Agenda and draft minutes

RESOLVED: Councillor Spikings was appointed Vice Chair for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Beales, Bhondi, Blunt, Collingham, Jones, Rust and Sandell.

To approve the minutes from the Corporate Performance Panel held on

RESOLVED: The minutes from the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

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 discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on any 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 proposed to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was none.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chairman of their intention to do so and 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 was none.

There was none.

There were no call-ins to consider.

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The Corporate Governance Officer presented the report which presented a breakdown of MP enquiries, Corporate and Ombudsman Complaints and detail on compliments received from members of the public.  The report also included details of Freedom of Information requests and Data Protection Breaches.

The Chair thanked the Corporate Governance Officer for the report and invited questions and comments from the Panel, as summarised below.

Councillor Sayers reminded the Panel that he had previously requested that the Corporate Performance Panel consider response rates to Freedom of Information requests.  He felt that the response rate, within the statutory timescales, of 71% was worrying and asked the officer what more could be done to monitor and encourage responses within the required timescales.  He also asked for a breakdown of average response time and response time by department.  The Corporate Governance Officer agreed to provide this in future reports and explained that factors that affected response rate could include service capacity.  She informed the Panel that officers were informed of the statutory timescales, provided with information on how to respond, and sent reminders.

Councillor Osborne referred to the amount of officers that had undertaken the e-learning package and asked if this was reflective of other online training completion rates.  The Corporate Governance Officer agreed to find out how completion of training compared to other e-learning packages provided by the Council.  It was expected that the training be completed on an annual basis and the Corporate Governance Officer explained that she was also available to attend Team Meetings to carry out targeted training where there was a need.  Work was currently ongoing to refresh the training offer.

The Chair referred to causes of breaches of data and commented that the highest cause was personal data sent to the wrong person by human error and he asked if anything could be done to raise awareness amongst staff.  The Corporate Governance Officer explained that she stressed the importance of staff double checking work before sending and referred to the targeted training that she offered. 

The Chair referred to breaches related to unauthorised destruction and the Corporate Governance Officer explained that this related to non adherence to the Council’s retention Policy.

The Chair commented that he was pleased to see that none of the complaints to the Ombudsman had been upheld.

RESOLVED: 1. The Corporate Performance Panel noted the report.

2. Future monitoring reports to include average response time for Freedom of Information requests and a breakdown by Service Area.

3. The Corporate Governance Officer to ensure that timely reminders were sent to officers to encourage them to respond within the statutory timescales.

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The Deputy Monitoring Officer presented the updated version of the Council’s Enforcement Policy which had been updated to reflect national guidance, statutory changes and had been benchmarked against other Norfolk Local Authorities.

The Chair thanked the Deputy Monitoring Officer for the report and invited questions and comments from the Panel, as summarised below.

In response to a question from the Chair, the Deputy Monitoring Officer explained that the Policy had been updated to reflect the Council’s Corporate Priorities.

RESOLVED: That the Corporate Performance Panel support the recommendations to Cabinet as set out below.

Recommendation to Full Council: To adopt the updated Enforcement Policy as presented.

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The Senior Democratic Services Officer presented the report which set out the proposed next steps following the responses received to a questionnaire sent out to Members that served on Outside Bodies.

The Chair thanked the Senior Democratic Services Officer for the report and invited questions and comments from the Panel, as summarised below.

The Chair referred to the reporting arrangements within the guide and commented that if multiple Members were appointed to the same Outside Body only one feedback report would be required.  He also suggested that Outside Bodies could be invited to present an update to the appropriate Committee or Panel.  The Chair commented that linking up the Outside Bodies with a lead officer was a good idea and agreed to a housekeeping exercise to remove those bodies that no longer met, or no longer required Council representation, but asked that caution be given to those bodies that had a Statutory requirement for a Council representative.

The Senior Democratic Services Officer explained that as part of the review Outside Bodies were asked to submit their Constitution and other Governance documents and these would be checked against the requirements for a Councillor representative.

Councillor Dickinson commented that it was important to continue to support Outside Bodies and look at them objectively.  She asked for a summary of the questionnaire responses to be circulated to the Panel.

Councillor Sayers asked if additional guidance could be prepared for Members which set out fiducial duties, charity law and the role of Trustees so that Councillors were aware of their duties.

RESOLVED: That the Corporate Performance Panel supports the recommendations to Cabinet, as set out below, subject to asking Cabinet to consider the comments made above by the Panel relating to reporting arrangements within the Guidance documents and ensuring that careful consideration is given to removing any outside body appointments.

1.     To approve the Draft Guidance to Councillors serving on Outside Bodies, attached at appendix 1.

2.     The Scheme of Delegation be amended to Delegate Authority to the Monitoring Officer/Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader and relevant Portfolio Holder to add/remove Outside Bodies from the list of Outside Body Appointments made by Cabinet and Council as appropriate.

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The Assistant Director presented the revised Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy which was due for review and had been updated to strengthen the Council’s commitment to and compliance with equalities legislation and best practice.  A copy of the presentation is attached.

The Chair thanked the Assistant Director for the report and invited questions and comments from the Panel, as summarised below.

Councillor Sayers referred to the Equality Impact Assessment Form and that low income and care responsibilities had been grouped together but felt that these should be two different Groups.  The Assistant Director explained that the form was regularly updated following feedback and the form included a section to provide a brief explanation of answers to the tick box exercise.

The Chair commented that it was important that the hyperlinks within the Policy to the definitions were available in printed versions and the Assistant Director explained that once published everything would be linked through.

In response to a question, the Assistant Director explained that one of the Corporate Equalities Working Group’s Workstreams was to review equality implications in Complaints.

Councillor Spikings referred to the examples provided within the Policy and the Assistant Director agreed to review the examples used.

RESOLVED: That the Corporate Performance Panel support the Cabinet recommendations as set out below.

To recommend to Full Council that the Council adopts the updated Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy (as shown in Appendix 1).

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Councillor Nash referred to a recent Standards Committee meeting and requested that the Panel review the Complaints Process and Procedure.  The Chair agreed to investigate this with officers for potential addition to the Work Programme.

RESOLVED: The Panel’s Work Programme was noted.

RESOLVED: The Cabinet Forward Decisions List was noted.

RESOLVED: The Shareholder Committee Work Programme was noted.

To note that the next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel is scheduled to take place on 21^st May 2025 at 4.30pm in the Town Hall, Saturday Market Place, King’s Lynn.

The Chair, on behalf of the Panel, thanked the Assistant Director, Becky Box for all her support to the Panel over the years as she was leaving the authority.

The next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel was scheduled to take place on 21^st May 2025 at 4.30pm in the Town Hall, Saturday Market Place, King’s Lynn.