Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive apologies for inability to attend the meeting (if any).

Apologies were received from Councillor Richard Somner.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Executive held on 15 December 2022.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 15 December were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Leader.

To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any personal, disclosable pecuniary or other registrable interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest received.

Members of the Executive to answer questions submitted by members of the public in accordance with the Executive Procedure Rules contained in the Council’s Constitution.

A full transcription of the public and Member question and answer sessions is available from the following link: Transcription of Q&As.

Councillors or Members of the public may present any petition which they have received. These will normally be referred to the appropriate Committee without discussion.

Councillor Lee Dillon presented a petition containing 1,208 signatures requesting that the Council review its decision on funding the ReadiBus Service. The petition was referred to Officers for a response.

Purpose: to introduce the draft Council Strategy 2023-2027 and to seek approval for it to progress to public consultation in early 2023.

Resolved that: Executive

·         Consider the draft strategy, recommend amendments to its content and approve it for public consultation.

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      a delay in implementing the decision this would cause the Council serious financial implications or could compromise the Council's position.

therefore it will be implemented immediately.

Councillor Lynne Doherty introduced and proposed the report (Agenda Item 6), which provided an overview of the draft Council Strategy 2023-2027 (the Strategy), and sought approval for public consultation in early 2023. Councillor Doherty explained that the Strategy proposed a number of outcomes that the Council would focus on delivering in the next four years, which had been grouped into five priority areas.

In response to a query from Councillor Jeff Brooks, Sarah Clarke, the Monitoring Officer, explained that the paper was not subject to call-in as the proposals would be subject to Council, not Executive, approval in May.

Councillor Lee Dillon suggested that the timing of the Strategy and its consultation should be deferred to after May 2023, to allow for alternative priorities in the event of a new administration.  Councillor Doherty stressed the importance of having a seamless plan and strategy in place and commented that as it was both evidence and resident based, it was likely to be the same, whichever party was in administration.

Councillor Graham Bridgman welcomed the ambition of the Strategy and seconded approval of the report.  

RESOLVED that: Executive

·       Consider the draft strategy, recommend amendments to its content and approve it for public consultation.

Purpose:  to present a formal public-facing Customer Services Charter. This was a key action within the Communications and Engagement Strategy and will form part of the ‘One Council’ approach (also known as ‘Many Channels, One Service project) being developed. Elements of the Digital Strategy will also be incorporated in to the Charter in line with other commitments to further digitisation.

Resolved that: Executive

·         Approve the draft Customer Charter.

This decision is eligible to be ‘called-in’.  However, if the decision has not been ‘called-in’ by 5.00pm on Friday 20 January 2022, then it will be implemented.

Councillor Lynne Doherty introduced the report (Agenda Item 7), which set out a Customer Charter detailing a number of proposed service standards which customers could expect when dealing with the Council, regardless of the contact channel chosen. 

Councillor Lee Dillon queried customer recourse in the event that a commitment was not met. Councillor Dillon further queried whether there should be an out of hours service provision. Councillor Doherty clarified that the complaints process was included on the Charter, and that this was in line with other local authorities.

Councillor Doherty agreed to include a response commitment for out of hours emergencies within the Charter.

Councillor Adrian Abbs referred to his membership of the OSMC Customer Journey Task Group (the Group), and commented that it was surprising that the Group had not had the opportunity to review the Charter, suggesting that it would have benefitted from the scrutiny.

Councillor Doherty agreed to Councillor Macro’s request to remove the use of acronyms from the Charter.

Councillor Steve Ardagh-Walter seconded the paper and highlighted the second proposal within the report which referred to adopting the Charter in tandem with a concerted internal effort towards a culture whereby good customer service was seen to be the responsibility of all within the organisation. Councillor Ardagh-Walter felt that the Council already provided good customer service to residents but commented that parallel work would need to be undertaken to train new joiners to adapt and interpret the Charter to specific and varied situations, with the overall core aim of providing a quality service for residents.

RESOLVED that: Executive

·       Approve the draft Customer Charter.

Purpose: to provide assurance that the core business and council priorities for improvement measures in the Council Strategy 2019-2023 are being managed effectively, and where performance has fallen below the expected level, present information on the remedial action taken and the impact of that action.

