Agenda and minutes

Performance Scrutiny Committee - Place and Corporate - Monday, 30th September, 2024 2.00 pm

Venue: Committee Room 1 / Microsoft Teams

Contact: Neil Barnett  Scrutiny Adviser

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Councillors Reeks and Cleverly and Meirion Rushworth (Head of Finance).

 

2.

Declaration of Interest

Minutes:

None.

3.

Customer Contact Improvement Project pdf icon PDF 111 KB

a)    Officer presentation

b)    Committee questioning and discussion

c)     Formation of comments and recommendations

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Attendees:

-          Rhys Cornwall - Strategic Director - Transformation and Corporate.

-          Bridie Edwards - Project Manager

-          Ceri Foot - Service Manager for Customer Services

 

The Strategic Director - Transformation and Corporate (SDTC) introduced the report and the Project Manager and Service Manager - Customer Services (SMCS) presented the report.

 

Questions:

  • The Committee enquired why an investigation was considered and whether Officers had experienced the services themselves. The SDTC informed the Committee that the project arose from increasing awareness of challenges in the service following Covid-19. They took the decision for pace and clarity to engage with Basis for the review. The SMCM noted that Basis were provided data who provided workshops, show and tells, and met regularly with the core team. The SDTC noted that they had experienced services themselves. 

 

  • The Committee asked whether the service was working to industry standards. They also asked how well My Council Services (MSC) app was utilised by residents and how could it be more widely advertised. The SDTC highlighted the benefits of MCS and noted that deficiencies were with it not being compatible with other software used by NCC. They assured the Committee that they are focused on ensuring that the software works well to ensure the ease of access for residents to council services. The SMCS informed the Committee that there was an Operations Manager for MCS and that work with Customer Focus Wales was ongoing to discuss strategies, new technology and artificial intelligence etc. They noted that standards were different across each authority.

  • The Committee asked whether the budget cited for the project was the total and what did it include. The SDTC confirmed that this is the total budget over a two-year period, and that they were expecting to stay within it.

  • The Committee enquired whether staff morale had been considered and how were staff coping with changes and the project. They also enquired where staff were based, and whether staff numbers were in an adequate position to cope with the increase in demand. The SMCS informed the Committee that staff were coping well and had support available. They noted that staff were positive about the project as it may help assuage regular issues arising. They informed Committee that staff are based at the Civic Centre, the Central Library and also from home. The SMCS noted that most staff turnover was due to staff moving to jobs elsewhere in the authority. The SDTC noted that solutions to these issues were not as simple as employing more staff but ensuring that there were effective systems and responses from service areas and training available.

 

  • The Committee asked if contact with Councillors is monitored and whether Councillors could be trained in contacting service areas. The SMCS confirmed that correspondence with elected members is monitored by customer services and city services when forwarded and put into MCS. The Project Manager confirmed that those not sent in wouldn’t be counted so the true figure could be higher than anticipated. The SDTC also stated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Scrutiny Adviser Reports pdf icon PDF 142 KB

a) Actions Arising (Appendix 1)

b) Forward Work Programme Update (Appendix 2)

c) Outcomes Monitoring (Appendix 3)

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

a)    Actions Arising

The Scrutiny Advisor noted outstanding items but these had been chased

 

b)    Forward Work Programme 

The Scrutiny Advisor informed the committee that dates will be confirmed for the committee to receive the Highways Asset Management Plan, Local Development Plan Deposit Plan and the Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan.

 

They noted the committee that the next meeting is on the 14th of October 2024 at 2pm.

 

The Committee felt that the Placemaking Plan should be postponed and reviewed once the working group had concluded. The Chair agreed to write to the Head of Service and the Scrutiny Advisor agreed to pass this on.

 

c)    Outcomes Monitoring

The Scrutiny Advisor noted some outstanding but assured Committee that these were being followed up.

 

5.

Minutes of the previous meetings held on 22nd July 2024 and 29th July 2024 pdf icon PDF 139 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the previous meetings held 22nd July 2024 and 29th July 2024 were approved as a true and accurate record.