Agenda and minutes

Members and officers must declare any pecuniary or personal interest in any business on the agenda.  They should also make declarations at any stage such an interest becomes apparent during the meeting.  Consideration should be given to leaving the meeting if the nature of the interest warrants it.  If in doubt please contact Democratic Services before the meeting.

37.1     In accordance with the code of conduct, the following personal interests were declared: -

·         Cllr Hillier in respect of item 5 (End of December 2021 (Qtr 3) Quarterly Performance and Resources Report) as Cabinet Member for Economic Growth at Mid Sussex District Council

·         Cllr Lord in respect of item 6 (Economy Plan Update) as the spouse of someone who works in the travel and tourism sector and has some small business interest in West Sussex

·         Cllr Waight in respect of item 6 (Economy Plan Update) as a member of Worthing Borough Council

·         Cllr Burrett in respect of item 6 (Economy Plan Update) as a member of Crawley Borough Council and as Chair of South East Employers

The Committee is asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 31 January 2022 (cream paper).

38.1     Resolved – That the Minutes of the meeting held on 31 January 2022 be approved as a correct record and that they be signed by the Chairman.

The Committee is asked to note the responses to recommendations made at the 31 January meeting from the Cabinet Member for Finance and Property.

39.1     Resolved – that the Committee notes the response to recommendations made at its 31 January 2022 meeting.

A report by the Chief Executive and Director of Finance and Support Services setting out the corporate performance, finance, workforce, risk and capital programme positions as at the end of December 2021.

The Committee is asked to examine the data and supporting commentary for the Performance and Resources report and make any recommendations for action to the relevant Cabinet Member or Scrutiny Committee.

40.1     The Committee scrutinised the Quarter 3 Performance and Resources Report by the Chief Executive and Director of Finance and Support Services (copy appended to the signed minutes).

40.2     Summary of responses to Members’ questions and comments: -

·         There was a query as to why paid employment for adults with learning disabilities was below target – ACTION: The Chief Executive to provide a response

·         The future use of buildings that had housed children & family centres was complicated as many were leased (not owned) by the Council. Local community groups and Members have been contacted to gather information on how the buildings could be utilised and to determine if any want to take over the premises and leases, most were not in a position to do so. More detail on this would be provided in the Asset Strategy item at the June meeting

·         Confirmed that education key stage 2 results will be available after the annual examinations and that work is on-going to improve outcomes. This performance area would be looked at by the Children & Young People’s Services Scrutiny Committee

·         The war in Ukraine was not currently having much impact on the Council’s supply lines, but the situation would be monitored to understand the risks and impact on the market.

·         The Council would work with the Government and continue to support Ukrainian refugees coming to West Sussex

·         The Council is working with Southern Water, the Environment Agency and district/borough councils over the issues around water neutrality in various parts of the county

·         Savings from staff working from home came from several budget areas so can’t be used to offset the cost of the Worthing hub project – ACTION: The Deputy Finance Officer to provide details of how the Worthing hub project is funded

·         A Member asked if there were any concerns over the predictions in relation to the New Homes Bonus Grant going forward over the next couple of years - ACTION: The Chief Executive to provide a response

·         Most of the Council’s larger contracts had inflationary clauses built into them so can adapt and adjust to monitor and manage inflation changes

·         Implementation of Smartcore (the replacement of the existing SAP system with Oracle Fusion) was delayed from September 2022 to allow more time for data transfer testing. The system would now be available early next year. Savings would show in future years.

·         The SAP system has 27 systems linked into it, Oracle Fusion will have 40. There is a lot of user engagement taking place to ensure the systems integrate with each other. Also carrying out some joint learning with East Sussex County Council who are also reviewing their systems - ACTION: The Chief Executive to provide more detail on how Oracle Fusion will integrate with all the systems and the efficiencies it will deliver

·         The Council is working with other authorities re smarter working to ensure best practice is achieved. Smarter working should lead to greater collaboration, partnership working and greater flexibility. There will be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

A report by the Executive Director of Place Services and Principal Manager – Economic Growth setting out the work underway to achieve the priorities of the Economy Plan 2020-2024. The report also sets out how the County Council is working effectively to progress the Council Plan priority theme 4 `Enable Business Start-ups, Business Survival and Business Adaptation`, and priority theme 6 `Protect and Revive Tourism and the Visitor Economy` in partnership with the District and Borough Councils.

The committee is asked to review the report and make any recommendations to the Leader and Cabinet Member for Support Services and Economic Development and, if appropriate, identify any areas that require further in-depth scrutiny by the committee.

41.1     The Committee scrutinised a report by the Executive Director for Place Services (copy appended to the signed minutes).

