Agenda item

To consider the attached report on the quarter 3 performance data.

The Chairman, Councillor Bolton, introduced the report on the results of corporate performance for quarter 3. He took each page of the report and asked for members to stop him if they wished to discuss any of the outcomes.

Councillor Whitehouse asked about the amber indicator for private sector letting, noting that it had been postponed. What had caused this? He was told that it was a resource constraint that led to this prioritisation that led to this being paused, a number of staff being unavailable due to several issues occurring at that time.

Councillor Whitehouse asked about the red indicator on the “Fix the Basics” item under the consumer excellence programme. He noted that the ‘Contact-Us’ email account had been withdrawn despite it being still on the website. What had been put in its place. He was told that a redirection had been put in place and officers were not aware of any issues stemming from this. But it would be checked. Councillor Neville said that the clerk at Buckhurst Hill Parish Council had not been redirected during a recent routine enquiry. It would be a good idea to investigate this more.

Councillor Brookes asked if there had been a lot of changes in the Contact Centre as she had recently been put through to the wrong office. She was told that there had been some recruitment in the last quarter, but there were no really new officers now.

Councillor Dorrell asked about the amber indicator on the Digital Members Journey noting that Mod.gov had been giving members a lot of problems on i-pads for some time now but was worried that he could not go back and look at notes he had made on agendas at the time. Was there any update on this problem? He was told that officers had formed a group to identify and understand what was happening. Councillor S Kane added that it was a Modern.Gov issue as he has also had problems on his i-pad. He asked if the problem was with the private paper section or the public version. Councillor Dorrell said it seem to be the private (signed in version) but only on his i-pad, his other device (Android) seemed to be OK. Councillor Philip confirmed that was the exact same problem for him as well. Councillor Kane said that he would investigate and get back to the Committee.

On the section on attracting, on boarding and retaining staff, Councillor Rackham noted that anything the council could do to retain its staff would be most welcome.

On the section on ICT Restructure, the Councillor Bolton noted that it said to reduce overall headcount but also that there were 10 vacancies in the team. Was this a paradox. Councillor S Kane said that they had identified jobs that did not exist previously, and jobs that were no longer required. They had lost 17 staff in that section but needed to recruit 10 staff to complete the team.

Councillor Bassett noted that under Engagement and Wellbeing it mentioned a private medical salary sacrifice scheme. Would this also be available to Members? Officers were unaware if it was and would investigate.

Councillor Brookes asked if it would not have been possible to recruit new people for IT while keeping on staff until the new staff were found. Councillor S Kane noted that it would have been possible but not financially advantageous to spend 6 months while paying for people that we did not need while searching for people that we did. All the new positions had been advertised within the council for a period of time and anyone up for redundancy was interviewed for any job they chose to apply for. Some had been  placed into the new positions but not all. They have now completed the internal recruitment section and were onto advertising externally.

Councillor Bolton commented on the Sheltered Housing Review noting that plans for wi-fi was being removed due to being uneconomical, would it not be better to improve wi-fi access which he thought was the original plan. L Wade said that there were complexities and unknown costs associated with this. It needed further investigation and a detailed understanding of the needs for sheltered housing. Also, the high cost associated with this. Councillor Bassett noted that with Covid 19 people needed to communicate and wi-fi connectivity has proved to be vital in this and its help in mental health provision. Due to these circumstances it deserved to be reviewed to see what we could do to assist with this. L Wade said she would check what we had provided and what was intended to be done.

The meeting noted that the Local Plan was still in the hands of the inspector. A report on the Digital Gateway would be going to the next Cabinet meeting and the Leisure Contract had been overtaken by lockdown.

Councillor Neville noted that the council was below the employment rates of the BME target it had set. Why was this and what were the main obstacles. L Wade was unaware of the main obstacles but was aware that the Council had initiated a new project around this area to better understand the problems.

Resolved:

That the committee reviewed the report and noted the progress of project delivery against Q3 milestones.