Agenda item

The Scrutiny Panel to consider the Chair’s draft report and include further conclusions and recommendations as appropriate.

The Panel considered the Chair’s draft report. The Chair emphasised that at this stage it was his draft report, and this was the Panel’s opportunity to make comments so that it went forward to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee as the Panel’s report.

The main points of discussion were as follows: -

·        Members requested the inclusion of a recommendation requesting that the contact centre hours be reviewed. Opening hours had been changed from 8.15am to 9am following a decision to tie opening hours of the call centre to public demand at the one stop shop. Members felt then even if there was just a skeleton staff this would be a useful service if people wanted to report a problem before they went to work.

·        It was agreed to reorder the evidence so that the emphasis was on the public.

·        During the review visit to EMS, members had viewed GPS tracking systems in vehicles and felt that this could be used to give information to the public if there were serious delays to scheduled services or breakdowns etc. Therefore they agreed to put an additional recommendation should be added: - “Where budgets permit, the GPS in cab system be extended more widely to appropriate departments”.

·        Recommendation 6.1.1 Panel decided to remove the word “minor” as it was felt that this devalued the recommendations.

·        Recommendation 6.2.1 relating to signage, Members felt that particular attention should be paid to the Civic part of the building.

·        Recommendation 6.2.12. Members agreed to include reference to the need to improve direction signage at Westbridge depot .The Recommendation to read “That improvements be made to the signage at Westbridge depot with a particular focus regarding signage for the EMS site.

·        Recommendation 6.2.7 and 6.2.14 relating to the Planning reception area in the One Stop Shop to be combined. Recommendation to read “That Planning Services is incorporated into the One Stop Shop and the Planning Reception desk is constantly manned during opening hours by a fully trained customer services advisor.

·        The Panel also felt that its work had highlighted that more detailed investigation needed to be done on customer services provided by EMS and also the potential impact the Welfare Reform Act 2012 could have on resources. The Panel decided to make a request to the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee for these as potential reviews.

·        The Panel felt that the process of Customer Service improvement was continuous and therefore it should also make a request to the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider having a further review in two years time.

·        The Panel felt that the input of public witnesses had been very valuable to the review and that they should be kept fully informed of the review recommendations and their implementation. It was agreed that contributors should be kept informed of progress as part of the monitoring process.

·        The Panel did not consider that there was any priority order of recommendations.

AGREED

1.  The final Review report: Customer Services be confirmed, subject to the comments above, including the additional recommendations to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

2. The Chair of the Panel will present the report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 28 May 2012.