Agenda item

(Report to follow)

A briefing note will be provided in a Supplementary Papers Pack.

The written response to questions raised by Members with regards to the Council’s Agile Working was provided. The five queries raised at the October Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting were discussed, and the following points were raised during the discussion of each response:

·       Review of the title of the initiative – ‘Agile Working’ (Question 1, page 3 of supplementary agenda pack)

It was noted that Officers were working to ensure a clear definition was in place for this, including in terms of how this policy could be articulated in an unambiguous way to councillors, staff, and during recruitment.

·       Look at introducing a follow up measure to gauge customer satisfaction when interacting with Council services, for example, through a form of ‘trustpilot’ style feedback (Question 2, page 3 of supplementary agenda pack)

It was noted that there was an ongoing piece of work by the Business Improvement Team to look at the best ways the Council could collect feedback and measure satisfaction across all customer facing services. It was requested that a date be provided by the Team for when this work was due to be completed. Officers undertook to provide this information to Members.

It was noted that one of the problems common to two-tier local government areas like Bromsgrove was that some services were provided by the District Council and some by the County Council. Members commented that there was a need to improve the link up of communication and services between Bromsgrove District Council (BDC) and Worcestershire County Council (WCC) to enable resident enquiries get to the right organisation and officers quickly.

It was noted that because BDC and WCC were two separate organisations, providing mostly different, through often overlapping suite of services, referring enquiries currently depended on contact and relationships between officers from the two organisations, rather than a specific system in place, for instance an IT solution common to both organisations. It was agreed as an action that Officers would investigate how BDC could work to link up services with WCC to enable a more seamless experience for residents.

·       Data on the impact of flexible working arrangements on reduction in staff car mileage (and consequently reductions in carbon / greenhouse gas emissions) (Question 3, page 3 of supplementary agenda pack)

It was asked whether the staff mileage claims cost saving figure of £32,989 between 2021-20 and 2022-23 was for Bromsgrove District Council or across Bromsgrove and Redditch Councils. Members commented that it was important that savings per each council under shared staff arrangements was given. It was agreed as an action that the confirmation of the figures be provided to Members.

It was asked whether all planning officers were now based at Redditch and whether this had resulted in increased milage payments associated with work planning officers were undertaking in Bromsgrove. It was agreed that Members would be provided with a response from Officers.

During the discussion it was highlighted that Redditch Town Hall redevelopment was ongoing and there was a process of leasing out some office space in that building to other organisations, including the NHS, DWP, and WCC. It was noted that through this a cost saving to Bromsgrove Council’s budget of £70,000 per year would be delivered.

·       Officer response times to Member enquiries (Question 4, page 4 of supplementary agenda pack)

It was requested that Members be provided with a list of the agreed and statutory response times that Council Officers were bound by when responding to members of the public. In addition, it was asked that information be provided, if applicable, on how the response times differed across various types of requests/service areas, and what happened if the response times were not met. Officers undertook to provide this data to Members.

Members also asked whether regular data on response times could be shared as part of the Council’s suite of performance measures. It was noted that a response would be provided on this.

With regards to providing responses to enquiries, it was suggested that staff across the Council could be set up with an automatic email response function to inform the person sending an email that his/her email was logged on the system. It was commented that this would provide reassurance that the email reached the intended recipient. It was noted that there was already such an automatic response in the case of sending emails to the compliments/complaints team. However, as other service areas differed considerably in their specific area of business, a consistent approach would need to be agreed across all customer facing areas of business.

·       IT solutions to assist Members with the knowledge of the Council’s organisational (and team) structures (Question 5, page 4 of supplementary agenda pack)

Members requested that induction / key contact documents be made available to Members on Microsoft Teams in addition to the current formats. It was asked that Officers investigate how to make better use of Microsoft Teams for Member-Staff communication in general. It was noted that this would be picked up by the relevant officers.

RESOLVED that the progress brief be noted.