Resolved that: Executive

·         Note the progress made in delivering the Council Strategy Delivery Plan 2019-2023, a maintained strong performance for the core business areas, good results for the majority of the measures relating to the council’s priorities for improvement, and remedial actions taken where performance is below target.

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      Report is to note only

therefore it will be implemented immediately.

Councillor Tom Marino introduced the report (Agenda Item 8), which provided assurance that the core business and council priorities for improvement measures in the Council Strategy 2019-2023 were being managed effectively.

Councillor Graham Bridgman noted that there had been an increase in recorded crime and non-crime domestic abuse cases. Councillor Bridgman clarified that the Council were reporting on the figures recorded by Thames Valley Police and commented that he had received a report from the Superintendent. Councillor Bridgman read the statement which reported that the local policing authority had been working hard to prioritise violence against women and girls, providing increased training to officers and scrutiny from supervisors to improve all forms of domestic crimes. There had been evidence that officers were failing to recognise offences and so missing a number of crimes. The Superintendent’s report confirmed that greater scrutiny had been placed on the domestic risk assessment to ensure broader questions were asked by attending officers. It was noted that the Policing Authority had also introduced a Domestic Abuse Champion whose role was to re-engage on an ongoing basis with victims of domestic abuse, and to support medium risk and vulnerable victims. The Superintendent had noted that as a consequence of these initiatives, there was evidence to show that victims felt much more supported and confident to report further incidents and crimes. Concluding the statement, Councillor Bridgman commented that he felt assured that the police were aware of the issues and taking actions to address. 

Councillor Erik Pattenden referred to Table 30 (number of referrals to the Emotional Health Triage), and expressed surprise that numbers were reducing. Councillor Dominic Boeck commented that the figures were encouraging and suggested a return to more stable reporting following the peaks during the pandemic.

Councillor Jeff Brooks referred to the table reporting staff turnover on page 67 of the Agenda pack and queried the reason for the increase. Joseph Holmes, Executive Director for Resources commented that information was being gathered through exit interviews and that there had been investment in new talent acquisition staff to investigate improved recruitment and retention schemes. 

Councillor Alan Macro noted that the Council no longer monitored delayed transfers of care for those patients in the Adult Social Care system, and whilst he acknowledged that it was no longer recorded nationally he requested that it be re-introduced as a performance indicator locally. Councillor Jo Stewart noted that some data was still captured and agreed that Officers would review to determine if the information could be reported on a regular basis.

Councillor Macro queried why the Care Quality Commission (CQC), had not reviewed the rating for Birchwood Care Home given that they had looked at all the other Council run care homes in January. Councillor Stewart commented that the CQC had undertaken a very ‘light touch’ high level review and determined that they did not need to return for a further review of the care homes. 

In response to a query from Councillor Macro as to when introduction of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76.

Purpose: the report provides an update on the Social Value Policy which wasadopted by the Council at Executive on 18 November 2021.  The paper will provide details of the uptake and impact of the inclusion of social value measures within contracts arising from the procurement process.

Resolved that:

·         That the council continues to monitor the implementation of the Social Value policy to determine how it is embedded within the procurement process and what benefits are derived in the future.

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      Report is to note only

therefore it will be implemented immediately.

Councillor Ross Mackinnon introduced the report (Agenda Item 9), which provided an update on the Social Value Policy which had been adopted by the Council at Executive on 18 November 2021. Councillor Mackinnon commented that it had been an encouraging start to the Policy.

Councillor Jeff Brooks explained that his interpretation of the report was that only 3 out of 73 published procurement projects had included a specific social value question. Councillor Mackinnon clarified that it was 38 projects that had social value considered but was happy to amend the wording for clarification. Councillor Mackinnon further added that the Council held regular ‘meet the supplier’ events where small and medium enterprises within the district could receive advice in structuring bids.

Councillor Lee Dillon agreed that it was a positive start but suggested that the report should include greater detail, listing the number of volunteer hours, and recording attributable facts to enable the Council to quantify its social value delivery.

RESOLVED that:

·       The council continues to monitor the implementation of the Social Value policy to determine how it is embedded within the procurement process and what benefits are derived in the future.

Members of the Executive to answer questions submitted by Councillors in accordance with the Executive Procedure Rules contained in the Council’s Constitution.

A full transcription of the public and Member question and answer sessions is available from the following link: Transcription of Q&As.