41.2     Summary of responses to Members’ comments and questions: -

·         There is an opportunity to grow tourism in the county - the Council was working with a number of organisations and partners including the government, Visit England, and Tourism South East to achieve this

·         The Council was also working with Experience West Sussex on a shared plan to make best use of resources with a clear programme for work over the next two years. The Council is also working with the Gatwick Gateway Partnership on encouraging international visitors to West Sussex

·         Work was also taking place across the region with Brighton & Hove City Council, East Sussex County Council and destination partnerships to progress the opportunities of a pan-Sussex approach to the visitor economy

·         The Sussex Chamber of Commerce is a national trailblazer pilot for developing a Sussex Local Skills Improvement Plan, and the skills needs of the visitor economy are one of the considerations

·         The Business Hothouse programme is led by the University of Chichester and has a number of different work packages led by individual delivery bodies – due to Covid the programme went online, and it has been hard for some smaller businesses to commit to the number of hours required to participate in and complete the programmes. The programme is going to be extended to March 2023 to enable businesses to participate and outputs be achieved

·         Micro, small and medium sized enterprises were the ones getting most support from the Council

·         Customer parking and loading/unloading restrictions was an issue for some businesses

41.3     Resolved – that the Committee: -

                i.      Recognises and stresses the importance of working in partnership with district and borough councils and other partner agencies on tourism to promote and market the region as a whole

               ii.      Asks the Communities, Highways and Environment Scrutiny Committee to look at the impact of parking issues on businesses

             iii.      Would welcome more information on the successes, effectiveness and benefits of individual tourism and business-related schemes when available

A report by the Director of Communities setting out the procurement decision in relation to a Customer Service Centre function.

The committee is asked to review the report to ensure: - 

• That the outcome of the procurement meets the objectives of the Council Plan to ensure priorities and targets of the County Council can be met, specifically around KPI51: percentage of digital services available from the Council to support self-service.
• That the service being procured will provide the Council and its members with real insight into the needs of residents and their interaction with the Council
• That the outcome of the plans for management of the service and the chosen provider enable the Council to manage and monitor performance of this critical customer-facing service
• That plans are in place to manage the implementation and transfer to ensure service continuity and value for money.

42.1     The Committee scrutinised a report by the Assistant Director (Communities), copy appended to the signed minutes.

42.2     Summary of Members’ comments and questions: -

·       Around 34 Customer Service Centre staff are expected to transfer to the new provider to ensure efficiency of operation. An external provider will have the necessary technical expertise to implement the requirements of the function.  The cost of bringing this back in house would have been considerably more than the estimated cost of £10.2m of the out-sourced contract

·       Council and non-Council staff already work together in some areas, so no problems are envisaged in terms of in-house and out-sourced provision

·       The key is to find an organisation that reflects the values of the County Council which may mean that staff could be located anywhere in the UK. The Covid pandemic has changed the way we work in terms of flexibility so there may be a balance between home and office based working practices.

·       The proposed contract term is only for three years as lessons have been learnt from long contract arrangements in the past.  With technology-based services and contracts it is important to be able to adapt and change quickly to keep up-to-date which is harder with long contracts

·       To bring about the necessary culture change there have been workshops across services talking about what needed to be done differently with digital services and how to make it easy for customers to use. This dialogue will mean staff understand and are better able to address the culture change requirements.

·       There have also been corporate-wide communications, mainly with those impacted which will continue

·       Customers will still be able to make contact by phone

·       Staff will be trained to recognise vulnerable customers, deal with a wide range of queries and know who to pass calls to when appropriate

·       Current key performance indicators (KPIs) covered the whole service so didn’t highlight the differences in performance between areas – the new KPIs would, as well as showing whether the customer got a satisfactory outcome of their call

·       Artificial Intelligence and voice recognition would be used as much as possible

42.3     Resolved – that the Committee: -

               i.     Supports a partner organisation/function based within West Sussex

             ii.     Recommends a visit to a new provider when possible

            iii.     Recognises the importance of the organisational culture and stresses the importance of two-way communication and feedback plus training

            iv.     Stresses the importance of how the Council interacts with vulnerable customers to ensure they receive the support needed

             v.     Stresses the need to consider how the links are made between the in-house and out-sourced service

            vi.     Recognises the importance of staff training to ensure wider service needs can be recognised and supported when required

           vii.     Supports the inclusion of monitoring and satisfaction targets within the contract

          viii.     Welcomes the work underway to use future technologies

The Committee is asked to review its current draft work programme taking into account the Forward Plan of Key Decisions and any suggestions from its members for possible items for future scrutiny.

43.1     The Committee considered the forward work programme and extracts of the Forward Plan of Key Decisions (copies appended to the signed Minutes).

43.2     Resolved – That the Committee notes the Forward Plan of Key Decisions and Work Programme.

The next meeting of the Committee will be at 10.30am on 17 June 2022 at County Hall, Chichester.  Probable agenda items include: -

·         Asset Strategy and Policy

·         People Framework

·         Scrutiny Annual Report

·         Work Programme Report

Any member wishing to place an item on the agenda for the meeting must notify the Director of Law and Assurance by 31 May 2022.

44.1     The Committee notes its next meeting will take place on 17 June 2022, commencing at 10.30am.