Agenda and minutes

Venue: Training Room - Ground Floor - Civic Centre, St Peter's Square, Wolverhampton WV1 1SH

Contact: Dereck Francis  Tel: 01902 555835 or Email: dereck.francis@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillor Sandra Samuels OBE.

2.

Declarations of interests

Minutes:

No declarations of interests were made.

3.

Minutes of the previous meeting - 18 September 2017 pdf icon PDF 69 KB

[For approval]

Minutes:

Resolved:

That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 18 September 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

4.

Matters arising

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

Minutes:

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

5.

Housing Managing Agents Performance Monitoring Report – Quarter Two July 2017 to September 2017 pdf icon PDF 190 KB

[To review and comment on the quarterly monitoring report]

Minutes:

Jennie Lewington, Service Lead, Housing Strategy – Housing Services

presented the report on the performance of Wolverhampton Homes (WH) and the Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs) in managing and maintaining Council owned properties during quarter two (July to September 2017).  Generally, there was good performance across all the performance indicators.

 

In response to Councillor John Reynolds, the Service Lead, Housing Strategy gave an update on the Dovecoat TMO Organisation and Staff Review.  The TMO Board had rejected the findings from the HR Consultant who undertook the review.  The Council continued to support the TMO Board on the issues identified in the Consultant’s report and to support them to improve other practises.

 

The Chair reported that this would be Lesley Roberts, Strategic Director for City Housing’s last meeting at the Panel before she retired from the Council at the end of January 2018.  Along with other members of the Panel, the Chair placed on record his thanks and appreciation to the Strategic Director for her contributions to the work of the Panel, the Council and Wolverhampton Homes and wished her the best for the future.

 

Resolved:

That the performance of the housing managing agents for quarter two of 2017/2018 be noted.

6.

Information Governance Quarter Two and General Data Protection Regulation Update Report pdf icon PDF 79 KB

[To review and comment on the quarter two performance and on work currently being undertaken in preparation for the General Data Protection Regulations]

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Martyn Sargeant, Head of Democratic Services presented the report on quarter two (July to September 2017) performance for Information Governance. High performance continued to be maintained for response to Freedom of Information/ Environmental Information (FOI) and Subject Access Requests (SARs) received during the period. 

 

The report also provided an update on the General Data Protection Regulation and the preparatory work for when the new Regulation comes into effect on 25 May 2018.  A briefing note had been circulated to the Leader of the Council on what the Regulation would mean for councillors and briefing sessions had been arranged for councillors. The Leader of the Council requested that a copy of the note be forwarded to the rest of the Cabinet.

 

Keith Ireland, Managing Director asked members of the Panel to attend the training programme and that group leaders encourage their colleagues to attend.  Councillor Peter Bilson requested that a range of options, including morning and afternoon sessions be offered to councillors for the GDPR training programme.

 

Resolved:

  1. That the Information Governance performance figures for 2017/2018 Freedom of Information/ Environmental Information requests and Subject Access request be noted.

 

2.     That the quarterly progress to date on the general data protection Regulations noted.

7.

New Outcomes Based Accountability Performance Framework and WV Insight Portal Update pdf icon PDF 243 KB

[To received the report]

Minutes:

The Panel received a report together with a presentation from Ian Fegan, Head of Service, Communications and Helena Kucharczyk, Insight and Performance Manager on the progress made to implement a new outcome-based corporate performance framework and on WV Insight, a new website to replace Wolverhampton in Profile and provide an easily accessible, user-friendly city data portal.

 

Councillor Steve Evans commented that there were external factors that affected performance against portfolios over which the Council had no control.  He suggested that caveats be included on the new ward portal against information collected from a third party or where third party data would be made public. The Head of Service, Communications confirmed that data sources would be included in the system. The aim of WV Insight was also to create an area where councillors could look at their own data.

 

Councillor Andrew Johnson reported that care would need to be taken regarding the subjectivity of some outcomes; the tracking of the impact of decisions made; and any inbuilt delays before outcomes are realised, for example some public health programmes have a ten year delay before they see the outcomes. Use of WV Insight data to drive budget pressures would also require careful consideration.

 

Councillor Roger Lawrence reported that an improvement in the quality of information available would be welcomed.  In terms of impact on decision making, it would allow the Executive to make choices about allocation of resources. The key point was that the information had to be meaningful.  Keith Ireland, Managing Director added that the different types of data would be important.  The Executive would receive targeted data and it would be the job of the Senior Management Team to present the Executive with as much targeted data as needed.

 

Councillor John Reynolds, added that he would like to have information from partner organisations included on the portal together with an interpretation of the data and a link to the work of the Council.

 

The Chair asked that more Councillors be made aware of WV Insight. He also asked about plans to train councillors in the use of the web portal.  The Head of Service, Communications reported that a small group of Councillors had been established to help shape the ongoing user requirement from the system. In terms of Councillors wider portfolio work, the outcome based accountability approach was already imbedded in parts of the Council, such as within Children’s Services. The Managing Director added that training would be delivered to councillors in Spring once WV Insight was built. 

 

Resolved:

That progress to date be noted and the continuing implementation of the Council’s new outcome-based corporate performance framework and development of the new WV Insight website be endorsed.