Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Panel

Date: Tuesday 19 October 2010

Time: 10.00am

Venue: Edwards Room, County Hall, Norwich

Persons attending the meeting are requested to turn off mobile phones.

Membership

Mr M Brindle Mrs D Clarke (Liberal Democrat Spokesperson) Mr S Clancy Mr B Collins Mr J Dobson Mr R Hanton Mr C Jordan (Chairman) Mr M Langwade Ms J Mickleburgh Mr J Mooney Mr A Proctor (Vice Chairman) Mr R Smith Dr M Strong Mrs J Toms (Green Spokesperson) Mr A White Mrs C Walker (Labour Spokesperson) Mr T Williams

Cabinet Members (Non-Voting) Mr B Borrett Efficiency Mr I Mackie Finance and Performance Mr J Carswell Culture Customer Services and Communications

Deputy Cabinet Members (Non-Voting) Mr J Herbert Corporate Affairs

For further details and general enquiries about this Agenda please contact: Catherine Wilkinson on 01603 223230 or email [email protected] Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Panel – 19 October 2010

A g e n d a

1. To receive apologies and details of any substitute members attending.

2. Minutes To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 15 September 2010. (Page 1)

3. Members to Declare any Interests

Please indicate whether the interest is a personal one only or one which is prejudicial. A declaration of a personal interest should indicate the nature of the interest and the agenda item to which it relates. In the case of a personal interest, the member may speak and vote on the matter. Please note that if you are exempt from declaring a personal interest because it arises solely from your position on a body to which you were nominated by the County Council or a body exercising functions of a public nature (e.g. another local authority), you need only declare your interest if and when you intend to speak on a matter. If a prejudicial interest is declared, the member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed unless members of the public are allowed to make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter, in which case you may attend the meeting for that purpose. You must immediately leave the room when you have finished or the meeting decides you have finished, if earlier.

These declarations apply to all those members present, whether the member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local member on an item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area.

4. To receive any items of business which the Chairman decides should be considered as a matter of urgency

5. Public Question Time

15 minutes for questions from members of the public of which due notice has been given.

Please note that all questions must be received by 5pm on Thursday 14 October 2010. Please submit your question(s) to the person named on the front of this agenda. For guidance on submitting public questions, please view the Council Constitution, Appendix 10, Council Procedure Rules at www.norfolk.gov.uk/reviewpanelquestions.

6. Local Member Issues/Member Questions

15 minutes for local members to raise issues of concern of which due notice has been given.

Please note that all questions must be received by 5pm on Thursday 14 October 2010. Please submit your question(s) to the person named on the front of this agenda. Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Panel – 19 October 2010

7. Cabinet Member Feedback on Previous Overview & Scrutiny Panel Comments (if any)

8.a Scrutiny – Norse Governance Arrangements 8.b Scrutiny – Norse (Page 10) Report by the Managing Director of the Norse Group Ltd. This report seeks to clarify the details of the Norse arrangements by (Page 31) responding to a series of questions and issues raised by members and aims to improve Members’ general level of understanding about how the Group operates, its value to Norfolk County Council and, more widely, the people of Norfolk.

9. Scrutiny – Role of Customer Services and Communications Report by Head of Customer Service and Communications (Page 56) This paper summarises the role and purpose of this service and function in helping to achieve the Council’s overall objectives and in particular that of improving customer focus, to inform members of the service.

10. Scrutiny - Review of the Council's Constitution Report by the Chairman of the Scrutiny Working Group (Page 73) The report provides further findings and recommendations of the Scrutiny Working Group established by the Panel.

11. Scrutiny – Forward Work Programme Report by the Director of Corporate Resources. (Page95) Members to review and develop the scrutiny programme.

Group Meetings Conservative 9.00am Colman Room Green Party 9.00am Room 532 Liberal Democrat 9.00am Room 504

Chris Walton Head of Democratic Services and Scrutiny County Hall Martineau Lane Norwich NR1 2DH

Date Agenda Published: 11 October 2010

If you need this Agenda in large print, audio, Braille, alternative format or in a different language please contact Catherine Wilkinson 0344 800 8020 or 0344 800 8011 (textphone) and we will do our best to help.

Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Panel Minutes of the Meeting Held on 15 September 2010

Present:

Mr C Jordan (Chairman) Mr J Mooney Mr M Brindle Mr G Nobbs Mr S Clancy Mr A Proctor Mrs D Clarke Mr R Smith Mr B Collins Dr M Strong Mr J Dobson Ms J Toms Mr R Hanton Mr A White Mr M Langwade Mr T Williams Mrs J Mickleburgh

Cabinet Member Present:

Mr D Murphy Culture, Customer Services and Communications

Deputy Cabinet Member Present:

Mr J Herbert Corporate Affairs

1 Apologies

Apologies were received from Mrs C Walker with Mr G Nobbs substituting.

2 Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting held 14 July 2010 were considered by the Panel, with the addition of a bullet point to item 10 - West Norfolk Partnership:  The question was asked to Martin Slater of the LSP – why were 25% of looked after children placed out of county? This could not be answered at the time. With this amendment, the minutes were agreed by the Panel and signed by the Chairman.

3 Declarations of Interest

Mr T Williams declared a personal interest in item 8 as a Director of Norse. Mr J Herbert declared a personal interest as the Council’s nominated shareholder representative. Mr D Murphy, Mr G Nobbs and Mrs D Clarke declared personal interests as members of the Shareholder Committee. Mr S Clancy declared a personal interest as a customer of Norse.

- 1 - 4 Urgent Business

There were no items of urgent business.

5 Public Question Time

(a) Question from Mr John Martin:

“The total remuneration cost of the six chief officers together in 2009 - 2010 was £1.05m with the Chief Executive accounting for one quarter of that. Will the Panel take into account, when reviewing the role of the chief executive, that there is not only a considerable overlap between his role and the roles of the other five chief officers, but also his role and that of the Leader?”

In reply the Chairman answered that this would be considered as part of the scrutiny.

6 Local Member Issues / Member Questions

There were no local member issues or questions.

7 Cabinet Member Feedback

There was no Cabinet Member feedback.

8 Scrutiny – City of Norwich Partnership (LSP)

The Panel received a presentation by Laura McGillivray, Chief Executive of Norwich City Council, Graham Creelman, Chairman of City of Norwich Partnership, and Rachael Metson, Partnerships Manager, Norwich City Council together with a report by the Director of Children’s Services (annexe 8).

Following the presentation, the following points were raised:

 It was confirmed that the Partnership invited neighbouring districts to participate in meetings, and the County Council representative regularly attended meetings. The Greater Norwich Development Partnership (GNDP) was working on the Joint Core Strategy (JCS) on wider boundaries than those of Norwich City Council. Lord Mayors Receptions focussed on the widest possible boundaries. Boundaries were flexible according to topic.

 Sustainable Development came under the remit of the GNDP who were looking at physical planning of the city. Norwich City Council worked with the Shaping Norfolk’s Future partnership. New arrangements for Local Enterprise Partnerships were being considered by Government

 Partners were not required to directly contribute financially, however if an agreed specific work programme involved a partner a contribution could be expected. Core funding was small and the partnership was managed within this.

 Housing stock condition was being improved in line with the Decent Home target and was set to be completed by the end of March 2011, although it was

- 2 - acknowledged that the Connaught collapse could delay this slightly. Emergency plans and contracts were being put in place for the short and medium term.

 Funding for capital projects was queried and it was agreed that a report on this would be sent to all members.

 Future challenges in relation to young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) would be met with the resources available at the time.

 The Sustainable Community Strategy had been refreshed around 4 years previously and would be looked at again once the Comprehensive Spending Review had been published.

 Homelessness was being tackled through tenanting empty homes and maximising the use of both public and privately owned properties. Family Units were also successful in giving money advice, furniture etc. A draft homelessness strategy would soon be out for consultation

 Crackdowns on bad behaviour were being instigated with the police as the community safety aspect of the Local Strategic Partnership. Different localities presented different challenges and work was underway to improve physical locations.

The Committee noted the presentation and thanked the speakers for an informative session.

9 Scrutiny - Norse

The Panel received a report (annexe 9) from the Managing Director of the Norse Group Ltd. Questions were answered by Peter Hawes, Managing Director of Norse Commercial Services Ltd and Mike Britch, Managing Director of Norse Group Ltd. Councillor Williams stepped down from the Panel for this item but remained in the room to answer questions as a Director of Norse.

The following points were raised during the discussion:

 Tax losses were experienced in the start up phases of a subsidiary, however most subsidiaries ended up profitable. In the initial year, profits from other subsidiaries would subsidise the new company.

 Norse was formed from the Compulsory Competitive Tendering requirements. Norse became a limited company to demonstrate a level playing field in the market. No pilot funding was used to do this.

 Norse did not appear on the Norfolk County Council risk register because it was not considered a significant risk, however if this changed it would be placed on the register.

 The Chairman of the Norse Shareholders Committee was the Chief Executive of Norfolk County Council. The Committee met quarterly and cross party representation was appointed. The primary function of the committee was to communicate direction and strategy within the constraints of commercial

- 3 - sensitivity. The terms of reference for the shareholder committee had been previously agreed by Cabinet. Information was shared within Groups by individual members of the Shareholders Committee. It was suggested that a regular bulletin of information could be shared on Members Insight.

 There were 4 Directors, two had one Board vote each, two had two Board votes each. The main Board approved activities of subsidiaries. The Board worked according to the Articles of Association. Shareholder or Leader approval was required for any decisions outside of the remit of the Board (including the setting up of a new subsidiary). As with any company, the shareholder(s) could overturn any decision made by the Board.

 The value of shares and the injection of cash in return for shares was discussed. It was noted that the value of the company went up, and that the cash had been working capital for investment for growth. This would lead to long term returns.

 Norse had its own performance indicators, these were reported regularly to the Board.

 Conflicts of interest for Directors such as the Director of Corporate Resources was discussed, and the suggestion made that a Director cannot be both customer and supplier. It was clarified that conflicts of interest were very carefully managed and avoided, and that NCC and Norse worked together to get the best deal between them. It was noted that the Director of Corporate Resources did not receive any remuneration from Norse.

After 45 minutes the Chairman suspended discussion and noted that the scrutiny would continue at the next meeting. A fuller report detailing governance, conflicts of interest and performance indicators would be presented at the next meeting.

10 Scrutiny – Compliments and Complaints 2009/10

The Committee received a report (annexe 10) from the Head of Democratic Services and the Strategy and Regulatory Manager. A correction was noted on page 29 – the 2009/10 Adult Social Services Stage 1 figure should have read 988, therefore the total 2009/10 Stage 1 complaints were 1,723.

During the discussion, the following points were raised:

 It was clarified that Stage 1 complaints were generally dealt with by team managers within departments. Stage 2 complaints were dealt with by the departmental complaints officer.

 A more robust approach to data collection was in place in Adult Social Services (now Community Services), also the high figures were attributable to specific issues such as the closure of the Essex and Silver Rooms, and issues with CareForce. These figures would be reported to the Community Services O&S Panel and exceptional issues highlighted.

 Work had been carried out in Children’s Services to standardise the categorisation of complaints.

- 4 -  The likelihood that future figures would decrease would depend on what future decisions were made regarding services provided by the Council.

 A potential increase in Freedom of Information (FoI) requests was acknowledged, as the new requirements to publish expenditure over £500 could provide a signpost for many requests.

 It was confirmed that the Youth Offending Team figures would continue to be included in future reports, following their new structure being implemented in September 2009.

 It was confirmed that a new complaints handling process had been developed to ensure consistency across departments.

 It was noted that the Head of Communications would shortly be taking responsibility for complaints under a shared service which would provide an even greater emphasis on consistency.

 There were no systems in place to monitor individuals who were persistent complainers, FoI requesters or makers of complaints under the Standards regime. It was noted that people could exercise their democratic rights in these areas.

 It was confirmed that the average cost of an FoI request was related to the central collation team.

The committee noted the contents of the report.

11 Scrutiny – Terms of Reference for new scrutiny topics

The Committee received a report (annexe 11) from Keith Cogdell, Scrutiny Support Manager. It was noted that the timing of the report to Panel on ‘Pension Schemes’ would be amended so that a fuller report could be given in November.

The phrase ‘doppelspitze’ was clarified as meaning ‘dual leadership’.

The Committee agreed the terms of reference for:

(a) Communications and Customer Focus

(b) Pension Schemes

12 Scrutiny – Forward Work Programme

The Committee received a report (annexe 11) from Keith Cogdell, Scrutiny Support Manager.

During the discussion the following points were raised:

 The progress report arising from the Shared Services scrutiny would be reported

- 5 - after the January meeting.

 It was queried whether the scrutiny item – ‘Promoting Diversity on the Composition of the County Council’ – was something that Members had any influence over. It was suggested that ways of attracting under-represented groups within the population to stand for election could be scrutinised.

The Committee agreed that a report on ‘Promoting Diversity on the Composition of the County Council’ be presented and any possible scrutiny arising would be considered. It was agreed that this item would be removed from the Forward Work Programme.

13 Corporate Resources Integrated Performance and Finance Monitoring Report for 2010 - 11

The Committee received the report (annexe 13) from the Head of Budgeting and Financial Management and the Senior Policy and Performance Officer.

During the discussion the following points were raised:

 It was noted that the Norse forecast of income was out of step with the budget, and was a continuation of the increased income received in 2009/10. It was recognised that the 2010/11 budget was slightly understated, and this would be corrected as part of the 2011/12 budget preparation.

 The Icelandic bank reserve increase was based on latest accounting advice and information. There was uncertainty in relation to how much would be recovered from the Icelandic bank investments. The forecast increase in the Icelandic bank reserve was a reflection of the amount included in the 2010/11 budget to be transferred to this reserve.

 Benefits of the Norfolk Work Style would be reported through Norfolk Forward, the results would be seen in future years as savings were achieved. The Panel would receive a report and savings would be seen in the budget proposals.

The Panel noted the contents of the report.

14 Overview – Carbon and Energy Reduction Programme Quarterly Update

The Committee received the report (annexe 14) from the Assistant Director, Environment and Waste, the Principal Financial Projects Officer and the Principal Management Consultant.

During the discussion the following points were raised:

 A query was raised relating to how carbon was reduced in waste management. A response would be circulated.

 It was noted that two areas of carbon reduction did not have to be reported by NCC: Norse; and gypsy and traveller sites.

 The top priority was to reduce NCC’s energy costs, then to look at income

- 6 - streams from generating energy. The next quarterly report would give fuller detail. Details of a standalone Energy Services Company, and where this would sit, had not been determined but would be going through the decision making process.

 It was noted that constraints and good practise were shared among managers.

The Panel noted the contents of the report.

The meeting concluded at 12.40pm

Chairman

If you need these minutes in large print, audio, Braille, alternative format or in a different language please contact Catherine Wilkinson on 0344 8008020 or 0344 8008011 (textphone) and we will do our best to help.

- 7 - City of Norwich Partnership Shaping a partnership fit for purpose

• Strategic and Delivery board • Thematic partnerships – Focus at the right level – Norwich – Greater Norwich (GNDP) (GNHP) – County (contributing to the LAA) – Accountable for delivery of major programmes • What is the future landscape of partnership working?

