Agenda item
Members Enquiries Policy and Process
- Meeting of General Purposes Committee, Tuesday, 5th October, 2021 6.00 p.m. (Item 4.2)
- View the background to item 4.2
Minutes:
Raj Chand, Director of Customer Services, introduced the report which provided information on how it was intended to improve the process for Members Enquiries (ME’s) and in dealing with the service moving forward.
Ms Chand explained that following several consultation meetings with Members and officers, the new ME policy and process simplifies existing protocols by reducing the number of steps interested parties need to take in managing ME’s and also addresses historic issues around the delivery of the service. It was noted that there were still some areas that would need to be improved as part of this process and therefore this process would be kept under continuous review so that it can be continuously improved for residents and Councillors.
The Committee was referred to the proposed policy and process appended to the report and further explained that it incorporated the changes taken on board from feedback from Members in order to make the process robust and more efficient.
The Chair invited Councillor Marc Francis to address The Committee;
In his submission, Cllr Marc Francis highlighting the following points,
· It was noted that this Authority had been subject to cuts in its funding from central government and aware that the service received by Councillors cannot be excluded from making contribution towards those savings.
· That there were no criticisms of staff from the Information Governance who currently work on ME’s and specifically mentioned Ms Konica Das for her continuous hard work on the ME’s.
· He questioned the decision to move the administration of ME’s from Members Support to Information Governance.
· It was noted that previously enquires were assigned to the relevant department within two days and in the nine months since its responsibility has moved from Member Support Office to Information Governance, there had been a number of ME’s with more than two-week delays.
· Further examples of delayed ME’s and the increase in the backlog of ME’s being processed were noted.
· That the decision to change the service, placed a large part the duties and responsibilities of four members of staff in Members Support Teams on the shoulders of one member of staff in the Information Governance Team and questioned how feasible this was?
· The excellent level of service provided for ME’s by the Members Support Team over the past years was noted.
· Having enquired about the claims made that the cuts to the service provided by Member Support Team were approved by Councillors themselves in the budget were inaccurate. The budget for 2017/18 made no reference to a saving required in Members Support Team and therefore it not being a key decision, backbench members had no knowledge or oversight of this.
· Concerns were raised of a possible two-tier approach that was felt amongst backbench members with the level of service provided in relation to ME’s. As it was apparent that ME’s raised by the Mayor’s office and Cabinet Members were assigned swiftly to the relevant department and responses sent back to residents equally quickly. However, enquiries from the 30 backbench councillors and opposition councillors were not being prioritised or receiving the same level of urgency.
Cllr Francis concluded that constituents needed a much quicker and more reliable service and suggested that this policy is not just noted and adopted but officers provide actual performance measures to go with the policy proposed.
Members thanked Cllr Francis for his contributions.
A detailed discussion ensued during which the following pointed were noted;
- The Committee Members agreed with the points made by Cllr Francis and shared similar examples of the delayed processing of ME’s.
- That performance reports to track time scales can be reported to the Committee almost immediately upon request.
- Having checked the system prior to the meeting it was noted that backbench member ME’s had been responded to within the time scales at a rate of 69.2% and the Mayor's enquiries were responded to within the timescale at a rate of 71.2% (these figures were up to August 21).
- Ms Chand sought clarification on the types of performance monitoring members wanted reporting on, in order to provide further information.
- Serious concerns were raised in terms of response times and quality of responses received from RSLs.
- It was noted that the Council had no jurisdiction over Registered Social Landlords (RSL’s) and would be unable to hold them to account or ask them to provide performance reports, however officers could continue to chase them for updates.
- Officers currently working to establish a Joint Forum with representatives from the local housing associations, officers and Councillors to have joint discussions about ME’s as well as other matters.
- The Committee’s general view was that it was not physically possible to provide this demanding service with just one member of staff.
- That the Information Governance Team support the officer in post to deal with ME’s and noted that they were currently advertising for a new post for 6 months to help alleviate some of the pressures faced with processing ME’s, as well as looking at technology to help and streamline processes.
- It was noted that the whole service would be going through a review, to understand the needs of the service, the statutory duties and the resources required. It was a detailed piece of work which would require 3-4 months for completion.
The Committee Agreed that the adoption of the policy be delayed and officers report back at the January GPC Meeting with a detailed report taking into consideration the feedback from the meeting, to provide robust performance monitoring figures, and to report back on the review of the service and exploring service budgets to see how sufficiently resourced this area of work required.
It was also Agreed an informal offline meeting to be arranged to update the Committee on the progress made with the review and get assurance that performance monitoring reports were being collated before a new proposal is brought to the Committee.
Accordingly, the General Purposes Committee;
Resolved
1. Officers to reflect on the comments made and report back to the next Committee meeting with more detailed proposals for the Members Enquiry Policy and Process.
Supporting documents:
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Members Enquiries Policy and Process, item 4.2
PDF 239 KB
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Appendix. 1 for Members Enquiries Policy and Process, item 4.2
PDF 354 KB
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Appendix. 2 for Members Enquiries Policy and Process, item 4.2
PDF 224 KB