Agenda and minutes

The Council welcomes engagement from members of the public. To speak at this meeting please register no later than 24 hours prior to the date of the meeting via democracy@southkesteven.gov.uk

There were none.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Habib Rahman, Virginia Moran and Sarah Trotter.

Councillor Charmaine Morgan substituted for Councillor Virginia Moran.

Councillor Harrish Bisnauthsing substituted for Councillor Habib Rahman.

Councillor Helen Crawford substituted for Councillor Sarah Trotter.

Members are asked to disclose any interest in matters for consideration at the meeting.

There were none.

It was proposed, seconded and AGREED that the minutes of the meeting held on 11 October 2023 were a correct and accurate record.

To receive updates on actions agreed at the previous meeting.

All actions were completed.

The Deputy Leader of the Council confirmed he had nothing to report. He wished the Committee a Merry Christmas.

Verbal update from Councillor Charmaine Morgan.

Councillor Charmaine Morgan provided the Committee with a verbal update on Grantham Hospital.

One Member requested that the Chief Executive or a Member of the United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust be invited to a future Committee meeting to answer questions.

It was further requested that the Chairman of ICB be invited to a future Committee meeting to clarify queries relating to the poor health provision in the south of the County.

The Chairman highlighted that South Kesteven District Council were very limited in terms of making decisions on health provision.

Councillor Charmaine Morgan declared that she was the District’s representative on the Health Scrutiny Committee at Lincolnshire County Council and would be willing to pass on any concerns.

This Mid-Year update report outlines South Kesteven District Councils performance against the Corporate Plan Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the year of 2023/24.

The Policy Officer presented the report that outlined South Kesteven District Councils performance against the Corporate Plan Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the year of 2023/24.

2023/24 was the final year of monitoring for the existing KPIs. A refresh of the Corporate Plan was currently underway. All Members had the opportunity to engage in the development of the new Corporate Plan, which would be adopted in the January 2024. To accompany the new Corporate Plan, a new suite of KPIs will be developed to reflect the priorities, ambitions and actions of the new Plan. These KPIs will be approved by each Committee and reporting will commence from April 2024.

Appendix A of the report presented the overall performance against the five actions being presented, as well as specific performance against the sub measures contained within those. Specific commentary was provided for each action, which is summarised as follows:

·       3 of the actions are rated Green. These are actions which are on or above target as planned.

·       1 of the actions is rated Amber. This is an action which is currently below the planned target.

·       1 of the actions is rated Red. This is an action, which is currently significantly below the planned target.

Members expressed their disappoint of the KPI relating to safeguarding training percentages having a rating of red. It was queried as to why safeguarding training was not being actioned as a priority.

The Senior Management Team had been tasked on ensuring all of their staff were up-to-date with safeguarding training in hope to improve the percentage.

One Member raised a specific concern around the process of certain housing safeguarding issues within council-run housing and whether the concern would be dealt with internally by the Housing department. It was suggested that all safeguarding matters be referred to the appropriate outside body, to maintain the same level of transparency throughout.

ACTION: For an update on safeguarding to be brought to the next Committee meeting and for the relevant Officer to be in attendance. 

Concern was raised on the high level of staff turnover and why staff could not be retained.

A recent report had been taken to the Employment Committee which had demonstrated that the staff turnover was relatively low compared to previous years. Members were referred to the dashboard information presented to the Employment Committee recently.

It was clarified that all Members of staff were required to complete safeguarding training.

A Member highlighted the importance of the Community Fund meetings and Members were encouraged to give more priority to it.

Concern was raised on the 45% KPI target for safeguarding training and how this could be improved. Previous issues had been discussed around colleagues accessing computers etc.

It was queried as to whether the Council were sending out staff untrained, rising waiting times, or whether small number of staff trained had rising workloads. It was further queried what current implications were in place and what mitigations were in place short-term.

The Assistant Director of Governance and Public  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

The purpose of this report is to present the Community Engagement and Development Strategy – Our People, Our Place to Rural and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Community Engagement Manager presented the report which outlined the Community Engagement Strategy and Action Plan for 2024-27. A report had previously been brought to the Committee to seek views of Members on the development of the strategy.

A public consultation was then held via the Council’s website and direct opportunities were offered to the voluntary and community sector organisations within South Kesteven to comment on the proposed content. The response to the consultation was higher from residents than it was from community groups, with general agreement of what was proposed.

It was clarified that the strategy would be amended to reflect the new Corporate Plan and the plan would become a living document and could be developed over time.

The Council’s Armed Forces Lead Member made the following statement:

‘As Armed Forces Lead Member, I welcome the inclusion of the Armed Forces Covenant, the Armed Forces Community and the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme in the proposed Community Engagement and Development Strategy.  I further welcome the Armed Forces actions included in the accompanying Action Plan 2024 – 2027.  I support the recommendation at Item 9 of today’s meeting that the Committee recommends to Cabinet its adoption to complement the Council’s emerging corporate priority of Connected Communities.

I will also suggest a few minor amendments to the Action Plan for your consideration as follows:

-          Sixth action –  ‘Continue to ensure the Council’s compliance with the Armed Forces Act and its associated duties’.  Include elected Members in ‘What success means’ (Well-informed officers who understand what is necessary to comply with the Act).

-          Ninth action – ‘Develop an effective working relationship with the Lincolnshire Armed Forces Officer to explore opportunities for collaboration’.  Add a similar action for the Armed Forces Lead Member / Champion to ‘develop an effective working relationship with the Lincolnshire Armed Forces Champion’.

-          Seventeenth action – ‘Encourage staff within food businesses to sign up as Army catering Reserves for training/upskilling’:

-          Amend designations to read ‘167 Catering Support Regiment RLC’ and ‘Army Reserve catering school’.

-          Add ‘Encourage SKDC Members and staff to sign up as Army Reserves for training in the range of command and control, contract management, labour support, catering and logistic support jobs available’ partnering ‘PWoG Barracks Army reserve units’ with success meaning ‘To increase reservist sign up across a range of military disciplines with consequent individual, collective and organisational benefits to SKDC’.’

One Member suggested that Members be included within the engagement of

Communities.

The Head of Services (Revenues, Benefits, Customer and Community) clarified that Members would be made aware of anything that came out of the  plan on a case by case basis, rather than the inclusion of an action relating specifically to Members.

One Member queried whether there was an age limit on reserve training.

It was confirmed that there was an age limit of 43 years old for the reserves and was wider than it was for the regulars. 

It was further requested that the strategy and plan include  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

The purpose of this report is to provide the Committee with Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 position for 2023/24 regarding customer interactions and call handling within the Customer Service team and high contact service areas.  The report will also provide an update regarding various projects being undertaken by the service and review the Customer Service action plan.

The Head of Service (Revenues, Benefits, Customer and Community) presented the report which provided the Committee with the Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 position regarding customer interactions and call handling within the Customer Service Team and high contact Services Areas.

The report also provided an update regarding various projects being undertaken by the Customer Service Team and a review of the customer service action plan.

The table and graphs on paragraph 2.5 onwards of the report provided figures of customer interactions received into the Customer Service Team since the 1 April 2023 to the 30 September 2023. The interaction figures were broken down by e-method and traditional methods.

The tables in paragraph 2.10 and 2.13 of the report provided the customer contact handled by Customer Services during Quarter 1 and Quarter 2. There had been an increase in customer contact in Quarter 2 from 47,420 to 50,412. Despite the increase, the number of calls handled had increased from 75% to 81% and had further increased to 83% as at the beginning of December 2023. 

There had been a significant reduction in calls to the switchboard, meaning that callers were being re-directed to the service area at point of contact. Week commencing 27 November 2023, 452 calls went straight to the switchboard, in comparison to 657 for the same week in 2022. Week commencing 4 December 2023, there were 281 calls directed to the switchboard, compared to 685 for the same week in 2022. This meant switchboard Officers were able to undertake other work whilst not answering calls.

It was noted that the Deepings and Stamford walk in offices had been closed. As part of the customer experience strategy, a working group had been formed for 2024 and the service offer for the Deepings and Stamford would be discussed. This review would be included as an action within the customer experience strategy.

One Member raised concern of vulnerable residents in the Deepings and Stamford, who no longer had access to a walk-in office for face-to-face communication with Customer Services.

It was queried as to whether the location of calls received was monitored.

The technology used by Officers did not allow access to the location of where the person was calling from. Customer services would complete a request form when speaking to a caller, where that data would be gathered.

Clarification was sought around the figures relating to online forms.

A query was raised in relation to the Bourne Library, and whether Bourne Town Council were able to assist residents with blue badges and bus passes, as this fell under the responsibility of Lincolnshire County Council.

The Head of Service (Revenues, Benefits, Customer and Community) clarified that the funding provided by Lincolnshire County Council was purely for the library service and any further support was not funded for. The blue badges and bus pass forms were online, and computers were available at Bourne library for residents to utilise.

It was queried whether any provision had been put into place for the possible  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

To maximise the impact of the Lincolnshire District’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy which was formally adopted by Cabinet in March 2023, consider the adoption of a local action plan to improve the health and wellbeing of residents across South Kesteven.

The Team Leader – Leisure, Parks and Open Spaces presented the report.

Cabinet had formally adopted the Lincolnshire District Council’s Health and Wellbeing strategy at their meeting in March 2023. The strategy contained an action plan detailing interventions across Lincolnshire, which would improve the health and wellbeing of residents.

When agreeing to adopt the strategy, a commitment was also made to develop a bespoke action plan specific to the district of South Kesteven.

Since March 2023, a significant amount of work had been undertaken by Officers to develop the Local Plan which accompanies the South Kesteven Health and Wellbeing Action Plan.

The responsibilities of the Council was discussed and how they could be managed.

Members welcomed certain areas of the strategy and that Housing and Homelessness was a key element of the action plan.

Clarification was sought around the meaning of economic inclusion.

The action plan detailed each of the lever areas. Economic inclusion was reducing economic inequalities and alleviating poverty as a fundamental driver for improving mental and physical health and wellbeing.

Concern was raised on the report stating that there were no financial implications.

The Deputy Leader of the Council clarified that the comments of the Officer within the report would usually be based on whether the Committee were being asked to utilise any money specifically, as part of the production of the report. It was likely that there would be financial implications when achieving actions of the plan in due course.

Members welcomed the report and thanked Officers for the detailed report.

One Member queried how the action plan would be managed and monitored moving forward.

It was proposed, seconded and AGREED that the Rural and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

1.    Endorses the South Kesteven Health and Wellbeing Action Plan aimed at achieving improved health and wellbeing outcomes for the residents of South Kesteven.

2.    Agrees to receive an update report in six months’ time on the delivery of the actions identified.

To receive the Work Programme for 2023-24.  

The Committee noted the Work Programme 2023-24.

The following item was added to the Work Programme for the meeting being held on 28 March 2024:

·       Rural Crime Update

One Member requested that referrals and a breakdown of levels of concern in regard to Safeguarding be discussed by the Committee.

Another Member requested that a response from the Health Trust be discussed by the Committee at a future meeting.

The Chairman wished the Committee a Merry Christmas.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 15:45.