Programme delivery: Programme delivery: The Neighbourhood Local Enterprise Growth Initiative 2007- 11 Renewal Fund 2006-10 • Teenage Pregnancy: MAP outreach services, Condom Aim: To release the economic and productivity potential Card scheme, Access to free emergency contraception of the most deprived local areas across the country through enterprise and investment • Mental Health: Discovery Quest, MIND Mental Health • Enterprise centre - provides support to people across First Aiders, Green Gym Norwich to get started in business, get back to work or • Education: Learning mentors & pastoral support find better employment. assistants, holiday/ breakfast clubs • BIZZ FIZZ Coaches – targeted support for people • Crime: Tackling alcohol & violence, Safer schools entering self employment partnership, mobile police unit for hotspot areas • Community Learning Mentors – first rung support for • Communities: Supporting families in crisis, education and training neighbourhood management, community clean ups, 3 rd • Prince’s Trust development awards – enterprise support sector engagement for young people • BUY LOCAL! – support for local businesses

Delivery to date 2009-10 Key priority: Worklessness CoNP Annual Conferences st • November 2006 - 1 CoNP Annual forum (Will Hutton) Discovery • June 2007 – Growth & Planning The best of what is • Annual Forum – 17 January 2008 – Tackling deprivation through creativity Delivery Dream Acting, learning, Imagine the future, th • 15 October 2008 – Worklessness adjusting, improving picturing results

Design Constructing the ideal

Challenge Change Connect – Appreciative Inquiry

1 Worklessness City of Culture • Role Models for Young People: • Vibrant bid to become UK City of Culture 2013 – The Norfolk Exchange engaged to deliver a • Multi agency, multi cultural representation programme in Norwich schools • Shortlisted to the final four • Opportunities Norwich Project: • Massive achievement – Tackling Worklessness Operational Forum, Client referral network, Awareness Raising Workshops for • Norwich recognised as a cultural city front line staff • Many creative and cultural initiatives will still occur in the • Norwich Resource Box: approach to and during 2013 – Social Networking co-ordination via Opportunities Norwich Project, promotion of ‘Norfolk Unites’ • Targeted NRF funded projects: – Healthy futures, Meridian East, YMCA Y-Life, Money & debt advice ‘roadshows’

Norwich Third Sector Forum

• Mapping of local service provision • Advocacy and advice • Dynamic exchange and consultation with Norwich City Council and CoNP partners • Training and information workshops • Three Annual conferences – fourth in development!

2 Report to Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel 19 October 2010

Item No 8a

The Norse Group Ltd

Governance Arrangements

Report by the Managing Director of the Norse Group Ltd

Summary

This report seeks to explain how the Norse Group Ltd is managed for the benefit of Norfolk County Council

1.0 Background

1.1 At its meeting on 15 September 2010, the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel asked for more detail about the governance arrangements for the Norse Group and this report seeks to answer the issues raised.

2.0 Role of the Board of Directors

2.1 The Directors of the Norse Group Ltd are:

Paul Adams Chairman Mike Britch Managing Director Councillor Tony Williams Director Peter Hawes Director

Andrew Merricks is the Company Secretary.

2.2 All Directors are appointed by the County Council and the County Council can remove any Director.

2.3 Paul Adams and Councillor Tony Williams have two votes each, with the Executive Directors (M Britch and P Hawes) each having a single vote. By this means, the nominated NCC Directors have the majority vote and therefore exercise control of the company.

2.4 As a limited company, the Norse Group Ltd has to comply with all the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. Consequently, the Directors have a duty to:

 Act within the powers of the company  Promote the success of the company  Exercise independent judgement  Exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence  Avoid conflicts of interest  Not accept benefits from third parties  Declare interests in a transaction or arrangement

2.5 Clearly, the Directors have a legal responsibility to ensure the success of the company and avoid conflicts of interest which would result in their gaining personally from decisions they make as Directors.

2.6 The Board is also responsible for:

 The production, publication and filing of the annual accounts  The production and filing of the annual return  The health and safety of the employees

2.7 The Articles of Association are a company’s constitution and are legally binding on the company. The Articles for the Norse Group include a number of matters which require Leader approval as previously detailed in the report to the Scrutiny Panel on 15 September 2010 at paragraph 2.2.6. As a company controlled by the County Council the Norse Group also has to keep within the vires of Local Authorities.

2.8 A full version of the Articles of Association for the Norse Group is attached at Appendix 3.

2.9 The Norse Group is a company limited by share. All shares in the Norse Group are owned by the County Council. As it is a corporate body, the County Council appoints a Member to represent its interests as Shareholder as set out in section 3 below. In addition to the Shareholder Representative, the Norse Group has the advantage of having a Shareholder Committee which gives feedback to the County Council on the decisions made by the company.

3.0 Role of the Shareholder Representative

3.1 In the Cabinet report of 11 February 2002 relating to the incorporation of the two companies, NPS and NCS, the Cabinet agreed to nominate a single Member to act as its Shareholder Representative.

3.2 The Shareholder Representative’s role is to protect the interests of the Shareholder, to support the development of the Norse Group and maximise this strategic asset of the Council. 2

3.3 There are a number of matters which require Leader approval under the Articles of the company as detailed in the report to the Scrutiny Panel on 15 September 2010 at paragraph 2.2.6, and the Shareholder Representative advises the Leader on these matters.

3.4 A Shareholder Committee now helps formulate any advice that the Shareholder Representative gives to the Leader.

3.5 The Shareholder Representative attends the Norse Group Annual General Meeting (AGM); is invited to attend all the Norse Board Meetings and is copied in on all the Board Papers.

4.0 Role of the Shareholder Committee

4.1 At the Cabinet Scrutiny meeting in November 2008, Members queried the role of the Shareholder Representative and following the meeting the formation of a Shareholder Committee was suggested as a means of addressing the concerns.

4.2 The Terms of Reference and proposed membership of the Shareholder Committee were approved by Cabinet at its meeting on 13 July 2009. The Terms of Reference are attached to this report at Appendix 1.

4.3 The purpose of the Shareholder Committee was agreed as follows:

1. To support the development of the Norse Group Ltd

2. To ensure that the legal and commercial interests of the County Council as Shareholder are considered and protected

3. To advise Cabinet, as appropriate, on County Council Shareholder issues.

4.4 Subsequent to approval by Cabinet, there have been four meetings of the Shareholder Committee (on a quarterly basis):

 29 September 2009  27 January 2010  12 April 2010  28 July 2010

4.5 A copy of the agenda for each of the above meetings is attached at Appendix 2.

4.6 Any member of the Shareholder Committee can ask for items to be included on the agenda.

4.7 The confidential items are those relating to the future business activities of the company which, if they became public knowledge, could have an adverse impact on the ability of the Norse Group to secure of new work.

5.0 The Connection with COG

5.1 Both Executive Directors of the Norse Group Ltd (Peter Hawes, Managing Director of Norse Commercial Services Ltd, and Mike Britch, Managing Director of NPS Property Consultants Ltd) are invited to attend some of the weekly meetings of Norfolk County Council’s Chief Officers’ Group (COG) when they are able to contribute to the strategic management of the County Council.

5.2 The Norse Group has responsibility for the delivery of a significant number of NCC services and its performance impacts on the overall performance of the Authority.

5.3 The Norse Group Ltd is also a strategic asset of the Authority and the attendance at COG by the Executive Directors ensures that this is maximised.

5.4 The Norse Group Executive Directors are excluded from any discussion at COG that could be considered to be a conflict of interest.

5.5 Senior staff from the Norse Group’s joint venture partnerships are also members of their host Authority’s strategic leadership teams and are seen to add value to the strategic management of the host Authority.

5.6 Concerns have been raised that conflicts of interest may undermine the involvement of the Norse Group at COG but it should be noted that:

1. NCC is the only Shareholder of the company

2. All the financial benefits of the company, either revenue or Shareholder value associated with work for the County Council, are ultimately returned to NCC

3. NCC is the parent company of the Norse Group and is required to consolidate the Norse accounts into its own accounts annually.

5.7 Currently, the Managing Director of NPS Property Consultants Ltd also acts as the Corporate Property Officer for the County Council but this responsibility will be passed to one of the Members of the Chief Officer Group.

5.8 Legally the County Council can only delegate its powers to an outside organisation by means of a Ministerial Order made under the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994. No application has been made for this order and, therefore, any decisions relating to acquisition, lease or exchange, lease renewals, letting and disposal of land or buildings are delegated to the Chief Executive, or appropriate Chief Officer or Cabinet Member.

5.9 The company continues to offer the best possible professional advice upon which the decisions can be made.

6.0 Communication

6.1 The Norse Group works hard to communicate to Members and Officers of Norfolk County Council about the services it provides and the benefits it brings to Norfolk County Council and the Taxpayers of Norfolk by various means and some of these are outlined below.

6.2 Cabinet Reports

6.2.1 Cabinet receives two reports per year on the Norse Group. The first is the Annual Report which is presented in October/November each year. The second is an interim update on progress during the year.

6.3 Presentations to Members

6.3.1 In September 2009, the Managing Director of the Norse Group gave a presentation to Members which explained the governance of the Group and gave an overview of the company and the value of its services to Norfolk County Council.

6.4 Publications

6.4.1 A Members’ newsletter, “News from Norse” has been published twice so far: Autumn 2009 and Spring 2010. The next edition, Autumn 2010, is due to be printed in October this year.

6.4.2 “Building Together” is a newsletter circulated to Members, Schools and Governors and has been published 8 times so far on a termly basis since Spring 2008.

6.4.3 The “Norse Magazine” is sent directly to senior executives in the Eastern Region biannually and has been published 5 times since the Spring of 2007. The next edition is due for circulation next month.

7.0. Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA)

7.1 This paper does not require a decision or recommendation on a strategy or policy and therefore an equality impact assessment is not considered necessary.

8.0 Section 17 – Crime and Disorder Act

8.1 There are no direct implications of this report for crime and disorder reduction.

9.0 Action Required

9.1 The Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel is asked to consider and comment on the report.

Contact Officers

Mike Britch Tel: 01603 706100 [email protected] Managing Director – Norse Group Ltd

Background Papers

Report to the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel 15 September 2010 ‘The Norse Group Ltd’

If you need this report in large print, audio, Braille, alternative format or in a different language please contact Heather Anderson Tel: 01603 706101 Fax: 01603 706102 Email: [email protected] and we will do our best to help

6 Appendix 1

Terms of Reference Norse Member/Officer Shareholder Committee

Membership:

 County Council Shareholder representative, Deputy Leader and one other Conservative member.

 Opposition spokespersons on Commercial Services (1 Labour, 1 Liberal Democrat, 1 Green)

 Head of Finance (or his representative)

 Chief Executive (Chairman)

In addition, the Committee may invite the Cabinet member for Commercial Services and Norse Board members, as appropriate, to the meetings

The Committee will normally meet four times a year. All papers and discussions at the Shareholder Committee will be deemed to be commercially sensitive and confidential, unless notified otherwise

Committee Purpose

(1) To support the development of the Norse Group.

(2) To ensure that the legal and commercial interests of the County Council as Shareholder are considered and protected.

(3) To advise the Cabinet, as appropriate, on County Council Shareholder issues.

Work Areas

(1) To receive regular reports on the performance of the Group, against its delivery of the Group’s ambition as expressed in the Business Plan.

(2) To consider any financial and reputational risks arising from the County Council’s Shareholding in NORSE

(3) To advise the County Council on any changes to the Company Articles requested by the Norse Board

(4) To advise the Norse Board on the contribution the Group can make to the achievement of the County Council’s strategic objectives.

NB As a Member/Officer working group the meetings will be minuted, but not routinely reported to the Cabinet or County Council. Appendix 2

NORSE SHAREHOLDER COMMITTEE

INAUGURAL MEETING

29 SEPTEMBER 2009

COUNTY HALL - ROOM 519

AGENDA

1. Apologies

2. Declarations of Interest

3. Election of Chair Person

4. Terms of Reference (page 1)

5. Overview of the Norse Group M Britch

6. Performance Against Business Plan M Britch (page 3)

7. Business Risks and Management Strategy (to follow) M Britch

8. Marketing Plan M Britch (page 11)

9. Business Plan 2010 – 2013 – Planning Context and M Britch (page 26) Process

10. Matters to be Agreed by the Shareholder

11. Dates of future meetings

12. Any Other Business

NORSE SHAREHOLDER COMMITTEE

27 JANUARY 2010

COUNTY HALL - ROOM 519

AGENDA

1. Apologies

2. Declarations of Interest

3. Minutes of Previous Meeting – 29 September 2009 (page 1)

4. Performance Against Business Plan – Quarters 1-3 M Britch (page 8)

5. Return to Shareholder M Britch (page 18)

6. Success for the Norse Group 2009-10 M Britch (page 20)

7. Business Plan 2010-11 M Britch (page 23)

8. Matters to be Agreed by Shareholder

9. To confirm dates of future meetings

Monday 12 April at 2.00 pm (Room 519) Wednesday 28 July at 2.00 pm (Room 519) Monday 15 November at 2.00 pm (Room 519)

10. Any Other Business

NORSE SHAREHOLDER COMMITTEE

12 APRIL 2010

COUNTY HALL - ROOM 519

AGENDA

1. Apologies

2. Declarations of Interest

3. Minutes of Previous Meeting – 27 January 2010 (page 1)

4. Provisional Outturn for 2009-10 M Britch (page 5)

5. Norse Group Business Plan 2010-11 M Britch (page 14)

6. Update on NEWS – to be tabled P Hawes

7. Business Opportunities M Britch (page 36)

8. To confirm dates of future meetings

Wednesday 28 July at 2.00 pm (Room 519) Monday 15 November at 2.00 pm (Room 519)

9. Any Other Business

NORSE SHAREHOLDER COMMITTEE

28 JULY 2010

COUNTY HALL - ROOM 519

AGENDA

1. Apologies

2. Declarations of Interest

3. Minutes of Previous Meeting – 12 April 2010 (page 1)

4. Group Financial Report – First Quarter Trading Results M Britch (page 6)

5. Group Balance Sheet as at 30 April 2010 M Britch (page 13)

6. BSF Update M Britch (page 15)

7. Strategic Model of Care (SMOC) Update (to be tabled) P Hawes

8. Business Risk Report M Britch (page 17)

9. Business Development Update M Britch (page 29)

10. To confirm dates of future meetings

Monday 15 November at 2.00 pm (Room 519)

11. Any Other Business

Report to Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel 15 September 2010

Item No 8b

The Norse Group Ltd

Report by the Managing Director of the Norse Group Ltd

This report seeks to clarify the details of the Norse arrangements by responding to a series of questions and issues raised by Members and aims to improve Members’ general level of understanding about how the Group operates, its value to Norfolk County Council and, more widely, the people of Norfolk.

1.0 Background

1.1 At its meeting on 17 March 2010, the Corporate Affairs Overview and Scrutiny Panel agreed they would like to seek clarification of the details of the Norse Group Ltd, and Terms of Reference for this exercise were agreed at the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting on 14 July 2010.

1.2 The purposes and objectives of the study are to review the existing arrangements, policies and processes of the Norse Group to ensure that its objectives fit with those of Norfolk County Council and that it is providing value for money.

1.3 To this end, a series of questions was drawn up by the Panel and this report aims to address those issues and reassure Members that the Norse Group’s aims and objectives are closely aligned with those of the County Council and that the Group has become a valuable asset of the Council.

2.0 Responses to the Panel’s Queries

2.1 How and why was Norse created? (Including precedent and examples of any similar arrangements elsewhere)

2.1.1 The Norse Group Ltd was formed in 2006 to act as the holding company for NPS Property Consultants Ltd (NPS) and Norse Commercial Services Ltd (NCS) in order to combine the financial strength of both companies and create a strong balance sheet and Profit and Loss account.

2.1.2 The Norse Group provides consolidated accounts to NCC and avoids the need to consolidate individual company accounts within NCC’s overall accounts (NCC is the ultimate parent company).

2.1.3 The creation of the Norse Group has also allowed the sharing of support services and the ability to bid for contracts where an integrated offering is required.

2.1.4 The Norse model allows other companies to be created within the Group. The Group structure also allows the sharing of any tax losses within individual companies, which minimises corporation tax liabilities.

2.1.5 Whilst the Norse Group is unique in its range and scope of services, a number of other public sector companies operate in a similar way. Examples include:

 Essex Care – a trading company for Social Care

 Kent Commercial Services – a range of trading companies providing energy purchasing, temps/agency staff and minor building works in Kent

 Pluss Organisation – a company jointly owned by Devon, Somerset, Plymouth and Torbay Councils which provides employment and training services for people with disabilities

 Solutions SK – a facilities management services company owned by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

 Swindon Commercial Services – owned by Swindon Borough Council and providing facilities management and housing works to the Council

2.2 Explain the relationship between NCC and Norse (defining who is positioned where, why they are positioned there, roles of Members and Officers, powers of Members and Officers).

