REPORT OF THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL

SEPTEMBER 2018

In line with the Council’s Performance Management Framework approved by Council in September 2017 the Leader’s report will cover updates on the Council Plan and key priorities including E&I Plan and Service Priorities.

1.0 Leader’s Responsibilities

Key links to Council plan

The key Council plan target for 2018/19 covering the Leader’s responsibilities is:

Lottery Revenue Since the launch of the Community Lottery just over eight months ago, 27,106 tickets have been bought by 639 supporters. This has generated a total £16,263 for good causes in South . Providing the lottery figures remain the same with 830 live tickets, the lottery will generate an annual income of £25,896 for good causes.

534 winners have been made. One lucky winner from Codsall recently won £2,000, whilst four supporters have won £250, 47 winning £25 and 476 winning three free tickets. 6 monthly super draws have taken place. Many thanks to local businesses for donating free prizes.

All good causes currently signed up to the Community Lottery have now been offered a free starter pack, which includes flyers to help them generate ticket sales for their good cause.

Two training dates have now been scheduled to offer free support to signed up good causes to maximise their marketing and sales opportunities. Good causes have two dates to choose from – either Tuesday 18 September or Thursday 20 September 2018 6.30 pm – 8 pm at the Council Offices.

Updates on key priorities

Financial Planning

On 31 July 2018, the Audit and Risk Committee formally approved the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2017/18. Grant Thornton, the Council’s External Auditors gave an unqualified opinion on the Accounts and stated that ‘in all significant respects the Council put in place proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources’.

The outturn enabled £731,000 to be added to the general reserves of the Council, in line with the approved Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS).

For 2018/19 the first quarter budget monitoring has been completed and the budget is on track; currently an underspend against revenue spend of £120,000 at year end is predicted.

Early preparatory work is being undertaken in respect of Resource Planning and Prioritisation as the agreed methodology for setting the Council’s budget and updating the MTFS for 2019/20.

Policy and Partnerships

Canvas ’s Elections team sent out approximately 47,000 annual canvas forms on 30 July. As at the 28 August 2018, 34,800 canvas forms have been returned (75% return rate) of which, 11,300 have been returned online.

We have used social media more effectively this year to encourage online responses and a reminder letter will be sent out shortly.

My Place My Say The next Residents Survey is being sent out by our contractor, BMG, to residents. The final written report from BMG will be completed and ready to view in the Autumn and will be presented to Members at an Overview and Scrutiny meeting.

Volunteer Awards South Staffordshire Council in conjunction with Support Staffordshire will be hosting a Volunteer Forum on 5 December 2018. Nomination Forms will be circulated during September to local Members, Parish Councils, Community Groups and residents and awards will take place on the evening of 5 December.

Safeguarding The Annual Report to the Staffordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board received a very positive response. Short reminder sessions have been held at team meetings to emphasise the need for safeguarding training for all staff.

Human Resources

Organisational Development

 The Council launched a new employee recognition scheme this summer. We received a number of nominations showcasing how our employees support our Ways of Working values which are Pride; Trust; Transparency; Positive Relationships and Listening to People.

 Our ASPIRE talent management scheme for 2018 has been finalised and is themed ‘Developing our future leaders.’ ASPIRE is a personal development programme for Assistant Managers, Team Managers or aspiring managers who want to develop their managerial career with South Staffordshire Council. This year’s programme has been revamped to make sure it is up to date with current public sector issues. The programme includes expert input from the Local

Government Association as well as our Leader, Chief Executive and Corporate Directors.

 A new staff mentoring scheme has been developed and will be taken forward in the autumn. The scheme was suggested by our managers to support their development.

2.0 REGULATORY SERVICES

2.1 Key links to Council plan

The key Council Plan targets for 2018/19 covering Regulatory Services are:

− 100% planning enforcement cases investigated and 80% concluded within 12 weeks – the year to date figure for cases concluded within 12 weeks is 82%.

− Investigate 100% of fly-tipping and agreed actions to resolve the problem within 2 working days – this targets has been met.

− At least 90% of residents feel safe in their homes in the day – this will be reported when the Residents Survey results are available later in the year.

− At least 75% of residents feel safe in their homes at night – this will be reported when the Residents Survey results are available later in the year.

