Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence and temporary appointments.

None.

None.

The Committee is recommended to APPROVE the minutes of the meeting held on 08 December 2023 and to receive information arising from them.

The minutes of the 08 December 2023 were AGREED as a true and accurate record.

Members of the public who wish to speak at this meeting can attend the meeting in person or ‘virtually’ through an online connection. 

To facilitate ‘hybrid’ meetings we are asking that requests to speak or present a petition are submitted by no later than 9am four working days before the meeting i.e., 9am on 15 January 2024.  Requests to speak should be sent to Tom Hudson, Scrutiny Manager at scrutiny@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

If you are speaking ‘virtually’, you may submit a written statement of your presentation to ensure that your views are taken into account. A written copy of your statement can be provided no later than 9am 2 working days before the meeting. Written submissions should be no longer than 1 A4 sheet.

None.

Cllrs Liz Leffman, Leader of the Council, Dan Levy, Cabinet Member for Finance, and Lorna Baxter, Executive Director of Resources, have been invited to lead the presentation of the Council’s updated Budget Proposals for 2024/25 to 2026/27.

The Committee is asked to consider the Budget Proposals 2024/25 to 2026/27 paper and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising therefrom.

NB The requested additional briefing on the process around the Shepherd project is to follow and will be issued as an addendum.

Cllrs Liz Leffman, Leader of the Council, Dan Levy, Cabinet Member for Finance, and Lorna Baxter, Executive Director of Resources, were invited to lead the presentation of the Council’s updated Budget Proposals for 2024/25 to 2026/27. The majority of the Cabinet and Strategic Leadership Team were also in attendance.

The Leader of the Council opened by stating the budget that was to be presented was very different from the previous meeting as a result of work made towards reducing the previous budget gap. This work was ongoing. There had been a significant response from the public to the budget, with a positive consultation and significant use of the budget simulator. The Leader spoke to an all-staff meeting, where the need for reorganisation over the coming 18 months, which had been built into the budget, was explained to a positive staff response. A meeting with the unions had been organised. The Cabinet Member for Finance elaborated on this with the need to make the organisation more efficient, through intelligent delayering, to deliver the best service.

While the settlement received from central government was not has generous as hoped, officers had worked hard to reduce and almost close the budget gap. Any recommendations and suggestions from the Committee were appreciated. The Council’s work was two-fold, being fiscally prudent while protecting the services delivered to the most vulnerable in our community, especially children and Adult Services.

Kerry Middleton, Head of Comms Marketing and Engagement, and Carole Stow, Engagement Consultation Manager, assisted the presentation. The approach taken on consultation and engagement for the 2024/25 budget, was a two-phased approach. Phase 2 was a multifaceted approach, including a budget simulator tool. The standard of the qualitative feedback, which accompanied deliberations made on the budget simulator tool, was praised. The feedback from the simulator demonstrated support for funding within the budget for children and SEND services.

The Executive Director continued the presentation. Oxfordshire saw a settlement from central government of a 6.9% increase in funding for local government. The increase assumed the maximum Council tax increase of 4.99%, it also included the increase in social care grants. Nothing new in terms of funding was made available to local authorities. Since the December meeting there had been a reduction in the Services Grant. Fire service pensions was also rolled into the funding settlement. Owing to these there were further pressures of £2.1m, updating the funding gap to £11.2m. The Executive Director described an increase of £3.5m in Council Tax funding. Much of this increase came from the County Council’s share of council tax collection fund surpluses.

In response the Committee raised questions over the following:

·       Did the budget take account of the McCloud judgement, which could potentially further increase the cost of pensions? The Committee was informed that this budget did not account for this.

·       Clarity over the increase in Business rates Indexation Section 31 grant. The increase was due to greater compensation for the loss of business rates by Section 31.

Cllr Levy reported that £3.5m,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5/24

Cllr Dan Levy, Cabinet Member for Finance, Lorna Baxter, Executive Director of Resources, Vic Kurzeja, Director of Property Services, Chris Dyer, Operational Manager, Senior Project Lead, Property Investment and Community Facilities Management, and Michael Smedley, Head of Estates, Assets, and Investments have been invited to present a report on the City Centre Accommodation Strategy prior to its consideration at Cabinet.

