Councillor Holloway, Cabinet Member for Central Services, introduced the report and, in doing so, highlighted some of the key achievements of the Portfolio, which included:

·         That strong debt recovery performance continued and totalled £4.7 million compared to £5.7 million for the comparable period the previous year.

·         That the service continued to perform strongly in relation to Council Tax collection rates.

·         That the Council continued to promote online transactions which were now available for a number of activities, including making payments.

·         That the Counter Fraud and Investigation Service had been praised for its professional approach to tackling economic crime following a recent inspection by the Home Office and Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, due to its unique access to Police data.

·         That the Council’s Counter Fraud and Investigation Service was the only unit outside of the Police which was accredited to deliver the Professionalising Investigation Programme, which meant that all investigation staff in the department were trained to the same standards as Police Detectives that enabled them to investigate the most serious crimes.

·         That Thurrock Shared Legal Services had received Municipal Journal (MJ) achievement and “lawyer of the year” whilst building capacity and creating resilience, which was supported by the service receiving a top performing Legal Service for Lexcel Accreditation by The Law Society.

The Cabinet Member for Central Services also welcomed staff who were transitioning back to employment at the Council from Serco.

Members questioned the Cabinet Member and received responses as follows:

·         Councillor Gledhill observed that it was good to see some improvements, particularly in relation to fraud and risk management. He felt that despite successes there were still a number of failures and questioned what steps the Cabinet Member was taking to ensure that poor departmental performance was not rewarded.

The Cabinet Member advised that she would need to examine this in further detail.

·         Councillor Hebb recognised that staff were working for the betterment of residents but felt that in order to move forward Thurrock needed to improve accessibility of customer service functions, especially as some residents worked seven days a week which would make it difficult to visit the Civic Offices. He called upon the Cabinet Member to undertake a review of the existing labour resource to ensure that residents who worked long hours, and needed to access front line services, were not hampered due to the Council offering a 9 am to 5 pm service.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that it was important for residents to be able to access services when they needed it at a time convenient for them, and as a result the vast majority of services could be transacted online however there was still a call-centre in operation for those who preferred to speak to someone.

·         Councillor S. Little explained that there were still residents who were not able to access public services online and questioned what arrangements were in place to ensure that those without digital services did not become ignored.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that there were still a number of options in place for those residents who could not access services online, which included a call-centre.

·         Councillor Redsell expressed frustration and concern at the telephone system, and questioned what level of service the public received if Councillors could not be put through to the service they wanted, as her phone call had been transferred back to the call-centre six times during one phone call.

The Cabinet Member agreed that there were issues with the telephony system which was one of the reasons the Serco contract was being brought back so that the Council could have greater control and improve the service.

·         Councillor Johnson highlighted the value of the Sundry Debtors system and asked whether the Cabinet Member could provide assurances that the statistics were a result of good recovery systems and not due to staff writing off debts too early.

The Cabinet Member assured Members that debts were not written off quickly or easily.

·         Councillor Stewart reported that the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee had recently requested officers to review accreditations the authority could undertake to demonstrate performance and asked if the Cabinet Member could also investigate this matter. Examples that were provided included ISO 9000 certification and Occupational Health and Safety.

The Cabinet Member advised that she would follow this matter up with officers.

·         Councillor Ojetola questioned how the request for services were being recorded correctly centrally when enquiries were received from residents.

The Cabinet Member explained that each department had specific monitoring records which categorised and logged enquiries.

·         Councillor Ray congratulated the Cabinet Member for the report and savings which were expected to be delivered by the transfer of Serco but asked for clarification regarding the Serco staff pension provision and whether costs had been taken into account.

The Cabinet advised that the details of pension provision were still being identified but they were a consideration.