Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors A Beales and J Collop.

To approve the minutes of the Resources and Performance Panel held on 27 January 2015 (previously circulated).

The minutes of the Resources and Performance Panel held on 23 June 2015 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is disclosed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on an item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chairman proposes to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chairman of their intention to do so an on what items they wish to be heard before the meeting commences.  Any Member attending the meeting under Standing Order 34 will only be permitted to speak on those items which have been previously notified to the Chairman.

There were no Members present under Standing Order 34.

There was none.

To receive comments and recommendations from other Council bodies, and any responses subsequent to recommendations, which this Panel has previously made.  (N.B.  some of the relevant Council bodies may meet after dispatch of the agenda).

None.

To receive a presentation giving an overview of the work undertaken in Property Services.

The Property Services Manager gave a Powerpoint presentation which provided an overview of the work undertaken within Property Services.

The Panel was invited to ask questions/comment, a summary of which is set out below.

Councillor Gourlay asked where the list of assets could be viewed on the Council’s website.  In response, the Property Services Manager explained that the information could be viewed on the Transparency Agenda section on the Website.

In response to questions from Councillor Hodson on the waterfront area, including the buildings, the Property Services Manager explained that the site referred to had recently been acquired by the Council and a broader scheme was being looked at to bring this important area back into use.

Following comments from Councillor Devereux on a strategy for developing this area, the Leader asvised that the development of the waterfront had been interrupted in 2008 when there had been a bank crisis, however the Borough Council now wished to progress developing this important strategic site not only to attract visitors, but to improve the quality for the residents.

The Chief Executive commented that local authorities were in a better position to look at the long term view of a particular area and gave the Southgates roundabout as an example of being a key point of entry to the town which required upgrading.

The Chairman, Councillor Humphrey thanked the Property Services Manager for an informative and interesting presentation.

RESOLVED:  That the content of the presentation be noted.

The Panel is asked to review and note the Council’s proposed performance indicators and targets for the 2015/16 year. 

In presenting the report, the Personnel Services Manager explained that the Council’s Performance Management Framework included quarterly monitoring and reporting of performance.  Each quarterly performance report was presented to the Resources and Performance Panel.

It was noted that at the Resources and Performance Panel meeting on 2 June 2015, Members considered a report showing the full year performance for 2014/2015.  During discussions Members expressed an interest in understanding the process that was adopted to set performance targets for the year end, in particular, to understand why certain targets had been set.

The Personnel Services Manager explained that this report had been produced to provide an overview of the corporate performance monitoring indicators and associated targets which had been set for the 2015/2016 year.  The report also outlined the process that had been followed to agree these with Portfolio Holders.

The Panel was informed of the key changes to Indicators for the 2015/16 year as set out below:

·         The first key change to note in the presentation of the targets was that the ‘RE’ targets which were held by the former Deputy Chief Executive had now been merged into other Directorates (mainly the Chief Executives, and a smaller number of Commercial Services) to reflect the Council’s revised management structure.

Chief Executive’s Directorate

The main changes from the 2014/2015 year were:

·         To include new indicators to monitor the Major Housing Project (CE7 and CE8) with a corresponding revision to CE9 (formerly RE1) which related to capital receipts.

·         To include a new indicator relating to corporate savings (CE10).

·         To include revised indicators in relation to the processing of benefit claims (CE13 was new and CE14 (formerly RE10) was revised) to enable Management Team and Members to monitor the take up of new on-line methods of processing benefits claims that had been introduced this financial year.

·         To introduce a new target (CE20) relating to income from business rates for renewable energy projects.

Central and Community Services Directorate

The main change was a new target (CC9) to monitor customer satisfaction with the use of the revised on-line system for processing benefits claims mentioned above.

Commercial Services

The decision had been taken to cease to monitor a former indicator relating to the waiting time for cremation bookings, as this indicator had consistently met the target for some time and therefore Management Team felt monitoring was no longer required.

Environment and Planning Directorate

The key changes were:

·         To revise the indicator which related to food premises food hygiene law to reflect changes in legislation.

·         To cease to monitor indicator EP3 which related to response times to certain types of planning applications, as the indicator simply monitored response times of an internal function.

Members were reminded that the targets for each of the agreed indicators were also shown in Appendix A.

Councillor Devereux expressed concern that all the financial performance indicators were not included in this one report.  He asked if there were any plans in place for a performance management system for the whole Council to include  ...  view the full minutes text for item RP31

In presenting the report, the Personnel Services Manager explained that for a number of years Elected Members had considered an annual ‘Employment Monitoring report’ which reviewed equalities based information on the Council’s employment practices.

The report supported the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 with regards to workforce monitoring and also provided evidence of the Council’s commitment to achieving its equality objectives for employment, which had also been developed in line with the requirements of the Equality Act.

Appendix 1 showed the summary information and key indicators which Members and Managers should note.  The Panel was advised that in considering the report and the associated Appendix, Members should note the change in employees within the scope of the monitoring information collated, as outlined in the background section.

The Personnel Manager provided background information and explained that the Council had undertaken monitoring of its recruitment and selection procedures since 1996 and of its workforce since 2000, with findings reported to Elected Members and Senior Managers over this period.  It was highlighted that where possible, information for the most recent year, plus the previous years, had been included.

Councillor Devereux referred to the previous meeting of the Panel when the annual sickness report had been received and asked why the report was not summarised as part of the key indicators.  In response, the Personnel Services Manager explained that the Employment Monitoring report supported the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.  She advised that there was a robust separate process for monitoring sickness absence but there was an option to provide a breakdown of those figures in the Employment Monitoring Report, and she would include these in future years.

Following further comments from Councillor Devereux on employment monitoring if it was not a legislative requirement, the Personnel Services Manager explained that the information was collated not only to comply with legislation, but also to enable the Council to look at trends and compare figures year on year.  The report provided a snapshot at a particular time.  The key areas were reviewed on an annual basis and areas of concern would be investigated further and raised with Management Team.

In response to questions from Councillor Blunt on the Council’s recruitment process, the Personnel Services Manager advised that candidates should not canvass Councillors or officers when applying for a vacancy.  However, details of all job advertisements were circulated to all employees and employees could utilise a ‘forwarding’ message to send details to people outside the organisation..  The Council was required to ensure that the best candidate was appointed basedon the criteria agreed.  Any candidate would be required to specify if they were related to an officer or Councillor.

Following further questions from Councillor Blunt on Ethnic Group “Undefined”, the Personnel Manager explained that people’s view had to be respected and that an individual may not wish to be categorised into the ethnic groups reported.

In response to questions from Councillor Gourlay on internal only promotions, the Personnel Services Manager explained that if candidates were  ...  view the full minutes text for item RP32

To consider the Panel’s Work Programme and Forward Decisions List.

The Panel noted the work programme.