Agendas, reports and minutes

Minutes of Meeting of the Customer Services Board held on Tuesday, 11 November 2014 at 2.00pm in Committee Room 3, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness.

Present:

Mr R Laird, Dr I Cockburn, Mrs M Davidson, Mr J Gordon, Mr G Rimell, Mr B Lobban, Mrs D Mackay, Mr H Morrison, Dr A Sinclair, Mr H Wood
 

Officials in attendance:

Ms M Morris, Depute Chief Executive/Director of Corporate Development
Ms V Nairn, Head of Digital Transformation
Ms T Page, Customer Services Manager
Miss J MacLennan, Democratic Services Manager

Business
 
1. Apologies for Absence

There were no apologies for absence.

2. Declarations of Interest

There were no Declarations of Interest.

3. Appointment of Chair
 
Nominations were sought at the meeting for the position of Chair of the Board.

In this regard, Mr H Morrison, seconded by Mr J Gordon, nominated Dr A Sinclair.

There being no further nominations, the Board AGREED to appoint Dr A Sinclair as Chair.

4. Minutes of Last Meeting

There had been circulated Minutes of Meeting of the last Meeting held on 16 September 2014 - which were APPROVED.

5. Customer Services Review – Update      

There had been circulated Report No. CSB/5/14 dated 4 November 2014 by the Depute Chief Executive/Director of Corporate Development which provided an update on the consultation proposals which had been recommended by the Board, Ward Member consultation and discussions undertaken with Staff and Unions.

Following a summary of the report, Members raised the following issues:-

• in regard to contact with the Council, there appeared to be differences between the percentage figures provided within the Citizens’ Panel Performance and Attitudes Survey Results and the trends highlighted within the proposed Consultation Document graph and it was important that an accurate reflection of the current position was therefore provided for Members of the Board in advance of any public consultation;
• it was vital that robust projections (following a reasonable method of statistical analysis) were identified to avoid any further uncertainty and that these projections were extended beyond the consultation period;
• in terms of customer contact, it was important to differentiate between what people said they would prefer and what they actually did;
• the Key Principles which had already been agreed by the Board should be made bolder within the Consultation Document;
• the consultation which had already been undertaken at Ward level had been extremely helpful and informative for all concerned and thanks were conveyed to the Head of Digital Transformation and her team in this respect;
• a number of comments had been made and issues raised as part of the consultation already undertaken and these would be fed into the consultation process as it progressed; and
• the on-going liaison and consultation with High Life Highland was welcomed as it was recognised that this would be important in terms of future service delivery.    

At this point, it was AGREED that, under Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the public should be excluded from the remainder of the meeting on the grounds that discussion would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 1 of Schedule 7A of the Act.  

Thereafter, and following confidential discussion, it was AGREED that Officials would take forward all comments and issues raised on the basis that the final Consultation Document would be issued to Board Members as soon as possible for agreement and in advance of staff briefings and public consultation being commenced. Once the Consultation Document had been approved by Board Members, a revised timescale would be confirmed.

It was also AGREED that a decision would be made in due course as to whether there was a requirement to hold the next scheduled meeting on 16 December 2014.       

The meeting concluded at 3.20pm.