Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor A Ryves (Cllr Bland sub) and Councillor Sayers.

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RESOLVED: Councillor Blunt  was appointed Vice-Chair of the Corporate Performance Panel for the 2024-25 Municipal Year.

To approve the minutes from the previous meeting.

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 was none.

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.

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Officers provided the Panel with the Annual Communications update.  A copy of the presentation is attached.

The Chair thanked officers for the presentation and invited comments and questions from the Panel, as summarised below.

Communications

In response to a question in relation to how successful the communications had been, the Communications Officer responded that when the content had been gathered, for example the floorboards at the Guildhall, it was how much the content had been used elsewhere and how many people had engaged in the post put on social media. The footage which was gathered at the time had been used on The One Show and Channel 4 news, which benefitted this area, the journalists were not necessarily based in the area, so if the information could be provided to them, they were happy to take it.

The Communications and Engagement Officer added that there was a variety of different ways of measuring the activities that were carried out.  With some of the campaign work, other metrics were used and she cited the elections work which had been carried out last year and which had been measured by the number of people who could not vote because they did not have the correct ID.

In response to a comment regarding other media platforms that could be used, the Communications Officer advised that TikTok and Snapchat had been looked at.  The Council did have a Snapchat account which was rarely used, but could be considered if wanting to target young people and their parents.  In terms of TikTok, this was not used at the moment, but would be kept under review.

Council Information Centre

In response to a comment, the CIC Manager explained that in relation to the people who were regarded as digitally excluded, a lot of the different digital technology that was being brought in was aimed to help people like herself and other customers to deal with their enquiries, which in turn helped to free up capacity on the telephones, so that helped the advisors to be able to spend time with the customer.  She advised that in some instances advisors had spent 20-25 minutes on a call with a customer and often filled out a form on the customer’s behalf.

Councillor Mrs Spikings stated that this was not highlighted anywhere that help was available.  The CIC Manager agreed to take those comments on board and look into the matter.

The Chair added that it was the harder to reach groups that needed to be targeted and the message that staff were available on the telephones to speak to people and they were not forced to use the webchat.

The CIC Manager added that it was about giving customers choice regarding their chosen method of communication.

Councillor Blunt asked whether Artificial Intelligence was being used in the webchat.  The CIC Manager advised that AI was not being used at the moment but would look to use  ...  view the full minutes text for item CP8

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The Information Governance Officer presented the report which presented a revised Data Protection Policy which refreshed the policy to bring it in line with Data Protection Legislation, ICO guidance and best practice.  The Corporate Performance Panel were being asked to consider the revised policy prior to it being presented to Cabinet.

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

·         A review needed to be carried out every 2 years or when there was a legislative change.

·         In relation to timings of FOI requests, for last year, overall, there had been 781 requests, which 71% were compliant, which meant that a response had been provided in 20 working days.

·         What mechanisms were in place if a request for information had been submitted incorrectly and the information under one form or another as an FOI or SAR?  In response it was explained that one piece of officer guidance which had been produced was an FOI / Data Protection request Guidance note which explained that any request did not have to be in writing, and it should be directed to the corporate mailbox which was monitored by the Corporate Governance Team and allocated appropriately. 

·         Would there be a link for Members rights to information and a SAR or FOI request.  It was explained that Members could access information under Members Access Rights as well as through FOI and SAR.  It was advised that prior to April 2023 the service was dealt with by Eastlaw, and now brought it in-house function so the process had been changed.  If any Member had nay requests or was struggling to get information you were required to please email FOI or Data Protection.  The understanding around the legislation came under the Corporate Governance Team as to who was entitled to what.

RESOLVED: That the Corporate Performance Panel support the revised Data Protection Policy for submission to Cabinet.

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The Panel were invited to nominate a representative to serve as an observer on the Hunstanton Sailing Club Development Sub-Committee.  The Panel considered that as the Council no longer had a financial interest in the Sailing Club, no representative would be proposed.

RESOLVED: That the Panel does not nominate a representative to serve as an observer on Hunstanton Sailing Club Development Sub-Committee.

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As set out in the report the Panel were requested to consider the Informal Working Groups that they had previously established and review their Membership as appropriate.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Taxi Testing Contract Informal Working Group continue to operate with members Nash, Long, Osborne, Lintern and Ryves.

2.    That the Constitution Informal Working Group continue to operate with members Beales, Bearshaw, Coates, Long, Osborne and Ryves

3.    That the following Informal Working Groups be disbanded as they have concluded their work:

-       Review of Persistent Complaints Policy Informal Working Group

-       Meeting Arrangements Informal Working Group

-       Freedom of the Borough Informal Working Group

Any questions should be emailed to democratic.services@west-norfolk.gov.uk in advance of the meeting.

No questions had been submitted in advance of the meeting.

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The Leader stated that due to the General Election being called on 4 July 2024, Informal Working Group meetings would be postponed and rescheduled following the election. 

Amendments to the Work Programme would be made, as follows:

Remove Hunstanton Sailing Club from 17 July 2024.

The report of the Taxi Testing Informal Working Group would need to be rescheduled to a later meeting.

RESOLVED: The Work Programme, Cabinet Forward Decisions List and Shareholder Committee Work Programme was noted.

The next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 17^th July 2024 at 4.30pm in the Town Hall.

The next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel was scheduled to take place on Wednesday 17^th July 2024 at 4.30pm in the Town Hall.