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BLACKPOOL COUNCIL

EXECUTIVE MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

Report of the Cabinet Member for: /

Business Services

at the Council meeting held on: / 18th June 2008
This report provides the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Business Services portfolio.
Street Scene and Property including waste collection and disposal
The Waste Transfer Station at Layton is now being further developed for Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre use in terms of handling co-mingled recyclates (tins, glass and plastic) and paper as well as the combined card/green waste.
The second phase of the bin roll out to the high density, town centre areas, commenced on Monday 19th May 2008. This involves the distribution of bins for both residual and co-mingled dry recyclates to the properties concerned.
The ‘Big Cat’ campaign has been launched with the aim to engage communities in helping to look after the street/open space environment. So far the ‘Big Cat’ has attended over a dozen events including walking pupils to school, teaching pupils about recycling, taking action against dog fouling, attending fun days in parks, greening events and the wheelie bin rollout.
The Little Bispham Loop tramway scheme carried out by the Street Scene workforce will be completed by the end of May 2008. The site compound will then be removed and the area re-instated by soiling and seeding.
The highway and bus stop infrastructure works involved in upgrading bus routes 14 and 11 should be completed by the Street Scene workforce by early June 2008 (the work involves construction of raised platforms, installation of bus shelters and bus stop poles/flags at various sites)
The Security Team has retained most of the Service Level Agreements with Schools and Corporate Buildings. The Security Manager recently attended a public meeting with the residents of Queens Park who expressed their satisfaction with the current level of service delivery on the site.
The CCTV service has completed the installation of new cameras at Kingscote Park and Clare Street and is working on the installation of a new camera to the Central Beach development opposite Blackpool Football Club. Continuous upgrading work is underway for existing installations. The service is currently trying to fill vacant operator posts and will also undergo a scrutiny review of its operation and performance in the near future.
The Building Section is continuing to be successful on Council tendered schemes and has won some private sector commissions. However, it was unsuccessful in its application to become an approved framework contractor with Blackpool Coastal Housing thus ending the link between the Council and housing services that has existed for many years. Contracts awarded outside the Borough include Bury Metropolitan, Five Piers and Manchester
Methodist Housing Associations. Work for non-Council clients include Blackpool Zoo and schools outside Blackpool. The section is are working with Blackpool and Fylde College on a Local Enterprise Growth Initiative funded project on training “hard to employ” people on a 13-week training scheme with a view to getting them into mainstream employment. New opportunities of working with Lancaster City Council, Blackpool and the Fylde College and various Housing Associations are being explored.
Customer First and IT
March and April are traditionally the busiest months in Customer First. This is mainly due to new Council Tax bills and Benefit entitlement letters being sent out. At this time of year the service is stretched to capacity and in future, managers of services will be encouraged to avoid planning work that will lead to additional customer demand coming into Customer First during March and April.
ICT Services continue to press ahead with upgrading the Council’s phone system and developing a range a new services to assist with mobile and flexible working in preparation for the accommodation changes. Support for Street Scene and Adult Social Services is producing tangible results and new techniques that have been piloted will be used with other Council services.
Legal and Democratic Services
March saw a hiatus in workload for the commercial team in Legal Services with the property and commercial transactions in excess of £9m and the conveyance of the airport in April where the Council had to redraft all its agreements to protect its interests. The level of land charges activity continues to fall reflecting a decline in housing activity creating a budget pressure on the Council.
The Democratic Services Unit has been busy organising an exceptionally large number of school appeals. This year there have been 251 appeals to organise rather than 47 last year. This is mainly due to the new admission arrangements under the School Admission Appeals Code 2008.
Human Resources
The Pay Modernisation Project continues to be the main focus of attention for Human Resources as reported at the previous Council meetings. All posts within the Council have now been allocated into a job family. The pay modelling exercise is currently being undertaken.
We are continuing to work with and in consultation with our recognised Trade Unions.
We are pleased to confirm from 1st April 2008 the Human Resources Service for Blackpool Council now provides Fylde Borough Council under a service level agreement.
Performance Review – value for money team
Reports on Asset Management, Adult Social Care and Housing Commissioning, Cash Collection and Charging Policy are currently being finalised. Scoping meetings have been held for the first quarter reviews of this year namely Car Parking, Illuminations, Early Years and Surestart and Neighbourhoods. Workshops have been held or are planned for those reviews to identify service objectives and longer term service improvement targets. Leisure Services has become a year two review.
Work is continuing with the Greater Manchester Value for Money Group to identify areas for collaborative work that will result in quick savings for the authorities involved. An objective is to harness expertise in acknowledged areas of service charging complexity where overpayment may have occurred.
The savings target for the team for 2008-9 has been set at £1M to include savings achieved as a result of reviews carried out in 2007-8.
Revenues and Benefits
The fundamental review of our interaction with customers continues and we have now developed a new process for dealing with new claims and changes of address for benefit customers who visit the contact centre.
Many changes of address are dealt with within the same day. Early indications show that, when the new way of working is fully rolled out, new claims can be processed in under two weeks in most cases.
The next stage will incorporate customers who report changes by telephone and we will be running a pilot scheme for electronic telephone claims.
Council Tax in year collection performance stands at 10.27% for April, a 0.54% improvement on the same period last year. In addition £215,300 of arrears relating to previous year has been collected. The Direct Debit campaign and the introduction of paperless direct debit set up have resulted in an additional 1000 direct debit payers compared to April 2007.
The average time to process changes in circumstances in April was 11 days and 38 days for new claims. The seasonal increase in new claims at this time of year is higher than normal with between 430 and 460 claims per week being received during April compared to 300 per week during April in 2006 and 2007.
The revenues team from Fylde Borough Council has transferred to Blackpool Council contracts with effect from 1st April and the Shared Service is now operational at Westgate House. A restructure of the management tier during the current year will realise savings to be shared by the two Councils. Staff affected will be able to take advantage of redeployment opportunities at both Blackpool and Fylde Council.
Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to invite any questions or comments from Councillors in relation to the Business Services portfolio.