Agenda item

The Service Plans have been prepared by Heads of Service in collaboration with their teams and Portfolio Holders to set out the service objectives for the coming three years in line with the Corporate Strategy 2020-2025 and the Medium Term Financial Plan.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Overview & Scrutiny Committees consider the Service Plans for 2022-25 as set out at Annexe 1 relevant to their remit and make any observations or comments to the Executive.

Nora Copping, Policy Officer, introduced the item and highlighted there were five service areas for the Committee to consider under their remit.

Commercial Services, Housing Operations, Housing Delivery & Communities, Environmental Services and Planning &  Economic Development.

Commercial Services

The Committee raised the following queries:

·         CS3.1 -  Museum – it was felt the wording was misleading and premature as no decision had been taken on the collection as yet.  It was also felt the wording could be more positive.

·         CS5.1 - Careline – the committee asked if staffing levels were sufficient to meet the expectations set out?  They were advised that the service was now fully staffed and further staff would be recruited to meet the service level.

·         CS6.1 – Officers were asked to include mention of safety of greenspaces for example maintenance of footpaths. They were advised this is reflected in the management plans.

·         CS6.2 – officers were asked why there were two end dates of 31/03/22 and 31/10/2024.  They were advised the 2022 date was when the project will start implementation, however the contract was unlikely to be fully implemented until 2024.

·         CS8.2 – There should be mention of Green Flag Awards as these contributed positively to parks and open spaces.

·         CS10.1 – It was highlighted that the schemes mentioned (HLS, ELS and CS) will have come to an end before 2025 therefore ELM should also be mentioned. It was also highlighted that no target had been given.

·         CS10.3 – It was felt there was a lot of action plans for one outcome and no real targets.

·         CS11 – It was felt the narrative should be more active on this outcome with further targets and deliverability.

The Committee then proceeded to discuss the Service Plan document as a whole as they felt it was too large a document to scrutinise effectively in the time allocated.

Comments made were:

·         Having a ‘How’ column linked to the appropriate action plan.

·         More narrative on successes with quantifiable measures and what success looks like.

·         It was felt the document tried to be ‘all things to all men’ and did not make much sense to lay persons.

·         It was felt the document set us up to fail.

Officers suggested a way forward may be for the committee to set up small working groups to scrutinise each service plan in isolation and then to report back on their recommendations to the committee to agree.  It was resolved  that this was a good idea to allow comprehensive scrutiny and add value within the tight time constraints.

The Committee members thanked the officers for the work which had gone into the Service Reports. The Committee RECOMMEND to the Executive that Service Plans would be stronger if:

a.    they include hyperlinks to any policies or action plans referenced within the plan

b.    where possible they include specific targets which will usually be quantitative

c.     they state a rationale for the inclusion of an action

d.    they included a positive vision of what successfully delivering an action would look like. This might take the form of a column on the “impact of completing the action” to counterbalance the equivalent column on actions not being completed.

The Committee RESOLVED that when considering future Service Plans, it would form subgroups of Committee Members with a particular interest in a service area to explore the associated actions and outcomes in depth. These subgroups would report back to the main committee.