Agenda and minutes

No declarations were made at the meeting.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on 7th July and 1st September, 2016 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

[A period not exceeding 20 minutes for statements from up to 5

members of the public on matters within the Committee’s remit,

proposing action(s) which may be considered or contribute towards the future development of the Committee’s work programme.]

There were no public statements made at the meeting.

The Chair welcomed Officers to the meeting and invited Officers to address the Committee with regard to any new information, and address any queries in terms of budget and performance.

The report outlined that at quarter 1, the Council was forecasting a year-end overspend of £2.8m which included the Children’s Trust £1.8m overspend and Regeneration and Environment overspend of £2.6m. It was noted that these overspends would be offset by £3.1m one-off underspends including Treasury Management £2.3m. The projection included the expected delivery of £36.3m savings towards the £40.2m target, leaving a shortfall of circa £3.9m mainly on Assets programme which was included in the Regeneration and Environment outturn figure and Digital Council savings allocated to Directorates.

Members were also advised that the overall performance of our the service measures were good with 89% exceeding or close to local targets which was similar to the previous quarterly figure. It was noted that Doncaster had it highest employment rate in 11 years, the time taken to process new Council Tax claims had achieved its target and 65% of the Council spend was with local providers. It was also noted that further improvements were required within Direct Payments, Care Leavers in Education, training or employment, sickness and channel shift to online services.

Finance and Corporate Services

Simon Wiles, Director of Finance and Corporate Services, was in attendance at the meeting and endeavoured to alleviate any concerns and respond to any queries on the matters raised by the Committee. Some of the areas highlighted included:-

·         Days lost to sickness

·         Digital Council

·         Pensions

·         Overspend within the Children’s Trust

The Chair Councillor John Mounsey and Members raised their concern with regard to sickness within some Directorates and asked what interventions were being put in place to tackle this worrying issue. Simon Wiles indicated that didn’t have a detailed understanding of the reasons why sickness had increased in two departments and it was perhaps a question Directors could provide a response to. Simon explained that it may be down to the nature of work carried out within those directorates. It was also thought that because of terms and conditions changes this may also have an effect on sickness absence. Clarification was sought as to whether meetings took place with Unions since the Employee Relations Committee had been disbanded. Simon responded to the query stating that the Doncaster Consultative Group meet on a regular basis of which there were representatives from the Unions and Jill Parker, Assistant Director HR, Communications meets weekly with all Unions.

Kim Curry, Director of Adults, Health & Well-being stated that the service had carried out a significant amount of work on sickness and the main reasons for sickness within the directorate were stress & anxiety. She also advised that this was also the national profile from this area of work. She stated that access was provided to the Health and Well-being service and staff were given the options of phased returns to work. Kim went on to explain that whilst working practices were and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

The Chief Executive of St Leger Homes of Doncaster, Susan Jordan, was in attendance at the meeting, along with Stephen Thorlby-Coy, Head of Business Excellence in order to update the Committee with regard to any performance issues for Quarter 1.

Key elements to note from the report were as follows:-

·         Eight of the ten key performance indicators were on target, two were within acceptable tolerance levels and there were no performance indicators below target.

·         Performance measure: void rent loss through vacant properties were performing well against its target.

·         Performance measure: percentage of current rent arrears against Annual Debit was performing well against target.

·         Performance measure: scheduled repairs % of premises kept was near its target.

·         Performance measure: Days lost to sickness per Full Time Equivalent was near target.

Following the presentation of the report, Members were afforded the opportunity to ask questions and make comments on the performance report.

Members expressed some concern with regard to the days lost to sickness and asked what measures had been put in place to improve the outcome. Susan Jordan, Chief Executive St. Leger Homes, reported that the target that had been set was challenging and it was envisaged that the outturn would stand at 8.4 days. She indicated that the main reasons for sickness within the service were Stress related and Muscular & Skeletal. She reported that since the writing of the report, the figures had already reduced so the service was going in the right direction. Susan advised Members that monthly meetings take place with Managers to address sickness and all members of staff within the service were members of Westfield, so there was access to Doctors opinions, Physiotherapists and Occupational Health. With regard to Stress, she stated that Stress Risk Assessment were carried out and training was provided. A stress assessment would be carried out with the member of staff and their Line Manager and a clear action plan would be put in place. Members were also advised that for those staff who suffer from muscular and skeletal problems, light duties would be offered to staff and in some cases working from home would be a solution.

Discussion took place in regard to Void Rent Loss and Susan reported to Members that the service were working very hard on voids which had been reduced. Weekly meetings take place with the team to go through each void in turn and it was noted that there was a whole range of reasons why a property had become void but it was pleasing to see movement in the right direction.

In conclusion, the Chair and Members thanked Susan and St Leger Homes staff for all the hard work carried out and were pleased with the outcomes within the report.

            RESOLVED the progress of the SLHD performance outcomes and the      contribution SLHD makes to supporting DMBC strategic priorities was      noted.

The Senior Governance Officer presented the current Overview and Scrutiny work plan highlighting areas of work undertaken by the Scrutiny Panels since the last meeting.

RESOLVED that:-

(1)       the 2016/17 Overview and Scrutiny work plan, be noted; and

(2)       deferred the verbal update from the Scrutiny Panel Chairs or Vice-Chairs on the work of the Panels to a future meeting.