Agenda and draft minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 25^th September, 2008 were agreed as a correct record.

Richard Copley, ICT Strategy and Client Co-ordinator gave a presentation on Modern.Gov and eCasework Improvement Projects.

Modern.gov

The Modern.gov system had been in use within RMBC for several years and performed two key functions:

1.      To collate and produce all committee meeting agendas and minutes

2.      To publish the relevant sections of the minutes and agendas on the RMBC website.

It had become apparent that RMBC’s version of Modern.gov was several versions behind the most current version.  In addition, it had become clear that, even in the version currently being used, the Council was failing to take advantage of all the functionality available through the system, particularly in terms of the information that could be offered to the Citizen via the website.  The functions available which Members could elect to “turn on” were:

• Councillors’ Details
• Councillor Websites
• Decisions
• Forward Plans
• Document Library
• Declarations of Interest/Outside Bodies
• Attendance Statistics

Members were advised that the Modern.gov system would be upgraded to the latest version and were asked to provide guidance on which features should be made available via the website.

Discussion ensued about the various functions and how useful they would be to members of the public.  Training on the usage of the system was also discussed and it was agreed that a number of sessions would be arranged and included on the training plan for 2009.

It was agreed that all functionalities would be turned on, and that the Democratic Renewal Scrutiny Panel be asked to monitor it for a year.

eCasework

For several years the Surgery Connect system had been used to manage the work flow involved in processing the casework generated by Member’s when issues were brought to them by members of the public.

Concerns had been raised that the system was difficult to use and at the meeting on 25 September, Sioned Mair-Richards and Richard Copley were asked to establish a project to review the effectiveness of the system and either implement improvements or replace the system with something better suited to Member’s eCasework needs.

A member/officer project group met for the first time on 19 November 2008 and discussions took place around the use of eCasework and 11 members were put forward as a trial/consultation group.  These were:

Jahangir Akhtar

Ken Wyatt

Darren Hughes

Ian St John

Reg Littleboy

David Pickering

Rose McNeeley

John Foden

Jo Burton

Mahroof Hussain

Jennifer Whysall

This meeting and subsequent meetings/conversations had established the following:

• Only 6 Members had ever been trained in the use of Surgery Connect
• The implementation of any new system would need to be carried out in tandem with extensive member consultation and training
• Most members had implemented ‘workarounds’ which circumvent Surgery Connect
• Of those Members that do use the system, the vast majority telephone in details via the contact centre, rather than inputting the details themselves
• Some admin officers also used the contact centre to the casework inputting
• There were variations in the way that Member casework was handled by Directorates
• There were no formal SLAs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

Cath Saltis, Head of Scrutiny Services presented the report of Paul Wheeler entitled “Promoting the Councillor role to employers”.

She reported that in South Yorkshire it was felt that Councils would benefit from increasing the number of councillors in employment.  They would add to the knowledge and experience in the Council Chamber and enhance the reputation of the council with partner organisations and central government.

There were a number of barriers which existed to ensure a higher proportion of councillors who were in employment which needed to be addressed.  These were:

1. Leadership of each local council to explore options for member meetings outside core hours of 9-5 with specific reference to scrutiny committees and meetings with Directors/Heads of Service

2. Local Councils to develop publicity programme in council and external publications to promote the community leadership role of councillors

3. Annual review, led by members, on use of member time and level of support for member role

4. Research ‘governance map’ detailing allowances paid to those in local governance role in health, further education and other public sectors

5. Improvement Board to research ‘jury service’ compensation system for small firms with employees involved in day time meetings for council duties

6. Briefing note prepared by local councils and endorsed by LSP outlining the importance of the member role for the council and wider community

7. Regional Efficiency and Improvement Partnership to support local Good Employer Award

8. Local council to work with individual companies to ensure most effective use of member time.  For employees who wish to take undertake more senior member roles (leader and cabinet) companies to consider four year secondments as currently happens with MPs.

9. Political Parties and groups to review existing practices (eg timing of group meetings) to facilitate participation by councillors in employment

10. Political Parties in South Yorkshire to consider participation in proposed national ‘Be a councillor’ and review existing recruitment and selection processes.

A question and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised:

• Smaller businesses would find it more difficult to let employees take time off as it would have more of an impact on workloads for others.  Larger businesses would find this less of a problem.
• Concerns were raised about the accessibility of the Town Hall after 5.30 pm.  Some members felt that this was not a problem as most of their work was done out in the community in the evening.
• It was felt that it was necessary to consider the recommendations and work with at least some of them.  It was agreed that these would be looked at in more depth at the next meeting.
• Members also suggested that the Community Leadership Review at the next meeting.

Agreed: (1) That the report be received.

(2) That a further report be brought to the next meeting of the Panel for further consideration.

Cath Saltis, Head of Scrutiny Services reported that as part of the Member Development Review Programme £113,400 had been allocated to be divided across the four South Yorkshire areas.  Councillor Sharman had chaired the first meeting which had been set up to plan the South Yorkshire Programme.

She confirmed that there were four claims made, with one outstanding claim due in January 2009.  Funding had now finished and this needed to be considered when setting the budget for 2009/10.  She outlined some of the work which had been undertaken, and agreed to bring a final report to the panel after the final claim had been made.

Agreed:- (1) That the report be noted.

(2) That a final report be brought to a future meeting once the final claim had been made.

Cath Saltis, Head of Scrutiny Services reported that the Member Development Programme had been drafted for 2009 following the completion of the Member PDP’s.

The common areas which had arisen from the PDP’s were:

• LG Finance
• IT Support
• Managing Media Training
  • General Training
  • Media Training for TV and Press interviews

• Partnership Working or Working with Partners

She asked Members to make further suggestions and the following was raised:

• CAA & LAA
• Refresh on structures of departments
• Adult abuse – Safeguarding Adults
• Equalities and Diversity
• Emergency Planning

Cath agreed to bring a draft programme to the meeting in February 2009 for further discussion.

Agreed:- That the next meeting of the Panel be held on Thursday 22^nd January, 2009 at 2.00 pm.