Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Henry Caunce, Mick Davies, Mike Devaney, Thomas McGowan and Mick Muncaster.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda. If the interest arises only as result of your membership of another public body or one to which you have been appointed by the Council then you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.

If the personal interest is a prejudicial interest, you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of interest by Members relating to the items on the agenda.

Members of the public who have requested the opportunity to ask a question(s) on an item(s) on the agenda will be asked to put their question(s) to the Panel. Each member of the public will be allowed to ask one supplementary question within his/her allocated 3 minutes.  

No members of the public requested to speak at the meeting.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Corporate and Customer Overview and Scrutiny Panel - Efficiency Gains Sub-Group held on 28 November 2007 (enclosed).  

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting of the Corporate and Customer Overview and Scrutiny Panel - Efficiency Gains Sub-Group held on 28 November 2007 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Members will determine and allocate the questions for the remaining officers to give feedback to the Inquiry.

Members considered questions for the remaining witnesses at the sessions on 4, 5 and 8 February. 

RESOVLED – That the questions be set as below:

Corporate Director (Business)

1.             Please outline the services within the remit of your directorate.

2.             How many full time equivalents are there in your directorate?

3.             How well do you think the council has done in the achievement of its efficiency targets and what contribution has your directorate made to achieving those gains?

4.             What areas of improved efficiency have you targeted for the future?

5.             Is there any scope for joint working within your directorate?

6.             How do you manage and improve efficiency within your directorate and how does it link with your business improvement plan and the corporate strategy?

7.             What is your budget and what are the main heads of expenditure?

8.             How do you ensure that any efficiency gains you achieve are corporately collected and reported?

9.             What measures have you taken to ensure that effective procurement practice is in place within your directorate and can you give us examples of this in practice?

10.        The use of the absence management policy can lead to efficiencies.  Is the policy working in your directorate?

11.        There have been developments on the council’s website with the planning portal.  Has this produced efficiency savings? 

Corporate Procurement and Partnerships

1.             Please could you outline the responsibilities within your role?

2.             What contribution have corporate procurement made to the council’s efficiency savings in the period covered by the 04 spending review.

3.             Can you broadly tell us how these are made up and give us some more detail on the more notable examples?

4.             The efficiency agenda continues as part of the comprehensive spending review 07.  What future contribution do you feel corporate procurement can make to securing future efficiency gains?

Customer Access Officer

1.             Please could you outline the responsibilities within your role?

2.             Can you tell us what contribution the creation of the contact centre has made to delivering efficiency savings for the council?

3.             A procurement saving of £300,000 has been identified through the Shared Services Contact Centre Partnership.  Is this still a justifiable efficiency gain for the council for the remaining 4 partnership years?

4.             We are aware that implementation of the customer relationship management system is currently underway.  Can you please update us on progress and tell us what efficiency gains you think will be achieved through its implementation?

5.             We understand that there is significant variation in the different methods of communicating with the council.  Can you elaborate on this issue and tell us what plans there are for future channel optimisation.

6.             Are there plans to deliver services for other partner organisations?  Is there potential to generate income from this approach as well as improve the service to the customer?

7.             How will the council measure the number of times members of the public contact the council to resolve an issue/request for service?

8.             According to the Varney report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

§               Comparative information from other Local Authorities on reported efficiency gains (No 19 in the box file),

§               Performance indicator information for each Directorate to enable any areas where performance has been affected by efficiency gains (No 20 in the box file),

§               Background information collated for the Audit Commission (No 22 in the box file),

Members considered the comparative information from other Local Authorities on reported efficiency gains and noted the information did not show any areas of concern or work for Chorley.  A query was raised as to the average number of staff who worked at the other Local Authorities

Members felt it was unfortunate that the Government would not count non-cashable savings towards the target set for the comprehensive spending review 07. 

Officers advised that performance indicator information for each directorate to enable any areas where performance has been affected by efficiency gains would be distributed as part of the agenda for the next meeting of the sub-group. 

The Sub-Group are asked to consider the enclosed scoping document, project plan, information checklist, witness checklist and action plan.

The Sub-Group considered the Inquiry documentation and AGREED the amendments to the Information and Witness checklists.

The dates for receiving feedback from the remaining officers are:

§               Monday 4 February commencing at 2pm and

§               Tuesday 5 Feb commencing at 2.30pm. 

The Sub-Group will meet on 27 February to consider the Inquiry final report. 

§               4 February at 2.00pm

§               5 February at 2.30pm

§               8 February at 1.30pm