Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillor Anne Clarke, Councillor Tricia Clough and Councillor Paul Cooper.

There were no urgent items of business.

Members should declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and Non Statutory Interest as defined by the Members’ Code of Conduct in respect of:

a)  any business on the agenda

b)  any urgent additional items to be considered

c)  any matters arising out of those items and if appropriate, withdraw from the meeting at the relevant time.

Members were requested to declare the existence and nature of any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or other interests, not already on their register of interests, in any item on the agenda and withdraw from the meeting at the appropriate time.

There were no declarations of interest.

Minutes of a meeting held on 12^th October 2020.

Moved by Councillor Rose Bowler and seconded by Councillor Ray Heffer.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of a Customer Service and Transformation Scrutiny Committee held on 12^th October 2020 be agreed as a correct record.

(Members should contact the officer whose name appears on the List of

Key Decisions for any further information.  NB: If Members wish to discuss an exempt report under this item, the meeting will need to move into exempt business and exclude the public in accordance with the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 and Local Government Act 1972, Part 1, Schedule 12a for that part of the meeting only).

The Scrutiny and Elections Officer presented the October 2020 list of Key Decisions to Members.

Members were advised that all of the decisions in the list had now been approved and there were no future decisions for them to be aware of.

It was moved by Councillor Ray Heffer and seconded by Councillor Rose Bowler to note the list of Key Decisions.

RESOLVED that the list of Key Decisions from October 2020 be noted.

The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer presented the Customer Service Standards and Compliments, Comments and Complaints Report 2019/20 (1st April 2020 to 30th September 2020) to Members.

The purpose of the report was to:

1) Provide information on the Council’s performance in relation to its customer service standards.

2) Provide information on the effective management of complaints and customer requests.

3) Provide information on the number of compliments, comments and complaints for the period 1st April 2020 to 30th September 2020.

The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer explained that based on a request at the previous meeting of Customer Service and Transformation Scrutiny Committee on 12^th October 2020, she had now included cross-cutting data for Compliments, Comments and Complaints within the appendices of the report. Members agreed that they would like to receive cross-cutting data in this format with every future Customer Service Standards and Compliments, Comments and Complaints Report.

Councillor Ray Heffer referred to a mention in the report of 75 complaints on street services (recorded through Contact Centre) and asked if the Customer Standards and Complaints Officer could explain the issues this would include. She advised Councillor Ray Heffer that these complaints were mainly missed bin collections, and the figure had been negatively influenced by COVID-19 restrictions. She agreed to give the Committee a detailed breakdown of this figure after the meeting.

The recommendation in the report to note the overall performance on compliments/comments and complaints and customer service standards, particularly in the light of the constraints Officers have been working within during the Covid-19 arrangements, was moved by Councillor Rose Bowler and seconded by Councillor Ray Heffer.

RESOLVED that the Committee notes the overall performance on compliments/comments and complaints and customer service standards, particularly in the light of the constraints Officers have been working within during the Covid-19 arrangements.

(Customer Standards and Complaints Officer)

(N.B. The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer left the meeting at this point.)

The Information, Engagement and Performance Manager presented the Corporate Ambitions Performance Update - July to September 2020 (Q2 - 2020/21) to Members.

The purpose of the report was to report the quarter 2 outturns for the Council’s Ambition Plan 2020-2024 targets and relevant supporting service indicators.

(N.B Councillor Rita Turner joined the meeting at this point.)

Councillor Mary Dooley felt that Council staff meeting as many targets as they had in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic was exceptional.

Councillor David Dixon referred to indicator CUS03 (‘Ensure that at least 50% of transactions are made through digital channels by Dec 2024’) and asked if the ICT systems had the resilience to meet such an ambitious target. The Information, Engagement and Performance Manager explained that she was confident that the ICT systems did have the resilience, and there were business continuity plans in place in case of a significant ICT failure. She added that a Strategic Risk Member/officer group had recently been formed and ICT security would be one of the areas they would monitor.

The recommendation in the report to note outturns against the Ambition Plan 2020-2024 targets and relevant service indicators was moved by Councillor Rose Bowler and seconded by Councillor David Dixon.

RESOLVED that outturns against the Ambition Plan 2020-2024 targets and relevant service indicators be noted.

(Information, Engagement and Performance Manager)

(N.B. Councillor Mary Dooley and the Information, Engagement and Performance Manager left the meeting at this point.)

The Scrutiny and Elections Officer presented the Customer Service and Transformation Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2020/21 to Members.

It was moved by Councillor Rose Bowler and seconded by Councillor Andrew Joesbury to note the Work Programme 2020/21.

RESOLVED that the Committee notes this report and the Programme attached at Appendix 1.

(Scrutiny and Elections Officer)

To move:-

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the stated Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act and it is not in the public interest for that to be revealed.”

Councillor Rose Bowler moved and Councillor Rita Turner seconded that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the stated Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

RESOLVED that the public be excluded from the meeting during discussion of the following items of business.

The Scrutiny and Elections Officer presented the Review of Delivery of Environmental Health & Licensing – Post-Scrutiny Monitoring (Final Report) to Members.

The report included three recommendations to note the report, acknowledge exceptions to service delivery and make the review’s findings public.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer and the Joint Assistant Director - Environmental Health Service explained some of the details in the report to Members.

The recommendations in the report were moved by Councillor David Dixon and seconded by Councillor Rose Bowler.

RESOLVED that the Committee:

(1)Notes the progress against the review recommendations.

(2) Acknowledges any exceptions to delivery and clarifies any additional action required by the service. Members should consider an extension to the monitoring period where recommendations have not been fully implemented.

(3)Makes its findings public, in accordance with Part 4.5.17(3) of the Constitution.

(Deputy Monitoring Officer/Scrutiny and Elections Officer)