Agenda item

The Director (Customer and Digital) to attend the meeting.

Members of the Panel received a report which provided contextual information in respect of the Customer and Digital directorate performance.

The Chair welcomed Asim Khan, Director of Customer and Digital to the meeting, who attended to answer questions in relation to the Customer and Digital directorate.

Following the organisational restructure in May 2016, the Customer and Digital Directorate encompassed the following services –

·      Customer and Transactional Services

·      Revenues and Benefits

·      Planning and Development Control

·      Waste and Streetscene 

·      ICT

The primary focus of the Directorate was on providing end to end customer services, dealt with at the first point of contact wherever possible and promoting the use of digital channels as a straightforward and efficient way of managing services. 

As the contact centre was undergoing a period of change, the panel focused their performance questions towards council tax and benefits processing, planning, streetscene and waste services.

Council Tax and Benefits

The Panel noted that the performance indicator for Council Tax collected at the end of quarter two, was down by 0.05% on the previous year’s figures which equated to less than £10,000 of the Chorley precept.  However, it was expected at the end of quarter four the figures would be comparable with those for the same period in 2015/16. 

In response to queries about conflicting information in regards to the performance figure for ‘Average time taken to process new claims and change events’  the Director of Customer and Digital explained that the performance target in 2015/16 was 10 days.  However, for 2016/17 that performance target had been reduced to 6 days. The results therefore showed that although performance had improved when comparing the figures for the same period the previous year, the figure was still over the 6 day performance target.  The Director of Customer and Digital explained that there was mitigating factors behind the delay, and the target was expected to be reached by the end of the quarter 4.  It was acknowledged that the set target was challenging, but achievable.

In response to questions about the collection of council tax arrears the Director of Customer and Digital explained the statutory process for the collection of arrears and the court arrangements.  The timescale between first bill and court appearance was between six to eight weeks.  Payment arrangements could be set up during this time with each case being considered on its own merits.  It was inevitable that some debt would not be recoverable for various reasons (insolvency and death etc).  On these occasions the provision for writing off bad debt was reported as part of the Council’s financial statement.

Streetscene

It was explained that the way performance figures were monitored in the past were not accurate, and that a different way of monitoring the performance indicator should be introduced. 

The changes would include the introduction of new technology and a change in service culture.  It was therefore expected that the new working arrangements would take between 12 to 18 months for accurate data to be recorded and further 12 months before monitoring performance could take place.  

Other challenges for the services included –

·      Fundamental review in terms of assets/depot

·      Procurement review

·      Succession planning

·                     Opportunity to improve health and safety

A report detailing the future and challenges that the service will face, including recommendation would be presented to members for consideration in the near future. 

Waste

The indicator ‘number of missed collections per 100,000 collections of household waste’ had performed better than target at the end of quarter one and was on target as of August 2016.

Through debate, a number of issues were considered –

·      missed bin collection

·      bins not being returned

·      assisted collections being missed

·      bins not being collected from the back of houses

·      waste being spilt on to the ground and left by the operatives

There was a general consensus that the quality of service was dependant on a number of factors including different crews and different customer expectations.

The Director of Customer and Digital advised that there was regular contact with the contractor, Veolia Waste Management, to monitor contractual standards in terms of service delivery. Debate then turned to the waste contract which was in year eight of a ten year agreement and future procurement to ensure continued high service standards.

Members of the Panel also debated recent changes to recycling and the introduction of permits at Lancashire County Council recycling centres including any impact this had on fly tipping.  There was an agreement that the amount of waste allowed at the recycling centres needed to be more widely publicised.

The Director of Customer and Digital welcomed the Chair suggestion that the Overview and Scrutiny may wish to review the waste management contract prior to the start of the procurement process.

Planning

Accurate performance monitoring was also a key focus for the Planning team.

At the moment there was an element of manual assessment.  However, there was no way of validating these results.  Changes would be introduced which would allow more accurate reliable monitoring by using information from IT systems.  It was expected that the first set of monitoring figures under this new arrangement would be available by the end of the next quarter.

Members of the Panel also discussed staffing arrangements and the payment of Community Infrastructure Levey.

On behalf of the Panel the Chair thanked the Director of Customer and Digital for his attendance and congratulated him on the steps that he had already implemented to improve the services discussed.