Agenda item
SCRUTINY SPOTLIGHT
The Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Joshua Peck, will attend to report on his portfolio.
(Time allocated – 45 minutes)
Minutes:
Councillor Joshua Peck, Deputy Leader of the Council, gave a presentation on the key issues, achievements and challenges arising from his portfolio which focused on the following points:
Democratic Services
· Achievements
o On-going electoral canvass 70% of Borough residents contacted, up 8 or 9% on last year.
o Members Enquiry performance – 90% responded to within 10 days and Registered Social Landlords now hitting 85% although further improvement was needed.
o Burial Subsidy made permanent – proposed extension to Woodgrange Park, the rationale for this outlined.
· Challenges
o Changes in legislation required a move to new executive arrangements, a directly elected Mayor with a 4 year term or a Leader with a 4 year term that appointed the Cabinet. There was a big difference between the two and any transition would require closely managed.
o The running at least two elections next year. The positives of holding them on the same day and the challenges of administering the counts were outlined.
o Delivery of effective induction programme for Members post-election, as well as roll out of IT, telephone and other services. Their was a strong track record of Member Development, with the Council awarded the London Member Development Charter in May 2009.
o Re-organising Registration Services within budgetary constraints to improve delivery (eg longer opening hours) and meet growing demand.
Equalities/Scrutiny
· Achievements
o Production of new Race, Sexual Orientation, Religion/Belief and Age Equality schemes following a comprehensive consultation exercise.
o Achievement of Level 5 of Equality Standard for Local Government.
o Establishment of Member Equality and Diversity Working Group to increase involvement in delivery.
· Challenges
o Development of a Single Equality Duty to join up the suite of schemes and ensure appropriate interplay between them. Impact individually and collectively on communities across the Borough would be significant and therefore challenging.
o Self-assessment against the new Equality Framework for Local Government and peer reviews.
o Establishment of a pan-Disability Panel that was a model of best practice to develop policy and services in this area.
Communications
· Achievements
o East End Life continued to be the most popular/ wildely read publication in the Borough, and the preferred avenue for most residents to obtain information about their council.
o Improved campaigns capacity to deliver Council’s well-being objectives eg around recycling more.
o Ensuring Best Value – the award winning shared newsprint contract reduced print bill by 25% (London Council’s ‘best collaborative procurement process).
· Challenges
o Continuing to align communications across the Council into a single portal, a strategic function not one that was purely reactive (to the local press).
o Strengthening full communications offer (including: internal communications; marketing; public affairs and e-communications). Combining customer access and communications functions on a reduced budget. For example on the Council website where customer wished to pay their Council Tax and find out about what the Council did.
o Keeping East End Life an important and valued tool in delivery of Council objectives, in economic downturn.
Customer Access
· Achievements
o Maintenance of Contact Centre customer satisfaction level at over 90%. Customer Access Questionnaire implemented for calls.
o Improvement in complaint handling times. Also a high rate of queries resolved on first contact.
o Reduced waiting times in One Stop Shops with introduction of new working practices and refurbishment of Rushmead. 9 extra OSS staff in place.
· Challenges
o New contact centre telephony – for Customer Contact Centre & Council Tax/Benefits. Bringing together several systems into one could be problematic.
o New working arrangements with Tower Hamlets Homes in One Stop Shops: Rushmead and Cheviot dedicated counters and floorwalkers staffed by THH whilst THH services in Chrisp Street and Gladstone Place would now be provided by THH elsewhere.
o Maintaining collection rates and encouraging take up of entitlement to benefits in light of current economic climate. Mitigating a lack of knowledge about benefit entitlement especially for elders so that informed choices on take up could be made.
Members of Overview and Scrutiny Committee then posed a series of detailed questions to which the Deputy Leader of the Council responded. The question and answer session was centred on the following points:
· The Scrutiny Review of the Private Rented Sector had found that Tower Hamlets was one of only a few remaining Councils that did not offer a BACS payment system for housing benefits, which caused problems for residents and private landlords. Assurance was sought and given that this would be looked into and consideration given to its introduction.
