Agenda and minutes

The apologies of Councillor Whitbread were noted and that following receipt of the temporary resignation of Councillor Fuller from Committee, the Service Director Legal and Governance acting under delegated powers, had appointed Councillor White to replace him for the purposes of this meeting.

To approve and sign as a correct record the Minutes of the meetings held on the 13^th October 2016 and to deal with any matters arising, attached.

RESOLVED: that the minutes for the Committee meeting on 13^th October 2016  be approved and signed as a correct record.

The Committee considered the report of Transformation Director providing an update on the progress made in relation to the Council’s transformation programme.

The Committee received a presentation outlining the Council’s digital transformation and discussed the following matters:

·  To access services the Councils approach encouraged the use of the website but did not remove the ability of any of the current contact methods, including face to face contact or by telephone, and the need for strong political leadership to ensure that all options are readily available to members of the public;

·  the danger of digital exclusion and the difficulties in engaging some customer groups to use the digital option; 

·  the need to review how staff are trained to ensure a consistency of message given to members of the public and the service provided;

·  the lack of consistency in the Council’s web pages in regard to the publishing of contact numbers;

·  the increase in numbers and types of contacts received by Councillors in relation to difficulties in accessing the telephone system.

RESOLVED

(i)  That, in light of the issues raised by residents relating to contacting the Council by telephone, the training provided and messages given to employees is reviewed.

(ii)  That the Council’s website is updated to ensure that there is a consistent approach to publishing contact telephone numbers for service areas.

(iii)  That officers from the Transformation Team directly engage with the Pensioners Forum about the Council’s digital journey.

(iv)  That the Cabinet Member encourages Councillors to provide feedback to the Cabinet Member or Transformation Director about examples of poor customer service experienced by residents through changes designed to encourage channel shift, and to raise these points with employees when attending organised visits to the Customer Service Centre.

(v)  That the Cabinet Member provides political oversight of the message that the Council is seeking to ensure an inclusive approach to communicating with the authority.

Report of the Service Director, Legal and Governance enabling the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee to examine the content of the Forward Plan and to discuss issues of interest or concern with the Executive, attached. 

The Committee considered the report of the Service Director, Legal and Governance detailing items requested for discussion from the current Forward Plan.

RESOLVED: that after consideration of the briefing paper “General Fund Revenue Budget 2017/18 to 2020/21” relating to the forthcoming Cabinet Decision the Committee recommended that in order to help inform decision making and the budget setting process, officers analyse the increase in the levels of income accrued by the Council per annum as a result of the growth of Southampton’s developing economy.