Money to external auditors;

(vi)

the Council had adopted a new integrated process for allocating revenue resources to areas of highest priority through allocations across 11 budget delivery groups;

(vii)

the Council would no longer receive a Use of Resources assessment (UoR);

(viii)

undertaking and acting on benchmarking information would inevitably remain part of any new assessment frameworks (both internal and external);

(ix)

Manager Online had been implemented to assist management of staff leave and sickness;

(x)

the Council was keen to benchmark itself against other Councils.