The report of the Support Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel Task and Finish Group will be submitted. 

Councillor James (Chair of the Task and Finish Group and Chair of the Support Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel) has been invited to attend Cabinet to present the report.

(Please see also agenda item 8 below).    

Councillor James (Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board and Chair of Support Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel) submitted the task and finish report.

The Director for Corporate Services submitted a written report on the recommendations of the Support Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel’s Task and Finish Group.

The report indicated - 

a.                   that the task and finish took place over 2 days and included a site visit to Ballard House;

b.                  that staff were not negatively impacted following the restructure;

c.                   trade unions were supportive of the restructure;

d.                  that there were a high level of abandon adult social care calls which was a cause for concern.

Agreed that the recommendations of the task and finish group are accepted -

1.         Given the concerns identified with the call management in the Proof of Concept Team, the Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Panel add this issue to its work programme and request an update at a future meeting from the Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care;

(The high level of abandoned calls to the Adult Social Care team was a major safeguarding issue and one which should be addessed as a matter of urgency.  The Overview and Scrutiny Management Board therefore supported Councillor McDonald's proposal that a recommendation regarding the installation of a dedicated phone line to enable customers to ring directly through to Adult Social Care be added to the report arising from the Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Task and Finish Group).

2.         A dedicated cross-department training resource be established to help deliver a service function that has a more effective and consistent role in dealing with training requirements, interpreting and dealing with legislation changes and monitoring quality assurance. It is believed that the training team will alleviate conflicts, friction and pressure between staff as well as ameliorate staff morale and assist a service which has suffered from poor performance levels;

3.         Malcolm Coe, Assistant Director for Finance, Assets and Efficiencies and Martine Collins, revenues & Benefits Manager to undertake a review of the role profiles for grade D and grade E posts and ensure that clear differentials are contained within the role profiles to bring clarity to the roles and alleviate confusion and friction between staff;

4.         The Strategic Manager (Revenues and Benefits) role be re-evaluated through Job Evaluation process in an attempt to ensure fairness is established in the grading of strategic manager positions;

            5.         A single, central Customer Services location be developed as a part of the Corporate Accommodation Strategy to meet the needs of our customer base and allow for flexibility within disciplines;

            6.         An interim staff survey is conducted with all staff in May 2012, six months after the implementation of the new structure, and the results of which are shared with the Support Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel;

            7.         Malcolm Coe, Assistant Director for Finance, Assets and Efficiencies to undertake a review of the use of the flexible working policy within the affected departments;

            8.         John-Paul Sanders, Assistant Director for Customer Services to review an extension to  the Customer Services department operating hours to deal with general public enquiries between the hours of 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am – 5pm on a Saturday;

            9.         Malcolm Coe, Assistant Director for Finance, Assets and Efficiencies to arrange the next stage of staff engagement workshops to follow through suggestions and recommendations raised by staff at the initial workshops;

            10.       Interview feedback is provided as a matter of urgency to all applicants unsuccessful or unsuccessful during the recruitment process; 

            11.       Uniforms for customer facing staff at First Stop should be incorporated into the role as soon as practicable and that consideration should be given to all back office staff having to dress to an appropriate standard;

         12.       Mark Grimley Assistant Director for Human Resources and Organisational Development should give consideration to establishing a staff reward scheme which would improve staff morale and encourage staff to promote service improvement ideas that could develop future service delivery.

         Additional recommendation from Overview and Scrutiny Management Board meeting –

         13.       that the circulation and implementation of the Action Plan be implemented with immediate effect;

         14.       the Action Plan is submitted to the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board on 28 March 2012 for further scrutiny.

(The Chair took agenda items 6 and 8 together to facilitate good meeting management).