2.2.1 NCC is the sole shareholder in the Norse Group Ltd, owning 100% of the shares. NCC is represented on the Norse Board by Councillor Tony Williams and Paul Adams, Director of Resources, who is also Chairman of the Board. Councillor Jon Herbert is the Shareholder Representative and can attend all the Norse Board meetings.

2.2.2 In addition to the duties they have as Company Directors, the NCC Board Directors are there to ensure the company discharges its legal responsibilities in accordance with the Articles of the company.

2.2.3 The Shareholder Representative is there to ensure that NCC’s interests as Shareholder are protected.

2.2.4 The Executive Directors (the Managing Directors of NPS and NCS) deliver the operational and executive objectives of the company.

2.2.5 The NCC Board Directors have voting rights which ensure that the NCC representatives have the majority of the votes on all matters requiring a formal Board decision and meetings at which such decisions are taken cannot go ahead in their absence.

2.2.6 There is also a list of matters which require either Shareholder or Leader’s approval as defined in the Articles of Association of the company and these are given below:

 increase or vary the company's authorised share capital or create new shares or alter the rights or obligations attached to any of the shares of the company or issue or allot any shares of the company to any person, firm or company whatsoever;

 give any guarantee, security or indemnity whatsoever or create any encumbrance over any of the assets of the company;

 sell, lease, transfer, charge, or otherwise dispose of the whole or any substantial part of the undertaking or assets of the company (and for the purposes of this paragraph, "substantial" means assets having an aggregate book value of more than 20% of the net asset value of the company);

 lend or advance to any person, firm or company, except Norfolk County Council or any company wholly owned by Norfolk County Council or employees of the company, any monies exceeding in aggregate £15,000 or more in any financial year of the company;

 form, acquire or dispose of any subsidiary or amalgamate or merge with any other company or concern or acquire any shares of any other company or participate in any significant partnership or joint venture;

 carry out any change in the company's business;

 enter into any personal contract or arrangement with any member or officer of Norfolk County Council;

 enter into, or vary the terms of, any credit transaction falling within the definition contained in regulation 12 of the Local Authorities (Companies) Order 1995 except where the credit transaction is between members of the Norfolk County Council group for accounting purposes;

 apply for any European Community grant;

 dispose of any assets the proceeds of disposal of which would

3 be treated as a capital receipt if the proceeds of disposal were received by Norfolk County Council;

 make any change in the company's accounting reference date or registered office;

 remove or vary any of the terms of appointment of the company's auditors;

 participate in any scheme of arrangement or petition or pass any resolution to wind up the company or make application for an administrative order;

 mortgage or charge the company's undertaking, property and uncalled capital or any part thereof, nor issue debentures, debenture stock or any other securities whether outright or as security for any debt, liability or obligation of the company or of any third party, for the benefit of any third party lender, without the prior written consent of Norfolk County Council.

2.2.7 The recently appointed Shareholder Committee acts as a point of reference for the Norse Group and a conduit for information for other Members. It also enables the Committee to help define the vision and strategic direction of the company. Membership of the Norse Shareholder Committee currently comprises:

 Councillor Derrick Murphy  Councillor Marcus Hemsley  Councillor Diana Clarke  Councillor George Nobbs  Councillor Jon Herbert  Councillor Bill Borrett

 David White – Chief Executive - NCC  Paul Brittain – Head of Finance - NCC

2.3 What is Norse’s legal standing?

2.3.1 The Norse Group Ltd is a private company limited by shares in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. Norfolk County Council is the single Shareholder.

2.3.2 The County Council holds shares in the company and, just like other shares in private companies, these can be bought and sold. However, as many of the joint venture partnerships are based on the company’s unique status as a wholly-owned company, the market for these shares is limited.

2.3.3 Norfolk County Council has invested £2M in the company since 2002 in return for additional shares.

4 2.4 Clarify governance arrangements for Norse, and for Norse’s execution of service delivery for NCC.

2.4.1 As a limited company, the Norse Group has to comply with all the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. Consequently the Directors of the company have a duty to:

 Act within the powers of the company  Promote the success of the company  Exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence  Avoid conflicts of interest  Not accept benefits from third parties  Declare interests in a transaction or arrangement

2.4.2 The Board is also responsible for:

 The production, publication and filing of the annual accounts  The production and publication of a Directors’ Report  The Health and Safety of the employees

2.4.3 The Norse Group delivers services to Norfolk County Council under its Service Level Agreement and the Board considers any performance issues by exception. The Board receives quarterly information on Client satisfaction to ensure that the services delivered are meeting the Client’s requirements.

2.4.4 Any of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Panels can review or scrutinise the services the Norse Group provides in a similar way to any other provider. In addition, the Group reports twice yearly to Cabinet on overall performance and responds to any requests from Cabinet Scrutiny for information.

2.5 Provide a list of companies within the Norse Group.

2.5.1 The following are the companies within the Norse Group

 NPS Property Consultants Ltd

Subsidiary companies of NPS Property Consultants Ltd, mostly formed in partnership with other Local Authorities, are as follows:

. NPS South East Ltd . NPS North West Ltd . NPS North East Ltd . NPS Stockport Ltd . NPS Humber Ltd . NPS London Ltd . NPS South West Ltd

5 Companies acquired by NPS Property Consultants Ltd:

. John Packer Associates Ltd . Barron and Smith Ltd . Robson Liddle Ltd . The Hamson Partnership Ltd

 Norse Commercial Services Ltd

Subsidiary companies of Norse Commercial Services Ltd, formed in partnership with other Local Authorities, are as follows:

. Great Yarmouth Borough Services . Waveney Norse . Suffolk Coastal Services . Enfield Norse

Companies acquired by Norse Commercial Services Ltd:

. Eventguard

2.6 What services do Norse and its companies deliver?

2.6.1 NPS delivers the following services to Norfolk County Council and other Local Authorities:

 Architectural Design  Project Management  Quantity Surveying  Structural Engineering  Mechanical and Electrical Design  Building Maintenance  Rating and Valuation  County Farms Management  Commercial Property Management  Land and Property Disposals  Land Surveying  Strategic Asset Management  Facilities Management of County Hall  Management Consultancy  Graphic Design  Archaeological Services

 Capital Design Consultancy to the Department for Education

2.6.2 NCS delivers the following services to Norfolk County Council and other Local Authorities:

 Facilities Management, encompassing all front-line services

- premises and plant maintenance - mechanical and electrical services - inspections and testing - grounds maintenance and landscaping - security - cleaning - catering - waste management and recycling - environmental etc - consultancy and project management

 Building Maintenance

- planned and responsive - refurbishment and modernisation - electrical - bricklaying - carpentry/joinery - plumbing - gas boiler servicing - sewer pipe repairs/replacement - insurance damage survey and repair - timber treatment - damp proofing - roofing - portable appliance testing - re-pointing - consultancy and project management

 Waste Management/Recycling

- household waste collection - trade waste collection - recycling - green waste - management of Recycling Centres/Materials Recycling Facilities - landfill site management

 Building Cleaning

- commercial and office cleaning - schools cleaning - window cleaning - specialist deep cleaning

- decontamination - car park cleaning - emergency response - carpet extraction - hard floor refurbishment and maintenance - kitchen deep cleaning and degreasing - washroom deep cleaning and descaling - feminine hygiene services

 Grounds Maintenance

- school and college grounds - sports grounds - grass cutting - hedge trimming and maintenance - playground maintenance - hard and soft landscaping - site cleaning and maintenance - arboreal services - consultancy and planning

 Security

- static guarding - reception/gatehouse staffing - CCTV monitoring - event security and stewarding - mobile patrols - cash collection and transit - keyholding services - alarm monitoring - rapid response

 Catering

- school meals - commercial catering/canteen services - vending - business functions - buffets

 Transport

- home to school - bus, coach and minibus services - door-to-door transfer - park and ride management - park and ride bus services - fleet management - central bus station facilities

- route operation - delivered meals - linen collection/delivery

 Environmental Services

- street cleansing and sweeping - litter picking - public toilet cleaning - site clearance - fly-tipping clean-up - beach cleaning - emergency/flood response - dog bins - salt bins

 Community Healthcare

- domiciliary care - health equipment services - procurement, delivery and maintenance of community equipment - equipment testing and consultancy

 Car Parks & Markets

- car park management - car park staffing and security - cash collection - ticket issuing - market management

 Printing

- design - printing - delivery - single copy to large volumes - business stationery - technical documents - booklets and leaflets - glossy publications - marketing literature - posters

 Via Joint Venture Partners

- Pest control - Removal of abandoned vehicles - Engineering services

2.7 Who are these services delivered to?

2.7.1 NPS delivers its services to the following:

2.7.1.1 Public Sector:

County Councils

 Norfolk County Council  Devon County Council  Essex County Council  East Sussex County Council  Surrey County Council  West Sussex County Council  Buckinghamshire County Council  Kent County Council  Hertfordshire County Council  Cambridgeshire County Council

Unitary Authorities

 Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council  Manchester City Council  St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council  Wakefield Metropolitan District Council  Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council  Bradford Metropolitan District Council  Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council  Kirklees Council  Hull City Council  Portsmouth City Council  Poole City Council  Luton Borough Council  Brighton and Hove City Council  Cheshire East Council  Milton Keynes Council  Swindon Borough Council  North Lincolnshire District Council  London Borough of Waltham Forest  London Borough of Hackney  London Borough of Haringey  London Borough of Lambeth  Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

District Councils

 King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council  South Norfolk District Council

 Breckland District Council  Norwich City Council  North Norfolk District Council  South Lakeland District Council  Mid Suffolk District Council  South Hams District Council  Braintree District Council  Colchester Borough Council  Ipswich Borough Council  Suffolk Coastal District Council  Forest Heath District Council  East Devon District Council  Waveney District Council  Tendring District Council  Castle Point Borough Council  Gwent County Borough Council  Hailsham Town Council

2.7.1.2 Other Public Bodies:

 Wakefield District Housing  Stockport Homes  Wherry Housing Association  Haverbury Housing Partnership  Greenfields Community Housing  Norwich Diocesan CE Board  University of Brighton  Stevenage Borough Council  Colchester Borough Homes  Broads Authority  Circle Anglia Housing Association  Bedfordshire and Luton Partnership NHS Trust  Sevenside Housing  Youngs Homes  Diocese of Southwark  Southdown Housing Association  Ascham Homes Ltd  Broadland Housing Association  Stockport Sports Trust  Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust  South Lakes Housing  Two Castles Housing Association Ltd  Spirit Development and Regeneration Company  West Yorkshire Joint Services  University of Hull  Downland Housing Association Ltd  Humber Mental Health Teaching Trust  Suffolk Police Authority

 Waltham Forest PCT  Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT  Norfolk Constabulary  Kingston PCT  Sussex Police  Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust  Royal Free Hamstead NHS Trust  Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust

2.7.1.3 Private Sector:

 Vue Cinemas  Turner and Townsend  Norwich International Airport  The Shakespeare Globe Trust  Sewell Barn Theatre Trust  Interserve Facilities Services - Slough  Alexander Palace and Park Charitable Trust  Anglian Water Services Ltd  May Gurney (Construction) Ltd  Scira Offshore Energy Ltd  Dudgeon Offshore Wind Ltd  Persimmon Homes (South West) Ltd  Barratt Homes Ltd  Bellway Homes (Wales) Ltd  David Wilson Homes (South West) Ltd  Strongvox Ltd  Bramall Construction Ltd  ISG Jackson Ltd

2.7.1.4 In addition, NPS provides services to over 1,500 individual schools and other clients.

2.7.2 NCS delivers its services to the following:

2.7.2.1 Public Sector:

 County Councils, including Norfolk and Suffolk  District and Borough Councils, including Ipswich Borough Council and North Norfolk District Council  London Borough of Enfield  Parish Councils  Schools and Colleges  University of East Anglia  NHS Trusts  Emergency Services, including Cambridgeshire Police, Suffolk Fire & Rescue

2.7.2.2 Housing Associations:

 Including Circle Anglia and Flagship

2.7.2.3 Private Sector:

 Including Aviva, Port of Felixstowe, UCP

 In addition, there are over 1,000 commercial customers for trade waste and associated services.

2.8 Where are these services delivered (geographically)?

2.8.1 These services are delivered across a large part of England as follows:

 Norfolk  Suffolk  Essex  Cambridgeshire  Lincolnshire  London  Devon  Kent  East Sussex  West Riding of Yorkshire  Greater Manchester  Cheshire  Cumbria  Surrey  West Sussex  Hertfordshire  Buckinghamshire  Dorset  Gwent  Bedfordshire  Hampshire  Wiltshire

2.9 How these services are delivered (ie structure).

2.9.1 NPS Property Consultants Ltd delivers its services via its subsidiary (joint venture)[JVC] companies and commercial acquisitions.

2.9.2 Each subsidiary company and commercial acquisition has its own Managing Director and Executive Board, which meets quarterly.

2.9.3 The host Authorities are represented on each subsidiary Board by a Council Cabinet Member and a Senior Officer.

2.9.4 Norse Commercial Services Ltd delivers its front-line services either directly through the company’s operating divisions, or via one of the JVCs.

2.9.5 Operating Divisions

. Commercial Services (cleaning, security, printing, waste) . Facilities Management . Grounds . Building Maintenance . Catering (including domiciliary care) . Transport (including community equipment)

2.9.5.1 Each NCS operating division is led by a Divisional Director who has overall responsibility for financial and operational performance, and business development:

2.9.6 Joint Ventures

The joint venture companies operate autonomously, delivering a range of services. Each JVC is engaged in different activities.

. Gt Yarmouth Borough Services (GYBS) . Suffolk Coastal Services (SCS) . Waveney Norse . Enfield Norse

2.10 How does Norse link with the NCC organisational structure?

2.10.1 The Norse Group Ltd is an organisation separate from Norfolk County Council and its staff are employees of the company. All the business and management structures are distinct from those of the County Council.

2.10.2 However, the Managing Directors of both the companies which comprise the Norse Group are members of the Council’s Chief Officer Group and contribute to the strategic management of the Council.

2.10.3 Senior managers within the Norse Group attend the County Management Team meetings.

2.10.4 Norfolk County Council’s Heads of Law and Finance are both copied in to all Board reports to ensure that none of the Norse Group’s activities will compromise Norfolk County Council or are outside the powers of the Authority.

2.10.5 Norse Commercial Services uses joint liaison boards as a means of ensuring that the company is meeting Norfolk County Council’s requirements. These include:

o Equipment Stores Board o School Catering Board o Transport Strategy Board o NEWS Liaison Board o County Hall Users Group

2.11 How does Norse add value to NCC corporate priorities?

2.11.1 The Norse Group Ltd is primarily a delivery agent for County Council services but does add value to Norfolk County Council’s corporate priorities in a number of significant ways as outlined below.

2.11.2 The Norse Group has created a large number of jobs within the Norfolk economy and whilst over 70% of its work is for clients outside the county, nearly 75% of the staff employed are based in Norfolk.

2.11.3 The Group provides a number of transport services from Park and Ride to home-to-school transport which provide market moderation in a highly competitive market.

2.11.4 A significant number of Norfolk schools benefit from the Norse Group’s services with regard to catering, grounds maintenance, property issues, strategic asset management advice and assistance with statutory compliance.

2.11.5 The Norse Group has a corporate social responsibility strategy and is an active member of Business in the Community (BITC). This commitment was recognised at the BITC national awards ceremony this year when Norse Commercial Services won two major awards:

 Learning and Development Workplace Skills Award for the work done to overcome resistance to and fear of training amongst the workforce as well as generating trust from the Managers

 Employability Award 2010 for a programme that seeks to help people with multiple barriers to work to enter, or re-enter, employment. These include the long-term unemployed, those with dependency issues, ex-offenders, the vulnerably housed and those with mild to severe learning difficulties

2.11.6 In addition to its support of BITC, the Norse Group also gives sponsorship and pro bono help to a number of charities and good causes in Norfolk including Age Concern (now Age UK), the Theatre Royal, Norfolk’s Sports and Cultural Foundation and various local community groups.

