Agenda item

To receive an update on actions following the previous Commission meeting.

The Commission received an update on actions following the previous meetings (Agenda Item 4).  Comments were received regarding the following items:

2.1 – A letter of response had been received from the Department for Education in relation to the Commission’s concerns about representation of the views of parents of pupils at academies.  A copy of this letter was circulated at the meeting.

Councillor Tony Vickers considered whether it would be beneficial for Members to offer themselves as representatives on Academy governing bodies.  Concern was expressed that clarity would be required as to the role of Members so as to ensure that Academies did not assume the Councillor was representing the Local Education Authority.  It was agreed that a letter would be sent to all Academies indicating that Members would welcome involvement on their governing bodies as community representatives.

2.6  – Councillor David Rendel expressed concern that analysis would be required in order to demonstrate that the two factors that have been put in place to reduce the number of young people entering the Youth Justice System were effective. The Chairman suggested that an analysis could be presented to the Commission in September. This was agreed.

2.7  - Members of the Commission sought clarification on the accuracy of the appeal figures presented in the report.  Gary Lugg responded that an error had been discovered in the programmes used to prepare these figures, however this had been corrected and would not have affected any other reporting of these figures.  It was requested that Gary Lugg provide an update to correct the figures shown.

Gary Lugg further explained that the end of year performance target would be achieved.

(Note: 6.52pm – Councillor Mike Johnston joined the meeting.)

The Chairman thanked Gary Lugg and staff within Planning for their work in being able to achieve their performance target.

2.8  - Councillor Dominic Boeck requested clarification as to how staff calls are silently monitored to measure soft customer care skills and technical accuracy.

2.11 – Councillor Quentin Webb requested further information as to when a working group would be established to help develop the measures and targets to be incorporated into the Council Strategy.  David Lowe advised that this task group was likely to be established at the end of March or in early April 2012.

Councillor David Rendel expressed concern that targets were able to be set that allowed low performance for most of the year and a short period of excellent performance allowed the target to be met.  He suggested that targets should be set that would ensure good or excellent performance throughout the year.

The Chairman thanked all officers for providing responses to questions raised by the Commission.

RESOLVED that:

(1)   Information could be presented to the Commission in September 2012 to demonstrate that the two factors put in place to reduce the number of young people entering the Youth Justice System were effective, and what analysis had been done to show this.

(2)   A letter would be sent from the Chairman of the Commission to all Academies indicating that Members would welcome involvement on their governing bodies as a community representative.

(3)   The Head of Planning and Countryside to provide corrected figures regarding planning appeals.

(4)   The Head of Customer Services to clarify to Councillor Dominic Boeck how staff calls are silently monitored to measure soft customer care skills and technical accuracy.