Agenda and minutes
Customers, Performance, Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee
Wednesday, 19th December, 2018 1.30 pm
Venue: Meeting Room 1, Guildhall
Contact: Suzanne Price Scrutiny Facilitator
No. | Item |
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Apologies for absence Minutes: Apologies for absence was submitted on behalf of Councillors Paul Blackwell and M G Morris. |
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Confirmation of Minutes To sign as a correct record
the Minutes of the Meeting held on 28 November 2018 Minutes: The Minutes of the Meeting
held on 28 November 2018 were submitted.
It was noted that there was a spelling mistake on page 4, where the word
“complaint” had been used instead of “compliant”. AGREED – That subject to the aforementioned amendment,
the Minutes of the Meeting held on 28 November 2018 be signed as a correct
record. |
|
To consider the report of the
Head of Finance Additional documents: Minutes: The Head of Finance submitted
a report (HF/137/2018s) to assist the Committee in considering and agreeing its
work programme. AGREED – That the work programme be agreed. |
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Reshaping Review and Emerging Priorities To consider the report of the Chief Executive Minutes: The Lead Member for
Organisation – Finance, Performance, Health and Safety and Governance submitted
a report (CE/10/18) to update Members on the outcomes from the two workshops
that were held in order to review reshaping to date, to outline the process for
determining the key things to focus on moving forwards (emerging priorities)
and to gather initial views from scrutiny on what these areas might be. The Lead Member presented the
report and together with the Chief Executive, responded to questions
accordingly. A debate ensued and the
following points were highlighted: ·
Acknowledgement
that the review of the Senior Management structure had already saved over £2m. ·
Importance of
ensuring that the new Management structure was successful in delivering
priorities. ·
Feedback sought
on emerging priorities. ·
Suggestion that
in future, consideration be given to the impact of savings across the whole of
the organisation rather than just an individual service. ·
Importance of
acknowledging that partnership working in the future was key in terms of
gathering information and that the Council were not in a position to work
alone. ·
Confirmation that
further detail of the priorities would be presented to Scrutiny early in the New
Year. ·
Clarification
sought regarding the deliverability of the Council Plan, and the importance of
ensuring that the relevant resources were there to deliver the priorities
within it. ·
Recognition that
budget/financial resources needed to be considered, but it wasn’t the only
factor. ·
Request that
rural areas be given the same level of priority as the town centre. ·
Uncertainty
expressed regarding the impact of Brexit. ·
Acknowledgement
that out of county placements were a high cost to the Authority, but it was
noted that work was being done to ensure the provision was at a more localised
level. It was suggested the views of the
PSB be sought on this issue in order to achieve a regional solution. ·
It was
acknowledged that the amount of new child and social care cases could never be
estimated. ·
Confirmation that
a recruitment process was underway to appoint a new Chief Officer to review and
deliver the environment service. ·
Suggestion by
some that the PFI was having a negative impact on the Environment Department budget
and that some services were being cut in order to meet the overspend. ·
Importance of
focussing on secondary school education in terms of performance improvement and
financial sustainment. ·
Suggestion that
focus should be on making the Town Centre more viable as this would link to
transport and the night time economy. ·
Importance of supporting
other institutions within the Town to deliver on certain things e.g. the football
club would be holding an international football match in Wrexham. ·
Recognition that
the impact of the weather on the winter maintenance budget was difficult to
estimate. ·
Suggestion that
demand management should be a focus when setting priorities. AGREED – (i) That the report be noted. (ii) That the emerging priorities will be discussed by Members in further workshops from January 2019 onwards, using evidence based data, and reflecting upon the Council Plan ... view the full minutes text for item 35. |
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Customer Services and Complaints - 6 monthly Report to September 2018 To consider the report of the Lead Member for Organisation – Planning and Corporate Services Additional documents:
Minutes: The Lead Member for
Organisation – Planning and Corporate Services submitted a report (HCCS/61/18S)
to provide Members with details of the Council’s Customer Services and
Complaints for the period April to October 2018 including performance and
reasons for customers contact. The Lead Member presented the
report and highlighted the main points contained within it. During the debate the following points were
noted: ·
Confirmation that
customer service was generally good and was reflected in high levels of
customer satisfaction. ·
Suggestion that
whilst digital contact had increased significantly, the number of customers
accessing services through the medium of Welsh was currently low. However, work was being done to publicise the
provision more widely. ·
Confirmation that
the number of people with an online account had decreased, but in order to gain
a true indication and the reasons why, analysis would need to be undertaken
over a longer period of time. ·
Confirmation that
Welsh translations were provided through an external provider. Members were advised that a report on Welsh
Language compliance was scheduled for the June Meeting. ·
Clarification
sought regarding the classification of complaints/reported incidents. Officers confirmed that an initial contact
would not be classed as a complaint. If
there was a scenario whereby a customer repeatedly made contact then the report
would then be escalated to a formal complaint. ·
Confirmation by
Officers that mediation was an option within the Social Services complaints
procedure, but not within corporate complaints.
Adding to the comments, the Lead Member referred to issues regarding
housing repairs or contractors, and highlighted the excellent service provided
by the Tenant Liaison Officers. ·
With reference to
the Performance Measures in the Report Card (Appendix 1) in future reports,
‘volume of face to face visitors’ to be amended to reflect that this is a
record of footfall, and the number of full interviews conducted through the
medium of Welsh to be included. A member of the public asked
a question seeking clarity regarding the statistics for the number of emails
received in Welsh. Officers advised that
the total number of Welsh emails was based on the number sent to the Welsh
email address, rather than emails sent to the English email address written in
the Welsh language. She advised that for
the Welsh emails to be included as part of the statistics, they would need to
be sent to the Welsh email address. AGREED – (i) That
the report be noted. (ii) That a report be issued on an annual
basis in June and that the information that the Committee would have normally
received be issued in a 6monthly all member information report. (iii) That the corporate complaints procedure
be reviewed in March 2019. |