2.11.7 Providing opportunities for young people in Norfolk to train and develop is important to the Group and in the past twelve months a significant number of young people have been given a variety of work experiences:

 Work Experience 48  Future Jobs Fund 29  Trainees 123  Placement Students 5  Apprenticeships 28

2.12 How does Norse fit with NCC’s Norfolk Forward Programme?

2.12.1 The Norse Group has a key role to play in helping to deliver the County Council’s “Norfolk Forward” programme. In particular, the Group is a vehicle for sharing more services with other public sector organisations, which helps to reduce costs and deliver better value for money.

2.12.2 A key component of “Norfolk Forward” is the desire to maximise trading opportunities, and the Norse Group is well placed to continue its growth in service delivery to clients outside Norfolk County Council. The Group has demonstrated growth in revenue of over 20% per year over the past five years and this growth is anticipated to continue.

2.12.3 The Norse Group is delivering the accommodation strategy for Norfolk County Council with the aim of reducing property costs by 25% over the next 3 years. The Group is utilising experience and expertise from elsewhere, particularly in respect of working with other public bodies to develop a Norfolk public sector office strategy.

2.12.4 The Norse Group also delivers transferred services such as the equipment stores and catering on reduced budgets, which helps Norfolk County Council deliver its efficiency programme.

2.13 Specifically in regards to costs and benefits – confirm the following:

Costs:

 Financial (turnover, profitability (profit made and given back to NCC), liabilities, assets  Human  Opportunity

2.13.1 Financial Results

2009-10 2008-09

Turnover £174,639,000 £156,323,000 Gross profitability £ 40,601,000 £ 33,553,000 Gross profit margin 23.2% 21.5% Net profit £2,383,000 (£730,000) Net profit margin 1.4% (0.5%) Average number of employees 5,716 5,376

Fixed assets £27,461,000 £22,234,000 Current assets £36,852,000 £36,315,000

Liabilities (£35,125,000) (£34,836,000) (excluding pension liability) Total assets less current liabilities £29,188,000 £23,713,000

Return to Norfolk County Council £2,200,000 £2,221,000

2.13.2 Benefits:

 Tangible (grants, KPIs, awards, profits numbers of people employed)  Non-tangible (partnerships, added value)

Tangible Benefits:

2.13.2.1 The Group employs over 6,500 staff equating to 4,000 FTE. The number of staff varies according to contract wins and losses.

2.13.2.2 The Group has a client satisfaction rating of between 85-90% for both individual projects and overall service delivery. Any satisfaction rating that falls below the target (those set by the Client or the Group target of 80%) is followed up and remedial action put in place. Given the high number of projects, commissions and contracts, it is inevitable that things do go wrong but it is important that the lessons are learned and steps taken to prevent recurrence.

2.13.2.3 Attached at Appendix 1 is a comprehensive list of the awards that have been won over the past 5 years by NPS and NCS (the Norse Group).

2.13.2.4 The Group provides a significant market moderation role and is able to intervene in the market where there is limited competition. An example of this would be the yellow buses which are used to moderate the cost of home-to-school transport. Without the presence of the Norse Group, the cost to the public sector in Norfolk would be an additional £2-3M.

2.13.3 Non-Tangible Benefits:

2.13.3.1 The national recognition gained by the Norse Group has much enhanced the reputation of Norfolk County Council both locally and nationally with regard to its entrepreneurial approach and support of a mixed economy.

3.0 Implications

3.1 There are no direct resource implications for Norfolk County Council as all the staff, property and IT are provided directly by the Norse Group Ltd.

4.0 Equality Impact Assessment

4.1 This paper does not require a decision or recommendation on a strategy or policy and therefore an equality impact assessment is not considered necessary.

5.0 Section 17 – Crime and Disorder Act

5.1 There are no direct implications of this report for crime and disorder reduction.

6.0 Action Required

6.1 The Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel is asked to consider and comment on the report and decide whether any further scrutiny is needed.

Contact Officers

Mike Britch Tel: 01603 706100 [email protected] Managing Director – Norse Group Ltd

Background Papers

If you need this Agenda in large print, audio, Braille, alternative format or in a different language please contact Caroline Money 0344 800 8020 or 0344 800 8011 (textphone) and we will do our best to help.

18 NPS PROPERTY CONSULTANTS LTD - AWARDS APPENDIX 1

Date Achievement Brief Awarde Award Project Recognised Description d Broadland District Council 2005 Hevingham Classroom of the Future Classroom of the Future Design Awards Eastern Daily Press - Grant Entrepreneurial Business 2005 Thornton Enterprise Challenge NPS Entrepreneurial Business Development Development Initiative 2005 Investors in People NPS Commended Conservation & 2005 RIBA Eastern Region Awards Norwich, Eaton Park Refurbishment Highly Commended Conservation & 2005 RICS Eastern Region Awards Norwich, Eaton Park Refurbishment Waltham Forest Design Harwich, Chase Lane Primary 2005 Design of new school Awards Design Awards School Architects Journal AJ 100 2006 NPS Top 100 Practice Practice 2006 Contribution to Campaign to Protect Rural Contribution to Conservation and Conservation and 2006 Yaxham CEVA Primary School England Improvement of the Countryside. Improvement of the Countryside. Sympathetic development Sympathetic development reflecting the Langham Village School reflecting the scale and 2006 Craftsmanship Award scale and arrangement of the traditional Classroom Extension arrangement of the Victorian school traditional Victorian school Eastern Daily Press Business 2006 Norwich, New Bus Station Environment Category Awards Outstanding Support for Outstanding Support for Training in the EEDA Construction Client of Build Norfolk Initiative Promoted Training in the Development 2006 Development of the Construction Supply the Year by NPS for NCC of the Construction Supply Chain in Norfolk Chain in Norfolk 2006 IStrucE Eastern Region Award Norwich, New Bus Station Technical Excellence Refurbishments to the 2006 Land Institute Commendation Norwich, Carrow House Commendation for Building Conservation Conservatory RICS Regional Award for Major benefit to community of Norwich 2006 Norwich, New Bus Station Community Benefit and Norfolk as a whole SCALA Civic Building of the 2006 Norwich, New Bus Station New Build Design Year

Date Achievement Brief Awarde Award Project Recognised Description d South Norfolk Design Awards Awards for innovative 2006 Hethel Engineering Centre Design Design Awards design Waltham Forest Guardian Newspaper & London Borough Commendation in New Building 2006 of Waltham Forest – Sybourn Children’s Centre Category Commendation in New Building Category Best Structural Innovation Local Authority Building + Best 2007 Control (LABC) Built in Quality Norwich, New Bus Station Best Structural Innovation Partnership with Awards Designer/Architect Best Structural Innovation Local Authority Building + Best 2007 Control (LABC) Built in Quality Norwich, New Bus Station Best Partnership with Designer/Architect Partnership with Awards Designer/Architect LABC (East Anglia) Built-in 2007 Norwich, New Bus Station Best Community Project Quality Award Norwich Society Design 2007 Norwich, New Bus Station Honourable mention Awards Business in the community NPS Group Build Norfolk For the most innovative new 2007 East of England Regional For the most innovative new programme Programme programme Leadership Team 2007 SCALA - Design Award Hethel Engineering Centre For the innovative design Build Norfolk Initiative Promoted by NPS For the most innovative new 2007 Construction Client of the Year Build Norfolk for NCC programme Eastern Daily Press Business NPS Group Build Norfolk For the most innovative new 2007 Community Impact Award Awards Programme programme Waltham Forest Guardian Newspaper & London Borough 2007 Newport School Link Block Best New Building of Waltham Forest – Best New Building

Date Achievement Brief Awarde Award Project Recognised Description d Waltham Forest Guardian Newspaper & London Borough 2007 Leytonstone Library Best Restoration of Waltham Forest – Best Restoration Waltham Forest Guardian Newspaper & London Borough Commendation for Restoration and 2007 of Waltham Forest – Walthamstow Central Library Conversion Commendation for Restoration and Conversion Norfolk Association of 2008 Architects Craftsmanship Scarning VC Primary School New Extension Awards Norfolk Association of 2008 Architects Craftsmanship Dussindale Primary School New Commercial Building Awards Norfolk Association of Thorpe High School Design & 2008 Architects Craftsmanship New Industrial Building Technology Centre Awards Campaign to Protect Rural Woodland Walks on the 2008 Woodland Walks England (CPRE) Burlingham Estate, Norfolk Campaign to Protect Rural 2008 Forncett St Peter Primary School Extension England (CPRE) Building Schools for the Future 2008 Bideford College, Devon Most Sustainable School Design Design for college / school (BSF) Awards Green Apple Awards National Gold Award for the Builders / Developers Non-residential building Environmental Green Exwick Heights new Primary 2008 New Build Environmental champion + School, Exeter Local Authority Building Control Awards – Best Environmental Building 2008.

Date Achievement Brief Awarde Award Project Recognised Description d Waltham Forest Primary Care Supplier Contractor of the Year 2008 Trust Award Chartered Management Regional Chartered Manager of Regional Chartered Manager of the Year 2008 Institute the Year - Adrian Blakey - Adrian Blakey "One to Watch" Status in the 2009 NPS Group "One to Watch". Best Companies Accreditation. BCSE Greening the school Exwick Heights new Primary 2009 Shortlisted community award School, Exeter NPS Group is ranked in the Top 20 at the 2009 AJ100 as one of the biggest 2009 AJ100 Ranking Architecture architecture practices in Britain. NPS has leaped 23 places in its 2007 ranking of 42 to reach an impressive 19th place. Construction News Quality 2009 Rye Primary School, East Sussex Highly Commended New primary school Awards 2009

2009 LABC Eastern Region Awards Poringland Library Best Small Commercial Development New library

Commendation in the Best Large 2009 LABC Eastern Region Awards Wymondham Library New library Commercial Development Norse Group has been listed 21 in a top 75 compilation of businesses in the East Eastern Daily Press Business 2009 of England. The chart ranks the 75 Chart largest firms in Norfolk, North Suffolk and East Cambridgeshire by turnover. Institute of Structural 2009 Engineering East Anglian Wymondham Library Structural Excellence New library Branch Awards South Yorkshire and Humber Highly Commended in the Best 2009 The Green Way Primary School Building Excellence Awards Community Project category. Norfolk Association of Architects Craftsmanship Diploma in recognition of the outstanding 2009 Wymondham Library Awards 2009 (Class C-New standard of Craftsmanship achieved. Commercial Buildings) 22

Date Achievement Brief Awarde Award Project Recognised Description d Society of Chief Architects of Commended in the Civic Building of the 2009 St Lawrence Centre, Ipswich Local Authorities (SCALA) Year 2009 Award Society of Chief Architects of Highly Commended in the Civic Building 2009 Wymondham Library Local Authorities (SCALA) of the Year 2009 Award Commendation for the Restoration and 2009 The Ipswich Society Awards The Corn Exchange Refurbishment of the Exterior of The Corn Exchange CIPR LPS Awards (Chartered Footprint Magazine - created by 2009 Institute of Public Relations - Highly Commended Adam Buxton Local Public Services) Footprint Magazine - created by 2009 Green Apple Awards Bronze Award Adam Buxton Yorkshire & Humber Horbury Specialist Language 2009 Constructing Excellence Shortlisted College Awards EDF Energy Awards for 2009 The Green Way Primary School Runner Up Greener Schools Chartered Institute of Building Low Carbon Energy Assessor: 2010 Services Engineering (CIBSE) Shortlisted DEC of the Year category 2010

Building Controls Industry Innovative HVAC solutions 2010 Energy Efficiency/Environmental Shortlisted Association for Guildhall 2 building

Environmental Design, Bideford 2010 Green Apple Award Bronze Award Bideford College Community College

Date Achievement Brief Awarde Award Project Recognised Description d Shortlisted for the Business in the Community Awards Expansion of the Build Norfolk Expansion of the Build Norfolk Initiative (BITC). Category - Anglian 2010 Initiative into the Eastern Region - into the Eastern Region - Build the East Water Most Innovative New Build the East (BtE). (BtE). Programme Award. Winners to be announced June. Business in the Community David Buxton of Nautilus House - Winner - Individual Employee Volunteer Awards (BITC). Category: East Work with the Red Balloon of the Year of England Individual Charity (David Buxton, NPS 2010 Employee Volunteering Award. Nautilus Hse for NPS related and June 2010. personal work)

Norfolk Association of 2010 Architects Craftsmanship Stoke Holy Cross Primary School New Commercial Building Awards 2010 Norfolk Association of Reepham High School Sixth Form Architects Craftsmanship New Commercial Building Block Awards Newington and St Andrews RICS Yorkshire & Humber Improvement scheme for 2010 Regeneration and Improvement Winner - Regeneration Category Awards over 300 houses Scheme

24 NORSE COMMERCIAL SERVICES LTD - AWARDS

Date Brief Award Project Achievement Recognised Awarded Description 2005 Business in the Community (BITC) Regional Leadership Team Action on Homeless (Winner) 2006 Business in the Community (BITC) Community Impact Award Finalist 2007 Business in the Community (BITC) National Example of Excellence in Skills for Life Winner 2008 Business in the Community (BITC) Community Impact Award Finalist Most Innovative New 2008 Business in the Community (BITC) Regional Leadership Team Programme Award (Winner) 2008 Business in the Community (BITC) Skills for Life Big Tick Winner 2009 Business in the Community (BITC) Skills for Life Big Tick Winner Norse provides cleansing, grounds, refuse collection services to NNDC, and this award recognises both the Council's and Norse's Environmental Services with North Norfolk District commitment expertise in this 2009 Clean Britain - Overall Winner Council area. Awarded by PFM Magazine (Premises & Facilities Management) Partnership formed with Lowestoft college to deliver training to Norse staff. The award recognises the true partnership created by Norse's approach to Learning and PFM Award - Partners in Skills Learning and Skills development with Lowestoft Development and the College's 2009 Development College flexibility in provision. 2010 Business in the Community (BITC) Skills in the Workplace Big Tick Winner 2010 Business in the Community (BITC) Employability Big Tick Winner 2010 Business in the Community (BITC) National Example of Excellence in Skills in the Winner Workplace 2010 Business in the Community (BITC) National Example of Excellence in Employability Winner

Report to the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel October 2010 Item Number: 9

Scrutiny of the role of the Customer Service and Communications service in supporting the council’s strategic and corporate objectives and Norfolk Forward

Report by the Head of Customer Service and Communications.

Summary

Members of the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel decided to scrutinise the communications function at their meeting of 14 July 2010 and on 15 September agreed the terms of reference for the scrutiny as being ‘To review and scrutinise the role of Customer Services and Communications’.

The terms of reference paper also listed a number of issues and questions that Members wished to address.

This paper summarises the role and purpose of the Customer Service and Communications function in helping to achieve the council’s overall objectives and in particular that of improving customer focus, to inform Member Scrutiny of the service.

It provides answers to the specific questions raised by Members as issues of interest to explore, as relevant background for further examination or review.

1. Background and Introduction

1.1 Norfolk County Council has three strategic ambitions for Norfolk:

 An inspirational place with a clear sense of identity  A vibrant and sustainable economy  Aspirational people with high levels of achievement

1.2 It has nine corporate objectives and three cross cutting objectives to help deliver them – including that of having a real customer focus. Specifically, through our Council Plan we are committed to:

 Ensuring that our services and priorities are customer focused, based on local needs and views, and fair to all  Keeping people well-informed and providing easy access to information and services however people choose to get in touch  Listening to, involving and responding to all local people, including those who are heard less often

1  Meeting or exceeding service standards, including those for customer care.

1.3 Improving customer focus is also a key element in the council’s Norfolk Forward programme which helps set a blueprint for the way the council intends to work

1.4 The corporate communications unit was set up (on a shared service basis) in 2000 following an external review.

1.5 The customer services function (another shared service) became amalgamated with the communications function in 2006.

1.6 The current budget for these two functions is £3.5 million of which £2.38million is accounted for by the customer service operations - major frontline services.

