Agenda item - Worcestershire Regulatory Services Service Plan 2012 / 2013

Agenda item

Worcestershire Regulatory Services Service Plan 2012 / 2013

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report that outlined the way in which the Worcestershire Regulatory Service (WRS) activities linked to National Priorities relevant to regulatory services.  These National Policies would be mapped across the partners’ local priorities.

 

Members were asked to note that under the Worcestershire Shared Services Partnership, Service Level Agreement, WRS had to produce a 3 year Service Plan for agreement and adoption by all of the Member Authorities.  The Head of Worcestershire Regulatory Services highlighted that the operating environment was undergoing rapid change and the outputs of the transformation programme had not been fully implemented as yet, therefore a 3 year plan at this stage of the process would be premature.

 

The Head of Worcestershire Regulatory Services introduced the report and in doing so informed the Committee that the Service Plan had been lined up with national priorities as set by the Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) 5 Priority Outcomes as detailed at page 3 of the report.

 

Members were informed that following the initial application of Systems Thinking approach to transform the service so that it was more customer focused, and after consultation with customers, WRS had established 3 purposes that would be used to underpin the way in which the Services would be developed and delivered in the future:

 

§         Help me resolve my problem

§         I want to assume everything is ok

§         Help me trade well

 

Member’s attention was drawn to page 5 of the report which detailed the Outcomes, Activities and Measures that would replace the performance indicators that Members had been used to.

 

Members were asked to focus on page 12 of the report which detailed training and development of multi-functional teams.  The Head of Worcestershire Regulatory Services informed the Committee that the training and development budget was an extremely critical budget.  The training of multi-functional teams would allow the service to have competent staff capable of undertaking a wider range of duties and confident to undertake a more diverse role as the service progressed in order to provide a more cost effective service. 

 

The Committee was asked to note Appendix 2 of the report which detailed the Operating Environment and the Government initiatives and policy changes likely to impact in the short to medium term. 

 

Appendix 3 of the report detailed the outcome measures which had been as a result of consultation with Committee Members and the Management Board.  The Head of Worcestershire Regulatory Services informed the Committee that the service would continue to engage with Members and the Management Board throughout the year to clarify the level of detail Members wished to receive in respect of future outcome measures and reporting frequency.

 

The Head of Worcestershire Regulatory Services responded to Members’ questions with regard to performance reporting and baseline data.  The Committee was informed that performance against outcome measures would be reported to the Management Board and the Committee either quarterly or annually depending on the measure.  Members were asked to note that due to the lack of a single IT system the collection and analysis of measures data would be difficult therefore meaningful robust data would be unavailable for at least 12 months. 

 

Following further discussion with regard to outcomes measures and performance the Head of Worcestershire Regulatory Services informed the Committee that if requested he could provide preliminary figures and some information in response to individual Member enquiries so that Members had something more tangible to take to their respective authority.

 

Mr. M. Kay, Business Manager (Acting role), Worcestershire Regulatory Services responded to Councillor M. Braley with regard to an update on the Licensing Act – Deregulation of Regulated Entertainment, which could mean that events of up to 5000 people would not require any form of licence unless they were selling Alcohol.  Mr. M. Kay informed Members that the consultation period was now closed and that WRS had responded.  Members would be informed of any consultations that were taking place and any future updates via the WRS Licensing Updates newsletter.

 

RESOLVED that the Worcestershire Regulatory Services, Service Plan 2012 / 2013 be approved.

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