(a)

the temporary staff employee sickness figures would be provided by email the following day;

(b)

the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board would raise the issue of panels not receiving information requested from officers at its next meeting.

(a)

there had recently been a number of changes in legislation which would have an impact on the Democracy and Governance section of the Corporate Services Directorate, a department the Support Services Overview and Scrutiny panel was responsible for;

(b)

the Localism Act had been implemented some time ago and an update on this should have been provided.

(1)

an update would be provided to the panel at the next meeting on the impact of the Localism Act and how this has affected the provision of services across the council;

(2)

an update would be provided to the panel at the next meeting on the impact of The Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

(a)

this report was in response to the recommendations agreed at the Support Services Task and Finish Group in February 2012 which reviewed the impact of the restructure in Revenues and Benefits, Customer Services and the Transaction Centre (previously incomes and creditors);

(b)

the Revenues and Benefits service over the past 12 months had been through huge change including a restructure, with the aim of saving £1m, and a major increase in service demands;

(c)

recent CIPFA 2012 benchmarking information showed that the service was now one of the most cost efficient authorities. Performance had also improved with the time taken to process new claims reduced from 30 to 23 days (which is now on a par with council average);

(d)

the service acknowledged that there was still work to do in further reducing processing times, although it was strongly felt that the service was heading in the right direction;

(e)

the restructure, since its implementation in November 2011, had been successful, although there were still many changes still to be implemented, many of which were suggested improvements from staff.

(f)

the interim staff survey had not been completed, however, the management were heavily engaged in staff relations throughout the service by way of measures including hot-desking and formal staff consultations;

(g)

in attempting to enable a single and central customer service location the service had been engaged with libraries and were exploring many customer access points;

(h)

the Strategic Manager role, identified in recommendation 10, was due to be re-evaluated along with all other manager posts within the FETA departments and it was hoped that if this post was demonstrated to have been under-valued then the pay scale would be backdated;

(i)

in order to deal with the impending changes to Welfare Reform the department were currently consulting the public on Council Tax Support and working with voluntary organisations to raise awareness of this issue. Internally, the department had been improving staff training, providing updates and guidance on welfare reform, communicating with staff on and investing in new technologies;

(j)

online transactions were an important tool for the department, however, it was acknowledged that there needed to be viable alternatives for transactions to assist those customers who were not IT literate;

(k)

the impact on the service during school holidays had been reduced by spreading term-time workers across many different teams;

(l)

Cabinet were going to receive a monthly update on the Revenues and Benefits Service and if the panel felt that it would assist this information could be shared;

(m)

the service had to deal with a significant increase in benefit applications but now operated with a nil backlog system on new applications,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

(a)

the Council had produced a Carbon Management Plan, annexed to the Asset Management Plan, which aimed to increase the use of renewable technologies and reduce the impact on increasing energy costs; the Council had a 20 per cent increase on its energy costs over the past 18 months;

(b)

the Council and schools were charged approximately 12 pounds per tonne of CO2 it produced which was estimated to cost £250k for 2011 – 2012;

(c)

Plymouth had been successful in reducing carbon emissions and compared favourably in a published CRC Performance League Table, which showed which organisations were effectively reducing carbon emissions;

(d)

there was still a lot of work for the Council to do to further reduce carbon emissions and it was focussing on achieving these reductions through –

·         invest to save projects, such as improving school boilers, reducing council properties and reducing energy consumption as part of the Accommodation Strategy;

·         improved energy management by using electronic invoicing which was paperless and more efficient and installing smart meters which accurately report on the energy consumed in council properties;

·         improved awareness, educating school children and staff to reduce carbon footprints and ensuring council department’s business plans commit to sustainability;

(e)

the Council had reduced CO2 by 9.1 per cent since 2010, which was currently 1.1 per cent up on its projection of 4 per cent per year;

(f)

at present a programme of plans and projects on carbon management and green energy was being worked on; this would be submitted to Cabinet in the near future.

(g)

the Council aimed to take advantage of currently low interest rates on borrowing money to purchase and incorporate green energy improvements within its buildings with which the savings generated would then pay for the borrowing in the long term;

(h)

the Council’s measuring standard ISO14064 was an internationally recognised measuring standard and showed that the Council was ahead of most other local authorities on carbon reductions;

(i)

the Council offered on an ad-hoc basis energy and carbon management advice to schools, including academies, at no cost, although this would be reviewed in the ‘services for schools’ work which was currently being undertaken;

(j)

the Council reduced its air travel spend from £111k in 2009/10 to £36k in 2010/11;

(k)

the Energy from Waste plant, being constructed in the Dockyard, was estimated to reduce the city’s carbon emissions by approximately 70 thousand tonnes, due to transport and methane gases from landfill being significantly reduced;

(l)

approximately 90 per cent of the Council House’s and Civic Centre lighting was provided by energy efficient light bulbs;

(m)

there was the potential to improve carbon reductions through increased use of public transport and reducing traffic congestions and pollution.

(1)

Alex Hurth, would email all members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

(a)

the information had recently been provided by Pertemps, the company who provided temporary agency staff to the Council, and the Assistant Director for Human Resources and Organisational Development was analysing the data before sending it out to members the day following this meeting;

(b)

the Council was working closely with Pertemps to tighten up on the reporting of temporary staff sickness data.

(a)

a new timetable for the Civic Centre Redevelopment Project had been prepared, which set a revised contract award date for June 2013;

(b)

a recently held ‘bidder’s day’ had been very successful with 22 separate companies attending;

(c)

Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQ) had been issued to interested parties and it was hoped that following submission of the PQQs the four highest scoring submissions would be invited to participate in the detailed tendering exercise;

(d)

it was hoped that as part of the redevelopment the Civic Centre car park would be released for construction so that it further added to the city’s landscape. The car park would not be used as a pay and display car park by developers.

(e)

in order to relocate staff appropriately following the sale of the Civic Centre, the Council were working towards finding a solution that would see staff from Ballard House, on a lease until 2014, and staff from the Civic Centre be relocated at the same time, preferably into a current Council property; this was an area that scrutiny could assist in the future;

(f)

the Council were aiming to lease back some of the thirteen floors in the Civic Centre from the eventual successful bidder;

(g)

the Council House was not part of the Civic Centre sale and as such would remain as freehold owned by the Council and would not be part of the procurement exercise;

(h)

the previous administration in 2007 sought legal advice on the decision to Grade two list the Council House by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

(1)

Freedom of Information Targets is added to the work programme for 19 November 2012;

(2)

Revenue and Benefits monthly position statement is added to the work programme for every meeting.

(3)

School Academy Transfer update is provided at the next meeting;

(4)

Membership for the Shared Services Task and Finish Group, subject to the PID being approved by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, is Councillors Murphy, Ian Bowyer, James and one more Labour member.