If any

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the inaugural meeting of the Business Transformation Overview & Scrutiny Committee and described the role that he foresaw the Committee undertaking , being an emphasise on overview and policy development rather than scrutiny.

To receive petitions in accordnace with the scheme of public participation set out in Annex 2 in Part 4 of the Constitution.

The Chairman announced that no petitions had been referred to this meeting.

To deal with general questions and statements from members of the public in accordance with the scheme of public participation set out in Appendix A referred to in the Public Participation Scheme.

No applications had been received under Appendix A to the public participation scheme to speak during the fifteen minute question and statement period at the beginning of the meeting.  Furthermore there had been no applications to speak under the Public Participation Scheme on any items included on the Agenda for this meeting.

To consider any matter referred to the Committee for a decision in relation to call-in of a decision.

No matters were referred to the Committee for a decision in relation to call-in of a decision.

To consider proposals, if any, to deal with any item likely to involve disclosure of exempt information as defined in the relevant paragraph(s) of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 prior to the exclusion of the press and public.

There were no disclosure of exempt informations.

To provide Members with an overview of the key issues and challenges facing the directorate in order to assist Members in establishing an annual work programme for the Committee.

The Committee received and considered a presentation/overview of the key issues and challenges facing the Directorate to assist Members in establishing an annual work programme.

The Assistant Director, Communications & Marketing introduced the presentation and provided an overview of the drivers within Central Bedfordshire for Business Transformation, the strategic goals within the directorate and the ways the goals would be achieved.

The Business Transformation Drivers were the following:

·              The Unitary Promise – better, accessible, value for money services

·              Economics – pressures & prospects

·              Customers – needs & expectations

·              Partnerships – opportunities & capabilities

The four main strategic goals were the following:

·              Create an “excellent” local authority that all our customers and stakeholders are proud of.

·              Drive customer satisfaction, using the theme of “+1”, raising awareness of service quality.

·              Deliver “best in class”, joined up public service solutions to our customers, through effective partnering arrangements.

·              Create a lean, efficient organisation that represents excellent Value for Money, in the eyes of our customers.

At this time the individual Assistant Directors provided a brief presentation which highlighted the challenges facing their divisions.  The Assistant Director, Policy, Partnerships & Performance was responsible for Policy,  Scrutiny Performance, Partnerships & Community Engagement and Knowledge & Information Management.

Within Policy, the following were the main priorities:

·              Strategic Planning and Policy

·              Overview & Scrutiny – consisting of a manager and two officers, who would provide research, and support Member reviews across all five directorates. 

·              Equality & Diversity – working with the new government equalities framework. 

·              Sustainability and Climate Change –

·              Information and Records Management (including Freedom of Information and Data Protection issues. 

Partnerships covered the following areas:

·              Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) – meetings held every 6 to 8 weeks.  Local Area Agreement (LAA) – there are 49 targets comprising 24 National targets, 9 local targets and 16 targets are mandatory.

·              Community Engagement

·              Corporate Consultation – Members discussed the possibility of reviewing the Council’s policy on consultations in future.

·              Customer Insight

·              Voluntary and Community Sector

With Performance, there were three priorities:

·              Performance Management framework

·              Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA)

·              Customer Relations – would deal with the complaints, compliments and comments in relation to the Council.

The Assistant Director Business Transformation and Customer Services informed the Committee of the Business Transformation Programmes:

·              Personalisation Board

·              LSP Projects

·              CBC Transformation Programme – visioning workshops will be held on 17 August for Members.

·              Children’s Trust Project 

·              Total Place - a pilot a trial scheme with Luton Council.

·              CBC Business Improvement Plan

·              BEaR Project

·              Building Schools for the Future (BSF)

Business Transformation programmes were expected to result in better outcomes for the Council and contribute to reaching target savings of £33m over three years. 

The Key Deliverables were as follows:

·              Transformation governance – portfolio management, programme management and project management

·              Business Improvement Programme

·              Business Transformation Programme

·              Development of the future customer services delivery

o             Face to face, telephony, email customer service delivery

o             Development of registration services in the future

o             Development of Coroner Services

o             Development of revenues and benefits

o             Services levels

The Assistant Director Communications and Marketing provided an overview of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

An open discussion surrounding appropriate topics for review.

The Committee held an open discussion surrounding appropriate topics for inclusion within its Work Programme for the coming year. 

There were three key strategies which the Committee felt were important and required quick Overview and Scrutiny input – due to immenent Executive consideration.  These strategies were Community Engagement, Customer Services and Business Transformation.  Members agreed to establish 3 Task Forces to review each strategy and report back their findings to the September meetings of the Committee and the August Committee meeting would be cancelled to allow more time to be given to these Task Forces.  The 3 September Committee meeting would receive reports/feedback on the Community Engagement Strategy and the Customer Services Strategy.  The Business Transformation Strategy would be reported to the 28 September Committee meeting.

Freedom of Information/ Data Protection Requests & Customer Complaints - Regular submission of data to identify issues/trends that may require further investigation.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)/ Customer Services

Policy on Consultations

LAA Indicators

Business Transformation Member Champions

Business Transformation Portfolio Plan

Transport Review

Web Development Project

The Committee was content with this initial work programme but agreed to revisit the issue at the next meeting on 3 September.

RESOLVED

1. that the initial work programme outlined above be approved.

2. that the work programme be considered further at the next meeting.

3. that the Overview and Scrutiny Manager take steps to establish 3 Task Forces to review the draft Community Engagement, Customer Services and Business Transformation strategies, whose findings will be presented to the September meetings of the Committee.

To consider the current Forward Plan to determine if any items require review.

The Committee received and considered the items contained within the Forward Plan in conjunction with the suggested work programme at item 8.   Please refer to the above minute for further information.