1.7 Appendix B provides further information about service performance . 2. How the Customer Service and Communications function supports the delivery of these ambitions and objectives

2.1 This is a shared service that works across the entire authority.

Among other things its role is to:

 Make it easy and cost effective for people to access the services and information they need and deliver good quality customer service  Champion and support services in delivering good customer service including the implementation and monitoring of customer care standards  Provide good quality information to help people know about how the council works, its members, the services it provides, and how to get them, and those to which they may be entitled  Help signpost people where necessary to other providers  Explain how and why decisions that affect Norfolk are taken  Provide meaningful opportunities for people to influence those decisions and help set future priorities  Help the authority make its voice heard and get important messages across designed to improve the social, economic, health or environmental well-being of Norfolk  Manage the reputation of the council with and within its communities  Support staff in understanding the priorities of the council and their role in meeting them and be motivated to support change and deliver good services.

2.2 As a consequence, the service contributes to all the strategic ambitions and corporate priorities for the county council and those of the Norfolk Forward programme.

2.3 The service contributes more directly to the delivery of Norfolk Forward in that it is responsible for communicating the programme and the changes associated with it, (the communications work stream) and the customer services work stream. We also provide direct internal change communications support for the major transformation programmes in adult social care, children’s services and the fire and rescue service. The marketing function will also lead the planned income generation work stream in respect of advertising and sponsorship.

2.4 The Council’s overarching ambitions and priorities will be reviewed and refreshed as part of the work to develop and agree a new Council Plan to incorporate Norfolk Forward objectives etc. The corporate communications strategy, which ran until the end of beginning of this year is being reviewed alongside this. The Cabinet Member has asked that the final draft comes before Panel Members for their consideration as soon as possible

3. How the service works

3.1 The service is part of a shared corporate platform of support services and the Head of Service is accountable to the Chief Executive. It is currently responsible for:

 Delivering frontline customer services via all three main customer access channels – call centre, corporate web and face to face services  Corporate consultation and public involvement activities  Media management, public affairs and public relations (e.g. Chairman’s programme). The media team provide a 24/7 service to ensure we can respond effectively and efficiently out of hours  Internal communications  Public information and marketing.

3.2 In any emergency situation, the Customer Service and Communications function delivers frontline, business critical services, (as identified by the corporate business continuity plans), including providing public information via the media and internet, and handling customer enquiries by telephone.

3.3 As a general indicator of service volumes, in 2009, the customer and media parts of this service dealt with some 340,000 phone calls, 27,000 emails, 24,000 visits to Council information Centres and 3,000 visits to Council @ Your Library services. We received 3.8 million website visits from 1.8 million website visitors. We also handled more than 3,700 calls from the media, issued more than 560 proactive news releases and prepared more than 170 reactive statements.

4. Publications

4.1 Departments produce a range of information materials intended for the people who use their services or who may wish to. For example – information for carers or parents, bus timetables, grants or benefit entitlements and what’s on information. They work to guidelines set by the corporate service in respect of accessibility etc and we also advise on print, publication and design as needs be. For some time now, the policy and practice has been to move as much of this information as possible into online formats that can be readily updated and, where necessary, printed off as needed by our staff and members of the public.

4.2 The corporate team includes one, full-time publications officer, the costs of whose time is apportioned here on an hourly rate for the input on each publication. Corporate publications are:

Name Frequency Cost - Audience Number Including in house staff costs) Your Norfolk 4 times a year £220,000 Norfolk 380,000 magazine including residents printed staff costs, copies. of which All editions 50% is paid online. for by income generated by the unit – including advertising Horizon 5 times a year Annual NCC Staff – 3,300 print – magazine for costs plus 7,000 staff staff including headteachers subscribed to staff time read it online £9, 676 Council tax Annually - in NCC share, Council tax Approximately leaflet - partnership including payers 380,000 statutory with the seven staff costs, requirement district £7,500 councils and Norfolk Police Authority Norfolk To be re- One-off set Parish and Online only – Matters launched from up costs Town 1,200 October £1,200. Councils subscribers Annual hosting cost and staff time £2,600

4 Norfolk Launched in One-off set MP’s and key Online only Bulletin July 2010 up costs opinion £2,400. formers Annual costs and staff time £4,131 Business Six times a One off set Businesses Online only Matters year up costs in Norfolk (launched in £2,400. Currently 480 2010) Annual businesses hosting cost subscribe and staff time £2,600

A-Z of Not every NCC costs – Norfolk 380.000 services year - including residents printed produced as staff time version (A-Z income £70,000 also available allows. online)

This year produced with funding from 3 district councils, NHS Norfolk and LPSA reward grant

5. Other forms of marketing

5.1 Our marketing resource is principally targeted towards four principal objectives:

1. To raise the profile of those services for whom the number of customers is business critical – museums, libraries, buses etc 2. To help services reach audiences critical to their success – e.g. recruiting social workers, foster carers etc 3. To help the council achieve its objectives on matters where success also relies on changes in perception (attitudes/opinion) or behaviour change. For example – cutting deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents, influencing the rates of teenage pregnancy, increasing people’s satisfaction with services, improving recycling rates 4. To help raise the profile of the council in addressing issues important to our residents – campaigning for the A11 dualling, promoting Norfolk as an excellent place to live, work and do business.

5.2 We use the ROSIE model developed via Westminster City Council to build and evaluate such campaigns – namely, Research to make sure

5 we are clear about the target audience, tangible Objectives so we can be clear about the realistic outcomes we can expect to achieve through marketing, we then Implement – using tools and techniques appropriate for the target audience –and Evaluate against the objectives set. For example – the campaign to recruit more Norfolk foster carers aimed to recruit an additional 70 carers this year. In the three months before the campaign 100 requests for information turned into only 6 people going forward for training. But during the campaign, the hit rate on the relevant web pages rose from 600 in a normal month to 25,833. 206 people called for information packs and 22 people are currently going through training.

5.3 Our marketing activities may happen through a fully integrated, multi- media approach – or through a more simple media/web campaign. We work hard to tailor our approach to get maximum reach to the audience concerned. Examples of some of these are attached in appendix A.

6. Statutory publication of notices and recruitment advertising

6.1 Legal requirements for the publication of notices vary according to the legislation in question, but there are publication requirements for Traffic Regulation Orders, major developments as part of development control responsibilities and invitations to tender.

6.2 This is one of the areas where there has been lobbying for the Government to amend such requirements to save councils money. If they were to be modified so that councils could meet it though online publication only, considerable savings would result.

6.3 However we have kept matters under review – and last year, in response to a helpful suggestion from County Councillor Perry- Warnes, we re-worded road and planning notices to make them simpler and slightly reduced the word count.

6.4 Recruitment advertising is managed via our HR department.

6.5 At present Euro RSCG Riley holds the contract for both public notice and recruitment advertising on behalf of the county and district councils.

6.6 There is no specific budget for recruitment advertising – each department is required to meet the costs of doing so as part of the overall recruitment costs for any post that is agreed for advertisement.

6.7 An overall reduction for recruitment expenditure this year is estimated to be approximately 40%

6.8 Last year the costs of advertising for Norfolk county council, including job advertising for schools, are set out below.

6 Recruitment advertising Public Notices 2008 £1.659m £167,366 2009 £1.144m £158,660

6.9 The costs are falling rapidly as the Council seeks to re-deploy staff where possible and freeze vacancies other than those deemed to be critical. Also, because the Council is making greater use of the corporate jobs site and promoting that more heavily, and using cheaper online options.

6.10 The contract is now subject to review by the HR department with input from the Head of Procurement.

7. The corporate website

7.1 The overall look and feel of the corporate website was redesigned in 2004, 2007 and a new design has been procured with input from the Leader and Cabinet Member and testing via volunteers from the Council’s Readers Panel (drawn from Citizens’ Panel). It is planned to go live in December 2010.

7.2 However the development of the website, improving content, usability, functionality and features is an ongoing process. For example in the last few months, work has included:

 Completely revamping the information and structure of the travel and transport area to make it quicker and easier for customers to find the information they need  Beginning a six-month trial of a virtual ‘customer service assistant’ on the adult education and family information service sections of the website to improve the number of customers who fully resolve their enquiry in one visit to the website. This feature invites customers to ‘Ask Sam’ their enquiry and answers it from a bank of frequently asked questions, which is then added to and improved as more questions are asked and answered  Launching a community services directory, so that customers can search for local services on a wide range of topics, from clubs and societies, through childcare and activities for young people, to services to support older and vulnerable people to live independently such as meals on wheels  Revamping the home page to make better use of the space to support corporate marketing activities such as Vocal Local, the Tour of Britain, and big corporate news

7.3 Examples of other innovations to help improve customer focus since the last full redesign have included:

 Adding video via YouTube, an NCC Twitter feed, and social bookmarking links

7  Providing new features to make section pages more inviting and tailored to their audience e.g. including better and more graphics including animations on the adult education section  Developing a section for the last County Council election which included a twitter feed, videos and a live updated results map  Developing the map-based ‘Where I Live’ service  Adding more self-serve transactions including blue badge applications including eligibility checking, adult education online enrolments, downloadable ebooks from the library service etc, in addition to the existing services available  Developing microsites alongside the corporate website to support marketing initiatives such as Play90, Norfolk Celebrating Talent etc  Upgrading the underlying system that drives the corporate website to make it more stable and resilient.

8. Linking and signposting customers to information provided by other organisations

 8.1 A-Z and search:

Instead of expecting customers to know which services are provided by us and which issues are dealt with by their local council, our website A- Z lists the services provided by the city, district and borough councils in addition to our own. Each A-Z entry provides a link to the relevant page on the local council’s website. If a customer is not sure who their local council is, they can check this by using ‘Where I live’ and entering their postcode

If a customer enters a topic or keyword into the website search, they will get results from our website first; customers can then widen the results by clicking the ‘All Norfolk sites results’ tab. This will include results from city, district and borough council websites

We also supply ‘Recommended Links’ in the search that point to parish and town council websites (at their request)

 8.2 External links throughout the website:

As customers browse or search for information on our website, they may also find additional ‘External links’ on the right-hand side of the page. This will signpost them to other organisations that provide further information on the chosen topic, e.g. links to NHS Norfolk appear on our pages on health and well-being

 8.3 Community Services Directory:

This is a searchable directory on our website that gives details of a range of services and activities provided by us and other organisations, in order to give a full picture of services in Norfolk and enabling the customer to make informed choices

8  8.4 Using NHS Choices information on our website

We have expressed an interest in using freely available information from NHS Choices directly on our website. This will help us to deliver good quality health and well-being information form a source that people trust. We will investigate how best to integrate this information after we have redesigned our website

9. Increasing the use of web resources to support the customer focus element of Norfolk Forward

9.1 The customer service work stream in Norfolk Forward currently includes “Improve self-serve access” as a specific area. Developing the corporate website is an important part of this and some of the work that has already been delivered in this area is described above.

9.2 However in addition to the website we are mindful that not all Norfolk residents have, or are comfortable using the internet so we have also:

 Launched a one-year pilot of a digital TV service aimed to provide self- serve access to customers without internet access

 Begun work on providing a text-message service to let parents know when their child’s school is closed (in addition to the existing web service)

9.3 As we move into next year we will also be looking at self-service telephony exploring where we could potentially offer customers additional “press 1, press 2” transactions so that for example they would be able to make payments 24/7 using their telephone (customers can already renew their library books in this way).

9.4 Outside of the Norfolk Forward programme and as part of our ‘business as usual’ service improvements we are using customer insight from customers who call us to continually in order to identify where we need to make improvements to the website. Our telephone customer service teams are also using the new ‘email a friend’ feature on the website so they can send information from our website directly to customers, encouraging them to use the website for future enquiries.

10. Equality Impact Assessment

10.1 There is no additional impact on Equality as a consequence of the background information provided in this report.

11. Section 17 Crime and Disorder Act

11.1 Effective communications and marketing can help to explain and promote what the County Council is doing with others to help reduce crime and disorder in the county, in particular in changing behaviours and attitudes and helping to increase public confidence. Good marketing is also needed to make sure that residents can clearly identify the services that are available to support them.

11.2 Easy access to relevant services and information are necessary to ensure people get the help they need in respect of crime and disorder related concerns and issues.

12. Action required

12.1 Members are asked to consider the information contained in this paper as a background to their scrutiny of the role of the customer services and communications service in supporting the Norfolk Forward Objective of improving customer focus.

13. Background Papers

 Improving Customer Focus – Report to Cabinet January 2008  County Council Plan – 2008 –11  Leader’ report to Cabinet September 2009 – Norfolk County Council Organisational Framework 2009-13

14. Officer Contact:

Joanna Hannam 01603 222969, email: [email protected]

If you need this report in large print, audio, Braille, alternative format or in a different language please contact 0344 800 8020 and ask for Michelle Bede-Cox or textphone 0344 800 8011 and we will do our best to help.

10 Appendix A

Examples of different types of marketing activities and their evaluation

1. Inspirational Norfolk – at the Royal Norfolk Show.

The aim of the event

In January 2008, Leader Daniel Cox unveiled the three new ambitions of Norfolk County Council:

 An inspirational place with a clear sense of identity  A vibrant and sustainable economy  Aspirational people with high levels of achievement

A series of initiatives was devised to communicate these new ambitions to residents with the cornerstone being our presence at the largest public event in the county, the Royal Norfolk Show in June attended by 100,000 over two days, where the theme of our 34 sq metre pitch in 2008 was ‘Inspirational Norfolk’.

Our objectives were to develop a marquee ‘experience’ for residents, engaging them about what we do for them and what Norfolk has to offer. We wanted our whole presence to be interactive to help people realise that making Norfolk an even better place to live and work in is at the heart of everything we do.

To promote the message to people who didn’t or couldn’t attend the show physically, and to offset some of our costs, we worked in partnership with BBC Radio Norfolk, building them a studio on our site to broadcast BBC Radio Royal Norfolk Show live on the medium wave during the week of the show.

Meeting these objectives

Each department was tasked to come up with interactive activities to create an event that grabbed visitors’ attention, looked professional and highlighted how services fit into our vision, in a way which appealed to the average show visitor – the family.

We wanted our messages to be highly visible so we designed the whole interior of the marquee as a combined experience.

We built a special stage where the BBC informed and entertained, offering members of the public the opportunity to read the weather with BBC weather forecaster Julie Reinger, or the football results with Radio Norfolk’s Chris Goreham and to showcase the best musical talent in the county.

We negotiated a special rate for our site with show organisers, the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association in return for having the show broadcast live.

All pre-publicity – through a week’s worth of lunchtime slots on Radio Norfolk, our residents magazine distributed to every home in Norfolk, our website and a special

11 EDP show supplement pullout, was aimed at the target audience and letting them know what information and opportunities awaited them on stand 265.

As people approached the marquee, the ‘Inspirational Norfolk’ message grabbed their attention.

Our presence outside saw activity to draw people in – including static windsurfing run by our Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre and rare breed animals from the Gressenhall working farm museum.

