Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors P M Beresford, J M Heron, M Rose and D A Sargent.

It was noted that, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 4, Councillors B Gardner and P J Hawkins had been appointed as substitute members for Councillors S A Sargent and J M Heron respectively.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members in respect of business to be transacted on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

To scrutinise the proposals of the Director of Shared Services (EK Services) in respect of the withdrawal of face-to-face service provision at the Deal Area Office.

The Chairman of the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee has indicated that the Committee will extend the arrangements for public speaking to cover this item of business.

The Portfolio Holder for Corporate Resources and Performance, Councillor M D Conolly, introduced the presentation to the Committee.

The Director of Shared Services advised that similar closures had taken place at the area offices in Canterbury City Council and Thanet District Council. Members were advised that the changes to the provision of face-to-face services at area offices in the Dover District was not about forcing people to access services on-line as there was still the option of telephone services and being able to make appointments at the Council Offices in Whitfield. There would also be a home visiting service for those individuals who needed it.

In respect of the Deal Area Office, the ‘average’ user was a 45-54 year old female without a disability who had travelled 2.19 miles to bring in paperwork and who may have been in Deal for other purposes as well. The reasons for visits to the Deal Area Office were broken down as followed:

·         33% Benefits

·         21% Parking

·         16% Council Tax

·         8% Other (including non-DDC related matters)

·         7% Waste

·         7% Housing

·         7% East Kent Housing

·         1% Food Voucher

Members were advised that as a result of changes to the benefits system there was a decreasing need for people to bring in paper evidence. These changes included new digital systems, risk based verification and the roll out of Universal Credit. Furthermore, parking charges (which related to 1/5^th of customer contacts) could only be dealt with online from November 2017.

Overall, the number of customer contacts had decreased year-on-year since 2015/16.

The proposed alterative access for each category of customer contact was as follows:

·         Benefits – Online, post, email, appointments, telephone

·         Parking – Online only

·         Council Tax – Online, post, email, appointments, telephone

·         Other – Email, telephone

·         Waste – Online, email, telephone and local issue for bags

·         Housing – Telephone, post, email, appointments

·         East Kent Housing - Telephone, post, email, appointments

·         Food Voucher – Not an EKS provided service

In response to questions from Members it was stated:

·         That there would no redundancies arising from the changes as the area office staff would be redeployed to fill currently vacant positions in the call centre. This would in turn relieve pressure on call answer times which was currently not on target. EKS was also looking at recruiting apprentices.

·         That the hours during which appointments could be made at the Whitfield Offices had been adjusted to reflect changes in bus timetables.

·         That EKS had been working with Age UK/Age Concern to provide assistance for elderly and vulnerable people.

·         That EKS had a lone working policy in place and that the home visiting service offered greater control as officers knew the details of the people that they were visiting.

·         That much of the required documentation could be submitted electronically now as evidence for benefits.

·         That there was not expected to be an impact on local businesses in Deal through the withdrawal of face-to-face customer contact as surveys and staff feedback had indicated that many customers were in Deal for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83.