Agenda and draft minutes
Venue: Conference Room 1a, County Hall, Ruthin
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APOLOGIES |
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DECLARATION OF INTERESTS Members to declare any personal or prejudicial interests in any business identified to be considered at this meeting. Minutes: Councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts declared a personal interest in Item 5, Library Service Standards and Performance. |
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URGENT MATTERS AS AGREED BY THE CHAIR Notice of items which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency pursuant to Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972. Minutes: No urgent matters received. |
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MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING PDF 170 KB To receive the minutes of the Performance Scrutiny Committee held on 6 January 2017 and 26 January 2017 (copies attached). Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of the Performance Scrutiny Committee held on 6 January 2017 and 26 January 2017 were submitted. Matters Arising – 6 January 2017: Item 5, Update on Options Appraisals for In-House Care Services - Councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts requested clarity regarding Canolfan to which the Scrutiny Co-ordinator confirmed she would make enquiries. RESOLVED that, subject to
the above, the minutes of the Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 6
January 2017 and 26 January 2017 be received and approved as a correct record. |
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LIBRARY SERVICE STANDARDS AND PERFORMANCE PDF 62 KB To consider a report (copy attached) to provide Members with information about the new Framework of Library Standards (2017-2020), highlighting Denbighshire’s most recent performance where applicable. 9.40 a.m. – 10.30 a.m. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Head of Customers, Communications and Marketing,
introduced the Principal Librarian’s report (previously circulated) to provide
Members with information about the new Framework of Library Standards
(2017-2020), highlighting Denbighshire’s most recent performance where
applicable. The Head of Service
informed members that 17 out of the 18 core entitlements included in the
2014-17 Framework (5th Framework) had been met and the only one
which had not been met had been the requirement for the Service to have a
declaration publicly available of its Strategy and vision. This
deficiency would be addressed during the first year of the new Framework, now
that the Service had entered a period of stability under a new Head of
Service. Of the 16 Quality Indicators contained within the 5th
Framework, 7 had set targets. Denbighshire had met, or partially met, six
of these seven indicators during 2015/16. The only one which it failed to
partly meet was the indicator relating to its expenditure on books and
resources for public use. The reason for this being that a decision had
been taken as part of the Freedoms and Flexibilities budget setting process,
not to strive to meet this target but instead to realise maximum benefits from
expenditure by targeting the expenditure on specific types of books and
resources based on library users’ preferences. Responding to
Members’ questions the Head of Service: · Confirmed that the
reduction in expenditure on public resources had not adversely affected the
number of book loans to the public. The Service had taken a conscious
decision to spend more of its budget on children’s books during the period of
austerity. This had been contrary to Welsh Government (WG) guidelines at
the time, however the new Framework for 2017-2020 would reflect the Council’s
approach; · Advised that
Denbighshire was in the process of entering into a regional book purchasing
arrangement with other local authorities in North Wales. This approach would be far more cost
effective for the authority and would realise maximum value for money for the
Council; · Emphasised that whilst
a number of local authorities across Wales had reduced their library opening
hours, closed libraries in some areas or transferred their community library
provision to town and community councils or the voluntary sector, Denbighshire
had only had to reduce its services by a matter of hours across the county and
in doing so had been able to keep all the libraries open throughout the
county. By adopting an approach to develop all its libraries as
‘community hubs’, where a range of community services could be delivered,
it had been able to invest in its libraries to modernise them, ensuring that
they were accessible to all residents. This approach was very much in
line with Quality Indicator 4 of the new Libraries Framework, which focussed on
the Service’s delivery of services which supported health and well-being.
Rhuddlan Library had recently reopened following
refurbishment and work was about to start to refurbish St. Asaph Library. An application had recently been submitted to
the Welsh Government’s (WG) Museums, Archives and Libraries Division (MALD) for
a grant to refurbish Denbigh Library; · Informed members that
Wi-Fi was now available in all of the county’s libraries. To further the
modernisation agenda and support agile working for the Council’s employees the
Authority’s corporate Wi-Fi was in the process of being rolled out to libraries
across the county; · Community use of the
county’s libraries for initiatives such as ‘Talking Points’ was increasing; · Regular customer
satisfaction surveys with service-users were conducted with a view to continually
improve, and potentially increase further the types of services available at
libraries; · Advised that the One ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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At this juncture
(10.25 a.m.) there was a 10 minute break. The meeting
reconvened at 10.35 a.m. |
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YOUR VOICE REPORT - Q3 2016/2017 PDF 100 KB To consider a report (copy attached) on the Council’s performance in dealing with complaints under its corporate complaints process. The report also includes information on the method used for collecting customer feedback, collating it into a Customer Effort Dashboard, which is then used to inform future service improvements. 10.30 a.m. – 11.15 a.m. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Interim Principal Manager, Support Services and the
Statutory and Corporate Complaints Officer, introduced the report (previously
circulated) to provide an overview of compliments, suggestions and complaints
received by Denbighshire County Council under the council’s Customer Feedback
Policy “Your Voice” during Q3 2016/17.
