About Scrutiny Panel Meetings
Scrutiny Panel meetings are usually held in public.
They give elected members not on the Cabinet an opportunity to
examine, discuss and make recommendations about significant issues
and decisions.
1.
Purpose/Objectives of the
Review
·
To evaluate all customer services with a review of the customer
contact centre, customer satisfaction and the refurbished and
extended one stop shop.
2.
Outcomes Required
·
To establish whether all customer services are
providing value for money around:
§
Quality of service and service
delivery
§
Customer satisfaction across the whole
organisation
§
Cost and efficiency
§
Use of all media
·
To establish the accessibility of customer
services
·
To establish the benefits of a shared customer
services facility
·
To establish the appropriateness of current targets
for customer services
·
To make recommendations for improvement as
appropriate
3.
Information Required
·
Baseline data including
§
Budgets
§
Statistics
§
Targets
§
Call times
§
Performance Indicator data
·
Evidence from partners, key employees, including the Customer
Services Manager and service users
·
Evidence from the Portfolio Holder (Community Engagement) and the
Leader of the Council, NBC
·
Evidence from the Director of Finance and Support, NBC
·
Benchmarking with other Local Authorities, including information
regarding:-
§
Targets
§
Costs
§
Recorded calls
·
Site visits to internal customer services facilities at Northampton
Borough Council (NBC) - observing
process including perusing waiting times, signage, observing calls
into the contact centre, speaking with staff and service users
·
Site visit to a sample of departments within NBC, including the
Gateway Project
·
Site visit to Enterprise Managed Services (EMS) and Northampton
Leisure Trust
·
Site visit to a best practice Council external to
Northamptonshire
·
Focus Group with a sample of Chairs of Residents’
Association
4.
Format of Information
·
Various site visits
·
Officer briefings/presentations
·
Baseline data
·
Witness interviews and written evidence
·
Portfolio Holder evidence
·
Officer evidence:
§
Director of Finance and Support
§
Customer Services Manager
§
Various other Officers
·
Partner evidence including:
§
Northamptonshire County Council
§
Northants Police
§
Womens’ Aid
§
Citizens’ Advice Bureau
§
Bromford Support
§
Enterprise Managed Services (EMS)
§
Northampton Leisure Trust
·
Evidence from Councillors regarding their experience of customer
services at NBC
·
Desktop research
·
Encapsulate all new methods of customer services within the
Council, including organisations providing a service on behalf of
the Council
·
Northamptonshire Residents’ Association to be approached
suggesting that it sets up the Focus Group as detailed in section 3
above.
5.
Methods Used to Gather
Information
·
Desktop research
·
Minutes of the meetings of the Scrutiny Panel
·
Officer Reports and presentations
·
Witness evidence
·
Site Visits
·
Examples of best practice
·
Witness interviews and evidence as detailed in section 4 above.
·
The Northamptonshire Residents’ Association to be approached
regarding it setting up a Focus Group comprising a sample of
Resident Association Chairs.
6.
Co-Options to the Review
·
County Councillor Marion Minney to be
approached suggesting that she is co opted to this Review for its
life. County Councillor Marion
Minney had been co opted to the
previous Scrutiny Review into Customer Services (2009)
7 Equality Impact Screening
Assessment
·
Scrutiny Officer to
undertake an Equality Impact Screening Assessment shortly after the
Scoping meeting
8 Evidence gathering
Timetable
January 2012 – April 2012
5th January 2012 – Scoping meeting
2nd
February
- Evidence
gathering
1st March
- Evidence gathering
21st March
- Evidence gathering
19th April `
- Approval of final
report
Meetings will commence at 6pm
Various site visits will be programmed during January and April
2012.
9 Responsible
Officers
·
Lead Officer Marion
Goodman, Head of Customer Services and ICT
·
Co-ordinator Tracy Tiff, Scrutiny Officer
10 Resources and
Budgets
·
Marion Goodman, Lead Officer, to provide internal
support and advice.
11
Final report presented
by:
·
The Chair of the Scrutiny Panel to present the
report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
·
The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to
then present the report to Cabinet.
12 Monitoring
procedure:
·
Review the impact of the report after approximately
six months (November/December 2012)
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