Inside, our staff acted as ambassadors for the county council using themed activities to hold people in different areas of the marquee whilst our staff engaged them in conversation about services and ambitions. Our target was to keep people in each area for 5/10 minutes. Activities included:

 an agility challenge to promote sports activities for young people  an artist creating two Seats of Learning out of turf and books highlighting that learning both classroom and outdoor, is at the centre of what we do  staff in costume from our museum service with animals from the working farm.  a mini ‘dig’ giving children the opportunity to get involved in archaeology  Psychometric tests with children to uncovered which people inspire them and was linked to a graffiti wall where young people voiced their opinions on what they find inspirational about Norfolk  a mock living room was created that demonstrated technology for the home available for older people to help retain their independence  a mini recycling machine gave families the opportunity to work together to see how normal household recycling gets sorted into recyclable materials  a pledge tree encouraged people to add their pledge on travelling sustainably on a leaf  Eyesight testing for older drivers  A virtual library promoting the National Year of Reading and encouraging non- users to join.  A ‘Deal or no Deal’ game testing ability at handling an emergency  People were encouraged to think about fostering, asking them to design a badge to celebrate a person who inspired them when they were growing up  A ‘Play your Cards right’ game promoted crucial trading standards initiatives around people’s consumer rights  Nutrition in school meals was promoted through an interactive food-sampling quiz  Adult education staff encouraged visitors to take part in two giant painting by number games.

We also used the marquee to hold an evening reception for 100 local business people and stakeholders, showcasing the Norfolk Youth Orchestra, and offering services networking opportunities.

12 Evaluation and feedback

 More than 250 young people offered their thoughts and ideas about a possible awards ceremony for young people next year.  Distributed 2,500 copies of Best of Blurb, young persons activity magazine.  140 new members joined the library  1,600 families used a mini recycling machine  550 young people took part in a mini archaeology dig.  2,000 people made a pledge to travel more sustainably  Norfolk Record Office had 1,269 people either taking part in the walled town activity or finding out about the 800th anniversary of Great Yarmouth.  Fostering team engaged with 1,000 visitors making badges  Norfolk Home call distributed 500 new directories, 400 leaflets, 6 accreditation packs to interested trades people & showed over 100 people how to use a web site which protects older people from rogue traders.  our ‘activities for young people’ website was discussed with 1,100 12 – 18- year-olds over the two days  400 people expressed an interest in an adult education course.

2. Norfolk Young Driver Experience

Objectives

Each year the Think Norfolk partnership (Norfolk County Council, Norfolk Constabulary, Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, Norfolk Safety Camera Partnership, East of England Ambulance Service and the Highways Agency) creates new ideas to grab the attention of those who are particularly vulnerable to death or injury on our roads and to increase public confidence that their journey will be safe.

The strategic aims were to reduce the number and severity of road traffic casualties on Norfolk roads and to increase public confidence that their journey will be safe.

In 2008 we wanted to deliver a more educational approach to young drivers that would allow us to generate mass awareness and encourage training.

Planning

We looked hard at the tactics and the methods we were using and decided we needed to radically overhaul how we delivered road safety messages to young people if we really wanted to bring about a change in driving habits. Shock tactics were not enough. They needed to dwell on what they did. And then improve how they drove. Or make their friends improve.

Therefore any work needed to be backed with supportive media coverage – to reach parents and young people out of school, and to promote the training course aimed exclusively at this age group.

The Young Driver Experience launched on 1 February 2008. It is an interactive DVD presentation that ‘talks in their language’, increasing young people’s awareness of the number of road casualties among their peer group, make them understand the

13 importance of better safety standards and convince them to take responsibility for passenger safety.

Creativity

To launch the Young Driver Experience, we invited the media, concerned road safety groups and stakeholders to a special screening. They watched on as the presentation was made to a mixed audience from City of Norwich High School.

The media could see at first hand how powerful the Young Driver Experience was as the audience found it very moving.

This led to extensive media coverage and unanimous acclaim with all media groups in the county offering editorial support, both in print and on radio and television, to the initiative.

The DVD is interactive with modern music and a red pause buttons that allows the presenter to discuss situations they understand such as alcohol, peer pressure and sexual relationships. This allows the audience to control the pace of the presentation which can last from 40 minutes to two hours if they are really engaged.

Support and backing was sought from families who have suffered a loss and from independent road safety groups such as Road Peace. In fact the DVD ends with a mother and father discussing the loss of their daughter.

To further push the training aspect of the campaign, we created a new training course with the same identity and we encouraged young people to take a ‘Young Driver Training Experience’ course that has an incentivised 25% reduction on insurance for those who take the course.

The course was also promoted through a media campaign that saw a five-day feature in the Norwich Evening News, written by a young journalist who took the course just after passing his test.

Results

 By the end of the campaign 3,500 young people had seen the Young Driver Experience.

 Over 100 young people had done the Young Driver Experience course.

 The launch secured extensive television coverage on both BBC Look East and Anglia Tonight. Interviews and reaction also featured on five radio stations.

 Eight pieces of print media coverage included front page of the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) and a double page spread inside. Support was given in leader columns in the EDP and Norwich Evening News. A Five-day feature (two front pages) of a young journalist’s course experience also appeared in the Norwich Evening News.

14  Fatalities in the 17 – 25 age range fell  Feb – Dec 2007 = 27 fatal, 186 serious Feb – Dec 2008 =8 fatal, 89 serious

 19 other local authorities requested the opportunity to create their own version of the Young Driver Experience.

15 Appendix B

Customer Service and Communications – Key performance data 2009/10

VFM

Since the organisation of communications and marketing varies, it is hard to get precise benchmarking of costs. However we have participated in the annual communications benchmarking carried out by PublicPR for several years. Norfolk County Council’s spend on communications equates to £1.37 per head of population compared to an average of £4.23 per head spend for county councils and larger authorities (109 in group).

The overall cost of our residents’ publication Your Norfolk places us 18th out of 38 comparable authorities – placing us in the third quartile.

We set objectives in our customer access strategy to reduce cost per contact. We are working very hard to reduce the number of calls and increase the number of self serve hits via the website and other telephony options. In this year we may see a short and temporary increase in contact costs while the necessary staff adjustments are made.

2009/10 cost performance Cost per contact (telephone) reduced from £4.01 to £ 3.93 (2.1%) Cost per contact (face to face via Council Information Centres) reduced from £8.39 to £7.73 (7.9%) Cost per contact (web) remained static at 0.4p per contact

Efficiency

Changes to the way face-to-face services delivered savings of £140k including saving one third on the ongoing operational budget for running our Council Information Centres. Improved capacity planning in the Customer Service Centre has enabled us to add an additional team leader and deal with increased demand for email and fulfilment services with no additional budget.

We continue to use frameworks we negotiated for broadcast, print and display (bus) advertising, which deliver between a 20 and 40% discount for the whole county council.

Benchmarking performance

We benchmark the performance of our Customer Service Centre services via the Local Government Benchmarking Group. We achieved a top quartile place consistently during 2009/10 for email and telephone contacts.

We benchmark and measure customer satisfaction with our website by the ongoing SocITM Insight Survey. This gave us an 81% satisfaction score for 2009/10.

16 We also track customer satisfaction annually through a survey and via mystery shopping. The Customer Satisfaction Tracker survey 2009 showed overall satisfaction of Norfolk Residents with the last contact they had with us to be 64% (target 64%) and satisfaction with ease of contact to be 68% (target 70%).

We used measuring and managing avoidable contact as a key driver of service improvement and reduced this to 14.1% (from 22.6%)

We have benchmarked our communications performance via the Place Survey and previous user satisfaction surveys – in 2009, 52% of residents felt we kept them very or well informed – This was actually 1% below our target, but equated to top quartile for counties.

Internal communications

The 2009 Employee Survey showed that 87% of staff agree that customers are “at the heart of everything they do” and that 57% felt we are a customer-focussed organisation. We hit the 2009 staff survey target of 56% of staff feeling well informed and exceeded targets to increase the numbers of staff who would speak highly of council (services (target 52% - result 59%).

In 2009/10 23 NCC staff members successfully completed Institute of Customer Services Professional Awards, some 50 more staff have done so since.

External recognition – the team has previously been awarded ‘outstanding local government communications team of the year’ by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and has won several national awards for the authority on the basis of communication activities. It is currently short listed again for outstanding team of the year for its work during 2009/10.

Last year, it achieved a Gold Award in the LGComms excellence awards for the Best Campaign and helped the authority achieve an LGC Gold Award for Place Leadership.

Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel 19 October 2010 Item No. 10

Scrutiny – Review of the Council’s Constitution

Report by the Chairman of the Scrutiny Working Group

Summary This report provides further findings and recommendations of the Scrutiny Working Group established by the Panel.

The working group was established to conduct a wide ranging review of the Council’s Constitution to make it effective and fit for purpose.

The third stage of the review has involved considering:-

 Procedural Protocols  Standards Related Protocols  Financial Regulations  Joint and Area Arrangements  Constitutional Review arrangements

After consideration of these areas, the working group has reached a number of conclusions as to changes to the Constitution it wishes to recommend. The working group has some further work to undertake, but as indicated previously, would like to progress these recommendations rather than await the conclusion of the full review. These recommendations are therefore presented to the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel for agreement prior to submission to Cabinet. The recommendations will then go to full Council for approval

Recommendation

To consider the Working Group’s recommendations

1. Background

1.1 The Working Group has previously reported to the Panel its initial findings and recommendations arising from the first two stages of its review. These included changes relating to :-

 The Council and the Policy Framework  The Executive  Overview and Scrutiny  Non-Executive Committees  Delegations  Procedure Rules

The resulting recommendations were approved by full Council on 11 May and 27 September 2010,

1.2 The Working Group has since met to consider:-

 Procedural Protocols  Standards Related Protocols  Joint and Area Arrangements  Constitutional Review arrangements

and this report sets out the conclusions reached and the next recommendations that the Working Group wishes to make.

2. Procedural Protocols 2.1 The Working Group has considered the following parts of the Constitution, which it has described as procedural protocols:-

 Appendix 8 – Proper Officer Provisions  Appendix 13 – Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules  Appendix 14 – Access to Information Procedure Rules  Appendix 15 – Officer Employment Procedure Rules  Appendix 16 – Financial Regulations  Article 14 – Finance, Contracts and Legal Matters  Appendix 20A – Principles and Protocols for dealing with the Media

2.2 The Working Group concluded that the only documents which required changes were Appendices 16 and 20A and Article 14 as follows:-

Appendix 16 – Financial Regulations

2.3 The Head of Budgeting and Financial Management attended to assist the Working Group with its consideration of Financial Regulations. The Group noted that the regulations included a requirement for the Head of Finance to review them annually and to submit any proposed changes to full Council for approval, following consideration by the Audit Committee and Cabinet.

2.4 The Working Group considered that section 3.5 of the regulations needed to be explicit about how Cabinet Members are informed about overspends or shortfalls in income on budgets for which they have responsibility. It was agreed to RECOMMEND some changing to the wording of the Financial Regulations as follows:-

(i) Paragraph 3.5.1 - The Statutory Finance Officer is responsible for monitoring income and expenditure against approved revenue and capital budget allocations and for reporting to the Cabinet on a regular basis, including briefing Cabinet Members.

(ii) Paragraph 3.5.4 - It is the responsibility of Chief Officers to control income and expenditure with their area in accordance with the approved budget and to monitor performance, taking account of financial information provided by the Statutory Finance Officer. Chief Officers are responsible for alerting the Statutory Finance Officer to any overspendings or shortfall in income and for identifying strategies and options for containing spend within the budget approved by the Council, in consultation with the relevant Cabinet Member.

(iii) Delete paragraph 4.4.5 as it is no longer relevant following the abolition of CPA.

(iv) Paragraph 4.6.4 - Delete final bullet point and remove "(where disposal may be sensitive)" in preceding bullet point.

Appendix 20A – Principles and Protocols for dealing with the Media

2.5 The Working Group received from the Communications Unit a revised draft Appendix 20A and the Media and Public Affairs Manager attended the meeting at which this was considered. The Working Group made a number of amendments to the draft. A copy of the fully revised version is now presented at Appendix 1 to this report and is RECOMMENDED to the Panel.

Article 14 – Finance, Contracts and Legal Matters

2.6 There is a reference to the post of Head of Trading Standards within Article 14 and this should be deleted as that post no longer exists in the new organisational structure. This is a change that can be made by the Monitoring Officer under delegated powers and it does not require full Council approval.

3.0 Standards Related Protocols

3.1 The Working Group has considered the following parts of the Constitution, which it has described as standards related protocols:-

 Appendix 18 – Members Code of Conduct  Appendix 18B – Gifts and Hospitality: A Code of Conduct for Councillors  Appendix 18D – Standards Committee: Rules of Procedure for Hearings

 Appendix 20 – Protocol on Member/Officer Relations

 Appendix 20B – Standards Committee Publicity Protocol

 Appendix 25 – Register of Members Interests  Appendix 26 Monitoring Officer Protocol

3.2 The Working Group recognised that the Coalition Government has announced its intention to abolish the Standards Board and that there are possible implications for the standards regime within local authorities. The Group therefore concluded that it would be sensible to await the outcome of these national developments before carrying out a review of the Code of Conduct.

3.3 However, the Group did review the associated Appendices listed above and there are a small number of changes that need to be made to some of them.

Appendix 18D - Standards Committee: Rules of Procedure for Hearings

3.4 This Appendix sets out the rules under which Standards Committee hearings take place in respect of allegations that a member has breached the Council’s Code of Conduct.

3.5 The Head of Law advised that some minor changes are needed in the first section – “Interpretation”. The Working Group supported these proposals but in addition, considered that the word “may” ought to be replaced with the word “should” at certain points in the text. A copy of the proposed revised Appendix 18D is presented as Appendix 2 to this report, with the amended sections highlighted and is RECOMMENDED to the Panel

Appendix 20 – Protocol on Member/Officer Relations

3.6 In considering the issue of local member consultation, the Working Group also discussed the Local Member Protocol and some concern was expressed that members were not always informed of matters that affected their divisions, even on major issues. It was felt that departments needed to ensure that they were consistently applying the principles of the Local Member Protocol. RECOMMEND that Paragraph 23 to be amended to read:-

“Similarly whenever the Council undertakes any form of consultative exercise, the local members must be consulted”.

Appendix 20B – Standards Committee Publicity Protocol

3.7 There are some technical references required to reflect changes introduced to the standards regime whereby allegations about breaches of the Code are referred direct to Standards Committees and not to the Standards Board. The changes also reflect the establishment of an Assessment Sub-Committee. The Monitoring Officer is able to make these changes under delegated powers and they do not require full Council approval.

Appendix 25 – Register of Members’ Interests

3.8 The Working Group supported and RECOMMENDS an amendment suggested by the Head of Law for an additional paragraph 6 to Appendix 25 as follows:-

“Members’ interests are published on the County Council’s website unless a member makes an express request to the contrary to the Monitoring Officer”.

Appendix 26 – Monitoring Officer

3.9 There are some changes required to reflect the change of name of the Standards Board to Standards for England and of the Director of Finance to the Head of Finance. These are consequential changes that the Monitoring Officer is able to make under delegated powers and they do not require the approval of full Council.

4. Joint and Area Arrangements

4.1 The Working Group has considered the Joint and Area Arrangements as set out in Articles 10 and 11 and Appendices 4 and 5

Joint Arrangements

4.2 The Council’s Joint Arrangements are set out in Article 10 and Appendix 4. The only issue that the Working Group wished to consider is the arrangement for the Norwich Joint Highways Agency Committee, which oversees the highways and traffic related powers that are delegated to the City Council under an agency agreement. Councillor Bearman and Boswell asked the Working Group to consider the membership of the Joint Committee.

4.3 The current composition was established in 2002 and comprises four members, two from each of the City and County Councils. In addition, each Council appoints three non-voting members who to advise and assist the joint Committee. The County Council’s members are both from the Administration Group, with one of these being a Cabinet Member. The County’s non-voting members comprise one from each of the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green Groups. Mr Bearman and Dr Boswell consider that the current arrangement means that the opposition parties have no say over the Committee’s decisions. They indicated that they would prefer to see the Committee constituted of solely voting members, five from each of the County and City Councils.

4.4 In considering this issue, the Working also received information about the background to the establishment of the agency agreement in 1974 and the role and functions of the Joint Committee which was set up in 1996. The Working Group. The working Group noted that in March 2010, the Cabinet had agreed to extend the agreement to cover the period from April 2011 to March 2015 subject to a review of functions carried out by the City Council.

