Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

Apologies were received from Cllr Broadhead. Cllr Rice did not attend the meeting.

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications.

There were no substitute members

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made on this occasion.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meetings held on 23^rd September and 1^st October 2024.

The minutes of the meetings held on 23 September 2024 and 1 October 2024 were approved as a correct record.

To note any outstanding actions from previous Board meetings.

The Chair outlined the points on the action sheet. Items were noted and those completed or open-ended would be removed from the action sheet.

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1

The deadline for the submission of public questions is midday 3 clear working days before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday the working day before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.

There were none received on this occasion.

This report provides an update on the recommended officer actions made in relation to the Informal working group report submitted to Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 9 October 2023.

An update is also provided covering current blue badge processing performance which highlights a number of ongoing challenges currently facing the service, along with an action plan for improvement.

The Portfolio Holder for Customer, Culture and Communications and the Director of Customer and Property Business presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Board was advised that the report provided an update on the recommended officer actions made in relation to the Informal working group report submitted to Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 9 October 2023. The Board was informed that the report included an update is also provided covering current blue badge processing performance which highlights a number of ongoing challenges currently facing the service, along with an action plan for improvement. The Board considered the report and the information provided by the Portfolio Holder and Officers. A number of points were raised and responded to including:

·     Flexibly trained staff – It would be useful to have staff who would be able to backfill vacant positions, but it was important that this was aligned with the right staff and that the impact of staffing levels was not just shifted to a different area.

·     Incorrect applications – this previously resulted in the application being refused and a new application needing to be made but staff would also look at where applications could be amended /corrected to allow them to be processed without a completely new application

·     Enforcement – It was noted that parking enforcement would not be undertaken until three months after the expiry of a blue badge, but it was noted that this would only apply to Council car parks or on street parking.

·     Online application – there was nothing online to indicated that there was an alternative way to apply. It was noted that members of the public could go to a customer services centre to access a paper copy, but this would then need to be inputted by a member of staff.

·     Number of applications - It was noted that presently 900 applications were received each month, and it had only been possible to determine 850. It was currently taking approximately 14 weeks to process an application. In some cases, additional evidence was needed but this time was mostly just the time taken to start processing the application. It was noted that this wasn’t particularly an issue with Local Government Reorganisation but a matter of resources.

·     Resources – It was noted that the cost of the services was approximately £100k more than the funding received from the payment for the blue badges. Fees were only paid when the application was processed and approved. It was suggested that applicants could be given the option to set a calendar reminder to renew applications. The Board also asked about the cost of processing potentially fraudulent applications, it was noted that the impact of this was minimal.

·     Cycle of Applications – It was confirmed that the process of simpler verification of renewals had probably disrupted the cyclical flow of applications to some extent. It was suggested that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

The Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Board is asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in a Work Plan.

The Chairman presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member of the Board and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Board was asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in a Work Plan. The Chair outlined the current work programme to the Board and noted that there were a number of issues which were still waiting completion of key lines of enquiry or further information. The following actions were noted:

The item on funding for arts, culture and leisure would be focused on arts and culture and that a separate item on leisure would be in future. This needed to be programmed into the work plan.

The item on Working more collectively across BCP geographical areas / Locality Governance required further scoping but it was noted that a Community Governance Review had been initiated through Council.

Lots of comments from members regarding engagement with Council but want to consider timing. Performance across different channels – email

traffic ‘report it function’.

The Chair asked for expressions of interest in a working group on Council Performance.

Customer Services Reporting / CRM system had also been suggested as a potential working group for the Board. The Board was advised that in terms of timing this would be a good time this  It was noted that the Board could only have one working group in progress at a time although this could be included within the work plan for future availability.

In response to a query, it was confirmed that Key Lines of Enquiry Documents only need to be completed once an item has agreed to be included on the work plan after consideration of a scrutiny request form by the Board/Committee.

It was noted that the date for the briefing on the Integration of Dorset Local Enterprise Functions into Council should be January 2025. Dates for the other briefing sessions were discussed.

RESOLVED that the work plan be noted and amended as discussed.