Minutes:
The following questions were received:
Councillor John Matthissen to Councillor Glen Horn
“What is our Service Level Agreement for the IT service provided by Suffolk County Council, and what has the performance been over the years 2015/16, 2016/17, and since the move to Ipswich.”
Response from Councillor Morley as the Lead Member
“We are working closely with the SCC IT service to review the partnership and accompanying performance measures. The performance measures have not been reviewed recently, and due to a number of changes within SCC IT, both in terms of their processes, level of resources and the tools they use to measure performance, comparisons over the period requested would be very difficult to provide and unlikely to represent an accurate picture of the service actually provided. SCC IT have confirmed that their average measurement of customer satisfaction across all customers is as follows:
2015 - 89%
2016 - 91%
2017 - 89%
Information from August 17 to January 18 demonstrates all of our calls raised (including immediate help desk queries as well as additional requests for new services) over the last 6 months, on average approximately 44% are resolved within 24 hours and 70% of calls are resolved within one week. We will be working with SCC IT to further analyse this data.
Taken from table below:
August |
September |
October |
November |
December |
January |
||
Resolved in 24 hours |
398 |
296 |
340 |
322 |
202 |
240 |
|
% resolved in 24 hours |
49.20% |
38.10% |
42.71% |
42.93% |
49.88% |
45.03% |
|
Resolved in 1 week |
554 |
518 |
563 |
525 |
292 |
387 |
|
% resolved in 1 week |
68.48% |
66.67% |
70.73% |
70.00% |
72.10% |
72.61% |
|
Resolved in 2 weeks |
625 |
627 |
649 |
593 |
330 |
465 |
|
% resolved in 2 weeks |
77.26% |
80.69% |
81.53% |
79.07% |
81.48% |
87.24% |
Councillor Matthissen then asked a supplementary question requesting that comparisons were put in place as his personal experience had not been the same as what had been quoted. Councillor Morley stated she had asked the “facts and stats” team to monitor usage and she would also keep an eye on this.
Councillor John Matthissen to Councillor Jill Wilshaw
“When will the Quarter 3 housing delivery statistics be published, and if they have already been published then what are the statistics?”
Response from Councillor Wilshaw
“Q3 Housing delivery statistics have been updated on Connect and can be found at:
Councillor Matthissen responded by saying he was asking for a single number and did Councillor Wilshaw agree this was crucially important in respect of the Council’s finances and residents? Councillor Wilshaw replied that she understood the importance.
Councillor John Matthissen to Councillor John Whitehead
“Staff turnover: how many staff have left from 01/04/17 to 31/12/17 by Department? As the East of England LGA are willing to provide a benchmarking report, will you request one?”
Response from Councillor Whitehead
“For the first part of the question please see the table below:
LEAVERS APRIL - DECEMBER 2017 BY SERVICE AREA |
|
Service Area |
Number |
BMBS |
4 |
Building Control |
4 |
Business Improvement |
1 |
Commissioning & Procurement |
1 |
Countryside & Public Realm |
3 |
Customer Services |
9 |
Democratic Services |
4 |
Development Management |
11 |
Financial Services |
1 |
Housing Options |
2 |
Housing Solutions |
1 |
HRA Finance |
1 |
Information Management & ICT |
26 |
Internal Audit |
1 |
Open for Business |
3 |
Property Services |
8 |
Senior Leadership Team |
2 |
Shared Legal Service |
2 |
Strategic Planning |
3 |
Strong & Safe Communities |
2 |
Supported Housing |
5 |
Sustainable Environment |
2 |
Tenancy Services |
1 |
97 |
|
For the second part, this is not a service that is provided within the Council’s annual subscription to the East of England LGA, so there would be an additional cost to the council to request that some benchmarking is undertaken on our behalf. In thinking about and developing performance measures within my portfolio, we will look at the HR data and consider what we want to measure and report on a regular basis, but any benchmarking would need to demonstrate value for money and we need to remember that our Chief Executive, in his Head of Paid Service role, is responsible for staffing arrangements within the Council.”
Councillor Matthissen felt it had been previously established regular information on staff would be provided in the future. Councillor Whitehead explained they were looking into how this could be incorporated within the Quarterly outturn reports.
Councillor John Matthissen to Councillor Jill Wilshaw
“My question about Universal Credit last year, specifically regarding what we had learned from Waveney DC, was never properly answered. What have we learned from Waveney regarding rent arrears, Council Tax arrears and staffing pressures, bearing in mind that Universal Credit full roll-out is now scheduled for May this year. Will we increase our funding to Citizens Advice centres serving the District?”
Response from Councillor Wilshaw
“We have been in regular contact with Waveney District Council, and they have shared their experiences in respect of managing customer service calls and visits to their walk in centres. They have shared written communications sent to residents, and how they have worked with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and other agencies. Waveney has its own unique challenges in response to Universal Credit (UC) for example the volume of seasonal workers.
We have been actively working for the past year on our approach to the implementation of UC. This has included partnership meetings with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), and DWP amongst other key stakeholders. Sudbury in Babergh went to ‘Universal Credit full service’ in October 2017 and we have seen no significant rise in rent arrears as a result. I am not aware of any plans to increase our funding to the Citizens Advice Centres serving our districts as a result of Universal Credit.”
Councillor Matthissen felt this response did not answer what had been learnt from Waveney District Council as to how much their customer service and visits went up if any. He accepted Sudbury had had its own challenges. Councillor Wilshaw explained it was a unique situation as they were the first to manage customer service calls and as such had encountered problems. Mid Suffolk were much further down the line but were also monitoring Sudbury.
Councillor Otton asked what the rationale was behind having all of the Joint Member Briefings in the future in Bildeston?
The Leader of the Council, Councillor Gowrley explained the rationale had been to try and increase the attendance of the Joint Member Briefings and as such it had been suggested an out of Ipswich centre might be more acceptable. This had proven not to be the case and as such all Member Briefings would now move back to Endeavour House, Ipswich.
Councillor Otton responded by requesting the financial difference between holding them at Endeavour or out in the district. The Leader of the Council agreed to report this information back once known.