Venue: Meeting Room 2, Civic Centre, Dagenham
Contact: Clair Bantin, Scrutiny & Civic Team Manager, Roycraft House, Barking Telephone - 020 8227 2995 / e-mail - clair.bantin@lbbd.gov.uk
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Declaration of Members' Interests In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interest they may have in any matter which is to be considered at this meeting. Minutes: None. |
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Minutes - 17 December 2008 Minutes: Agreed. |
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Executive challenge session Councillor Shaun Carroll, Executive Portfolio Holder for Customer Services, will attend the meeting to discuss this service area. Minutes: Councillor Carroll, Executive Member with responsibility for Customer Services, had been invited to the meeting to discuss his portfolio.
Councillor Carroll advised that the key areas within his portfolio were:
i) Customer Strategy, Tell Us and Complaints
ii) Customer contact points, such as the Call Centre, One Stop Shops and Registrars
iii) Civic buildings - ensuring a low carbon footprint and a good use of space.
David Woods, Corporate Director of Customer Services, added that Councillor Carroll was the Lead Member for One B&D, and that the Customer Services portfolio was crucial to achieving the One B&D objectives. Priorities included improving value-for-money to deliver higher quality services at a lower cost, tailoring services in response to customer needs and strategic partnership working to improve efficiency and customer access.
Bill Murphy, Corporate Director of Resources, added that these services could only be delivered if joined-up and proactive ICT support systems were in place. He explained that this programme would be implemented over the next three years and would lead to an increased ability to innovate and better customer service at a lower cost.
During the question and answer session that followed Councillor Carroll made the following points:
Members thanked Councillor Carroll for attending the meeting and providing full answers to all the questions raised.
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Achieving Excellence Minutes: Received and noted the Achieving Excellence performance report, as presented by the Group Manager of Corporate Performance.
Noted that Best Value Performance Indicators were in the process of being replaced by National Indicators as part of the Comprehensive Area Agreement, and that future performance reporting would reflect this.
Agreed that future performance reporting should be done on an exceptions basis.
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GP Services Scrutiny Panel Final Report Minutes: Received the final report and recommendations of the GP (General Practitioner) Services Scrutiny Panel, introduced by Councillor Marie West. Noted Councillor West’s concerns that the short timescale allotted to the review had led to pressure on Members and should be avoided in future, if possible.
Noted that the recommendation seven, relating to initial and refresher training of GP surgery staff, did not cover refresher training for established GPs. Officers were requested to liaise with NHS Barking and Dagenham to determine whether this issue was already covered by GP contracts or whether it might be an appropriate addition to recommendation seven.
Expressed support for the draft report and thanked the Panel for their work.
Agreed that the issues identified in section 4.1 of the report as worthy of further scrutiny, namely the appointment system and multi-agency receptions, should be considered by the Health Scrutiny Panel as possible topics for future scrutiny reviews. |
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Health Scrutiny Panel update Minutes: Received and noted a progress report from the Health Scrutiny Panel.
Received an amended version of the four-borough Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JOSC) terms of reference from the Legal Partner for Corporate Law and Employment.
Agreed that the new version of the terms of reference should be submitted to the JOSC for consideration at their next meeting, subject to the following changes:
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Additional documents: Minutes: Received a verbal update on reports that had been cancelled or rescheduled on the Forward Plan since the publication of the Board agenda:
i) Barking and Dagenham Community Strategy: rescheduled from 17 February 2009 to the 10 March 2009 Executive meeting, and from 25 February 2009 to the 01 April 2009 Assembly meeting.
ii) Borough-wide 20mph Zone Strategy: rescheduled from 17 February 2009 to the 10 March 2009 Executive meeting.
iii) Gascoigne Estate Regeneration: rescheduled from 17 February 2009 to the 10 March 2009 Executive meeting.
iv) Local Development Framework – Approval of Minor Changes to Core Strategy and Borough Wide Development Policies: rescheduled from 10 March 2009 to the 21 April 2009 Executive meeting.
v) Local Development Framework – Approval of Pre Submission Site Specific Allocations Development Plan: rescheduled from 10 March 2009 to the 21 April 2009 Executive meeting.
Expressed strong concerns that the full cohort of Members had not been consulted regarding the item on ‘Provision of Wheelie Bins for Household Waste – Pilot Outcomes and Borough Roll–Out’. |
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Scrutiny budget update Minutes: Received a report from the Divisional Director of Legal and Democratic Services setting out spend so far against the Scrutiny budget in 2008-09.
Agreed an additional sum of £3000 to be allocated to fund an external expert to support the Energy Savings Informal Scrutiny review. Councillor Phil Waker confirmed he would circulate further details to the Board for information. |
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Minutes: Received and noted the report.
Agreed an Informal Scrutiny of Housing Supply, led by Councillor Phil Waker.
Terms of reference were set out as follows:
Agreed that officers should invite expressions of interest to join the Informal Scrutiny from the wider Member cohort.
Agreed that an officer would be allocated from the Scrutiny Team to support Members undertaking the review. |
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Future and Outstanding Reports Minutes: Received an update from the Divisional Director of Legal and Democratic Services regarding the new duties that will be placed on Scrutiny from 1 April 2009.
Agreed a comprehensive review of Scrutiny arrangements to ensure that the structures in place are those best suited to meet the new challenges ahead.
The scope of the review is set out as follows:
The reporting timetable is set out as follows:
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Any Other Business Minutes: Noted the additional Board meeting scheduled for 6pm on 11 February 2009 to scrutinise the Council budget. |