To receive a report from the Corporate Director of Governance and Community Strategy.

The Corporate Director of Governance and Community Strategy introduced the CRM report which provided an update following on from work done by the Committee’s task and finish group in 2018. The task and finish group report had three recommendations. The first recommendation had been completed as the Council‘s system was working and provided a portal for residents to report incidents. Recommendation 2was ongoing as the review of the Council’s approach to the procurement of large IT contracts was a continual process. The third recommendation was to receive the update that had been provided for the meeting.

The Corporate Director of Governance and Community Strategy informed the committee that there had been a delay in the roll out of the system which had involved a change in provider, as Civica had replaced the original company. When Civica took over the contract they suggested that the administration of registrars should be done through their bespoke system rather than C360, which they provided free of charge. This required an amendment to both the system and the Contract but at no additional cost to the Council.

Following the introduction Councillor Winstanley asked what had changed on the customer side and was the system now producing the right outcomes. The Councillor gave examples of instances where residents had logged issues using the system but the issue had only been dealt with once the Councillor was involved.

The Corporate Director of Governance and Community Strategy responded that it was not clear whether those issues were due to technical problems within the system or an issue with the Council’s provider.  The Corporate Director of Governance and Community strategy stated that she would discuss the issue with the Head of Customer Services to find out where the problem was. The Corporate Director of Governance and Community Strategy asked that Members contact her with details of any issues so that they could be addressed.

Committee Members raised a number of issues where residents reporting issues had not led to service delivery. While Members recognised that the issues might not be linked to the system, but the services who were to action the reported issues, they were concerned that if this continued residents would lose faith in the Council. The Committee were particularly concerned about messages being sent telling residents a job had been completed but when it was checked the work had not been done. The Chair requested a detailed response regarding the issues that had been raised on the number of requests by residents, the number that had been completed, and how many of those were accurately reported.

Councillor Williams added that the council’s modernisation would shape the Council’s digital offer and requested that Scrutiny kept up to date with that programme of work.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the report be noted.

2)    That Committee Members are asked to provide details on issues relating to C360 to the Corporate Director of Governance and Community Strategy.

3)    That a detailed response be provided to the Committee on the performance of C360 including the number of requests raised by residents, the number that had been completed, and how many of those were accurately reported.

4)    That the Committee receive regular updates on the progress of the Council’s Modernisation programme.