| 205 | RECORD OF THE MEETING |
| | | The record of the meeting held on 2 July 2009 was signed by the Chairman as correct. |
|
| 206 | APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE |
| | | An apology for absence was received from Councillor Maple. |
|
| 207 | DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST |
| | | Councillor Griffiths declared a personal interest in any item with a reference to Danecourt School, as his wife is an employee there, and in any reference to NHS Medway (formerly Medway PCT), on the grounds that he is a Non-executive Director of the Trust. |
|
| 208 | WORK PROGRAMME |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Committee Co-ordinator gave a brief introduction to the work programme.
|
Members emphasised the need for all briefing notes to be published on the Council's Website, with the exception of when it contained confidential information.
|
|
|
| | > Work programme report (pdf file 95.8kb) |
| | > Appendix 1 - work programme - schedule (pdf file 191.4kb) |
| | > Appendix 2 (pdf file 140.8kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | Members noted the work undertaken by all Overview and Scrutiny Committees in the last cycle and those to be considered at the next cycle of meetings and made no amendments to the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee's work programme. |
|
| 209 | FIRST QUARTER PERFORMANCE REPORT 2009/2010 |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Assistant Director, Communications Performance and Partnerships presented a report that detailed Council performance for the first quarter of 2009-10. It included performance against indicators and actions agreed in the Council Plan 2009-12. Members were notified that the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee received all of the Council's actions and targets as part of the Committee's co-ordinating role and the other three Overview and Scrutiny Committees would receive specific reports relating to matters within their remit.
|
| Members asked for clarification on why there had been delays in processing new Housing Benefit and Council Tax Claims. The Chief Finance Officer responded that six new members of staff had been appointed two weeks earlier and he had directed these staff to specifically deal with new claims, whilst existing staff dealt with old claims. He advised that the volume of claims had increased by 35% in the last quarter of the previous year but he was optimistic that there would be rapid service improvements.
|
| Members considered the continued significant increase in child protection workload following the publicity around the 'Baby Peter' case and were briefed that the Council was identifying options to re-align resources to ensure the Council could continue to respond effectively to the increased workload. Members were concerned that Medway, in common with other areas, was experiencing problems recruiting experienced Social Workers stated that it was important that Medway looked at different ways of supporting Social Workers, for example to provide them with more administrative support so that they concentrated specifically on their own case work. The Assistant Director, Communications Performance and Partnerships assured members that proposals for additional capacity included additional administrative support to give social workers capacity to focus on their specialist work.
|
| Members asked for a briefing and more detailed statistics on how resources were being re-aligned to cope with the increased workloads and the types of staff involved eg. professional or administrative and agreed to monitor the impact this has over time as part of performance reporting.
|
| The Assistant Director, Communications Performance and Partnerships informed Members that there had been a re-allocation of resources to fund additional social care capacity and that longer term financial implications would be assessed as part of the budget build for next year.
|
| Members also commented that the Council had historically made links with local universities to recruit trainee social workers, and requested an update on the numbers of trainees coming from that source.
|
| In relation to the Roads Maintenance programme, Members asked for a briefing note setting out the objective criteria the Council used to prioritise road repairs.
|
| In relation to the South East plan target of building 815 additional homes having been exceeded by completing 914 for 2008/09, Members were concerned that less than half of these homes had been affordable housing - although targets for affordable homes had been met, some concern was expressed that targets may not be adequate in the context of housing need.
|
| In relation to the Customer First Service, Members asked whether the satisfaction statistics included callers who could not get through and asked if officers had considered using a queue waiting system.
|
| The Assistant Director, Customer First, Leisure, Culture, Democracy and Governance responded that he was considering the introduction of a queue waiting system whereby customers were able to know where they were placed in the queue. He was also hoping to introduce a system whereby if customers did not want to remain in the queue, they could leave a message which would retain their place in the queue and then a Customer First officer would ring them back.