4.5 The Group concluded that it did not wish to propose any changes to the current arrangements, including the membership position, which it felt gave the opposition parties an opportunity to input into the decision-making process albeit without a voting right.

Area Arrangements

4.6 The Council’s Area Arrangements are set out in Article 11 and Appendix 5. Article 11 confirms that Area Committees have no functions delegated to them and Appendix 5 sets out the arrangements that have been put in place. The Working Group noted that there were originally 7 Area Committees in 1999/2000 but that only 2 now remained, Norwich and Great Yarmouth. The Working Group also noted the significant development in partnership working since 2002, principally through the establishment of Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs).

4.7 In view of the lead now taken by LSPs in area partnership working, the Working Group concluded that the role of the Area Committees was diminished and that they no longer served a useful purpose. The Working Group therefore RECOMMENDS that the Area Committees be discontinued.

5. Constitutional Review Arrangements

5.1 Article 15 sets out a duty to monitor and review the Constitution. That role has effectively been carried out by Cabinet, which has considered proposed changes before they are submitted to full Council for approval.

5.2 The Constitution Working Group was originally set up on a task and finish basis, to conduct a review of the constitution. With that task almost complete, the Working Group has considered what arrangements might be put in place for the ongoing monitoring and reviewing of the Constitution. Whilst changes arising from legislation, consequential changes and changes to reflect decisions made under delegated powers can be taken without the need for Council approval, other changes must be considered by the full Council.

5.3 The option of the monitor and review role being taken on by the Standards Committee was considered but on balance, the Working Group concluded that the best approach would be to establish a Standing Advisory Group of the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel, to take effect after the Working Group has completed its current task. The Advisory Group’s role would be to review elements of the Constitution as necessary and report with recommendations to the O&S Panel. The route for approval would remain as Cabinet and full Council. The Working Group has prepared draft terms of reference for the Advisory Group and these are attached at Appendix 3 incorporated into a RECOMMENDED revised version of Article 15.

6.0 Remaining Tasks for the Working Group

6.1 Appendix 17 - Contract Standing Orders and Appendix 18C – Members’ Protocol for Contracts and Purchasing are still to be considered by the Working Group. The Heads of Procurement and Law have carried out a review of these documents and proposed revised versions will be presented to the Working Group’s next meeting on 21 October.

7.0 Resource Implications 7.1 Financial Implications - If the proposal to discontinue Area Committees is approved, there will be some reduction in the travelling costs of members and officers who attend those meetings, together with a reduction in officer time in preparing for and attending meetings.

8.0 Other Implications

8.1 Legal Implications: The recommended changes to the Constitution do not conflict with the legislation and regulations relating to Council constitutions.

8.2 Equality Impact There are no equalities implications arising from the recommendations.

8.3 Any Other Implications

Officers have considered all the implications which members should be aware of. Apart from those listed in the report (above), there are no other implications to take into account.

9.0 Section 17 – Crime and Disorder Act:

9.1 There are no crime and disorder implications arsing from the recommendations.

10. Conclusions

10.1 The Working Group considers that the changes to the Constitution proposed in this report will lead to improvements in the way in which the Council operates.

10.2 Recommendations agreed by the Panel will need to be reported to Cabinet and then go to full Council for approval.

Action Required

To consider the Working Group’s recommendations, which are detailed at sections 2.4, 2.5, 3.5, 3.6, 3.8, 4.7 and 5.3 of this report.

Officer Contact If you have any questions about matters contained in this paper please get in touch with: Name Telephone Number Email address Greg Insull 01603 223100 [email protected]

If you need this report in large print, audio, Braille, alternative format or in a different language please contact Greg Insull on 01603 223100 and we will do our best to help. Appendix 1

Appendix 20A

Principles and Protocols for Dealing with the Media

1. Background and introduction

The media team at Norfolk County Council aims to provide an efficient and timely response to media enquiries and raise the positive public profile of the authority by actively promoting accurate and balanced media coverage of its work and activities.

Norfolk County Council is committed to effective communication so that citizens of the county are well informed about the services that affect their lives every day. The local media play a valuable role in Norfolk life as they have the ability to reach large numbers of local residents.

The County Council aims to provide a service to the media, which is responsive and understands their needs. This is built on a basic principle of wanting to be open and transparent about the decisions the County Council takes and who is accountable for those decisions.

The Unit operates within the terms and spirit of a legal framework set out in the Local Government Act of 1986, which states that:

“A local authority shall not publish any material which in whole, or in part, appears to be designated to affect public support for a political party.”

Section 6 of this Act defines publicity as “any communication, in whatever form, addressed to the public at large or to a section of the public.”

The Unit operates within the national Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity first published by the Government in August 1988. In April 2001, the Government agreed a series of alterations to the Code of Recommended Practice to take account of changes since 1988 and in particular:

 The new political structures in local government

 Increased emphasis on partnership and new requirements for consultation

 The rapid advances in communication technology – especially the electronic media

 The provisions of the Human Rights, Disability Discrimination and Equal Opportunities Acts.

The revised Code defines the main functions of local authority publicity as follows:

“To increase public awareness of the services provided by the authority and the functions it performs; to allow local people a real and informed say about issues that affect them; to explain to electors and ratepayers the reasons for particular policies and priorities; and in general to improve local accountability”.

The protocols outlined below are designed specifically to bring clarity, accountability and consistency to those aspects of our publicity that govern our dealings with the media.

2. Principles

Underpinning the work of the media team is a number of fundamental principles

 Members first. All appropriate Members should be sent news releases before they are sent to the media – so that they have time to digest and consider the issue prior to any media enquiry. They should not hear first from the media. Where appropriate, on urgent news items, the media officer will telephone the relevant Member(s) to check receipt of faxes or emails or communicate the release.

 Members actively involved. The contents of all principal news releases should be shared and developed in draft stages with the appropriate Cabinet Member.

 Staff informed. Media releases will be agreed with the principal officers and distributed to them prior to release. They will also be posted on the Internet site on the day of publication.

 Honest. The Unit never knowingly misleads the media on a story or issue. Staff are in a long-term relationship with the local media in particular and they must trust our counsel and respect our honesty of approach.

 Accessible and timely. Staff are firm, friendly but polite in dealings with the media, always ensure contact numbers are accurate and appropriate and return calls efficiently to recognise competing pressures on deadlines etc. The timeliness of the response rate to media enquiries is recorded and a media officer is available to the media on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week.

 Fair. The Unit does not routinely favour one media source over another. Where appropriate, staff will identify the relative importance of media sources and be able to clearly justify any strategy that promotes one over another.

3. Organisation

Media releases are organised as follows:

 News releases – deal proactively with substantial news matters that the council wants to promote, publicise or explain. They will often arise from items being raised or considered by Members, Member decisions, important visits, matters of policy or a wide range of external matters.

 Public information notices – provide important, factual information about normal day-to-day activities of the council. They include matters such as road works and closures, minor emergencies – such as the closure of offices, schools or other premises to which the public normally have access and basic event information.

 News statements – are statements that give reactive comment to a particular media request. Written statements are principally used in respect of sensitive issues to be sure that the council’s position cannot be open to possible misinterpretation or misrepresentation.

Releases are targeted to those media outlets that cover the relevant geographical area or specialism. The Unit will avoid issuing releases to all media outlets regardless of content.

4. Protocols

Issuing of agendas

All committee papers will be made available to the media five working days before the meeting concerned and posted on the Internet. This is a function carried out by Democratic Services.

Media in attendance

Members of the media must have the relevant papers, particularly any additional papers which may have been issued on the day.

Motions and questions

Motions and questions from individual councillors shown on the agenda will not be publicised through County Council news releases in the interests of fairness.

Debate reporting

If a reporter who has not attended the meeting wants to find out what was said during a debate, officers will tell them to contact the appropriate Cabinet Member directly. Staff from the Communications Unit can report back to the media on any decision/recommendation reached.

Advance publicity for council meetings

As a matter of routine, media releases will accompany the distribution of the following papers to the media:

 Full Council  Cabinet  Cabinet Scrutiny Committee  Overview and Scrutiny Panels

Where necessary and appropriate because of the issues under debate, releases will be prepared to accompany the papers for other meetings of the council.

Political quotes and named media contacts

 In many cases it is appropriate to include a quote from the appropriate elected Member(s). This will most often be the Cabinet Member with responsibility for the area concerned. Where this is the case, the attributing phrase used will be ‘Councillor xxxxxx who is the Cabinet Member with responsibility for yyyyy’. Should the Cabinet Member be unavailable for any reason (holiday or sickness for example) a quote will be sought from the Deputy Cabinet Member.

 Where a news release specifically relates to an issue affecting a particular area or geographical division, the local Member will be advised by email, fax or phone as appropriate and sent the release prior to distribution to the local media.

 His/her name will always be added to the contacts list and the communications unit will also seek a quote from the local Member, offering advice and guidance in the usual way.

 The local Member concerned will sign off the final wording. In seeking the local member quote, the unit will be clear about the relevant timeframe and wherever possible, ensure this gives sufficient time for a response without affecting media requirements or effective performance. However, the local member concerned will be responsible for responding in a timely manner.

 The Chairman of the County Council (and in his/her absence, the Vice Chairman) has an important part to play in ceremonial events carried out on behalf of the County Council. The Chairman’s activities will be publicised as appropriate.

 In all cases, the names and contact details for the political spokesmen will be included. Only four political contacts will be given to ensure political balance. The general policy is that this will be the relevant Cabinet Member and Opposition Spokesmen, though by agreement with the relevant party this may vary as appropriate. The contents of each release will be shared with spokesmen in advance of the main release and copied at that time to the Political Assistants.

 In all cases, the relevant departmental/officer contact will also be included, followed by that of the named media officer.

 All quotes should be cleared with the named person before use. In the event of situations where an appropriate Member’s quote is needed and the Member is unavailable for checking, the appropriate Group Leader will be contacted for guidance. Officers will not approve Members’ quotes.

 Any quotes on matters relating to the development of County Council policies will always come from the appropriate Cabinet Member. This principle will also apply to any letters written for publication.

 Officers will respond to media requests for interviews/information on matters involving the giving of background technical or practical operational information, non-policy matters, matters involving the implementation of policies or matters of professional responsibility.

 Officers should be used as lead spokesmen or women when the County Council’s reputation can be enhanced by raising the profile of a perceived ‘expert’.

 News releases accompanying papers for the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee will contain quote(s) from the Chairman as appropriate.

In each case, where necessary, appropriate care will be taken to ensure compliance with section 40 of the Code of Recommended Practice. This states that:

“Whilst it may be appropriate to describe policies put forward by an individual Councillor which are relevant to her/his position and responsibilities within the council, and to put forward his/her justification in defence of them, this should not be done in party political terms, using party political slogans, expressly advocating policies of those of a particular political or directly attacking policies and opinions of other parties, groups or individuals.”

In the event of the threat of inaccurate stories that could damage the reputation of the Authority, Unit staff will respond by challenging the story at source, rather than waiting for it to be published.

In the event of inaccurate and damaging stories being published, the Unit will contact the newspaper concerned and seek redress - this may include a letter of clarification being published or a follow-up story being carried (see Letters for publication). a) Distribution

News releases may be initiated in departments, but always vetted and approved by the Head of Communications or Media Manager prior to release and issued through the communications unit on NCC communications headed paper.

Exceptions are as follows: i. In the case of the Museums Service, where there are named marketing officers, general releases will be sent to the Communications Unit for information at the same time as they are sent to the media.

However the release of any news on a policy matter, or of a controversial nature, should be cleared in advance with the Head of Communications or Media Manager.

The principles and protocols contained herein should be applied accordingly.

 External distribution

To all relevant media (print and broadcast and specialist) by fax or e-mail as appropriate. In the event of major news issues, the media officer will phone principal news desks to advise them that a release is coming.

In addition, news releases will always be posted on the council’s website on the date of publication.

Internal Distribution

 Members

All Members named on a news release – either in the text or the contacts list - will receive their copy by email or fax to ensure that they receive their copy before the media.

In emergency situations (e.g. fuel crisis type scenario), the use of feature fax distribution systems should ensure that the Members list is included with all media lists to ensure same time receipt as a minimum standard.

All news releases will be emailed or faxed to all Members as a matter of routine.

Where an issue has a particular relevance to an electoral division or divisions, the Local Member(s) will also be included in the email/fax distribution system.

Where a local member does not have a fax or access to email – the media officer will phone and advise them of what is happening and post a copy of the release by 1st class post to their home address.

All releases accompanying Cabinet/Review Panel/ Council or Scrutiny Committee or other committees as appropriate will be sent with the papers to their relevant Members but distributed in advance by fax to all named contacts as above.

 Officers/staff in general

All named officers will receive an e-mail copy of the approved release by e-mail or fax and where appropriate and possible, a hard copy will be walked to them at the time of release or before.

All Chief Officers will receive a copy of major news releases by the same system. b) Public information notices

Public Information Notices will give clear, factual information in plain English and always provide the relevant departmental contact number.

Distribution

External

Using the fax /email distribution system to all appropriate local media.

Internal

 Members

Local Members will receive the notice by email or fax where it relates to a particular divisional issue that may prompt constituent concern or query.

(N.B. Significant closures etc. that are likely to prompt general media interest will form the subject of news releases and be subject to the system above)

 Officers/staff in general

They will be sent by fax/e mail as appropriate to all named contacts prior to release or at the same time and a copy e-mailed to the appropriate Chief Officer for information. c) News statements

News statements will be issued where necessary and appropriate in response to a particular request for comment. They will be printed on news release paper, clearly headed ‘statement’ and issued on request. d) Attributing comments and quotes

Quotes and comments will normally be attributed to a named person – Member or Officer, so that people know who to get in touch with in the event of further concern etc. This means that the Communications Unit actively request the media to attribute quotes as opposed to the ‘a council spokesman said’ approach. e) Use of embargoes

Embargoes should only be used sparingly. This would most typically be when a news release is linked to a launch event, when an issue of confidentiality requires it, or when a third party requires it (e.g. announcement of award or additional funding). Embargoes are not legally enforceable and are adhered to by general local agreement. f) Media training

The communications team will provide training to both councillors and staff which encourages a positive relationship with the media and provides information on the best ways to get their information across. g) News releases on partnership issues or projects

Partnership working is an increasingly common feature of our activities.

Where we are either issuing or participating in the release of news on a partnership matter, we will ensure that:

 Norfolk County Council’s role or contribution is identified appropriately and the release includes quotes from named County Council Members or Officers.

 The Norfolk County Council logo is included with others on the release paper.

 The text of the release is shared in draft stages between partners and approved by the relevant communications leads prior to distribution.

 The method, manner and timing of distribution are also agreed in advance by the relevant communications leads.

The relevant County Council Cabinet Member will be consulted as usual but may not be quoted where it is agreed that the county council is not the lead agency and in the interests of producing succinct media releases. Wherever possible, such news releases should be issued on joint paper, with contact details for each organisation. h) Norwich Highways Agency Committee

Where the Joint Highways Agency Committee (NHAC) is concerned, agreed communication protocols are already in place between NCC and Norwich City Council governing the production and publication of all media and PR materials. They are as follows:

At their centre the essence of this protocol, as before, is ‘no surprises’.

It is that:

 A named communications officer from Norfolk County Council and Norwich City Council will support the work of NHAC.

 All media releases, publicity information and consultation materials associated with NHAC will be jointly branded and agreed in advance by the appropriate elected Member of the County Council and the City Council, the relevant Chief Officer and both communications officers.

 A quote from a Member of the County Council and City Council administration will be included in media activity. One of these will normally be the Chairman; in this case, the Chairman’s quote will come first.

 The basis for media briefings will be cleared in advance through the Chairman, Vice Chairman and agreed communications leads and conducted with communications officer support.

 Communication officers will notify each other of any approaches from the media on NHAC issues and resultant council responses.

 Any report of NHAC issues or on NHAC policy will be agreed through the Chairman and Vice Chairman at a minimum, before wider publication either externally or within partner agencies. The timetable for publication will also be agreed in advance.

