Agenda item

Members considered the reports within the District Executive agenda for 04 October 2018 and made comments as detailed below.  Responses to most comments and questions were provided at the Scrutiny Committee by the relevant officer, Director or Portfolio Holder.

Direct Hostel Provision, Move-on Accommodation and Support (Agenda item 6)

Members received a short presentation on the homeless service in South Somerset and the support available to vulnerable homeless people by the Portfolio Holder and the Acting Welfare & Careline Manager.

• Scrutiny supported the recommendations of the report.
• Members queried what they could do and who to contact if they found someone sleeping outside. 
• Members suggested a small business card with the contact details of the SSDC Homeless Service to hand to vulnerable individuals to encourage them to contact the service.
• Clarification on the sources of the grants received was sought and explained by the Acting Welfare & Careline Manager.
• An explanation of the Tenancy Accreditation Scheme was given which helped individuals to complete modules on subjects such as cooking, good relations and maintaining a tenancy to help them in permanent rented accommodation.
• It was suggested that the financial information in paragraph 45 could be separated into a more readable format or table. 

The Chairman thanked the Acting Welfare & Careline Manager and her team of staff for their work in assisting single adults in need of accommodation.

Update on the Development Consent Order Application for the dualling of the A303 Sparkford to Ilchester (Agenda item 7)

The Specialist for Strategic Planning explained the progress made since her last report in July 2018 and the need to delegate authority for the Council’s Relevant Representations to the Lead Specialist for Strategic Planning in consultation with the Portfolio Holders due to time pressures.  She noted they were not progressing the Planning Performance Agreement to attempt to reimburse some of the costs any further also due to time issues. The public examination was due to start in December 2018 but Highway England now wanted it to start at the end of November. 

·         Members expressed concern that the process should not be delayed.

·         Members expressed concern that officers were stretched and the Lead Specialist for Strategic Planning acknowledged that additional support was needed.

SSDC Transformation Programme (Agenda item 8)

The Portfolio Holder for Transformation and the Strategic Lead for Transformation provided an update on the current position of the transformation Programme.  They confirmed that a communication plan for Councillors and officers had been agreed and the work with Civica on the final processes was progressing at pace.  There would also be a Members Workshop on 10^th October to look at the Members Portal.

·         Members asked if the Locality Teams would be fully operational in January 2019 and it was confirmed that this was imbedded in the plans and was integral to the new ways of working however, as with any new system, it would take time to bed in and develop over time.

·         Members asked for the position of the Streetscene service and it was confirmed that in order to deliver the business plans, there would be some restructuring required in the Streetscene service but the majority of roles would be assimilated.

·         Members asked if more roles were to be scoped and it was confirmed that some roles within Commercial Services and Income Generation still had to be scoped.

·         It was also confirmed the programme was still running to schedule.

·         Members asked about morale with respect to internal communications and it was confirmed that there was a weekly Transformation Tuesday bulletin to all staff.  The focus was now on ways of working and services to customers.

·         Members asked about support to the Area Committees in the future and it was confirmed that the Members working group were looking at this.  No firm decision had been made on the future IT requirements for Members other than they would be provided and supported in house. 

·         Members asked if there any issues with the Civica software following the outturn report from South Hams Scrutiny Committee and it was confirmed that SSDC had purchased a different suite of IT as it already had a number of Civica systems in place and so work was progressing to link the systems.

At the conclusion of the debate, the Strategic Lead for Transformation confirmed that they would be showcasing the new IT to staff and Members very shortly. 

The Chairman thanked the Strategic Lead for Transformation and her team for work in bringing the project forward.

District Executive Forward Plan (Agenda item 9)

In response to a question, the Lead Specialist for Strategic Planning confirmed that they would be shortly be holding Member Workshops on the Local Plan Review Preferred Options prior to its approval at District Executive and Council in February 2019.  She also confirmed that the Leisure Contracts were due to be reviewed in 2021.