Agenda item

O&S.30/17     

Consideration was given to a report that provided Members with an update on the impact of the temporary, fixed-term transitional resources that were approved by the Council in June 2016 (Minute 25/16 refers).

In discussion, reference was made to:-

(a)    resources in the Development Management (DM) service.  In light of increasing volumes of work, officers still had concerns over the current capacity in the DM service and they anticipated that a further report would be presented to Members in the future that sought funding for additional resources in DM.  A Member felt that certain aspects of the service (e.g. planning validation) were being undertaken by both Specialists and Case Managers and requested that such duplication of effort be eliminated.  Whilst of the view that duplication was not as significant as had been indicated, officers did agree that there was scope for further service efficiency improvements to be made;

(b)    the Customer Contact Centre.  Some Members who had accepted the recent invite to visit the Centre paid tribute to the excellent work being undertaken by the team but noted that some working practices were resulting in a duplication of effort.  In reply, officers accepted the point and informed that an external advisor was currently in the Centre observing current processes and making recommendations to improve efficiency.  The Panel acknowledged that staff retention was an issue in the Centre and it was agreed that the merits of imposing a condition on new members of staff not being able to apply for other internal posts for a prescribed period of time should be explored;

(c)    backlogs in the revenue and benefits service.  Officers highlighted that an automated software system was currently being phased in that was expected to ease the backlog in casework for the revenue and benefits service;

(d)    the figures in the presented agenda report.  A non-Panel Member felt it to be unacceptable that the figures contained in the report were only up to the end of March 2017 and were therefore four months out of date.  In reply, the Section 151 Officer advised that the delay was attributed to the time lag associated with accruals, agency staffing charges and shared services recharges.  The Panel proceeded to request that, as part of the Transformation Programme Closedown report being presented to the meeting on 9 November 2017, the most up to date figures be included;

(e)    the impact of Universal Credits.  Whilst noting that the rollout had been delayed from October 2017 to January 2018, some Members expressed a number of concerns regarding the potential impact arising from Universal Credits and it was agreed that officers would provide an update via a future Members’ Bulletin edition.

It was then:

RESOLVED

That the Panel:

1.      endorse the contents of the Transitional Resources Monitoring Report and the progress to 31 March 2017;

2.      insist that the Transformation Programme Closedown report (to be presented to the Panel meeting on 9 November 2017) include the most up to date available figures; and

3.      ask officers to produce an update briefing note on Universal Credits for all Members.