Fly-tipping

The use of covert and overt cameras RIPA authorisation was obtained to place covert cameras at our current flytipping hotspots throughout the district. We also used overt cameras in some other locations. This has proved to be extremely successful, and we have obtained information which we hope will lead to successful prosecutions. We anticipate that further authorisations will be sought to cover other hotspots and the covert cameras will be deployed in the coming months. We currently have 12 trail cameras.

Fly tipping in the district has reduced for the first quarter of the year when compared to last year’s figures. In quarter one for 2018/19 we cleared 182 instances compared with 229 in quarter one for 2017/18. The Enforcement team logged 68 investigation cases during this period, where there was evidence with a potential for prosecution, following further investigation. We currently have 4 ongoing flytipping prosecution cases in the Courts.

During the carrying of one covert operation, the camera was stolen. However this was recovered by the Police. Unfortunately the thief left the camera running so we were able to identify the person concerned and his address. The matter is now with the Police for investigation.

Dog Fouling In response to a recent survey we have visited 3 Parish Councils, Perton, Codsall and Brewood and Coven, who are willing to trial a new scheme to tackle dog fouling in

their own areas using volunteers. Whilst all the Parishes are already active in deterring this we are trying to look at different ways in which we can tackle this continual problem. We are trialling bag dispensers at the entrances to communal area where frequent dog walking is taking place. We have also approached local stores in Brewood to see if they are willing to distribute free bags. The stores concerned are open from early morning until late at night. We have provided fluorescent spray paint so that the fouling can be highlighted to make people aware of the extent of the problems in their own area. The dog fouling will then be removed by the Street Cleansing Team.

We will be also loaning out large banners for use in community areas, to ‘remind’ owners to carry bags and remove dog fouling. We are also reviewing existing dog fouling signage and its effectiveness. Finally we are also looking at small dog fouling dispensers in capsules, which could be sited at key locations near to existing dog fouling bins.

Littering We have recently issued three fixed penalty fines for littering, which were as a result of evidence obtained from the footage from the covert cameras.

Crime Prevention and Anti- Social Behaviour (ASB)

A new policing model was implemented by Staffordshire Police across the whole of the County on 1 July 2018. We were informed that the main points for South Staffordshire are:

 No change to numbers of PCSO’s  Increase in numbers of neighbourhood police officers. They will concentrate on prevention and early intervention. They will also deal with Grade 3 calls and Grade 1 and 2 if Response need support  Response officers will be based from Cannock and have deployment locations to cover South Staffordshire, Cannock and .  Neighbourhood officers will also cover response calls (Grade 1 and 2) from 7am until response officers have received briefing and are available and in the district.  CI Ward and neighbourhood officers relocating from Watling Street Police to Council offices at Codsall.  Neighbourhood officers will remain in Wombourne

There are now 4 neighbourhood sergeants each one has a responsibility for a locality, they are as follows;

Locality 1- Shelley Burns [email protected] Locality 2 – Kelly Waring [email protected] Locality 3 – Shelly Burns [email protected] Locality 4 - Jason Dorrington [email protected] Locality 5 - Steve Lloyd–Warren [email protected]

Vehicle thefts still continue to be the main issue affecting South Staffordshire. There are ongoing enquires to catch the offenders, however with no specific pattern, this is proving challenging. Prevention is therefore the best way of stopping this trend.

The last round of police accountability forum was completed in July. Chief Inspector Mark Ward met with councillors and received feedback on the issues that affect our communities.

3.0 BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION (ICT, Customer Services & Business Change)

3.1 Key Links to Council Plan

Improved Digital Accessibility and Customer Engagement by having:

 Increased annual website visitors to 344,500 by March 2019 Website visits continue to remain strong with ‘Unique’ visits consistently staying above 25,000 with 31,548 being recorded in July 2018 alone. Year to date figure is 124,698, with July’s most popular pages being:-

 ‘Baggeridge Country Park’ (5,001 hits)  ‘View/Comment on Planning Applications’ (4,959 hits)  ‘Wombourne Leisure Centre’ (4,678 hits)

