Agenda and minutes

*O&S(I) 34                 

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr D K A Sellis and Cllr J Yelland.

Meeting held on 6 October 2015

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The minutes of the Meeting held on 6 October 2015 were confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Members are invited to declare any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests, including the nature and extent of such interests they may have in any items to be considered at this meeting.

            If Councillors have any questions relating to predetermination, bias or interests in items on this Agenda, then please contact the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

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Members and officers were asked to declare any interests in the items of business to be considered during the course of this meeting, but there was none made.

A period of up to 15 minutes is available to deal with issues raised by the public.   

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                        It was noted that no issues were raised in accordance with the Public Forum.

If any Member seeks further clarity, or wishes to raise issues regarding any future Hub Committee agenda item, please contact Member Services before 5.00pm on Thursday, 7 January 2016 to ensure that the lead officer(s) are aware of this request in advance of the meeting.

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The most recent (published 7 January 2016) Hub Committee Forward Plan was presented for consideration. 

In discussion, reference was made to:-

(a)  the Council Tax Resolution 2016/17.  Members were reminded that the full Council was still required to agree the annual Budget.  However, the process of setting the Council Tax Resolution (which was only an arithmetical exercise that calculated the total of the Council Tax amounts in each precepting authority) had now been delegated to a meeting of the Hub Committee;

(b)  the future of the Devon Authorities Waste Reduction and Recycling Committee (DAWRRC) agenda item.  The lead Hub Committee Member informed that, since the Forward Plan had been published, this agenda item had now been deferred to the meeting on 25 February 2016.

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(a)  Performance Measures Review

The Committee considered a report that presented the final conclusions of the joint West Devon and South Hams Task and Finish Group that was set up in 2015 to review performance indicator management information.

In discussion, the following points were raised:-

-       With regard to the timescales for when Members would be able to view ‘live’ performance data, it was confirmed that this would be rolled out during late March / early April 2016;

-       The need to co-ordinate the Committee Meeting Schedule with the timeframe for reporting quarterly performance measures was recognised by Members and officers alike;

-       Whilst acknowledging that a Development Management service update had already been scheduled for the next meeting to be held on 8 March 2016, some Members expressed their previously reiterated concerns in relation to the performance of the service.  The Head of Paid Service replied that indicators were showing recent improvements in the service, but he did ask that Members let him know of any blockages that they were experiencing within the service.  In response to this invite, Members immediately expressed specific concerns relating to the lack of recent planning enforcement monthly updates and the lack of on-site planning officer presence at both the Okehampton Customer Services Centre and Kilworthy Park.  To address some of the concerns expressed, Members asked that, before the next Panel meeting, it would be helpful for an interim service review to be included in a future Members’ Bulletin edition that highlighted current performance;

-       Following this meeting, the lead Hub Committee Member confirmed that he had a meeting scheduled with officers to discuss in more detail the performance indicator relating to average call answer time;

-       In respect of the Transformation Programme, the Head of Paid Service informed that the allocated budget remained on target and, before the end of March 2016, it was expected that the Programme would be substantially completed.  In response to some Members expressing their frustrations with Civica, officers confirmed that dialogue had greatly improved recently and, in focusing on developing solutions, Civica had given an additional 30 days of consultancy to support the Programme.   

It was then:

            RESOLVED

That the Task and Finish Group findings be endorsed whereby:-

1.    streamlined versions of the Balanced Scorecard and Background and Exception report (Appendices A and B of the presented agenda report respectively refer) are to be made available to Members on a quarterly basis, containing measures where the Scrutiny role is beneficial;

2.    financial measures are to be reported elsewhere and therefore will not be included in these reports.  These will be replaced with specific T18 measures;

3.    an in-depth quarterly analysis of an area or department is to be included within the reporting, designed to interrogate the high level performance data further and identify trends, improvements etc.  This ‘deep dive’ quarterly analysis will either follow a pre-determined schedule or be flexible enough to focus on issues raised by a prior quarterly report; and

4.    once  ...  view the full minutes text for item *O&S(I)39

An opportunity for Members to suggest potential agenda items for the forthcoming Municipal Year

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The Committee considered its draft 2015/16 Work Programme (as circulated with the published agenda) and endorsed its contents as presented.