 Public involvement activities – including consultation – will be carried out in a way that ensures that the policy requirements of both partners are fulfilled in terms of principles and practice.

 Both communication units will ensure a timely response to requests for comment and approval to ensure that essential deadlines are met. i) Communications support for schools

Practical support for schools is offered in times of particular difficulties or success. This can be in the form of general advice and guidance, media releases, fielding media calls, media briefings/news conferences.

In general terms:

 The content of all media releases will be cleared in advance with the Headteacher and, if possible, the Chairman of Governors.

 Any media release will make it clear it is being issued on behalf of the school concerned and headed with the name of the school governing body as appropriate.

 Relevant school contact names and numbers will be included on any release except where prior agreement has been reached that communications team staff should field all calls in the first instance.

 The Cabinet Member with responsibility for Children’s Services will be kept fully informed j) Run-up to elections

The County Council follows the guidelines set out in the Code of Practice on Local Government publicity, namely that “the period between the notice of election and the election itself should preclude proactive publicity in all its forms of candidates and other politicians involved directly in the election”.

Consequently, no county councillors will be quoted in any releases during the period outlined above.

Wider publicity initiatives also need to be considered carefully during this period. The Code states that: “Publicity should not deal with controversial issues or report views, proposals or recommendations in such a way that identifies them with individual members or groups of members”.

Also that “proactive events arranged in this period should not involve members likely to be standing for election”.

However, the code of practice does indicate that "members holding key political or civic positions should be able to comment in an emergency or where there is a genuine need for a member level response to an important event outside the authority's control".

Any prospective candidates (parliamentary, county and district) requesting visits to County Council premises must always be treated equally. County Council staff should not be included in any photographs that candidates might arrange to avoid any impression of one party being favoured over another.

Further guidance to officers and members is available from the document on Election Guidance agreed with Chief Officers and Party Leaders before the June 2009 County Council elections. k) Political press releases

Press releases issued by Political Assistants on behalf of the different political groups on the Authority will, by agreement of the Party Leaders, be passed to the corporate press office shortly after the release has been issued. The press office will then pass releases to the relevant Cabinet member and Chief Officer.

All of the Authority's releases, once published, are posted on the council's website and are emailed to Political Assistants. l) Letters for publication

The Communications Unit will, in consultation with appropriate Cabinet Members, consider the need to reply to letters and articles about the council or its services that appear in the press and help draw up letters for publication, if appropriate. In such cases, the Cabinet Member concerned will sign the letter or agree who else is best to respond having seen and approved the text prior to it being submitted. A copy of the letter will be sent to the Leader and Deputy Leader at the time it is submitted for publication.

Where letters raise issues of a party political nature, Group Leaders, aided by their Political Assistants, will consider and deal with any required response as considered necessary and appropriate. m) Dealing with confidential items

Under the Local Government Act 2000 a written record of all key decisions and other executive decisions made by Cabinet must be made publicly available 'as soon as practicable' after the meeting, even if the decision has been taken as an exempt item as defined in the Access to Information Procedural Rules (Appendix 14 of the Norfolk County Council Constitution). This could be when the minutes of the meeting are available, but could equally be much sooner after the decision has been taken.

There is no legal requirement to provide a record of a decision if the matter under discussion is not a key or executive decision. In addition, there is no legal requirement to provide a record of any recommendation of a non decision-making body of the council.

This gives authorities a large amount of leeway when asked by journalists about the result of items discussed as an exempt item ('below the line').

The Unit will always seek to give the outcome of an issue taken ‘below the line’ - unless there are over-riding reasons not to do so, such as the handling of personal and sensitive issues affecting staff or clients, or financial and commercial issues.

Members of the Communications Unit should consider each case individually, striking a balance between what is reasonable for an Authority to release, while taking into account any effects on individual service users that publicity may bring.

In these circumstances, officers should liaise with the department concerned before deciding the best course of action to follow.

APPENDIX 2

APPENDIX 18D

STANDARDS COMMITTEE: RULES OF PROCEDURE FOR HEARINGS

Interpretation

1. 'Member' means the member of the authority who is the subject of the allegation being considered by the Standards Committee, unless stated otherwise. It also includes the member's nominated representative.

2. 'Investigator' means the Monitoring Officer or other investigating officer and their nominated representative.

3. 'Committee' also refers to 'a standards sub-committee'.

4. 'Legal Advisor' means the officer responsible for providing legal advice to the Standards Committee. This may be the Monitoring Officer, another legally qualified officer of the authority or someone appointed for this purpose from outside the authority.

Representation

5. The member may be represented or accompanied during the meeting by a Solicitor, Counsel or, with the permission of the Committee, another person.

Legal Advice

6. The Committee may take legal advice from its legal advisor at any time during the hearing or while they are considering the outcome. The substance of any legal advice given to the Committee should be shared with the member and the investigator if they are present.

Setting the Scene

7. After all the members and everyone involved have been formally introduced, the Chairman should explain how the Committee is going to run the hearing.

Preliminary Procedural Issues

8. The Committee should then resolve any issues or disagreements about how the hearing should continue, which have not been resolved during the pre-hearing process.

Making Findings of Fact

9. After dealing with any preliminary issues, the Committee should then move on to consider whether or not there are any significant disagreements about the facts contained in the investigator's report.

10. If there is no disagreement about the facts, the Committee can move on to the next stage of the hearing (paragraph 18).

11. If there is a disagreement, the investigator, if present, should be invited to make any necessary representations to support the relevant findings of fact in the report. With the Committee’s permission, the investigator may call any necessary supporting witnesses to give evidence. The Committee should give the member an opportunity to challenge any evidence put forward by any witness called by the investigator.

12. The member should than have the opportunity to make representations to support their version of the facts and, with the Committee's permission, to call any necessary witnesses to give evidence.

13. At any time, the Committee may question any of the people involved or any of the witnesses, and should allow the investigator to challenge any evidence put forward by witnesses called by the member.

14. If the member disagrees with most of the facts, it may make sense for the investigator to start by making representations on all the relevant facts, instead of discussing each fact individually.

15. If the member disagrees with any relevant fact in the investigator's report, without having given prior notice of the disagreement, good reasons must be given for not mentioning it before the hearing. If the investigator is not present, the Committee will consider whether or not it would be in the public interest to continue in the Investigator's absence. After considering the member's explanation for not raising the issue at an earlier stage, the Committee may then:-

(a) Continue with the hearing, relying on the information in the investigator's

report;

(b) Allow the member to make representations about the issue, and invite the investigator to respond and call any witnesses, as necessary: or

(c) Postpone the hearing to arrange for appropriate witnesses to be present, or for the investigator to be present if not already present.

16. The Committee will usually move to another room to consider the representations and evidence in private.

17. On their return, the Chairman will announce the Committee's findings of fact.

Did the Member Fail to Follow the Code?

18. The Committee then needs to consider whether or not, based on the facts it has found, the member has failed to follow the Code of Conduct. 19. The member should be invited to give relevant reasons why the Committee should not decide that the member has failed to follow the Code.

20. The Committee should then consider any verbal or written representations from the investigator.

21. The Committee may, at any time, question anyone involved on any point they raise in their representations.

22. The member should be invited to make any final relevant points.

23. The Committee will then move to another room to consider the representations.

24. On their return, the Chairman will announce the Committee's decision as to whether or not the member has failed to follow the Code of Conduct.

If the Member has not Failed to Follow the Code of Conduct

25. If the Committee decides that the member has not failed to follow the Code of Conduct, the Committee can move on to consider whether it should make any recommendations to the authority.

If the Member has failed to Follow the Code

26. If the Committee decides that the member has failed to follow the Code of Conduct, it will consider any verbal or written representations from the investigator and the member as to:

(a) Whether or not the Committee should set a penalty: and

(b) What form any penalty should take.

27. The Committee may question the investigator and member, and take legal advice, to make sure they have the information they need in order to make an informed decision.

28. The Committee will then move to another room to consider whether or not to impose a penalty on the member and, if so, what the penalty should be.

29. On their return, the Chairman will announce the Committee's decision.

Recommendations to the Authority

30. After considering any verbal or written representations from the investigator, the Committee will consider whether or not it should make any recommendations to the authority, with a view to promoting high standards of conduct among members.

The Written Decision

31. The Committee will announce its decision on the day and, where possible, provide a short written decision on that day. It will also need to issue a full written decision shortly after the end of the hearing. It is good practice to prepare the full written decision in draft on the day of the hearing, before people's memories fade.

APPENDIX 3

Article 15 – Review and Revision of the Constitution

15. Duty to monitor and review the Constitution

The Council from time to time will monitor and review the operation of the Constitution to ensure that the aims and principles of the Constitution are given full effect.

A key role for the Monitoring Officer is to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the Constitution adopted by the Council, and to make recommendations for the way in which it could be amended in order to better reflect the purposes set out in Article 1. In undertaking this task the Monitoring Officer may:-

1. Observe meetings of different parts of the member and officer structure; 2. Undertake an audit trail of a sample of decisions; 3. Record and analyse issues raised with him/her by members, officers, the public and other relevant stakeholders; and 4. Compare practices in this Authority with those in other comparable authorities, or national examples of best practice.

15.1 Changes to the Constitution

Changes to the Articles of the Constitution must be approved by full Council only after consideration of the proposal by an Advisory Group appointed for that purpose by the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel or its successor. The Advisory Group will have the terms of reference set out below. Changes to factual references, changes required by a change in the law and consequential changes will be made by the Monitoring Officer. Changes to the Appendices of the Constitution will be made by the Monitoring Officer to reflect changes to arrangements for the distribution of responsibilities and the delegation of powers in accordance with decisions taken by the person(s) or body with authority to take such action.

Terms of Reference of the Constitution Advisory Group

1. To monitor and review the content and operation of the Constitution at least once each year, to ensure it remains fit for purpose as set out in section 1.3 of Article 1 of the Constitution;

2. To receive an annual report from the Monitoring Officer, making recommendations for the way in which the Constitution could be amended in order to better achieve the purposes set out in Articll1;

3. To make recommendations to the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel or its successor on any changes that might be required to the Constitution.

Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Panel 19 October 2010 Item No. 11

Forward Work Programme: Scrutiny

Report by the Director of Corporate Resources

Summary This report asks Members to review and develop the programme for scrutiny.

1. The Programme

1.1. The Outline Programme for Scrutiny (Appendix A) has been updated to show progress since the 15 September 2010 Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

1.2 Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel can add new topics to the scrutiny programme in line with the criteria below: -

(i) High profile – as identified by:

 Members (through constituents, surgeries, etc)  Public (through surveys, Citizen’s Panel, etc)  Media  External inspection (Audit Commission, Ombudsman, Internal Audit, Inspection Bodies)

(ii) Impact – this might be significant because of:

 The scale of the issue  The budget that it has  The impact that it has on members of the public (this could be either a small issue that affects a large number of people or a big issue that affects a small number of people)

(iii) Quality – for instance, is it:

 Significantly under performing  An example of good practice  Overspending

(iv) It is a Corporate Priority

2. Section 17 – Crime and Disorder Act

2.1. The crime and disorder implications of the various scrutiny topics will be considered when the scrutiny takes place

3 Equality Impact Assessment

3.1 This report is not directly relevant to equality, in that it is not making proposals that will have a direct impact on equality of access or outcomes for diverse groups.

Action Required

(1) The Overview and Scrutiny Panel is asked to consider the attached Outline Programme (Appendix A) and agree the scrutiny topics listed and reporting dates.

(2) The Overview and Scrutiny Panel is invited to consider new topics for inclusion on the scrutiny programme in line with the criteria at paragraph 1.2.

Officer Contact

If you have any questions about matters contained in this paper please get in touch with:

Name Telephone Number Email address

Keith Cogdell 01603 222785 [email protected]

If you need this report in large print, audio, Braille, alternative format or in a different language please contact the Customer Service Centre on 0344 800 8020 or textphone 0344 800 8011 and we will do our best to help. Appendix A Outline Programme for Scrutiny

Standing Item for Corporate Resources O & S Panel: Update for 19 October 2010 This is only an outline programme and will be amended as issues arise or priorities change Scrutiny is normally a two-stage process: • Stage 1 of the process is the scoping stage. Draft terms of reference and intended outcomes will be developed as part of this stage. • The Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Panel or a Member Group will carry out the detailed scrutiny but other approaches can be considered, as appropriate (e.g. ‘select committee’ style by whole O&S Panel). • On the basis that the detailed scrutiny is carried out by a Member Group, Stage 2 is reporting back to the O&S Panel by the Group.

This Panel welcomes the strategic ambitions for Norfolk. These are: • A vibrant, strong and sustainable economy • Aspirational people with high levels of achievement and skills • An inspirational place with a clear sense of identity

These ambitions inform the NCC Objectives from which scrutiny topics for this Panel will develop, as well as using the outlined criteria at paragraph 1.2 above.

Changes to Programme from that previously submitted to the Panel on 15 September 2010

Added – None Deleted – Promoting Diversity in the Composition of the County Council

Topic Outline Objective Cabinet Stage 1 Stage 2 Requested by Comment Portfolio (scoping (report back Area report) to Panel by Working Group) Scrutiny Items Outstanding/ Ongoing 1. Partnership To review all partnerships Finance & N/A 1st CAOS Sept 08 Next and final review Reviews within the Corporate Performance Partnership in the series will be Resources remit using the Report Jan North Norfolk LSP at Partnership Questionnaire 09 November 2010 Tool meeting. 2. Review of A wide ranging review of Corporate N/A March and CAOS Nov 08 Council’s Constitution the Councils Constitution Affairs & July 2010 to make it effective and fit Efficiency for purpose. 3. Scrutiny of the To clarify the intricacies of Corporate Terms of N/A CAOS March Regular reports until Norse Group Norse arrangements Affairs & reference 2010 scrutiny is Efficiency agreed at July completed. 2010 meeting. Compliments and Report by the Head of Corporate N/A N/A Regular reports to Complaints Democratic Services Affairs & CROSP. Efficiency 5. Shared Services Regular update reports to Corporate N/A July 2010 CAOS Progress report to follow up findings of the Affairs & November CROSP in March Working Group Efficiency 2009. 2011.

6. Sickness Absence Twice yearly reports to Corporate N/A July 2010 CAOS July Progress reports to review progress on Affairs & 2009. CROSP in January &

Working Group Efficiency July 2011 and recommendations. January 2012.

7. The Role of the To enable a review of the Corporate Terms of To be CROSP July Working group in Chief Executive role in the light of recent Affairs & reference decided. 2010 progress. comments by the Efficiency agreed at Secretary of State for September Communities and Local 2010 meeting. Government. 8. Communications To highlight the role and Culture, Terms of N/A CROSP July Report to CROSP in and Customer Focus activity of the Customer Customer reference 2010 October 2010. Service and Services & agreed at Communications Unit, Communicati September particularly in the context ons 2010 meeting. of the Norfolk Forward programme. 9. Pension Schemes To clarify the likely future Finance & Terms of N/A CROSP July Report to CROSP in funding requirements of Performance reference 2010. November 2010.

the Council’s pension agreed at schemes and the impact September on the Council’s medium 2010 meeting term financial planning. Completed Scrutiny Items:

Pay and Grading - Equality Impact Assessment – Nov 2007 Lone Working – Jan 2009 2nd Homes Council Tax Money – Nov 2007 Breckland LSP – Mar 2009 Work Experience (Working Group) – Dec 2007 Broadland Community Partnership – Sept 2009 Risk Management Presentation – Mar 2008 Great Yarmouth LSP – Nov 2009 Invest to Improve/Save Reserve – Jul 2008 South Norfolk LSP – March 2010 Partnership Working (North Norfolk LSP) – Sept 2008 Shared Services (Working Group) – July 2010 Strategic Ambitions Reserve – Jan 2009 Sickness Absence (Working Group) – July 2010 West Norfolk LSP – July 2010 Norwich LSP – September 2010