Agenda item

Selby Benchmarking Visit

Minutes:

The Assistant Chief Executive introduced the report and advised that it provided the Board with a summary of the lessons learnt from a benchmarking visit to Selby District Council (SDC) in November 2009. Councillors S. R. Colella and L. J. Turner had accompanied the Assistant Chief Executive on this visit.

SDC had provided an abundance of information, both written and verbal and it was agreed by the Board that a copy of this report would be provided for SDC. The Assistant Chief Executive confirmed that he had already written formally to SDC thanking them for the visit, but would write again and provide this.

The Assistant Chief Executive explained that this had been a very positive and informative visit. It had affirmed his view that the Council was doing the right things and moving forward.

The Board agreed that the two councils were very similar and that there was no real discernable difference between the two councils’ performance indicators. The areas SDC has concentrated on and which the Assistant Chief Executive said the Council should also now focus on were:

customer service
value for money
delivery of longer term outcomes

It was noted that the Chief Executive at SDC had explained how it had concentrated on delivering the things the Council knew were important to its residents and that excellence had flowed from that.

The Board agreed that BDC’s Customer Service Centre was already very good and that a good programme of customer first training was in place. The Assistant Chief Executive gave further details of the work completed under Customer First Part 3 and the 2010 programme which would focus on Plain English with empathy, which was similar to the training undertaken by SDC. Members also discussed working towards the Customer Service Excellence accreditation in the near future.

The Assistant Chief Executive explained that the progress we have made in respect of Shared Services and WETT showed that the Council had made significant strides in providing value for money. Members asked if the vision would be for Bromsgrove to become a commissioning council in line with SDC and this option was discussed at length.

Having discussed the report in detail, Members expressed the view that there should be a programme, of benchmarking visits to other councils in place for both Members and Officers in order to assist the Council’s progression towards excellence.

RESOLVED:

(a) that Cabinet focus on customer service, long term outcomes and value for money in order to achieve excellence and that staff engagement is key to achieving this;

(b) that the Council seek Customer Service Excellence accreditation by continuing with the corporate training programme, Customer First and roll out Part 4;

(d) that a five year Medium Term Financial Strategy be produced;

(e) that the Communications Strategy is aligned more closely with the corporate priorities;

(f) that staff recognition is improved through schemes like the birthday forum and improved long service awards;

(g) that the service business planning approach used by Selby District Council be adopted;

(h) that a change management model be developed that builds on the learning of early shared services;

(i) that the town centre programme be formally reviewed;

(j) that a more coherent annual community engagement programme be produced;

(k) that efficiencies are monitored in a similar way to Selby District Council; and

(h) that Cabinet ensure there is a programme of benchmarking visits to include Members and Officers in areas of interest.

Supporting documents: