Agenda item

(1)       Mr Hill and Ms Sanderson introduced a report which set out the background to the business planning process for 2013/14.  Following the development of business plan headline priorities in November 2012, Directors and Heads of Service had built on feedback from the Communities Cabinet Committee to develop substantive draft business plans for 2013/14.

(2)       It was explained that the new process placed the emphasis on reducing the burden of business planning with a lighter touch process. It was important to increase the consistency and synergy between business planning and both the performance management dashboards and directorate and divisional risk registers which underpinned the business plan actions, and were reported to the Committee on a regular basis.  The draft plans were still at an early stage of development, with further refinement over the coming weeks before approval in March 2013.

(3)       It was noted that Members had the opportunity to submit comments on business plans to Ms Sanderson up until the end of February and were invited to do so outside of the meeting.

(4)       Directors introduced the draft business plan for their services.  Members were invited to consider the risk register and the following individual draft business plans.

Risk Register - Customer & Communities Directorate

(5)       In response to a suggestion that the risk register for the directorate was a bit short as it only contained six risks, Mr Scrivener re-assured Members that the risk register was underpinned by divisional business plans, in addition to the corporate risk register which contained cross cutting issues. 

Service Improvement Draft Business Plan 2013/14

(6)       Ms Slaven introduced the business plan for her division.

Customer Services Draft Business Plan 2013/14

(7)       Mr Crilley noted comments and answered questions from Members which included the following:

• A Member mentioned the high level of calls to the contact centre relating to the renewal of library books and suggested that an automated system of library book renewals should be introduced.  Mr Crilley acknowledged that new systems were needed but this would be carried out as part of changes to the Information Technology platform for a variety of systems which would make improvements for all of the County Council’s customers. 
• Members referred to the amount of volunteer hours generated in Kent and congratulated officers on the work they carried out to facilitate volunteering.

Communications & Engagement Draft Business Plan 2013/14

(8)       Mr Burrows noted comments and answered questions from Members which included the following:

• A Member requested that Local Members be given specific advance notice of press releases that related to their area in order to be able to respond to local residents.  
• A Member referred to the challenge that Corporate Communications had when trying to convince the local media to report Council news in a positive way when appropriate. Mr Burrows confirmed that Corporate Communications were trying to establish a closer working relationship with the local media.
• A Member expressed the view that the County Council’s website only required tweaking rather than a complete revamp as there were a lot of technically able residents who were able to use it in its current form.  Mr Burrows referred to the County Council’s Digital Services Team who regularly made amendments to the website. It was important to take what really worked and to achieve consistency throughout the website.
• In response to the successful work of the Kent Film Office, a Member suggested that local Members should be made aware of filming in their area. 
• A Member referred to the “gritter twitter” which was proving popular.
• A Member mentioned the need to ensure that there was strong support for Members at Locality Boards.
• In relation to the role of the Consultation Team, Mr Burrows explained that the team was rolling out training to officers via their Management Teams. There would be a Red, Amber, Green assessment of all consultations and based on this the team would decide how much support was required from them for each consultation.
• Mr Burrows referred to the significant number of profit making units within the County Council, for example Country Parks and Adult Education, which required pro-active marketing from within corporate communications with, if necessary, additional specific resources to support these units.  
• Mr Tilson confirmed that this fit-for-purpose review included the creation and centralisation of a campaign and design team, with some posts previously scattered across the organisation, so while it is correct that there is an increase in the number of staff in this specific unit, this would not necessarily mean growth across the County Council as a whole.

General comments

(9)       Ms Sanderson noted the following comments from Members:

• A Member commended the clear way in which the business plans and the risk register had been set out.  It was clear who was responsible for each of the actions which were set against the 3 aims of Bold Steps for Kent.  He requested that this format be kept for another year.
• A Member welcomed the professional and ambitious targets in the business plans.
• It was suggested that there should be additional performance indicators for Communications and Engagement, as there were currently only three.  These could be in areas such as Channel Shift, Community Engagement and Locality Boards. It was appreciated that these were not easy areas to measure, but attempts should nevertheless be made to do so.  Conversely there were a lot of Performance Indicators for the Contact Centre and maybe consideration should be given to reducing the number. 

(10)     RESOLVED That the Customer and Communities Cabinet Committee‘s Risk Register as set out in Appendix A,  the comments made by Members on the draft performance indicators in Section F and the draft business plans in Appendices B, C & D be noted.