Agenda and minutes

To record the attendance of substitute members, if any, who have been authorised to attend in accordance with the provisions of standing order 17(1), with notification having been given to the proper officer before the start of the meeting and to receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Angela Lawrence.

To adopt and sign as a correct record the minutes of the committee meeting held on 23 August 2012 (previously published).  To follow.

RESOLVED: To adopt as a correct record the minutes of the committee meeting held on 23 August 2012 and agree that the chairman signs them.

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting.  

None.

To receive notification of any matters, which the chairman determines, should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances, which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chairman.

None.

Any statements and/or petitions from the public under standing order 32 will be made or presented at the meeting.

None.

To consider the report of the head of finance. 

William Jacobs, Head of Financial Services; Paul Howden, Shared Revenues and Benefits Client Manager and Darren Keen, Capita Contract Manager, attended the committee to present the items and to answer related questions.

The committee discussed this item. The following items were raised:

• There was concern about the very low response rate to the business rates satisfaction survey.
• The housing benefit/council tax rebate claim form and the letter to claimants are still difficult for some customers to understand, this is due to legislative imperatives, but will it will be easier to use when it is online.
• The committee were content for the overall assessments for each or the areas covered in the report.
• The committee congratulated Capita and the council for its performance in 2011/12.

RESOLVED To recommend the Cabinet member for finance and corporate strategy to assess the performance of Capita for the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012 as set out in the report:

Revenues – excellent

Benefits – excellent

Exchequer – excellent

Financial management system – good

Concessionary fares - excellent

To consider the report of the head of economy, leisure, and property. 

Please note the text in paragraph 5 (currently in green) will need updating before final reports are issued.

Matt Prosser, Strategic Director and Kate Arnold, Leisure Manager introduced this report and answered relevant questions.

• The procurement process for the leisure management contract is due to start in November 2012. This will begin with a notice making potential bidders aware that the contract is coming up for renewal. Decisions which need to be made prior to this are: whether it is to be a joint contract with South Oxfordshire District Council; how long the contract will be awarded for, and which centres are to be involved in the contract.
• The process will be managed by a project board, which will include a member of Cabinet, a member of the opposition and a member of Scrutiny Committee who is a back bencher from the ruling group: this will be Councillor Jason Fiddaman.
• Professional staff from a variety of departments would have input, where appropriate to the procurement process; this would include the Equalities Officer.
• A project officer is to be appointed for the procurement process and also to assess potential new sites.
• The contract process is likely to be managed by “competitive dialogue” by which potential bidders will enter into a dialogue with the Council(s) to establish the best way to deliver the leisure services.
• It is intended that leisure services are inclusive and that usage is increased by all groups. It is also intended that leisure and fitness will not only happen in leisure centres but will be delivered in community settings.
• Abingdon Town Council will be involved in a parallel dialogue with regard to the Abbey Meadows outdoor pool.
• Scrutiny will be involved in the contract process, both by feedback from Councillor Fiddaman and by receiving reports, at times identified by the project plan, which will fit in with Cabinet briefings. Included in this will be proposed KPTs for the contract.

RESOLVED

To request the Leisure Manager to include briefings to, and consultation with, Scrutiny Committee as part of the project plan. This timetable to be notified to Democratic Services for inclusion in the Scrutiny work plan.

To receive an update on the fit for the future programme. 

Sarah Longman, Programme Support Manager and Anna Robinson, Strategic Director, introduced the paper and answered questions on this item.

The committee discussed the paper, and the following points arose from the discussion.

• The £6 million projected savings are cumulative over the life of the project.
• Customer services excellence requires concerted work on the part of all services and this is being pursued via the Customer Service Excellence Award which contains a lot of good practice
• The principle is to start with what customers want and need and then to remove process waste. Service quality is not reduced by FFTF. Sometimes alternative ways of delivering services are proposed
• Fit for the Future provides teams with the tools to enable teams to do the work themselves.
• The consultants contract is fixed price and we expect their work to end by Q2 in 2013/14. The Programme Support Manager’s role will continue until the end of next year to oversee the implementation.
• Strategic management board do not want to lose momentum with performance points and other improvements and will be considering how to maintain this

The planning department is currently undergoing Fit for the Future. There is an increasing need for planning officers to enter into dialogues with district and parish councillors, members of the public, developers and agents. The software (Ocella) will free up more staff time when it is fully bedded in. Planning department adjustments have resulted in additional costs in the short term and the anticipated savings have not been made.

Permanent and temporary staff have been recruited to Planning to assist with the increased number of planning applications this year, due largely to the lack of a five year land supply.

Wantage Civic Hall is part of a project to make it more commercially viable.

The Cabinet members for finance and corporate affairs and leisure and economy were involved and would be able to liaise with ward members.

To consider the head of corporate strategy’s report. 

Matt Prosser, Strategic Director and Sally Truman, Policy, Partnership and Engagement Manager presented a paper which gave performance against the Vale corporate plan.

The committee discussed the paper and the following items arose:

• There is a systemic problem affecting affordable housing: housing associations can only acquire new homes as a percentage of properties built by private developers.
• The service plans which lie beneath the corporate plan contain greater detail including SMART targets.
• Some of the targets which are highlighted in red as missed targets are missed by as little as 0.2%.

The committee wished to express its thanks and congratulations to officers for the number of met targets or very narrowly missed targets.

To consider the head of corporate strategy’s report.  To follow

Matt Prosser, Strategic Director and Sally Truman, Policy, Partnership and Engagement Manager presented a report, circulated earlier in the day which listed consultations undertaken across the Council between April 2011 and September 2012. The list is incomplete because it relies on departments to notify Corporate Strategy of consultations undertaken. A new consultation system has been procured which is part database and part workflow; this will allow a more integrated consultation strategy across all departments and will be capable of producing automated data reports on consultations undertaken.

The discussion included an explanation of survey methodology; the difference between quantitative and qualitative surveys; an explanation of the composition of the citizens’ panel and how this was boosted for particular items of work and reassurances to the committee that formats other than online were available to potential respondents.

The committee felt that better use could be made of ward members when undertaking consultations, and that ward members could, in turn, liaise with parish councils.

RESOLVED

To request the inclusion of a chart of active consultations in the Vale Information Sheet each week with an introductory paragraph to explain the inclusion.

To review the attached scrutiny work programme.

The workplan to be updated.

Action: SusanHarbour

To note the dates of the forthcoming committee meetings:

• Thursday 25 October 2012 at 7pm
• Thursday 22 November
• Thursday 20 December

25 October 2012

22 November 2012

20 December 2012