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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3UY
Contact: Michael Courts on 01424 451764 email: mcourts@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Declarations of Interest
Minutes:
The following Councillors declared an interest in the minutes:
Councillor
Minute
Interest
Chowney
14 – Corporate Plan 2017/18 Retrospective Report Back on 2016/17 and Performance Targets 2017/18
Personal – he has been appointed as the council’s Director of the Business Improvement District (BID)
Forward
14 – Corporate Plan 2017/18 Retrospective Report Back on 2016/17 and Performance Targets 2017/18
Personal – she leases a property to the social lettings agency
Minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 9 February 2017 PDF 65 KB
Minutes:
RESOLVED that the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 9 February 2017 be approved as a correct record of the meeting
Additional documents:
- Briefing by Director of Corporate Services and Governance , item 14. PDF 90 KB
- Briefing by Director of Operational Services , item 14. PDF 80 KB
- Template for Quarter 4 and Year End Performance Update , item 14. PDF 440 KB
- Year End Performance Update and 2017/18 Performance Indicators , item 14. PDF 62 KB
Minutes:
The Director of Corporate Services and Governance presented a report which updated members of the committee on year-end performance.
The Director of Corporate Services and Governance explained that, although the year-end performance target for sickness days per person had not been met, performance had improved compared to this time last year. Also, she had been advised through the recent Local Government Association peer review process, that the council continued to perform well in this respect, compared to other local authorities.
Discussion took place regarding the freedom of information requests the council receives. Members were mindful that the council was keen to maintain a culture of openness and transparency throughout all its activities. However, the process of dealing with freedom of information requests generates a significant additional workload across the organisation. Some of the requests received are not in line with the original principals of the scheme. The committee recommended carrying out further research to compare the number of FOI’s the council receives with those received by other authorities. The committee noted that the My Hastings online system would allow for more accurate recording of time spent responding to requests.
The committee were pleased to note that the year-end targets for the revenues and benefits service had been met. The Director of Corporate Services and Governance commented that there had been significant changes to the working practices of this team, following the introduction of Universal Credit earlier this year. Members were keen to understand how many households had been affected by the benefits cap, which had also been introduced recently. The Revenues and Benefits Service Manager was due to hold a briefing meeting for all members later in the year to update them on the changes.
Discussion took place regarding the roll out of My Hastings online. The Director of Corporate Services and Governance added that a key aim of the system would be to help create additional capacity within the community contact centre. By making a number of transactional enquiries available online, it was intended that staff in the contact centre would be able to deal with more complex enquiries and respond to the increasing demand in some service areas, such as housing advice. A marketing campaign would take place in the autumn to promote the My Hastings online service. In the meantime, members were encouraged to continue reporting any issues with the service to the team to ensure they could be addressed as part of the ongoing development of the service. The Director of Corporate Services and Governance also agreed to circulate additional customer contact monitoring information to keep the committee updated on progress with the channel shift to online services.
The committee noted the additional workload for the electoral services team, organising both the East Sussex County Council elections in May and the UK Parliamentary election in June. Discussion also took place about options to increase voter registration in the town. The Director of Corporate Services and Governance replied that the team had a limited amount of resources ... view the full minutes text for item 14.
Reviewing Current Scrutiny Arrangements PDF 128 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Manager presented a report following the recent review of the council’s current scrutiny arrangements. Following the recommendations of a task and finish group undertaken as part of the 2015/16 work programme, the council had adopted a single Overview and Scrutiny Committee in May 2016. Members had also committed to review the effectiveness of the new arrangements one year after their implementation.
Councillor Howard, as Chair of the review, presented the teams recommendations to the committee. Many of the review team’s recommendations focused on exploring opportunities to increase the capacity of members across the overview and scrutiny function and optimise the officer support available. This included piloting new ways of delivering work programme activities, based on good practice from other authorities, and planning key lines of enquiry at committee meetings.
The review team were mindful of the key role overview and scrutiny plays as a critical friend to Cabinet decision making and also exploring areas of local concern. Members had made recommendations about changing the way the recommendations of overview and scrutiny reviews and task and finish groups are processed after their adoption by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
RESOLVED that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee approve the recommendations set out in paragraphs 60 to 66 of the review team’s report
The reason for this decision was:
Recommendations have been made with a view to continuously improve the HBC scrutiny in line with the council’s transformation intentions.
Year-end update on the overview and scrutiny work programme 2016/17 PDF 208 KB
Minutes:
The Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Manager presented a year-end update on the key work programme activities for 2016/17.
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