Venue: Conference Room 1, The Abbey House, Abingdon
Contact: Steve Culliford, Democratic Services Officer, Tel. 01235 540307 E-mail: steve.culliford@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
No. | Item |
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Apologies for Absence To receive apologies for absence. Minutes: None. |
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Minutes To adopt and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Ridgeway Shared Services Partnership Strategic Board meeting held on 3 August 2009. Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of the strategic board held on 3 August 2009 were adopted and signed as a correct record. |
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Declarations of Interest To receive any declarations of interest. Minutes: None. |
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Urgent Business To receive notification of any matters which the Chair(man) determines should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances which have made the matters urgent. Minutes: None. |
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Minutes of the Operations Board To receive and note the minutes of the Ridgeway Shared Services Partnership Operations Board meeting held on 24 August, 21 September and 19 October 2009. Minutes: The strategic board received the minutes of the operations board meetings held on 24 August, 21 September and 19 October 2009.
Members noted that performance of exchequer services had reduced since Capita had transferred operations to Shepton Mallet at Mendip District Council’s offices. Capita had appointed David Firth as the new exchequer services manager. He had just started in post. An action plan to improve performance had been agreed with Capita; Phil Brown and Craig Richmond would be responsible for implementing it, whilst David Firth would manage the everyday “business as usual” exchequer services team. Most actions should be completed by Christmas.
One action was for the councils to increase the use of purchase orders through the financial management system. This would speed up payment of invoices. Training would be given to relevant council staff. This would help Capita’s performance and was in the interest of both councils.
The councils’ client manager would be undertaking some benchmarking comparisons with the Capita’s performance at Shepton Mallet compared with other Capita sites such as Blackburn, where Cherwell District Council’s operations were based. He would also be undertaking ad hoc visits to the Shepton Mallet offices to check on performance.
It was recognised that better performance was needed by Capita. It had been reminded that the contract was now in its second half and the councils would be looking to a new contract thereafter. Good performance was therefore essential from Capita to be considered for the new contract.
It was noted that progress was being made on the brown bins service, in particular in reconciling the database with the financial management system. Once this was completed, the officers would write to all service users with arrears to enforce debt recovery. The portfolio holders would be consulted before debt collection commenced.
RESOLVED
that the minutes of the operations board meetings and the further progress on outstanding tasks be noted. |
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Performance Monitoring To consider the attached performance reports. Minutes: The strategic board welcomed Capita representatives to the meeting to receive the performance report.
Capita reported that:
The strategic board discussed overpayments of benefits with Capita. Members of the board expressed concern that the level of debt was increasing and asked how this was being tackled. Capita reported that it looked at each case and where possible, it sought arrangements for repayment through the courts. Almost 60 per cent of overpayment cases were being repaid by court arrangement. Capita and the councils’ client manager would be reviewing the older cases to see if any action could be taken and all cases would be reviewed by 31 March 2010 at the latest.
Members were concerned that there was a general misunderstanding of the term overpayment. There were some occasions where overpayments had been made by Capita and the council following mistakes made by benefits staff. However, most overpayments were caused by incorrect claims. Members asked Capita to analyse overpayments between claimant-caused overpayments and Capita/council-caused overpayments and report back to the board or to councillors generally through the councillors’ information bulletins.
Capita continued reporting on performance in other areas:
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Dates of Forthcoming Meetings To note that forthcoming meetings of the Strategic Board will be held on:
All of these meetings will be at held the Vale of White Horse District Council's offices at The Abbey House, Abingdon, each meeting starting at 8.30am. Minutes: It was noted that the next meetings of the strategic board would be held on Monday 1 February and Tuesday 4 May 2010. |
01235 422520
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Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House, Abbey Close,
Abingdon
OX14 3JE