Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 14 April   2011and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the Committee meeting held on 14 April 2011 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Oral Update

The Committee received two presentations from the Head of Customer Services on statistics figures for Corporate Complaints and Members Enquires.

The Committee was informed that between 1 June 2010 and 31 May 2011, the total number of complaints logged on the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system was 776. The presentation also highlighted that 624 responses were completed within the 10 working days timescale.

The presentation identified service failure and quality of service as the two major reasons for complaints. The statistics also informed Members that the service with the most complaints was Streetcare.

The Committee was informed that in the 12 months from 1 Jun 2010 to 31 May 2011, 2,573 Members Enquiries were logged onto CRM. The statistics informed Members that about 87% (2234 enquiries) were completed within 10 working days whilst the remaining 13% were completed outside the 10 working days timescale.

This presentation identified the following:

•         About 75% of the logged enquiries related to Streetcare services.

•         About 73% of the enquiries were received via email

•         The two key reasons for Member Correspondence were requests for service and information requests.

The Committee noted the presentations.

Oral Presentation

At the request of the Committee, Jeff Potter - Head of Customer Services provided an overview on the Non Domestic Rates Partnership Programme that was in place in conjunction with London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

The following drivers for change were identified by both Councils:

•   Service resilience

•   Improved performances

•   Savings

•   Making it work & learning the modelling lessons

•   Value for money

•   Key staff changes allowing opportunity to change

•   How to share risk and returns

Members were informed that the following requirements considered essential to make this programme work had been identified:

•   Common vision, values and will

•   Culture of Shared Service: Merger vs. Takeover

–  Take-over meant one partner has more influence

–  Merger meant more equality in negotiations

•   Effective project management

•   Effective governance

•   Effective communication

•   Identifying own internal blockers

The presentation also highlighted the following achievements from the objectives of the partnership

•   The project itself was under spent by £20-30K

•   The savings over the three years to date - £282k total:

•                        LBH - £135k

•                        LBBD - £147k

•   A resilient value for money service had been firmly established

•   It had been proven that the model can work

The presentation also informed Members that an area for improvement was the performance on collection.

The Committee noted the presentation.

Oral update

The Committee received an oral update on performance indicators relevant to the Value Overview and Scrutiny Committee from Claire Thompson - Corporate Policy and Partnership Manager.

Members received two sets of information that related to Corporate Performance Indicators 2011/12 and proposed Performance Indicators for inclusion in the Members’ pack from quarter one 2011/12.

The Corporate Policy and Partnership Manager requested Members of the Committee to review the list entitled Corporate Performance Indicators 2011/12 and suggest any further indicators that Members would consider for inclusion in the proposed Performance Indicators Members’ pack.

The Committee noted the update.

Report Attached

The Committee considered a report that outlined its draft work programme for the forthcoming year. The work programme consisted of both the work plan for the Committee as a whole and invited Members to consider the subject of any topic group run under the Committee’s auspices.

The Committee added the following to the work plan:

1.      List of voluntary sector grants

2.      A verbal update at its November meeting on the Havering Strategic Partnership (This topic was referred to the Committee from the former Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee)

The Committee agreed its work programme for the 2011/12 municipal year.

Report Attached

Members noted the topic group report on London Councils and agreed with the recommendation that the review now be closed.