Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Patten, Keith Ireland and Kevin O’Keefe.

There were no declarations of interest.

[To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.]

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

There were no matters arising.

[Andrew Scragg, Participation Officer to provide an update.]

The Chair welcomed representatives of the Youth Council to the meeting. The members of the Youth Council introduced their annual report.

The City of Wolverhampton Youth Council was an organisation run by young people for young people. The Youth Council aimed to represent the views of young people, challenge negative stereotypes and promote diversity.

The Youth Council worked with other organisations in Wolverhampton, helped to develop campaigns and acted as a platform for young people to express their views to decision makers.

The last 12 months had been a period of change for the Youth Council. The City Council had continued to support the work it did alongside internal changes.

There had been successful elections in 2015 and the Youth Council had followed the same style of recruitment in 2016, allowing schools and voluntary sector groups to select two candidates each in internal elections which had resulted in representation from 18 schools and groups across the city. These new Youth Councillors had attended an extensive induction at the end of 2016, and were enjoying their new roles.

The Chair of the Youth Council asked the Panel Members what they thought about giving the vote to 16 and 17 year olds; the Panel was generally in favour of this.

The Panel queried why the Youth Council was struggling to recruit members in the north east of the City and whether there was anything that the Council could do to help. Members of the Youth Council stated that in most cases they were able to recruit new members due to personal collections so any links that Councillors had with schools or staff or students would be most welcome.

The Panel also queried what feedback had been received from CAMHS. The Panel agreed that they would invite Fred Gravestock form CAMHS to the meeting the next time that an update was received form the Youth Council.

Resolved:      That the next time the Youth Council attend a meeting of the Scrutiny Board, Fred Gravestock from CAMHS also be invited to attend.

[To receive an update from Lisa Taylor, Head of Service Improvement]

The Panel received an update and presentation from Lisa Taylor, Head of Service Improvement regarding the progress made following the rebrand from Leisure services to WV Active in January 2015 and the plans to continue the transformation of the service.  The Chair welcomed Mrs Taylor and Cllr Evans to the meeting.

Cllr Evans highlighted the fact that WV Active was more than just a service in that it was constantly having to compete with many private firms and was customer led. Cllr Evans praised the journey that the Service had been on so far and stated that there had been vast improvements over the three main sites which currently had over 7000 members (this figure had doubled over the last 12 months).

The Panel agreed that the progress looked impressive and acknowledged that the sector was highly competitive. The question was raised as to how fast the Council could continue to attract new members to keep the Council in the position it had now reached.  There was concern amongst the members as to whether it would be possible to keep increasing membership and developing the service at the level needed to remain competitive.

Mrs Taylor stated that a benchmarking exercise was being carried out every three months and that there was continuous monitoring of competitors to ensure that the Council was still performing at or above the required level. Mrs Taylor stated that her team had visited national facilities and accepted that the Council could not compete with everyone but that there were not many who could match the offer provided by the Council. Mrs Taylor stated that the hope was to win over the hearts and minds of customers and that the service was currently reviewing its resources with the aim of putting more emphasis on business development,

Cllr Evans agreed and stated that it was about much more than just membership and that the facility with the largest membership (Bert Williams in Bilston) was not the biggest earner and that Aldersley was due to the facilities it was able to offer.  Cllr Evans stated that the Council was also looking to attract the youth in the City with events such as roller discos. Cllr Evans was confident that the Service was on the right path to become self-sufficient and was starting to move in to a position where it could be making a profit in the future.

There were however still some concerns amongst members regarding the ability of the Council to compete with areas such as personal trainers. Mrs Taylor reiterated that there were currently over 7000 members which equated to around £1 million and that there were galas, national events and corporate booking fees on top of this.

Cllr Evans praised the work that had been done by Mrs Taylor and her team and encouraged members to download and have a look at the WV Active APP.

The question was raised as to whether the service was looking at deals with hotels and it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

[Anna Zollino-Biscotti, Information Governance Manager, will present report]

The Panel considered a report in relation to the performance of Information Governance for quarter three (October – December 2016).

It was stated that the figures had remained quite static and that there was still a very high response rate with 18 incidents having been reported, 17 of which were disclosed in error. Officers confirmed that a piece of work was being carried out regarding this.  It was also confirmed that 72% of new starters had completed their training (an improvements on previous figures).

The question was raised as to whether as to whether the Council had started to prepare for the General  Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which was due to come into force in May 2018. Officers stated that preparation was underway and training was scheduled along with reports to SEB keeping the executive updated on progress. A GDPR overview plan was in place and work was now starting to bring this down to a more operational level.

The Panel queried whether it was possible to have a report that provided information such as benchmarking against other authorities and where the incidents were occurring.   Officers stated that yes a different type of report could be brought back to a future meeting including comparison with other local authorities, high risk areas and what actions were being put in place to mitigate against the recognised risks.

Resolved:      That the report be received.

[To consider the Board’s work programme for future meetings alongside the Council’s Forward Plan and Risk Register.]

The Panel considered the work plan, the risk register and the forward plan.

Resolved:      That the documents be received and noted

[Steve Rice, Customer Engagement Manager, to present quarterly update report]

Resolved:      That the report be noted and received.