 Increase residents signed up to the ‘My Account’ to 2,000 by March 2019 The new self-service platform, My Account, is working well. To date it has 1,881 users signed up (275 new users for the month of July). In addition to this, the following have also been completed online via ‘My Account’. 530 Bulky Waste collections and 141 Additional Green Bins

 Increase Twitter followers to 8,500 by March 2019 Year to date we are showing an overall increases in followers (Total 8331), so we are well on our way to achieving the overall target of 8,500 for the year. Top 3 popular tweets included:-  QUESTION 3 - You can take your pet to a polling station. True or false?  QUESTION 4 - You can take a selfie of yourself voting. True or false? #talkdemocracy #  Want to learn more about your vote? Visit https://t.co/ESlfd6yP9i #TalkDemocracy #NDW18

 Increase Facebook likes to 3,800 by March 2019 Year to date we are at 3434 working towards an annual target of 3800. Popular Facebook likes include:-  Do you recognise this man? Details of this person are required by the Council, to assist us with a current investigation. If you have any information, please call the Council on (01902) 696000.  Do you recognise this man? Council Officers would like to speak to him regarding a criminal investigation. If you have any information please contact us on (01902) 696000

 Congratulations to Springfield House Care Home, Codsall on retaining their 5 rating at their recent food hygiene inspection. Well done to Harvinder and her team.

3.2 Updates on key priorities

The Council’s Business Transformation programme is made up of the following 3 key Work strands and will require a whole council approach to deliver the change which Will focus on:

 Digital Transformation – Further development of the My Account customer portal and accessibility of high volume transactional processes on line. This is currently being scoped for prioritisation for delivery, which will include improvement in customer focused processes and efficiency savings released through better re-design and on-line capability.

 Agile/Mobile Working – The deployment of flexible technological solutions across the Council to empower staff to work flexibly and support the reduction of office space for rental opportunities. Pilot groups are being established to test the new ICT systems and connectivity, and work will progress to develop HR policies and new working practices to support agile working across the organisation.

 System Harmonisation – The rationalisation of ICT systems and corporate approach to procurement and effective contract management. New partnership arrangements are currently being explored with neighbouring authorities to help with value for money procurement and better use of commercial frameworks to drive down costs. This work strand will also include training on effective contract management for staff and review of the Council’s Procurement Policy.

3.3 Update on Operational Priorities

 Promotion of Self-Serve Evidence of an increase in “My Account” and the hits on the website are highlighted above which have been improved in recent weeks due to proactive messaging and customer engagement. This has also resulted in an increase in average monthly webchat volumes for April - July from 274 last year to 329 this year, an increase of 20%.

 Tea and Teach Customer Sessions The last sessions were held in conjunction with the Work Club in Huntington, with very positive feedback received from the customers who have received help on their devices and getting on-line. The August session will also be held in Huntington and will include cyber security and keeping safe on-line.

 Cyber Security Training Sessions Working in partnership with Staffordshire Police a series of cyber security sessions have been launched across the organisation for both staff and members. This has included keeping safe on line and fraud awareness. To date 88 staff members have attended with average satisfaction of 97% and we are the first

authority to work with the police and the collaboration has proven successful and equipped staff/members with valuable expertise to remain safe on-line and not become victims of fraud.

4.0 WELFARE SERVICES

4.1 Key Links to Council Plan

The key Council plan targets for 2018/19 covering Welfare Services are:

Support 100 vulnerable people with multiple barriers to work through the Building Better Opportunities programme.

 We are currently supporting 80 participants on the programme.

Support 200 economically inactive or unemployed working age people to either gain work, work experience, volunteer or receive education/training.

 There have been 50 people attending the work clubs across the district.

4.2 Updates on key priorities

Council Tax

The collection rate for Council Tax as at 10 August 2018 stood at 42.3%, £26.58m, collected against a total debit of £62.90m – which is the same collection rate as last year.

The collection rate for Business Rates stood a 47.6%, £12.42m collected against a total debit of £26.08m, which is slightly down on the collection rate compared to last year. However this should even out by the end of the financial year.

The Council remains on course to achieve a collection rate in excess of its target of 98.0% for both Council Tax and Business Rates.

In the past few weeks, the Revenues Team has been particularly busy making sure new properties are paying both Council Tax and Business Rates. There has been a substantial increase of Council Tax properties in both and Codsall, whilst for Business Rates the new Gestamp property at Four Ashes has been brought into rating.

