Meeting documents
TDBC Tenant Services Management Board
Monday, 17th December, 2018 6.00 pm
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PDF 208 KBVenue: Ground Floor Conference Room - The Deane House. View directions
Contact: Clare Rendell
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Apologies.
Minutes: Apologies were received from D Flavell, K Hellier, I Hussey, Councillor B Bowrah and S Clarke. |
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Minutes of the previous meeting of the Tenant Services Management Board.
Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of the Tenant Services Management Board held on 26 November 2018 were signed and taken as read. |
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Public Question Time.
Minutes: No questions were received for Public Question Time. |
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Declaration of Interests.
To receive and record any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests or personal or prejudicial interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting. (The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)
Minutes:
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Transformation Update.
Minutes: The Head of Commercial Investment and Change (CIC) presented an update on the Transformation Project.
The Head of CIC confirmed the recruitment of the new Chief Executive, James Hassett, who would be joining the Council in January 2019. As the former Chief Executive was the Transformation Sponsor, the Head of CIC was due to take on the role in the New Year.
The new Transformation Sponsor would report to the Board more frequently over the next few months to keep the members updated on all the changes. Over the next couple of months, it was anticipated that the majority of officers would be entering their recruitment phase, which would lead to changes in service delivery.
During the presentation, details were given on the new website and the new computer system, Firmstep, which highlighted the new ways of working and would encourage customers to self-serve. Both of those would be introduced on the 1 April 2019 with the creation of the New Council, Somerset West and Taunton Council.
Certain aspects of the project were highlighted:- · Accommodation Project – which included the introduction of hot desking and an open plan office within the Deane House. · People and Change – which included the recruitment process, the new ways of working with the removal of department silos and supporting officers in their new roles. · Process Redesign – which explained how the Council would function with fewer officers, the promotion of customer self-serve for both internal and external customers and work on the 248 main processes. · Linking the benefits to the Business Case.
There were several projects being undertaken on the new technology required to enable officers in the New Council, which included:- - New Intranet. - Self – the creation of customer accounts to self-serve. - One Finance System. - Process Redesign. - Tech for the Job. - Information Management – sharepoint and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). - ‘Applying for It’ Processes. - Service – submission of requests via all access channels. - Payments. - New Website – that was one of the key processes for the New Council. - ‘Report It’ Processes. - System Consolidation.
During the discussion, the following points were raised:- · Members queried whether the Head of CIC’s role had changed. Yes, he was formerly the Director for Housing and was now a Head of one of the new functional areas in the new structure. Further details of the structure were given. · Members queried how would customer’s contact the Council if the website went down. Officers needed to ensure that there was resilience within the procedures and that the system was robust. · Concern was raised on whether the Council had a business continuity plan and Members requested reassurance. The new infrastructure would boost resilience within the business continuity plan. · Concern was raised on data protection and with more processes being online, that could increase the risk of a data breach. There were processes in place that protected sensitive data and the new GDPR ensured that there were procedures ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Repairs Update.
Minutes: The Head of Commercial Investment and Change (CIC) presented an update on the Repairs Line.
As part of the Transformation Project Update, the Board were updated on the recruitment process and advised that majority of officers would be going through their recruitment over the next couple of months, which included the DLO workforce.
So far, service delivery had been kept up to date and disruption to a minimum. During the recruitment of the DLO workforce, they wanted to ensure that priority work was covered.
Officers had been working on a new plan to engage with customers during the recruitment of the DLO workforce during January 2019 and the subsequent months. Their aim was to mitigate against any major disruption for tenants. So therefore would continue to provide work on priority one cases, which included roofing and guttering works due to the time of year and planned to introduce a repairs line for non-urgent cases. Tenants would be advised to call the repairs line where they would be directed to leave a voicemail with their details that would then be acknowledged which allowed officers to better organise their workload.
During the discussion, the following points were made:- · Concern was raised on how the information about the repairs line would be communicated with tenants. They hoped that enough information would be circulated to help manage tenant’s expectations. Officers would need to be proactive on the advertisement of the non-urgent repairs voicemail service. They would need to ensure that the information was accurate and that customers received an acknowledgement which gave them an approximate timescale for their repair. · Members queried how the customer would receive their acknowledgement. The Head of CIC was not sure but was aware that officers were working on the process and he would report back to the Board with the answer. · Concern was raised that officers would receive complaints if the information was not clear.
Resolved that the Board noted the update report. |
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Accommodation Update.
Minutes: The Project Manager presented an update on the Accommodation Project.
The Accommodation Project was described as the physical embodiment of the Transformation Project as it enabled the officers to adopt the new ways of working. The Deane House, West Somerset House, Moorland House and the Deane Depot had adopted the new ways of working.
The introduction of break out areas in the first floor office space in the Deane House had improved the work processes because officers were able to have catch ups and discussions without waiting for a room to become available.
Similarly the new phone system, 8x8, had enabled officers to work in an agile manner because calls could be answered wherever the officers were located.
The Project Manager gave details on the new Council Chamber in the Deane House. It would be a newly refurbished space with furniture that could be easily moved and new technology installed to enable the space to be flexible for the different types of users.
The Avon and Somerset Constabulary had now moved into the ground floor office space. The Project Manager confirmed that ‘cells’ were not located at the Deane House and that anyone who had been placed under arrest, would be taken to Bridgwater to process.
Works had begun on the installation of the new lift at the rear of the Deane House and once that was completed, works would begin on the refurbishment of the old lift at the front of the building.
During the discussion, the following points were raised:- · Members queried where the police vehicles were being stored. There was a vehicle compound located at the rear of the Deane House. · Members queried where the police officers parked their own cars. The police officers had made separate parking arrangements for their own cars. · Members queried how much spare office space there was in the Deane House. There was some office space on the ground floor which was soon to be occupied and from the end of February 2019, the whole of the second floor would be available. · Concern was raised on accessibility to the Deane House for evening meetings, because currently there was limited access. Out of hours access to the Deane House was being reviewed under the Accommodation Project and would be in place ready for when the works on the Council Chamber had been completed. · Members queried if they called an 8x8 phone number and it was diverted to a mobile phone, would they be charged a land line rate or a mobile phone rate. The answer would be distributed to the Board. · Members queried what the capacity of the office space was on the first floor in the Deane House. There were 200 desks plus another 100 casual desk spaces within the break out areas that could be used by officers. · A tour of the first floor office space would be arranged for the meeting of the TSMB scheduled for 21 January 2019.
Resolved that the Board noted the update report. |