To receive a presentation from the Cabinet Member on key issues.

The Committee received a presentation from the Cabinet Member (Corporate and Customer Services and Human Resources)

A report from the Cabinet Member on the Corporate and Customer Services part of her portfolio had been previously circulated, the section on Human Resources having been omitted by administrative error.  A revised, complete report was circulated at the meeting.

The Cabinet Member referred to her report but advised that she wanted to highlight significant issues facing the Council.  She highlighted the following matters:

·         She noted the fact that several reports for the Committee’s agenda had had to be circulated separately, having been unavailable when the agenda was despatched.  She said that it was an example of the need for the Council’s procedures to be followed by all staff.  The inconsistency of approach to team briefings was a further example.  Staff needed to follow procedures or be held to account if they did not.

·         It was important for the Council to draw on best practice to achieve efficiencies, freeing resources for investment in frontline services.

·         Performance needed to be challenged, noting use being made of the peer support available to Members and Officers from the West Midlands Centre for Excellence.

·         Implementation of the action plan in the Investors in People Assessment, noting amongst other things the feedback from the assessors that when people were promoted it was important they were provided with the support to deliver in their new job.

·         The need for development programmes for Members as recommended by the Crookall report on The Council’s ICT financial and contractual governance arrangements.

·         That whilst the processes for reporting bullying were considered good it was important that staff were given confidence to raise issues.

·         The Business Transformation Programme needed to be progressed.  Other Authorities had derived benefits from these programmes.  It was important that the potential savings were generated.  Issues of peripatetic working and office accommodation were interlinked with this process.

·         The process of combining back office services needed to proceed in line with Government thinking.  Discussions were taking place with the Primary Care Trust and the Hospitals Trust had also expressed interest.  A more seamless service could be delivered.  This would involve changes for staff.

·         Job Evaluation and Single Status was still on the national agenda, with Councils, for example Birmingham City Council, experiencing difficulties in implementing it.  Herefordshire Council had done well to have implemented Single Status.

·         The Comprehensive Area Assessment would be challenging and it was important to ensure that the Council’s priorities were reflected in the Agreement.

·         It continued to be difficult to recruit to posts in IT and social care and there were also difficulties in Human Resources.  The Council needed to develop its own staff.

In the ensuing discussion the following principal points were made:

·         The Chairman stressed the importance of the Committee having material presented to it in a timely and orderly manner if it was to be able to conduct its business efficiently and effectively.  This was an issue relevant to meetings across the Council.  He referred also to the need to consider how frequently the Committee should meet and the optimum length of meetings.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services said that these issues would be incorporated into the report on the scrutiny process.

·         In response to a question about team briefings the Cabinet Member said that improvement in the frequency of briefings was clearly expected.

·         The challenge of the Comprehensive Area Assessment was discussed noting that the organisation was giving consideration to the issue.

·         Clarification was sought on staffing in ICT services.  The Director of Corporate and Customer Services said that the establishment comprised 73 posts, not all full time.  There were 7 vacancies.  There were difficulties in recruiting people with particular skills, for example information security.  Consideration was given to the scope for enhancing the skills of existing staff, but this could not be to the detriment of the existing level of service.

It was asked whether the difficulty in recruiting staff with information security skills put the Council at risk and what training provision was in place.  The Director further outlined steps that had been taken to provide support in this area noting that this currently included seconded support from another local authority.  Training was aimed at developing staff by progression.

·         Referring to the current consultation on the location of polling stations it was asserted that the public were increasingly disillusioned with postal voting and it was likely that any move to reduce the number of polling stations would be resisted.  It was added that careful regard had to be had to the distance people would have to travel to polling stations.  It was important that it was easy to vote.

It was also noted that although a number of Parishes were grouped each Parish still retained its own electoral roll.  This was inefficient and should be reviewed.

A question was asked about the content of the improvement plan for elections referred to in the Cabinet Member’s printed report.  It was stressed that the Committee had requested a report on the elections some considerable time ago and this was still awaited.

The Chief Executive suggested that a seminar for Members on the issues was needed given the range of issues involved.  He commented that the all-postal vote in 2003 had been highly successful in increasing voter turn out.   In 2007 complicated new rules had been introduced.  Legal proceedings were pending in connection with the 2007 election and this was one of the reasons no report had been produced.  The Head of Legal and Democratic Services commented briefly on these proceedings.

The Chief Executive added that the review of polling stations was a separate issue.  Although the events of 2007 might reduce postal voting to some extent it was clear that a significant proportion of the public preferred the postal vote.  The implication of a significant level of postal voting was that if resources were to be moved to deal with those volumes then the number of polling stations should be reduced.  If the Council wanted to maintain its current provision of polling stations it would have to recognise the budgetary implications.  There were also emerging difficulties in recruiting to the Polling Stations with low throughputs.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member.

RESOLVED:

That (a)     the proposal for a seminar on issues raised by the 2007 elections be welcomed and it be requested that this be progressed as soon as practicable;

                  and

         (b)    that the support of the Cabinet Member (Corporate and Customer Services and Human Resources) for procedures governing the production of agenda papers to be implemented and adhered to in order to facilitate the efficient conduct of business be welcomed and she be urged to pursue this matter.