The Revenues team is also undertaking a procurement process for new Enforcement Agents for the recovery of Council Tax and Business Rates. This will be concluded later this year when a further update will be provided.

Welfare Benefits

 Housing Benefits Processing times for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support remain good – since 1 April 2018 we have processed 599 new claims for Housing Benefit and

Council tax Support in an average of ten days and over 8,000 changes in circumstances have been assessed within an average of two days.

 Discretionary Housing Payments The number of applications for Discretionary Housing Payments continues to increase, our total budget for the year is £125,894 and to date we have awarded 117 payments totalling £31,798 and committed a further £5,390. Of these, 36 applications are for customers affected by the rent restrictions in the Social Rented Sector – 15 of the awards are to support people to move to suitable alternative accommodation.

 Universal Credit Our Universal Support team is now supporting residents on Universal Credit with Personal Budgeting Support and Assisted Digital Support. Since the beginning of July we have worked with seven residents to improve their budgeting skills and provided advice and information to a further eight residents. The team will be contacting everyone who moves onto Universal Credit to offer support with managing their online claim.

The team are now attending the Jobcentre in Wolverhampton every Wednesday to promote our service.

Housing Register

The number of live cases on the housing register is 459. The number of applications received has increased over the last few weeks, and this is probably because of the number of new build properties that are becoming available for nomination in Codsall and Penkridge.

5.0 COMMUNITY SERVICES

5.1 Key Links to Council Plan Targets – A Safe and Sustainable District An update on the Council plan targets for 2018/19 covering Community Services is included below:

Reused, recycled or composted at least 53% of household waste -

 During 2017/18 resident of South Staffordshire recycled, reused and composted 50.41% of household waste. The weight of non-recyclable material per household disposed of via incineration reduced slightly when compared with the previous financial year. South Staffordshire Council’s cost for the provision of waste and recycling services during 2017/18 was £47.28 per household which equates to 91p per week;

5.2 Updates on Key Priorities

Waste Management

 The Waste and Recycling service was recently shortlisted for three categories at the MRW National Recycling Awards: Local Authority Innovation, Communications and Team of the Year.

 The Waste and Recycling service is actively engaged with Government (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs [DEFRA]), representing waste collection authorities across the UK to raise current issues and propose solutions ahead of the publication this Autumn of the National Resources and Waste Strategy.

 The Waste and Recycling service will shortly feature shortly as a case study in the quarterly Organics Recycling journal, focusing on how the Council works with collection and reprocessing contractors to deliver high quality services. The Waste and Recycling Team Manager has also published an article in the forthcoming Local Government Chronicle publication highlighting Government proposals to review and amend existing legislation concerning extended producer responsibility.

Street Scene

 The district wide grass cutting operation has restarted following a break due to the hot weather and dry conditions. We are currently completing the 8th cut of the year but please note that whilst we will continue to cut our own open spaces on a fortnightly basis, the highway verges will now be on a monthly cut for the rest of the season. This is as per our agreed schedule with Staffordshire County Council Highways.

 The sightline prune operation to our shrub beds has now been completed. The objective of this operation is to cut back all vegetation and growth away from paths and hard surfaces and this will be followed by a full prune across the district in the winter.

 We are currently looking to take on two apprentices from South Staffordshire College at Rodbaston to join our Street Scene operations. By working in partnership with the College, we’re setting up a full training programme for the apprentices that will create an extra value to the service that we provide to residents.

 We have recently been successful in securing a new external contract for grounds maintenance works in Penkridge. This will see a new annual income of over £4k brought into the service.

 We are organising a district wide Friends group forum which will take place on the 16 October at the council offices. We will work up an agenda in conjunction with the groups and share further details of this in due course.

 As a Council we have signed up to support the Chewing Gum Action Group which is providing a variety of promotional materials to help raise awareness of this issue and reduce littering in the district. We have advertised this to the parish councils to see if they would like to support this campaign and display some of the materials. We’d also be interested if you are aware of any ‘hotspots’ for chewing gum litter within your parish in order for us to target specific areas / local businesses.

