Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were asked to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on the agenda.

Councillor Taylor declared a personal non-prejudicial interest as he is a Committee Member of ‘Friends of St, Nicholas Fields’ which is referred to on page 14 of the agenda.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 14 September 2010.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the meeting of the Effective Organisation Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 14 September 2010 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Committee’s remit can do so. The deadline for registering is Tuesday 5 October 2010 at 5pm.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report provides Members with an update on the procurement arrangements across the Council and is for information only.

Members considered a briefing report which provided an update on the procurement arrangements across the Council.

The Assistant Director for the Office of the Chief Executive introduced the report and advised Members of the following key points:

• Procurement is an essential area for Members to take an interest in.
• Procurement plays a pivotal role in achieving efficiency savings.
• Considerable progress has been made since the Scrutiny review in 2005.
• Currently a high number of individuals have the ability to procure goods and services and the Council  has thousands of suppliers registered on its system.
• Work is underway to develop a ‘Commercial Hub’ to be the commercial arm of the organisation to control all procurement activity.
• Collaboration with other Local Authorities to create a shared commercial hub to reduce the costs of specialist skills and create opportunities for shared procurements.

Members requested sight, via email, of the final report from 2005 for the  ‘Sustainable Procurement’  Scrutiny review in order for them to assess the recommendations made at that time against the current situation. They requested that Procurement be discussed at the November meeting.

RESOLVED:             That the report be noted.

REASON:                  In order that Members are informed on procurement arrangements across the Council.

This report provides Members with an update on the progress of the More for York programme, outlines the savings made to date, sets out the agreed investment profile and gives high level view of progress in each workstream. The report is information only.

Members considered a report which provided an update on the progress of the More for York programme and outlined the savings made to date, set out the agreed investment profile and gave a high level view of progress in each workstream.

The Assistant Director of the Officer of the Chief Executive outlined the report and advised that in light of the Governments spending review, the Council will need to refresh its savings target. A report is due to the Executive in mid November which will set out the scale of the gap between the savings that had already been identified and the savings which will still need to be found.

RESOLVED:             That the report be noted.

REASON:                  In order that Members are kept informed on progress in relation to the More for York Programme.

Report to Follow.

Members received a report which outlined the possible scrutiny review of customer complaints and feedback handling within the Council as agreed at the last meeting of the Committee held on 14 September 2010.

Officers outlined the report and advised of the following:

• The importance of the Council having a consistent complaints procedure in place as complaints can potentially cost the Council money.
• There is no corporate monitoring or management information on performance in this area so there is no evidence base on which to carry out a review.
• New policy is not ‘live’ yet.
• Members could look at current complaints to influence future policy.
• It would be useful to analyse why repeat complaints occur.

Members agreed that a review should be carried out and that the objectives for part 1 of the Scrutiny Review would be as follows:

1.      Analyse current complaints in order to use the information to support the design and implementation of the new Corporate Customer Feedback Policy or to identify changes to it.

2.       Reduce the number of complaints to the Ombudsman.

3.       Contribute to possible further efficiency savings.

4.       Improve the customer experience (customer satisfaction to be  measured and monitored).

RESOLVED:

                                                              i.      That the objectives for part 1 of the review are as stated above.

                                                            ii.      That a Task Group be set up to include Councillors Crisp, Gunnell and Firth.

                                                          iii.      That the draft final report be completed by the January 11^th 2011 meeting.

                                                           iv.      That part two of the review commences in 2011/12 with a Task Group being determined at that time.

REASON:      To progress this review in line with scrutiny procedures and protocols and inform the Committee’s workplan.

Members will consider the Work Plan for the Effective Organisation Overview and Scrutiny Committee for 2010-11.

Members considered a draft workplan for the Effective Organisation Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the remainder of the 2010-11 municipal year.

Members agreed to amend the workplan as follows:

• Addition of a discussion at the meeting on 23 November to discuss Procurement following the distribution of the 2005 Scrutiny report.
• Addition of the draft final report on Objectives Part 1 for the Customer Complaints Scrutiny Review at the 11 January 2011 meeting.

RESOVED:               That the draft workplan be approved with the amendments detailed above.

REASON:                  To ensure a robust and relevant work plan is in place for the municipal year.