Agenda item

This report presents the three-year Service Plans for April 2019 to March 2022 for the service areas under the remit of this Committee, which are:

·        Customer and Corporate Services

·        Economic Development

·        Finance Services

·        Policy and Governance

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Value for Money and Customer Service Overview & Scrutiny Committee considers the Service Plans for 2019-2022 as set out at Annexe 1 and makes any observations to the Management Team and any policy recommendations to the Executive.

Louise Norie, Corporate Policy Manager presented the Service Plans falling within the remit of the Value for Money and Customer Service O&S Committee. She explained that the Service Plans now covered three years, bringing them in line with the Medium Term Financial Plan.

The Committee noted that a lot of the Service Plan targets were underpinned by more detailed project plans. It recommended that references to these documents, where applicable, be included in the Service Plans. This would both help Members to gain an understanding of the milestones for each action and also assist Heads of Service when using the document as a management tool within their own Service Areas.

A suggestion was also made that where a Project Initiation Document identified a specific savings target for a project then this should translate into an action within the relevant section of the Service Plan.

The Committee then invited each Head of Service to outline the key headlines of their Service Plans.

David Allum, Head of Customer and Corporate Services, drew the Committee’s attention to the contribution his Service Area would be making towards the Council financial savings goal. These included the customer service review which was well under way, a review of the Council’s current office accommodation, a new IT system for Building Control and Planning, as well as the continuing management of the Council’s commercial property portfolio.

Louise Norie presented the Economic Development Service Plan on behalf of the Head of Communities. She explained that the Service Plan focused on the actions arising out of the recently adopted Economic Development Strategy. This included building and improving relationships with key partners to help boost Waverley’s business economy.

Cllr Band highlighted that there was very little reference to the rural economy, which was something that had also been raised during the development of the Economic Development Strategy itself. Cllr Edwards, Portfolio Holder for Economic and Community Development, was in attendance at the meeting and agreed that this could be brought out more in the Service Plan.

Peter Vickers, Head of Finance, advised the Committee that having undergone a systems thinking review, the Housing Benefits Service was now very high performing. The Revenues Service was now going through a similar review, the outcomes of which would be embedded over the coming year. Additionally, the Finance Service had recently implemented new parts of the Agresso IT system, and over the coming year would be further developing new systems and technologies in order to deliver efficiencies.

A query was raised in relation to progress with the roll out of Universal Credit. Peter explained that the Council had gone live in October for all new claimants. There was no set target for moving across all existing claimants and this was still subject to national debate. Any significant change in a claimant’s circumstances would trigger the change to Universal Credit, but it was a gradual process.

The Committee was pleased to see the inclusion of a target to exceed 99% for local taxation which would help to ensure that the Council continued to be high performing in this area.

Robin Taylor, Head of Policy and Governance, highlighted that a new Communications Strategy was currently being developed, which would focus on improving Waverley’s digital offer, but also ensure that contact was maintained with those residents who chose not to go digital. The Democratic Services team would continue to support good governance, with a particular focus on developing an effective induction process for new Councillors following the May elections. Additionally, the Service Plan targets relating to the HR team would focus on delivering the actions set out in the new HR Strategy, including improvements to processes and recruitment as well as reviewing the Council’s pay and reward and learning and development offer. The Committee welcomed the action to understand and respond to the Council’s gender pay gap.

Subject to the comments above, the Committee endorsed the Service Plans to the Executive.