· The fast tracking of a low budget “welcome pack”, pulling together existing information, to be issued at citizenship ceremonies which would signpost new citizens to Council services, voter registration and the take up of benefits. It was noted that Members had been asking East End Life (EEL) to produce a basic information pack with rudimentary history of the area and signposting to basic services without result. The Deputy Leader undertook to take this up with Communications Section and EEL, the latter being able to fund such an initiative through advertising.
· The importance of communication and resident consultation/ engagement in many day to day aspects of service delivery and ways to embed this, versus the dangers of too many staff undertaking this, not utilising expertise within the Council and therefore not doing it well.
· Whilst the general improvement in performance relating to Members Enquiries was noted, concern and frustration was expressed regarding poor quality and late responses from Registered Social Landlords. Clarification/ assurance was sought and given regarding the exploration of options to ensure RSL’s fulfilled their obligations. The Deputy Leader undertook to ensure that the Council wrote to RSL’s if their responses were late and of poor quality, and to ask the Strategic Housing Section to take this up with individual RSL’s. He also welcomed the Chair’s suggestion of a quality test for RSL Members Enquiries as a learning opportunity for the RSLs.
· Concern was expressed that the Pan Disability Forum had not been established in April 2009, as anticipated, and an explanation for the delay had not been forthcoming. It was considered that this excluded an element of the Community from commenting on and shaping services. Mr Michael Keating, Service Head Scrutiny and Equalities, outlined the reasons for the delay and updated members of the committee on the imminent enrolment process for the Forum. He emphasised that the additional time to think through a more active engagement process with disabled residents was worthwhile.
· Clarification/ assurance was sought and given in relation to residents satisfaction with the Burial Subsidy Scheme and whether creation of a burial ground in Tower Hamlets had been ruled out in the near future. The Deputy Leader outlined why take up of the scheme had been lower than expected and, the rationale behind the extension of the scheme to a third cemetery. He also outlined the nuances in customer satisfaction in relation to the scheme and how the underlying issues had been explored. A burial ground had not been ruled out but no space had been identified but the Council would continue to search to meet this need of the local community.
· Consideration, in the context of recent tragic events in the Community, that a communications protocol was required to ensure that Chief Officers kept Ward Members appraised of events and actions taken by the Council as a result. Clarification/ assurance was given that such a protocol did exist but that it would be refreshed.
· Consideration that a mechanism was required to ensure Members were notified of Licensing and Development applications pertinent to their Ward. The Deputy Leader considered this to be a good suggestion.
· Clarification/ assurance was sought and given in relation to the resolution of distribution issues concerning East End Life. Clarification was also sought and given regarding the possibility of ear marking a page of EEL for opposition groups to highlight their views with a view to encouraging democratic debate.
· Concern was expressed that the current was less “user friendly” than the former one in terms of accessing services and information; and clarification/ assurance was sought and given regarding creating an option on the website for users to feedback on their user experience. The Deputy Leader outlined the rationale behind the new website: one of of “fewer clicks” to achieve the customer objective. He undertook to look into the website feedback option.
· Consideration that the disfunctionality of the Website needed further exploration in the context of the debate as to its primary function being that of communications or customer access.
· Consideration that, in the context of currently available technologies and the level of information held corporately on residents, the requirement to queue annually at the Rushmead One Stop Shop for a resident parking permit was unnecessary. The Deputy Leader concurred and indicated that this could be included in the next stage of the huge piece of work to join up customer access.
· Clarification/ assurance was sought and given in relation to Customer Access satisfaction surveys being undertaken without Customer Call Centre operator knowledge.
· Clarification/ assurance was sought and given in relation to the consideration being given to arrangements for the two election counts in 2010.
· Clarification was sought and given regarding how the Council could make stronger representations to the Mayor of London regarding underground station closures.
· A number of ICT related problems that Members had encountered were raised and the Committee requested that these be addressed before the new intake of Members at the 2010 Local Government Elections. The Deputy Leader undertook to raise these with the appropriate parties
· Alerting the Deputy Leader that consultation and involvement was thought to still be part of the Deputy Leader’s portfolio, although there was a misnomer that it was part of the portfolio of the Lead Member Regeneration, Localisation and Community Partnerships.
· A member of the Committee requested that in future Powerpoint presentations for the Spotlight be distributed to members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in advance to enable more informed scrutiny and questions.
The Chair thanked Councillor Joshua Peck for his presentation.