Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Henry Caunce, Michael Davies, Keith Iddon, Kevin Joyce, Thomas McGowan and Geoffrey Russell. 

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 set the questions for the feedback sessions with Directors.

Members considered the draft questions enclosed with the agenda, made several amendments and allocated questions to each Member for the feedback session with the Corporate Director of Governance and Corporate Director (People) at the next two items.

RESOLVED – That the questions be as set out below:

General Questions

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?

Corporate Director – People

1.             How do you see the Contact Centre contributing to the council’s future efficiency gains targets?

To receive feedback from the Corporate Director of Governance - Andrew Docherty.

The Chair welcomed Andrew Docherty to the meeting and thanked him for attending.  The feed back session comprised questions and answers collated into a schedule enabling comparison with those responses given by other Directors.

To receive feedback from the Corporate Director (People) - Jamie Carson. 

The Chair welcomed Jamie Carson to the meeting and thanked him for attending.  The feed back session comprised questions and answers collated into a schedule enabling comparison with those responses given by other Directors.