Agenda item

This annual report provides an account of the role of the Portfolio Holder for Business Management. It details their ambitions for their areas of responsibility, how they have and will undertake political challenge and leadership and what their priorities and ambitions are for the year ahead.

Discussion:

The Portfolio Holder commented that she was pleased to present the report to Committee and the 5% pay increase which was awarded to staff in April 2025.

The following issues were discussed:

Financial stability – in response to a question whether Council remained financially stable, the Portfolio Holder stated that the administration had inherited a difficult financial situation. It was vital that Council provided services to residents and the request for Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) was made to support delivering those services.

A Member asked whether the proposed £2m additional funding for the department in the budget showed that the Portfolio Holder had not been successful in achieving efficiencies, the Portfolio Holder stated that the monies in the proposed budget was required to provide services to the residents of Medway.

Pay increase 2026-27 – it was asked whether the pay award in the last two years and the proposed pay award for the next financial year would continue in the future. The Portfolio Holder stated that it was important to remember that the Council had previously had to employ expensive locum staff and the pay award had helped to alleviate recruitment and retention issues. She was proud of the proposed pay award which reflected a cost of living increase and that 80% of staff were Medway residents.

Telephone queries from residents – it was asked if it was known which department received the most queries and what the demographic profile of residents so the Council could ensure services remained accessible to all residents. The Chief Information Officer explained that it was known which departments received the most queries, however, the personal details of residents were not currently collected so the profile of callers was not tracked. The Council was developing a new platform to support customer management systems and data could be collected through the resident’s account in the future.

In response to a question whether there was any data available whether the reduction in phone calls to the Council was due to residents being unable to contact the Council by phone, the Chief Information Officer stated that the reduction in phone calls was due to residents using digital services to find Council information. The fall in phone calls has freed up telephone lines for residents who prefer to call regarding their query so they received an improved service. He added that the Council had not reduced the number of phone lines open to the public and had no plans to do so.

A Member commented that calls to the Council had fallen by around a third in the last two years. It was asked which departments had seen that largest falls and the reasons for this, the Chief Information Officer stated that the largest fall had been in the switchboard number which dealt with calls where residents did not have a direct number or were not aware of who they needed to speak to. This was due to the improved function of digital services which enabled those queries to be answered easily and quickly online.

It was asked whether there were any savings associated with the move to more residents accessing services digitally and had any provision been made in the budget for an increased load on ICT services such as cyber security as a consequence, the Portfolio Holder undertook to provide an answer regarding resources following the meeting. The Chief Operating Officer added that in terms of cyber security, the system was under constant review of the threats and required security updates were undertaken immediately. In addition, training for all staff was undertaken alongside this as the biggest risk factor was often human error.

Complaint Awareness training – in response to a question whether the training was commissioned because of an identified issue with feedback to staff regarding complaints, the Chief Informaiton Officer stated the sessions were awareness training for staff in how to handle complaints correctly within the policy.

Blue Badges – A Member thanked the blue badges team for the excellent work they have provided during the year.

Locum and casual staff – in response to a question how many locum contracts had been agreed in the last year, the Chief Organisational Culture Officer stated that over 100 new locum contracts had been agreed in the past year and the total number of locum staff currently employed by the Council, stood at 154, this did not include the number of casual staff which represented a different cohort.

Anti-Fraud – it was asked how many cases of fraud that were investigated by the Council progressed to criminal proceedings. The Portfolio Holder undertook to provide detailed figures following the meeting.

Decision:

a)     The Committee noted the report.

b)     The Committee requested a briefing on the number of fraud cases which were progressed to legal proceedings.

c)     The Committee requested a briefing note regarding the savings through increased use of digital services and lower call volumes to the CABS service over the last 12 months.