|
| Members asked for a breakdown of the composition of members of the Citizens Panel which is currently being re-recruited on a ward basis and were concerned to be reassured that the Panel reflects the demographic make-up of Medway. The Assistant Director, Communications Performance and Partnerships reassured Members that the Citizen's Panel has in the past and will, after its refresh,reflect Medway's demographic profile and offered to provide Members with details of the composition of the Citizen's Panel on a ward by ward basis when the work had been completed.
|
| Members asked if the combined drop in statistics for anti-social behaviour and criminal damage in hotspot locations for the whole of Kent included Medway in the calculations. The Assistant Director, Communications Performance and Partnerships responded that this information would be provided to Members in writing after the meeting.
|
| Members asked officers when the what's on website would be operational on the Council's Website. The Assistant Director, Customer First, Leisure, Culture, Democracy and Governance responded that work was progressing well and was planned to be launched on the internet shortly.
|
| Members asked officers for briefing notes on details relating to where within the Council, apprenticeship places were available and the action plan in relation to staff sickness.
|
|
|
| | > Council Plan 1 Performance Report (pdf file 286.2kb) |
| | > Appendix 1 (pdf file 501.8kb) |
| | > Appendix 2 (pdf file 2.1Mb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | Members noted the report and asked officers to provide the following information and briefing notes:
|
| | (1) | Detailed statistics on how resources were being re-aligned to cope with the increased workloads and the types of staff involved eg. professional or administrative and in future, tracking the impact this is having.
|
| | (2) | Details of the composition of the Citizen's Panels on a ward by ward basis when the work had been completed.
|
| | (3) | A briefing note detailing the objective criteria the Council used to prioritise road repairs for the Roads Maintenance programme,
|
| | (4) | Clarification as to whether the statistics for the combined drop for anti-social behaviour and criminal damage in hotspot locations for the whole of Kent included Medway in these calculations.
|
| | (5) | A briefing note on details relating to where within the Council apprenticeship places were available
|
| | (6) | A briefing note detailing the action plan in relation to staff sickness.
|
|
|
|
|
| 210 | LOCAL AREA AGREEMENT 2008-2011 (LAA2), PROGRESS ON PERFORMANCE |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Assistant Director, Communications Performance and Partnerships presented a report that informed Members of the performance against Medway's second Local Area Agreement (LAA2) at the end of the first year of the agreement (2008/9) and, where available, for the first quarter of 2009/10. The report also gave a response from the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) to the five actions in relation to determining a way forward for exercising the powers for scrutiny and challenge of the LAA. She explained that each Overview and Scrutiny Committees would be receiving individually tailored reports.
|
| Members were concerned that certain indicators were consistently in a "red" status (failing to meet target) and there was a need to look at improvement plans and scrutinise the monitoring of targets to ensure that these indicators did not retain a "red" status for long periods. Members were keen to understand underlying issues and causes of poor performance so they could assess, with partners, whether solutions required more resources or whether improvement could be achieved by providing services differently without increased investment.
|
| Members also discussed the barriers to increasing adult participation in sport. They accepted that there were difficulties with the very small sample Sport England use to judge the Council's performance, but wanted to understand the barriers to increased participation as part of scrutinising the improvement plan for this target. Officers stated that they had commissioned a further survey to gain clearer information on this indicator. This data is currently being evaluated.
|
| Members agreed that Business Support should, as part of its performance management function, receive overview reports on progress in meeting all red rated targets - with individual O&S committees scrutinising the improvement plans for red rated targets falling under their remits.
|
| Members were also concerned that some indicator performance figures were only available on an annual basis and stressed the importance of developing proxy indicators to allow the interim monitoring of such indicators.
|
| The Chairman suggested that prior to meeting with partner organisations, the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Group Spokespersons should meet to scope specific topics to be discussed with partners in select committee style discussions.
|
|
|
| | > Progress on LAA Performance report (pdf file 206.3kb) |
| | > Appendix 1 LAA 2008-2011 performance (pdf file 69.5kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | Members reviewed the information on progress towards achieving targets and noted the report.
