Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Cllr Roger Lawrence.

No declarations of interests were made.

[For approval]

Resolved:

That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 15 September 2014 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

[To consider any matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting]

There were no matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.

[To review the monitoring information]

The Panel reviewed performance monitoring information of Wolverhampton Homes and the Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs) in managing and maintaining Council owned properties during quarter one of the 2014/15 financial year.  

Kenny Aitchison, Service Manager Housing Strategy and Development reported that overall there had been a good strong performance by WH and the TMOs for the quarter. There were some issues relating to certain TMOs and their governance that were being addressed. He also informed the Panel that since its last meeting the Homes and Communities Agency had awarded an extra £539,000 towards the Decent Homes Programme.  He also made a correction to the impression given at paragraph 3.9.2 of the report and clarified that Homes Direct had always had the same target as City Direct for ‘average call answer time’.

Cllr Paul Sweet welcomed the good news about the extra resources for the Decent Homes programme.  He went on to query whether the governance issues at some of the TMOs had highlighted any issues for the Council’s monitoring procedures.  Kenny Aitchison reported that to a certain extent previously there had not been the staff to dedicate the time to monitor the areas that had now been raised at the TMOs.  He gave an assurance to the Panel that more time would be devoted to them in the future.  In response to a question about the significant cash reserves that the TMOs had built up, he also reported that all TMOs are putting forward an investment programme to make sure the reserves are spent on their estates.

Philip Toni, Wolverhampton Homes gave an update on an improved performance for ‘abandoned calls’ to that contained within the published report.  Moving forward on the customer care standards he reported on tensions with the channel shift agenda being experienced in some Government Departments seeking to strike a balance between wanting to move customers towards digital services and maintaining good call answer times for those customers wanting to speak to someone direct.

Cllr Peter Bilson echoed the comments about the performance of WH and the TMOs and the news about the additional resources for the Decent Homes programme.

At the end of the discussion Kenny Aitchison asked the Panel to feed back any comments they had on the revised format of the performance monitoring report.

Resolved:

That the performance of the housing management agents for quarter one of 2014/15 be received and noted.

[To consider the quarterly report on the corporate performance reporting measures]

Polly Sharma, Equality and Diversity Manager presented the quarter two corporate performance report.

Cllr Val Gibson reported on the ‘Looked After Children’ performance measure and informed the Panel that the numbers had been constant at around 800 since April 2014.  This stability showed that the actions put in place, including the Families r First programme, were beginning to have an impact.  She acknowledged that the measures would take some time before the full effects are seen and the benefits realised but that she was happy with the progress.  She also commented that work would be led by Emma Bennett, Assistant Director – Children, Young People and Families and Sarah Norman, Strategic Director Community to convince some of the key agents involved with LAC about the benefits of the programme and the multi-agency approach.

Keith Ireland, Managing Director endorsed the comments that the Council had ‘stemmed the flow’ in terms of the number of looked after children and if not for the measures there would have been a steady increase in LAC numbers.  He reported that the model being followed in order to improve the position was the right one and that he anticipated that the numbers would reduce.

Cllr John Reynolds requested an update from Public Health on action being taken in response to the measure ‘percentage of children obese in year 6’.  He also commented on the progress being made to improve performance on the measure relating to appraisal.  In response to the latter, Keith Ireland reported that the current position was that 66% of the total workforce had a current appraisal.  Data collection activity was taking place to compile a clear and up to date list of current appraisals.  Each manager would be required to supply a list of current appraisals carried out within their team.  He anticipated that by the end of the year there would be a clean and up to date list.  He also reported that in future the data on appraisals would be managed through the Agresso database.

Resolved:

1.    That the report be received and noted.

2.    That Public Health submit an update report on action being taken in response to the measure ‘percentage of children obese in year 6’ to the next meeting.

[To comment on the performance of Information Governance for quarter two]

Adam Hadley, Scrutiny and Transparency Manager presented a report on the performance of information governance for quarter two (July to September 2014).

Resolved:     

            That the report be received and noted.