The report also included Social Services complaints procedure. During their
introduction they advised that the report included information on the number of
complaints received in relation to commissioned services as well as services
delivered directly by the Council itself. Of the number of complaints
received in relation to the Planning and Public Protection Service, 50% were in
respect of services delivered on its behalf by Kingdom Security. Members
acknowledged that the types of services delivered by Kingdom Security, which
were enforcement services on the Council’s behalf, were by their very nature
likely to generate a greater number of complaints. Footage from the Enforcement
Officer’s body camera was useful evidence when determining complaints against
Kingdom. Responding to
members’ questions officers advised that: ·
at present the customer feedback process had no
mechanism built into it to record the severity of complaints. However,
the progression of a complaint to the Stage 2 process could sometimes indicate
either the complexity or severity of the complaint; ·
the customer feedback policy did not record if any
compensation payments had been made to complainants. The Statutory and
Corporate Complaints Officer undertook to establish whether data on annual compensation
payments were reported to any specific committee or published in a
specific location; ·
they would follow-up the Committee’s concerns with
respect to Children and Family Services performance in dealing with Stage
1 complaints within the set timescales. Whilst the Committee acknowledged
that this Service dealt with extremely sensitive and complex matters, they were
concerned that they had consistently underperformed against the set target
throughout the 2016/17 year; ·
with respect to councillor attendance at meetings, the
Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services had been tasked to draw up some
proposals for Group Leaders’ consideration on what the Council expected from
members, including member attendance at meetings. It was suggested that
Performance Scrutiny Committee may in future want to monitor member attendance
at Council meetings; ·
as officers they would like to revisit the
reporting framework relating to complaints with a view to including more
valuable data i.e. the number of complaints upheld or partially upheld and the
grounds which led to the determinations. They felt that this approach
would be beneficial to the authority by aiding services to learn from
complaints; and ·
the ‘Excellence Denbighshire Awards’ would have a
new award category this year, for a resident whose complaint had resulted in
service improvements. Attached as Appendix 2 to the report was a supplementary report on the ‘Customer Effort Dashboard’. The Head of Customers, Communication and Marketing introduced this report which outlined how customer feedback collated by the Council was fed into a Customer Effort Dashboard in order to provide real time information about the customer experience for the purpose of improving future service provision. She advised that the results received from the company administering the dashboard service was extremely encouraging, as it was illustrating that the Council was performing well in comparison to other public sector service providers. It was extremely pleasing to report that customers who had contacted Denbighshire Customer Services Centre were willing to respond with additional written comments on the service they had received, rather than confine themselves to the score requested for each question. Officers were of the view that the data received to date from Ember, the company that operated the Dashboard facility, was so useful that it would be worthwhile ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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PROGRESS ON DELIVERING DENBIGHSHIRE'S HOUSING STRATEGY PDF 105 KB To consider a report (copy attached) on the progress made to date in delivering the key outcomes and actions identified in Denbighshire’s Housing Strategy. 11.30 a.m. – 12.15 p.m. Additional documents: Minutes: The Lead Member for Modernising and Housing, Councillor
Barbara Smith, introduced the report (previously circulated) to update Scrutiny
Committee on the progress made to date in delivering the key outcomes and
actions identified in Denbighshire’s Housing Strategy. In her introduction
the Lead Member emphasised that the Strategy, approved by the County Council on
1 December 2015, brought various housing functions together in one action
plan. As various Council services were responsible for different housing functions
the delivery of housing objectives had been somewhat disparate until they had
been brought together under one Strategy. During the Strategy’s
development, and since its adoption, all Council services had bought into the
Strategy’s delivery and it was hoped that the new Council, post May’s local
authority elections, would be as enthusiastic as the current Council to see the
Strategy delivered and evolve to meet future needs. Responding to
members’ questions the Lead Member and officers advised that: · Registered Social
Landlords (RSLs) must be zoned with Welsh Government (WG) to be able to access
grant funding for housing projects (including Social Housing Grant). The Council and Cartrefi
Conwy had worked closely together to develop a business case which had been
approved by WG in May 2016. This enabled
Cartrefi Conwy to access funding and bring forward
projects in Denbighshire; · A number of services
worked in close partnership with other public sector organisations i.e. Health
and Fire and Rescue Service to ensure that homeless accommodation and other
vulnerable residents’ homes provided a safe and healthy environment for people
to live. Partnership working included
working with Public Protection officers for joint inspections of Houses in
Multiple Occupation (HMO); · The draft Empty Homes Delivery
Plan and associated action plan had recently been discussed at the Housing
Strategy Monitoring Group and would be approved via the Delegated Decision
process in the near future. Responsibility for Empty Homes lay within the
Planning and Public Protection Service and formed part of another post.
