Agenda and draft minutes

At this point, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal interests, not included on the Register of Interests, or any prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests they may have in respect of business on the agenda. No additional interests were declared.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered to speak can do so.  The deadline for registering is 5.00pm on Tuesday 23 April 2013.  Members of the public can speak on agenda items or matters within the remit of the Task Group.

To register to speak please contact the Democracy Officer for the meeting, on the details at the foot of the agenda.

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

To approve and sign the minutes of the Task Group meeting held on 20 February 2013.

RESOLVED:       That the minutes of the last meeting of the Task Group held on 20 February 2013 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

Members will receive a report containing the final information requested in support of their work on this review, and are asked to agree the draft recommendations arising from their review

Consideration was given to the draft final report of the Community Engagement Task Group. A Group set up in September 2012, to look at the issues affecting levels of community engagement across the city in respect of community engagement, CYC customer services and financial inclusion.

It was confirmed that no additional information had been included in the report since the last meeting. However, as the Task Group had previously acknowledged the importance of a good working relationship between ward committee members and the need for an understanding of each party’s role, the report suggested that the Group may like to recommend the introduction of a ‘Statement of Intent’ setting out some principals for working together, which all ward team members could be encouraged to sign up to. A draft statement of intent had been provided at Annex E with an updated copy circulated at the meeting.

To conclude the work on the review, members of the Communications Team were in attendance at the meeting to provide further information in relation to CYC consultation and consultation feedback.

The Chair outlined the work of the Task Group to date including details of consultation undertaken with the Resident Associations Federation and the Parish Council Liaison Group. It was noted that although there were differences between wards, the city and rural areas, many of the issues they raised were common to both, and that Residents Associations and Parish Councils had much to offer in the way of community liaison. It was now hoped to get a steer from the communications team to inform the Task Groups work and final report.

The Head of Strategy, Partnerships & Communication confirmed that their team had encountered similar challenges in engaging residents. Both Your Ward and Your Voice were written for a broad audience and they had been examining ways of reflecting the flavour of individual wards in future publications. However with recent budget decisions they were unable to produce different documents for each ward but special editions were produced on a rolling basis to relate to specific issues in particular areas.

He went on to make a number of useful comments for the Group, including:

·          The communications team would look at the use of CYC magazines and newsletters to better reflect the needs of individual wards.

·        The newly updated CYC website received 120 public comments daily, often requiring responses, relating to services, service deliveries and requests. It was confirmed that the site was updated as a result of many of these comments.

·        Work was continuing with Customer Services/ICT to provide a larger range of services through the Do It Online facility.

·        Use of social media, with complaints and service requests now being received on Twitter. This was only covered at present on a part time basis however full time monitoring of the Twitter and Facebook sites would commence in May to ensure the authority was more responsive.

·        CMT had recently agreed to place a staff organisation chart on the Council’s website. This would include Heads of Service and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.