Agenda item

To receive the report of the head of corporate strategy.

Extract from minutes of the previous Scrutiny review meetings

Vale 20.3.14

Councillor Reg Waite, the Cabinet member for commercial services; Ian Matten, waste and parks service manager, and Matthew Fowler, regional director with Sodexo, came to the table to introduce the report and to assist the discussion.

Councillor Waite introduced the report to the Committee. Sodexo had completed 13 of the 15 points which were in their action plan for the year, and the other two items were on track.

The Committee discussed this item and below is a summary of the main points:

·               The contractors are showing continuous improvement against contract and there has been a low level of complaints: the complaints which have been received show no particular pattern.

·               Town and parish councils have been consulted for their views on the performance of the contract as per last year’s Scrutiny Committee request.

·               The committee was pleased with the apprenticeship scheme run by the contractor.

·               There may need to be a review of time-scales on notifications by the council to address issues; it needs to be considered in agreement with the contractor, rather than imposed by the council as at present.

·               The committee was pleased with the retention of the Green Flag status in Abbey Gardens.

·               Dissatisfaction from the public relating to parks may not necessarily be issues related to this contract.

·               Committee asked to know whether customers who were dissatisfied with the parks were dissatisfied with the same or different parks.

·               Abbey Meadows is cleared frequently of litter but has very high usage. Additional bins will be provided in the summer. There were very few comments in the customer satisfaction survey about litter in Abbey Meadows.

·               A new tracking system will be introduced to show where the crews are located, and the council will have access to this information.

·               The contractor is able to draw resources across contracts where need.

·               The contractor has requested that the council “support with winter works to retain our (sic) seasonal workforce”. In response to the committee’s request for clarification, the contractor is looking for work to undertake during the non-growing season to enable them to retain the expertise of their workforce from one year to the next. The committee recognised that this was an operational matter, not a Scrutiny one, but saw that this could be beneficial in some circumstances.

The committee requested the following:

For the next annual review to provide the following information:

·               To include consultation with the town and parish councils, even where they are not the owners of the parks, as some customer comments may go to them.

For next year’s action plan to contain the following information:

·               Communications

·               Time/response targets

·               Tracking of operations technology

·               Play areas – annual report and weekly visual inspection

·               To know whether customers who were dissatisfied with the parks where dissatisfied with the same or different parks.

RESOLVED:

(a)          To recommend the Cabinet member for waste to award a “good” performance rating to the grounds maintenance contractor, Sodexo, for its performance in 2013; and

(b)          to ask the officers to follow up the actions listed in the bullet points above. 

South 22.4.2014

The committee considered the report of the head of corporate strategy setting out the performance of Sodexo Limited in providing grounds maintenance services in South Oxfordshire from 1 January to 31 December 2013.

Mr Ian Matten, Waste and Parks Service Manager, and Mr David Dodds, Cabinet member, introduced the report and answered questions from the committee. Mr Kevin Harkness, representing Sodexo, answered questions.

They explained that performance had improved since the previous review.  The majority of the work under the joint contract was carried out in Vale of White Horse District Council. Work for this council covered diverse small areas mainly around Didcot and burial grounds in Kidmore End and Wallingford. Customers and council officers looked for different things from the contractor. The apprenticeship scheme was going very well. Officers were working on setting more realistic and achievable timescales for resolving complaints and notifications.

Councillors congratulated Sodexo on its apprenticeship scheme and on exceeding its health and safety targets.

RESOLVED:

To recommend that the Cabinet member for finance, parks and waste assess the performance of Sodexo Limited in providing grounds maintenance services in South Oxfordshire from 1 January to 31 December 2013 as:

Good

The following people came to the table to answer questions from the committee:

Matthew Fowler, the regional director from Sodexo.

Council officers: Ian Matten, waste and parks service manager and Clare Kingston, head of corporate strategy.

Vale Cabinet member for waste and parks, Elaine Ware, introduced the report. Apologies were received from the South Cabinet member for waste and parks, Tony Harbour.

This item was previously heard at the district scrutiny committees and the minutes were included from these meetings to assist the members of the committee in their scrutiny.

The committee discussed this item and asked questions of the contractor.

The portfolio holder introduced the item. The report covered the period January to December 2014.

The key issues were:

Key Performance Targets (KPTs)

Satisfaction surveys

Action plan.

The committee noted that Abbey Gardens and received a Green Flag Award once again.

All Dimensions were discussed, those with action points are recorded.

Dimension 1 – Key Performance Targets

Dimension 2 – Customer Satisfaction

This was down from excellent in the previous year to good in the year under review. The contractor feels that this is due to the fact that double the number of customers were surveyed and that the sites at which they were surveyed has changed.

Dimension 3: Council Satisfaction.

Some responses to the council level of satisfaction with the contractor were “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied”. The committee was concerned to understand whether these were items for improvement, or whether the category should be changed to “not applicable”.

Action: To change the heading to “not applicable” for future reports so that any response other than “satisfied” or “very satisfied” could be identified as an area for improvement.

RESOLVED: to endorse the head of corporate strategy’s recommendation that the category of “Good” should be awarded to Sodexo for their performance during 2014.