Agenda and minutes

Overview and Scrutiny Management Board - Wednesday 29 February 2012 2.00 pm

Venue: Warspite Room, Council House. View directions

Contact: Mrs Katey Johns, Democratic Support Officer  Email: katey.johns@plymouth.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

93.

APPOINTMENT OF VICE-CHAIR

Minutes:

In the absence of Councillor Nicholson, the Chair sought nominations for a Vice-Chair.

 

Agreed that Councillor Stark, having been proposed by Councillor Thompson and seconded by Councillor Lock, is appointed Vice-Chair for the purpose of this meeting.

94.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

Minutes:

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

95.

CHAIR'S URGENT BUSINESS

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

Minutes:

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

96.

CALL-INS

Members will be advised of any executive decisions that have been called in.

Minutes:

There were no call-ins for consideration at this meeting.

97.

TASK AND FINISH GROUP REPORT - IMPACT OF THE RESTRUCTURE IN REVENUES AND BENEFITS, CUSTOMER SERVICES, CASHIERS AND INCOMES AND CREDITORS pdf icon PDF 101 KB

The Board will consider the task and finish group report as submitted by the Support Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor James introduced the task and finish Group report on the ‘Impact of the restructure in Revenues and Benefits, Customer Services, Cashiers and Incomes and Creditors’ and offered a vote of thanks to all those who had been involved. Members were advised that –

 

(a)

the small task and finish group had worked well together over the course of the two days and focused the review primarily on –

 

 
  •  

the impact of the restructure on service performance and staff morale;

 

 
  •  

the impact of the restructure on the experience of customers and processing times of Revenue and Benefit cases;

 

(b)

the task and finish group were warmly welcomed by managers during the site visits of the areas under review;

 

(c)

the review identified a number of areas of concern and these were included in the findings of the report and addressed by the proposed recommendations, however, more work was required to ensure that relevant training functions were established and maintained and staff morale continued to improve.

 

Members of the Board raised a number of significant concerns with regard to the findings in the report and highlighted that –

 

(d)

the number of abandoned calls and potential call waiting times in Adult Social Care was unacceptable;

 

(e)

the lack of a training function within the service was fundamentally wrong;

 

(f)

staff grading issues demonstrated a flaw within the Human Resources department as role profiles and job responsibilities should have been agreed prior to the restructure;

 

(g)

the upcoming welfare reforms would add significant pressures to an already pressured department that relied on overtime and agency staff to complete its existing workload.

 

In order to respond to the concerns raised Malcolm Coe, Assistant Director for Finance, Assets and Efficiencies, was invited to update the Board. Members were advised that –

 

(h)

the aim of the restructure was to realise savings of £1m and improve the service structure. Staff and unions were fully consulted on the aims and the process of the restructure;

 

(i)

there had been a large backlog of 2600 cases in the benefits service in November which had now been cleared to 800;

 

(j)

the issues regarding staff training, time to process claims and abandoned calls were amongst many issues that were targeted in the service Action Plan.

 

Members commented that they were reassured to hear that the service had an Action Plan but that this should have been scrutinised by the task and finish group.

 

Members of the board agreed –

 

(1)

to amend recommendation R11 contained within the report so that it contains a footnote linking the recommendation to the recent Health and Adult Social Care Task and Finish Group on Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults;

 

(2)

that in light of (1) above and the number of abandoned calls, an additional recommendation is included in the Health and Adult Social Care Task and Finish Group report on Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults proposing installation of a dedicated phone line to enable customers to ring directly through to the Adult Social Care  ...  view the full minutes text for item 97.

98.

RESPONSE TO INDEPENDENT ADVISER'S REPORT pdf icon PDF 38 KB

To consider the Board’s response to the recommendations arising from the Independent Adviser’s report on scrutiny performance.

Minutes:

Further to minute 83, the Board had met informally to consider a response to the findings and recommendations of the Independent Adviser’s report.

 

The Board agreed the response to the findings of the Independent Adviser’s report on scrutiny performance.

99.

DELEGATED AUTHORITY

To consider delegating authority of the following matters to the Board’s Lead Officer, in consultation with Chair, Vice-Chair and opposition lead member, in order to expedite the decision-making process outside of the normal business meeting process –

 

  • Project Initiation Documents / Work Programme Requests
  • Task and Finish Group Reports
  • Panel Recommendations

Minutes:

Further to minutes 83 and 97, the Board discussed delegating authority to the Board’s Lead Officer, in consultation with Chair, Vice-Chair and opposition lead member, in response to recommendation six of the Independent Adviser’s report on scrutiny performance.

 

It was commented that members training sessions were not flexible, and as a result members were often unable to attend training sessions due to other commitments.

 

Members of the Board agreed –

 

(1)

that in order to expedite the decision-making process outside of the normal business meeting process, approval of work programme related matters be delegated to the Board’s Lead Officer, in consultation with Chair, Vice-Chair and opposition lead member. Work programme related matters include, but are not limited to –

 

  • Project Initiation Documents / Work Programme Requests;
  • Task and Finish Group Reports;
  • Panel Recommendations;
  • Forward Plan items;

 

(2)

any future scrutiny training should be discussed with all scrutiny chairs prior to training being arranged;

 

(3)

that in future scrutiny training sessions should be organised with more flexibility to allow members with other commitments the option to attend training sessions.

 

100.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 107 KB

The Management Board will be asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2012.

Minutes:

It was agreed that the minutes of the 1 February 2012 are approved, subject to the amendment to minute 90 to include the following additional co-opted representatives –

 

·              

Richard Smith – Plymouth Chamber of Commerce;

 

·              

Cheryl Ward – Job Centre Plus;

 

·              

a further nominated representative from South West TUC and PABC Executive.

 

101.

EXEMPT BUSINESS

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) … of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Minutes:

There were no items of exempt business.