|
| Members agreed that Business Support should, as part of its performance management function, receive overview reports on progress in meeting all red rated targets - with individual O&S committees scrutinising the improvement plans for red rated targets falling under their remits.
|
| Members agreed that prior to meeting with partner organisations, the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Group Spokespersons meet to scope specific topics to be discussed with partners in select committee style discussions.
|
|
|
| 211 | CAPITAL BUDGET MONITORING 2009/2010 |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Chief Finance Officer introduced a report that presented the capital monitoring for the period to May 2009, with an outturn forecast for 2009/2010.
|
| The Chief Finance Officer stated that the Gun Wharf Project and extended occupation of the old Civic Centre in Strood was the biggest area of difficulty.
|
| Members asked whether there was a specific timeline for the demolition of the old Civic Centre.
|
| The Assistant Director, Housing and Corporate Services responded that the contract for the demolition of the old Civic Centre was at present out to tender but the demolition was expected to start in September 2009.
|
| Members asked if all of the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) claims had been settled in relation to the Strood Riverside Development. Officers replied that there was one outstanding claim because a company had gone into liquidation.
|
| Members asked officers to enquire why a CCTV camera had not been added to the column in Parkwood Green and why the play area at Wigmore Park had not been included in the report.
|
| The Chief Finance Officer agreed to investigate these matters and give a response to Members in the near future.
|
|
|
| | > Capital Budget Monitoring 2009-2010 report (pdf file 199.1kb) |
| | > Appendix 1 Capital Budget Monitoring-1 (pdf file 51.0kb) |
| | > Appendix 1 Capital Budget Monitoring-2 (pdf file 66.9kb) |
| | > Appendix 1 Capital Budget Monitoring-3 (pdf file 75.4kb) |
| | > Appendix 1 Capital Budget Monitoring-4 (pdf file 74.4kb) |
| | > Appendix 1 Capital Budget Monitoring-5 (pdf file 64.9kb) |
| | > Appendix 1 Capital Budget Monitoring-6 (pdf file 58.6kb) |
| | > Appendix 2a - C&A Risks (pdf file 65.6kb) |
| | > Appendix 2b - RCC Risks (pdf file 57.0kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | Members noted the report and asked the Chief Finance Officer to respond to the questions raised during the meeting relating to why a CCTV camera had not been added to the column in Parkwood Green and why the play area at Wigmore Park had not been included in the report. |
|
| 212 | REVENUE BUDGET MONITORING 2009/2010 |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Chief Finance officer introduced a report that summarised the revenue monitoring position for the current year based on actual income and expenditure to May 2009. He announced that after management action, the outturn forecast for 2009-2010 currently stood at a £1,074 million overspend and that he was confident that this overspend would be contained.
|
| Members asked for a briefing note in relation to the anticipated impact of funding deficits on school closures arising from the new Strood Academy which was estimated at £591,000.
|
| Members were concerned that the Council had no control of planning fees and asked officers to petition the Government to allow them to increase planning fees to the level required to cover costs.
|
| Members discussed the implications that the recession had on income levels within leisure centres and sports facilities and the difficulties in trying to reach targets such as increasing the number of adults participating in sporting activities whilst trying to achieve income targets. Members noted that it was important to consider an income maximisation approach as much as increasing charges taking into account the price sensitivity of individual sports offers - and that this needed to be looked at ahead of the budget-setting process.
|
| The Assistant Director, Customer First, Leisure, Culture, Democracy and Governance responded that the Council was looking at a number of measures to achieve income targets and in response to questions relating to the marketing of leisure centres emphasised that the Council regularly promoted its leisure facilities. However, he acknowledged that there was a need for the Council to maximise the marketing to ensure income targets were met.
|
|
|
| | > Revenue Budget Monitoring Report 2009-2010 (pdf file 140.6kb) |
| | > Appendix 1 General Fund Revenue Monitoring 2009 (pdf file 53.5kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | Members noted the report and asked for a briefing note in relation to the anticipated impact of funding deficits on school closures arising from the new Strood Academy which was estimated at £591,000. |
|