The Committee is asked to consider the report and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising therefrom.

NB This item is to follow.

Cllr Dan Levy, Cabinet Member for Finance, Lorna Baxter, Executive Director of Resources, Vic Kurzeja, Director of Property Services, Chris Dyer, Operational Manager, Senior Project Lead, Property Investment and Community Facilities Management, and Michael Smedley, Head of Estates, Assets, and Investments were invited to present a report on the City Centre Accommodation Strategy prior to its consideration at Cabinet.

Topics explored by the Committee included whether a City Centre location did represent value for money, the likely uses of County Hall after any disposal, flexibilities and restrictions over social value and market value taken together with the Council’s legal obligations in this respect within the context of place-shaping objectives, potential practical requirements for Speedwell House, risks of the planning process, and timings and costings.

Cllr Neil Fawcett, Cabinet Member for Community and Corporate Services, Emily Schofield, Head of Strategy, Richard Merritt, Customer Service Centre Service Delivery, and Susmita Dave, National Management Trainee, have been invited to present a report on the draft Customer Experience Strategy prior to its later consideration at Cabinet in April.  

The Committee is asked to consider the report and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising therefrom.

Cllr Fawcett, Cabinet Member for Community and Corporate Services, introduced the draft strategy as the Council’s means to level up the approach to customer service when interacting with residents via the Council’s many services across the county. It intended to learn from and build on those areas providing good service in order to drive improvements and provide a consistently good level of service across the entire Council. An area of particular strength was the level of satisfaction recorded by those using the Customer Service Centre. Less successful with the public was the Council’s Fix My Street platform. Investment in the training and development of staff would be key.

Susmita Dave, National Management Trainee, provided further detail. The draft strategy was intended to be run over a three-year period with the express vision of ‘put[ting] the customer at the heart of our service delivery’. The need for such a strategy was driven by multiple factors. New groups of people were interacting with the Council owing to technological development, which had also raised expectations of how frictionless interactions with an organisation should be; there was a need to assure customers that standards of service existed; more positive interactions with the public would underpin the morale of staff. Feedback from the Residents’ Survey, budget consultation and other sources indicated that in some areas trust with residents had been dented. Tackling this successfully would rely both on political support and officer prioritisation.

The Strategy sought to use national data, resident survey information and mapping of customer data, profiles and interactions against customer service levels to focus on making the greatest difference.

The four key pillars of the Strategy focused on the following: 1) Embedding a customer ethos within the Council’s culture 2) Developing a better understanding of the Council’s customers and what they want, 3) Optimising access to customer services, particularly through new technology, whilst protecting the access of those for whom such technology would prove a barrier, and 4) Designing an excellent end to end customer experience so that more complex cases - drawing on input from multiple areas of the Council -could receive the same high standard of service as simpler interactions.

An important element of the Strategy was that it should be flexible to respond to new data.  The Council intended to encourage feedback from its staff, service users as well as continuing to reference and engage with information gleaned from local and national data-sets.

The Committee raised the following queries following the presentation:

·       Why had it taken so long for a customer service strategy to be formulated given the risks laid out in the strategy were so urgent? The important aspect of this strategy was that customer service was a big focus of the new Chief Executive Officer. It was important that every customer was dealt with efficiently and in a manner matching Council values. This was an opportunity to reflect and review the Customer Service Charter, and to be more productive and collaborative in the future.

·       Was a fifth  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7/24

The Committee is recommended to NOTE the progress of previous recommendations and actions arising from previous meetings, having raised any questions on the contents.

The action and recommendation tracker was NOTED.

The Committee is recommended to AGREE its work programme for forthcoming meetings, having heard any changes from previous iterations, and taking into consideration the Council’s Forward Plan and any issues arising.

The Committee AGREED the proposed work programme subject to the following additions:

-        An item on the soft-marketing of County Hall

-        Consideration of the Local Enterprise Partnership Integration

-        An item on Advice Centres