Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Henry Caunce, Mick Davies, Kevin Joyce and Thomas McGowan. 

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 determine and allocate the questions for the feedback sessions.  

Members considered the draft questions enclosed with the agenda, made several amendments and allocated questions to each Member for the ensuing feedback sessions with officers.

RESOLVED – 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 Manager

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 CSR07 review.  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  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

To receive feedback from the Corporate Director (Business) Jane Meek.

The Chair welcomed Jane Meek to the meeting and thanked her for attending the meeting.  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 Procurement and Partnerships Manager Janet Hinds.  

The Chair welcomed Janet Hinds to the meeting and thanked her for attending the meeting.  The feed back session comprised questions and answers collated into a schedule enabling comparison with those responses given by other officers.

To receive feedback from the Customer Access Officer Kris Boardman. 

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