Agenda item

The new Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Customer Services will attend the meeting to speak to the Committee on his priorities and challenges for the forthcoming year.

The new Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Customer Services attended the meeting and presented his priorities for the forthcoming year.

He spoke about the changes made to his portfolio area which now included corporate communications and Emergency Planning in order to provide joined up business continuity. He reported the main areas of interest as:

Budget 2013/14

The delivery of the 6 Council priorities had been delivered on budget. Although not without difficulties the year end had been under spent by £84k. Reference was made to the likely reductions in central government funding and continued pressures on resources against the rising demand for services.

The 2 year budget had already been set and it was hoped to continue with 2 year budgets in the future. A saving of £11m had already made with an additional £8m saving proposed for 2015/16.

Comprehensive Spending Review

It was understood that the New Homes Bonus would be top sliced meaning a reduction of around £1m for the city.

Capital Budget

A different approach was being undertaken on next year’s budget, looking at large scale spending challenging those areas and to how services could be delivered differently.

Reference to the reprofiling of funds, part of which included delays in DfT approval for the Access York scheme. The West Offices development was however still expected to be under spent and on time, a significant achievement.

Customer Services

Confirmed that his focus was on the important priority of customer contact and the enhancement of the authority’s reputation.

Performance Monitoring

Reference to the overview and monitoring role which the Scrutiny Committee could provide in this area, receiving and overseeing performance figures to ensure a continued focus.

Financial Inclusion

This was an important part of the portfolio with the delivery of the Strategy on which the previous Cabinet Member had worked hard to improve.

Members thanked the Cabinet Member for his report and went on to question a number of areas including:

·        Concerns regarding public contact with the Council, questioned whether this was an issue or a trend. The Cabinet Member confirmed that, following recent benefit changes and staff turnover problems had been encountered, however it was hoped that this was short term.

·        An examination of the impact of the delivery of the Financial Inclusion Strategy should be considered as a corporate issue.

·        Call Centre, questioned ring back facilities and Customer Centre etiquette. It was confirmed that lessons could be learnt from other good service providers.

·        Questioned whether a 2 year budget was prudent financially. Confirmed that this provided a degree of predictability for all.

Officers pointed out that, although other Scrutiny Committees received performance information, the CSMC had previously made a decision not to receive these details owing to the corporate nature of the Committee.

Members discussed how and when this information could be presented to future meetings to ensure current information to enable value to be added to the overview.

Following further discussion it was

RESOLVED:       That performance information be presented to future meetings of the Committee on an exceptions basis to include both those showing under and over performance.

REASON:           To provide an overview and update the Committee on the latest financial and performance position for the 2013/14 financial year.