Agenda item

To inform Housing Committee of the corrective action being undertaken to strengthen operational procedures in the management of the Out of Hours Service provision. 

The Head of Contract Services introduced the report and explained that it was based on the action plan created following an Audit that had been approved at the last Audit and Standards Committee. He informed the Committee that a lot of the actions had already been completed and they were continuing to work on the outstanding ones. He stated that they had concluded that there was no systematic failing in terms of the service provision and that it was a one off and was due to a series of events. Extra precautions had been put in place this year to ensure it is not repeated.

In response from questions raised by members the Head of Contract Services answered the following:

·        The service provider has added a new dedicated line, reviewed internal processes and trained additional staff to answer phone calls. SDC has also put in measures following a non-response from contractors to escalate the matter to on call officers.

·        SDC would provide the list of the on call Officers to Members.

·         A number of processes which could be improved added up to the overall failure.

After concerns raised by Councillor Housden over the renewal of the contract, the Head of Contract Services explained the following:

·        The contractor would have met the expectations for call handling and answering however, the volume of calls drastically exceeded that number.

·        He also informed the Committee that the KPI’s were over ambitious in relation to time scales for call answering.

·        The contract was intended for extension if acceptable and this was being reviewed by One Legal.

·        The KPI’s were being looked at as part of the ongoing process.

·        The contractor performance was reviewed on a monthly basis and service users were consulted as part of this.

Councillor Housden voiced his continued concerns with the renewal process of the contractor.

The Strategic Director of Communities confirmed SDC accepted the failure and recognised the areas for improvement, they were awaiting confirmation from One Legal regarding some items within the report.

Councillor Green questioned whether a target date of the 1 December was too late considering bad weather had already started. The Head of Contract Services explained that the improvements began immediately and this deadline was for the actions and the documentation to prove these had taken place and been completed. Councillor green further questioned how often the contractor’s performance would be reviewed to which the Head of Contract Services confirmed there would be monthly meetings as well as a quarterly review. He agreed to provide the Committee with the results from the quarterly reviews and to bring back a review of the report to the April Housing Committee in 2022.

Councillor Miles proposed and Councillor Fryer seconded.

Councillor Patrick expressed a lack of confidence with the report. She questioned whether the new processes and system had been tested enough.

Councillor Housden questioned whether this report should be taken to full Council. Members debated this topic at length and agreed this could be considered after they have received the review in April 2022.

After being put to a vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

Councillor Ross gave her thanks to the Officers who had worked hard to look into the problems which had been identified and that the plan was now in place to ensure that it did not happen again.