 The continuing work of the Friends of Bilbrook and Wild about Perton have been mentioned in the latest newsletter from Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and the Staffordshire Trent Valley Catchment Partnership. Both groups have been particularly highlighted for their water monitoring along the River Penk and the Moat Brook and the continuing work they do to promote wider environmental issues to the local community.

Membership

At the end of July, membership has grown from 3,897, in June to 3,900. This makes it our best July figure ever, and our 4th best month ever.

Programming and Promotions

Active Campaign – (increasing member retention)

Targeted campaigns are being developed with the key focus of retaining Members for longer at the four Leisure centres – the initial campaign will focus on the following target groups • Current members • New Joiners • Non-members

Wombourne Leisure Centre

Wombourne Carnival – members of staff took part in the carnival on Sunday 1 July to raise the profile of the centre in the local community. This was the first time the leisure centre had been part of the carnival with staff and customers joining together carrying out a dance routine as part of the parade.

Break in at Wombourne Leisure Centre

Members may be aware of the break-in that occurred at Wombourne Leisure Centre on Thursday 9 August. The attack was clearly planned with telephone and fibre cable being cut in the street and the alarm system disabled. Around £1,000 was taken, along with the centres sound system. The Centre was not operational for a period on the Thursday but due to the hard work of staff from various teams the centre was back up and running by late Thursday afternoon.

Council Office Management

Facilities

Energy Storage System.

Since the installation of the Virtue Energy storage system, we have seen a significant reduction in the Councils energy bills. In addition we are now re-selling energy back to the grid,

The first wedding was hosted at the Council offices in early August with very positive feedback on the room refurbishments from all involved.

Leisure Centres

Performance

April - March ALL LEISURE CENTRES Original April - July April - Variation Variance Budget Budget YTD July Actual YTD YTD £ £ £ £ % Employees (ex Agency) 1,161,600 387,360 413,755 26,395 6.81 Agency Staff 213,500 71,200 54,853 -16,347 -22.96 Other Direct Expenses 213,700 83,450 74,139 -9,311 -11.16 Joint User Recharge/Grounds Maintenance 466,300 152,880 152,876 -4 -0.00 Total Operating Costs 2,055,100 694,890 695,622 732 0.11 Total Income -2,165,400 -722,180 -711,025 11,155 -1.54 Operating Cost Less Income -110,300 -27,290 -15,403 11,888 -43.56 Departmental Admin 135,920 57,776 69,221 11,445 19.81 Financing Costs 63,100 21,040 21,040 0 0.00 Net General Fund Charge 88,720 51,526 74,859 23,333 45.28 Income (% of Operating Costs) 105.37% 103.93% 102.21% -1.71%

Income (% of Total Costs) 96.06% 93.34% 90.47% -2.87%

Income is up by £50k against this time last year.

Emergency Planning

. A draft Civil Contingencies Policy has been developed to formally state how South Staffordshire Council will meet the requirements and duties under the Civil Contingencies Act, the policy will identify roles and responsibilities and the working group that will oversee the progress of emergency planning within the Council, the policy will be supported by terms of reference for group and work plan for the authority

. In early July Members undertook training in emergency planning, the aim of the session was to highlight and identify their roles in the event of an incident

affecting the communities of South Staffordshire, the training was well attended with good feedback from the Members.

6.0 PLANNING & BUSINESS ENTERPRISE

6.1 Key links to Council plan

The key Council plan targets for 2018/19 covering Planning and Business Enterprise are:

 At least 150 businesses are assisted with 85% stating they are satisfies with the support received –

To date, 39 businesses have been assisted by the Council’s Business Engagement Officer, with satisfaction feedback remaining at 100%. This has been achieved by hosting a number of business support works shops and a business start-up course in partnership with Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce.

6.2 Updates on key priorities

Planning Services

 Local Plans

Strategic Planning

The Site Allocations document, or SAD, was found sound by the Planning Inspectorate in May 2018. The SAD is the result of four years of evidence gathering, public consultations, and site evaluation and assessments and brings forward around 1000 houses and 62 hectares of additional employment land.

