Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Conference Room 1, The Abbey House, Abingdon

Contact: Steve Culliford, Democratic Services Officer, Tel. 01235 540307  E-mail:  steve.culliford@whitehorsedc.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

16.

Apologies for Absence

To receive apologies for absence. 

Minutes:

None

17.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 180 KB

To adopt and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Ridgeway Shared Services Partnership Strategic Board meeting held on 1 March 2010. 

Minutes:

The minutes of the Strategic Board’s meeting held on 1 March 2010 were adopted as a correct record.  

18.

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations of interest. 

Minutes:

Councillors Ann Ducker and Jerry Patterson both declared personal interests in that they had attended the Local Government Chronicle’s annual awards evening that had been sponsored by Capita.  

19.

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

20.

Minutes of the Operations Board

To receive and note the outcome of any issues arising at the Ridgeway Shared Services Partnership Operations Board. 

Minutes:

The minutes of the Operations Board meeting held on 19 April 2010 and the minutes of a briefing meeting held on 29 March 2010 were noted. 

 

The officers updated on progress as follows:

 

  • Concessionary fares would be a county council function from 1 April 2011.  Officers from the county and the districts were liaising over implementation

 

  • Progress was being made in reclaiming outstanding debts from brown bin customers and correcting database errors in customer accounts

 

  • Work was progressing on arranging Capita surgeries in Wantage

 

  • Capita had still to produce an analysis of the reasons behind its poor performance in processing benefits claims accurately.  Although the Department for Work and Pensions’ Performance Development Team was providing advice, no conclusions had been formed and this work could take several months

 

  • The Department for Work and Pensions had asked the Audit Commission to do extended auditing of the councils’ 2008/09 benefit subsidy claims.  South Oxfordshire’s audit had been completed.  It had found that South Oxfordshire District Council had exceeded the upper threshold for local authority errors and therefore would be penalised by approximately £370K.  The Vale’s audit was about to commence and, given the common practices at both councils, it was likely that the Vale had also exceeded the threshold, and could incur a similar penalty. 

 

  • It was possible that the councils could be penalised for their benefits performance for 2009/10 given that the benefits accuracy improvement plan would not be felt until 2010/11

 

  • The councils would claim these penalties back from Capita under the contract

 

  • Capita had the opportunity to provide evidence to mitigate these penalties, thereby hopefully reducing the penalty to the councils and Capita

 

  • The councils’ officers were asked to check the contract details to ensure they were confident of the councils’ position in the event of any necessary action against Capita

21.

Performance Monitoring pdf icon PDF 42 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Sue King and Darren Keen from Capita joined the meeting. 

 

The Strategic Board noted the successful performance of Capita in providing many services under the contract but did not discuss these in detail.  However, the Board members asked the Capita representatives to report on progress in improving its performance of processing benefits claims accurately. 

 

Firstly, Capita reported that it disputed the conclusions made by the Audit Commission and would challenge these.  Capita believed that performance had been above the lower threshold but had not exceeded the upper threshold, which if true would significantly reduce the financial penalty to below £100K.  It would be providing mitigating evidence by the end of May to challenge the Audit Commission’s assumptions. 

 

The Board members had seen no evidence of any improvement from Capita in the weekly statistics they had received.  They asked why performance was so much lower for South Oxfordshire and the Vale compared to that of Havant, whose benefits claims were administered by the same office.  Capita believed that improvements would soon be evident.  Capita also believed that there was no single reason for the low level of performance.  It was managing the benefits team performance and was identifying areas for closer monitoring or further training.  The Department for Work and Pensions’ Performance Development Team had also started assessing Capita’s processes which should identify further improvements; this work was ongoing and could take several months. 

 

The Strategic Board was dissatisfied with the explanations given by Capita and urged it to improve its benefits accuracy performance.  Capita reported that it hoped that the new controls it was introducing, together with the action plan and the advice of the Performance Development Team would make the improvements the councils required. 

 

Turning to other areas of benefits performance, the Board noted that the level of benefits overpayment debts should reduce next month and Capita was confident it would meet its target to process changes in claimants’ circumstances, known as changed events.  The Board also noted progress against the action plan. 

22.

Dates of Forthcoming Meetings

To note that next meeting of the Strategic Board will be held on Monday 2 August 2010 at 8.30am.  This will be the first meeting at which the chairmanship and administration of the board transfers to South Oxfordshire District Council.  Therefore, the meeting will be at that council’s offices in Crowmarsh. 

Minutes:

Members noted that the next formal meeting of the Strategic Board would be held on Monday 2 August 2010 at 8.30am.  From that meeting, the chairmanship and administration would pass to South Oxfordshire District Council for a two-year period.  The meetings would also be held at South Oxfordshire’s offices. 

 

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Vale of White Horse District Council
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