The number of identified empty homes in the county remained around the 800 homes
figure despite efforts to bring homes back into use, with around 100 brought
back into use each year. Nevertheless these houses would not be the same
800 houses as would have been the case a number of years ago. However, as
one home was filled another one was likely to become empty. It was
emphasised that bringing long-term empty homes back into occupancy could be a
prolonged and complex process. Periodic publicity campaigns were run to
highlight the Council’s objective in relation to empty homes with a view to
drawing the public’s attention to the help that was available to them if they had
an empty home on their hands. Previously
the Council was compelled to report upon a national Strategic Indicator,
relating to the number of empty homes within the county brought back into use
through direct action by the Council – on which the Council was regularly the
second or third best performing authority in Wales ; · Local Social Housing Plans were currently in the process of being developed due to the rising demand for social housing. Nevertheless, the Council was of the opinion that building brand new ‘council houses’ was not the only solution to meet this growing demand. A range of options would be contained within the action plans, including buying back former council housing sold under the ‘right to buy’ scheme in the past, the development of shared ownership properties, extra care accommodation for older people, and the release of current ‘sheltered housing’ complexes which were built before current accessibility standards for people without specific mobility needs ... view the full minutes text for item 7. |
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SCRUTINY WORK PROGRAMME PDF 73 KB To consider a report by the Scrutiny Coordinator (copy attached) seeking a review of the committee’s forward work programme and updating members on relevant issues. 12.15 p.m. – 12.30 p.m. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Scrutiny Co-ordinator submitted a report (previously
circulated) seeking Members’ review of the Committee’s work programme and
providing an update on relevant issues. A copy of the “Member’s proposal form” had been included in
Appendix 2. The Scrutiny Co-ordinator
requested that any proposals be submitted to herself. The Cabinet Forward Work Programme had been
included as Appendix 3, the table summarising recent Committee resolutions,
advising on progress with their implementation, had been attached as Appendix 4
and the “Cutting our Cloth Task & Finish Group” Final Report had been
attached as Appendix 5. The Committee considered its draft Forward Work Programme for
future meetings, Appendix 1, and the following additions were agreed:- March 2018 – Ø
Library
Service Standards 2016/17 Ø
Customer
Effort Dashboard The Chair of the Cutting Our Cloth Task & Finish Group presented
the Group’s final report. It was agreed
that going forward it would be prudent to adopt the approach of utilising Task
and Finish Groups for specific pieces of work as Scrutiny Committees were
limited timewise to be able to discuss all matters in detail. Task & Finish Groups were able to focus their
time on detailed examination of specific areas.
They could be used to ensure that the requirements of the Wellbeing of
Future Generations Act (Wales) Act 2015 were being met. Councillor Dewi Owens raised the fact that, in his opinion,
a planning report had been badly written and the matter should be raised at
Scrutiny Chairs & Vice-Chairs Group. The Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chairs Group had not forwarded
any items to the Performance Scrutiny Committee. RESOLVED that - (i)
that,
subject to the above observations and amendments, the Forward Work Programme be
approved; and (ii) to receive and endorse the findings and the final report of the
Cutting Our Cloth Task and Finish Group (Appendix 5) and requests that the
Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chairs Group (SCVCG) determines whether other budget
savings, which formed part of the Freedom and Flexibilities process, merit
detailed examination of their impact on residents and if so which scrutiny
committee(s) should undertake that work. |
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FEEDBACK FROM COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES To receive any
updates from Committee representatives on various Council Boards and Groups. 12.30 p.m. – 12.35 p.m. Minutes: The Chair, Councillor Barry Mellor informed Committee
Members he had recently become a Governor for Ysgol
Blessed Edward Jones. He had attended a
meeting recently in Rhyl Town Hall to discuss the future of the school which
had been very well attended and proved to be extremely positive. Councillor Arwel Roberts informed Committee Members he had attended meetings of the School Standards Monitoring Group (SSMG) focussing on Ysgol Glan Clwyd. It had been an extremely positive meeting and although the building work was yet to be completed the remodelling had been well received and the Headteacher had a positive, aspirational vision for the school’s future. In contrast, during another SSMG meeting some concerns were expressed in relation to the sustainability of the position of one Welsh medium primary school in the county due to the condition of the building and work pressures on staff. |
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At this juncture, the Chief Executive thanked Members of the Committee and Officers for all the constructive work which had been carried out on behalf of the Committee. |
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The meeting concluded
at 12.30 p.m. |