To receive the response to the Scrutiny report submitted to the Executive on the 11^th December 2023.

[Note: Due to officer availability, agenda item 10 was moved up the agenda, with all other items following in the same order, as set out in the agenda]

The Deputy Chief Executive and Corporate Director of Strategy and Resources introduced the report on behalf of the Executive Member for Finance, Change and Governance who was unable to attend. There had been acknowledgement from all Council services that residents needed to be able to contact the Council as easily as possible. The Committee were informed that the Council was taking a digital first approach, however, the other approaches to contact were also being considered.

The Corporate Director referred to section three of the report which outlined the Council’s aims to enhance the contact services within the Council. It was the intention that these were to come to fruition in 2024/25, with some coming in in 2026. Members’ attention was drawn to the several activities already underway and outlined in the report. The expectation was that this would create a more accessible and advanced system, whether that be through the contact centre, email, or webforms.

Councillor Hartley enquired as to how the Committee and Council measures the success of the new processes. Councillor Hartley asked whether this would include data and a published service standard. The Corporate Director of Strategy and Resources responded that in previous discussions with Scrutiny, certain areas of the Council already had service-level agreements (SLAs) in place. The Corporate Director did however highlight that difficulty did come from when the service did not have a customer relationship management system (CRM), that would allow the Council to track traffic in and out of the Council services. The Corporate Director reassured the Committee that assurances would continue to be given to Scrutiny and the relevant Executive Members through those SLA agreements.

Councillor Jones referred to section 3.4 of the report, saying that a new content management system (CMS) would be implemented “by during 2025”, asking whether this meant by 2025 or at some point in the year. The Corporate Director of Strategy and Resource confirmed that this was during 2025.

Councillor Axford raised concern about phone numbers not being available on the website, and felt it was important that as part of this work, phone numbers for different services were made available.

Councillor Frass felt the original purpose of the Scrutiny work was to look at the quick wins and asked if a breakdown of the quick wins was possible. Councillor Frass was, however, glad to see that the report had identified a bigger piece of work was required. The Corporate Director of Strategy and Resource responded that whilst things might appear as quick wins, they were often not as simple as that.  However, in reference to section three of the report, the Corporate Director hoped that this showed that much of the work requested as quick wins, was already underway.

The Corporate Director suggested returning in 12-months’ time to Scrutiny, giving an update on how the work had progressed and sharing the journey services had been on. The Chair agreed with this suggestion.

RESOLVED:

1)    That Scrutiny note the Executive response.

2)    That the Executive Member for Finance, Change and Governance and / or Corporate Director of Strategy and Resources provide a further progress report to the Scrutiny meeting in July 2025.