However, following a recent European court decision, further work was required to ensure any decision taken by the Council is robust, and so our specialist habitats consultants were recommissioned to update our Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRA) in respect of the Cannock Chase SAC. This work has now been signed off and the SAD will be presented to Full Council on 11 September for adoption. Once adopted, the SAD, together with the Core Strategy, will comprise the development plan for South Staffordshire. We expect planning applications to be submitted on a number of the SAD sites in the next few months. Through the development management process, residents will have the chance to make comments on the detailed design and layout of schemes.

Work continues apace on the Local Plan Review and the Team is preparing the final draft of the Issues and Options paper alongside the draft Infrastructure Delivery Plan. The recent Members’ workshops have focused on what the public consultation should consider and this will be reflected in the Issues and Options paper, which is due to be published in the Autumn for a period of 6 weeks public consultation.

The revised NPPF was published on 24 July 2018 and has been completely restructured, and it will be taken into account in the preparation of the Issues and Options draft Local Plan. A briefing note on the major changes to the NPPF will also be circulated to Members shortly.

 Energy Conservation

The new Energy Switching scheme was featured in the most recent issue of the South Staffordshire Review and there are plans for a formal launch in the autumn. Prior to the launch, we are already achieving energy switches from people responding to promotional material, including such things as the South Staffordshire Review.

 Business Support

Strengthening our partnership with Wolverhampton DWP two recruitment events for local businesses were held at the Council Offices, Codsall. A total of 19 local people found employment with a further 3 gaining a place on a Sector Based Work Academy programme – a two week training programme delivered by a local education provider which prepares the client with the necessary skills and interview techniques that will hopefully lead to employment at the end of the programme.

The Enterprise Team are supporting with a project to see the introduction of a pop-up shop at a pub (Pub is the Hub) in Locality 5.

Lots of new connections with local businesses and organisations are being made to support the Council’s forthcoming Skills and Jobs Fair. To date, 24 companies who have jobs to offer have confirmed their attendance at the event. There will also be presentations from businesses about their job opportunities and workshops to support people with I.T, C.V writing and interview techniques. The event is set to take place on Wednesday 26 September 2018 at the Council Offices, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Free transport is also being provided to enable anyone without transport issue to attend this event.

16 key stakeholders and partners attended the first South Staffordshire Education, Employment and Skills Locality Working Group in June. During the meeting, consultation took place on the Council’s emerging Education, Employment and Skills Plan. Local providers also had the opportunity to collaborate and support each other. The next meeting will take place in September and will include presentations by local stakeholders and an update on skills, education and employment support in South Staffordshire.

A date has now being confirmed for South Staffordshire’s Business Breakfast event that will include the Rt. Hon. Gavin Williamson MP as our key note speaker - Friday 12 October 2018. 8.15 am – 11 am at South Staffordshire Council Offices. The event will also enable the Council to consult with local businesses on future growth and skills needs. Organisations will also be on hand to promote their support services. We expect demand to be high and as such attendance will be by invitation only.

 Business Hub

To promote the Business Hub’s hot desking facility, a ‘Hot August ‘ promotion was run throughout the month offering free half day use of our facility. We now have two new clients wanting to use our facilities, with three more potential leads being followed up.

We are delighted to have welcomed a new business into the Business Hub. PH Engineering Design Ltd has taken a short term lease at Jubilee House. This now brings occupancy at the Business Hub to 100%.

Connections with local business through social media have now reached 2804. This is an increase of 627 (22%) from the last Leader’s Report.

 Estates and Assets (including commercial property; Industrial Units; Hinksford)

Commercial Development We currently have 100% occupancy across all the industrial estates with two Units becoming available shortly but we are confident that new tenants can be found prior to their Notice period ending to maintain full occupancy.

Since the last report we have acquired the property Morlock House at Bridgnorth Road, Wombourne which is a two storey building physically attached to the front building of the Council owned Wombourne Enterprise Park. The building fronts Bridgnorth Road and is fully let with three long standing tenants with an annual rental income in excess of £42,000 per annum.

A planning application has been submitted for the proposed extension of the Four Ashes Enterprise Centre at Latherford Close Four Ashes to provide in excess of 35,000 square feet of new industrial units.

 Building Control and Land Charges

Discussions are progressing on extending the current shared service arrangements with and Tamworth Councils to include a number of other authorities in surrounding areas. Details are currently being worked on and a report will be presented to Members in the next few weeks seeking approval to proceed with the new partnership arrangements.