Issue - meetings

(a)       That the comments/observations of the Committee are fed back to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee who are responsible for the overview and monitoring of improvement targets;

(b)       That the Head of Housing and Member Engagement Manager raise with the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee the suggestion for future absence reports to separate figures for long-term and short-term sickness absences;

(c)        That the Head of Housing pursue queries raised by the Chairman and Councillor Curtis on allocated void properties in their wards;

(d)       That the Head of Housing provide a briefing note to Council tenants and Members on the Welsh Water Assist Scheme; and

(e)       That the Head of Housing pursue the enquiries made by Councillors Curtis and Dolphin and provide responses.

The Head of Housing Services introduced a report for the Committee to note and consider the 2012/13 Quarter 2 (July to September 2012) service performance reports, note the position of the Strategic Assessment of Risks and Challenges (SARC) and progress made against the Improvement Targets contained within the performance reports.

The Head of Housing gave a short presentation on performance, outlining work which had been undertaken to improve performance and areas where improvement was needed, as outlined within the report.

People & Customer Indicators

Councillor G. Hardcastle asked why there had been a downturn in complaint handling during the period.  The Head of Housing explained that under the Corporate Complaints procedures, each service area manager was responsible for responding to complaints in their areas.  The downturn in figures for Housing was due to insufficient prioritising of responses to complaints, however a review had been undertaken and assurances were given that work would be carried out with managers to improve this.

Councillor J.E. Falshaw referred to the increase in absenteeism in the section, which also occurred in some other areas of the Council, and asked how this could be improved.  The Head of Housing said that changes to Council policy in reducing Human Resources involvement at early stages of absences meant that more responsibility was given to service area managers which she felt was positive in alleviating any possible delays.  She pointed out that although the figures in the report were split between different sections of Housing, this did not reflect the number of long-term absences within each section which had a significant impact on figures.  Proactive work was being carried out by managers to help employees return to the workplace as quickly as possible such as analysing the causes of absences, helping individuals to access Occupational Therapy services at a cost to the section and considering the potential for employees to carry out the part of their job that they were able to, although they may be unable to undertake the full duties.

In response to a question from Councillor A.M. Halford on the process for employees accessing Occupational Therapy services, the Head of Housing said that HR assistance was needed on promoting services and approaching employees to discuss phased return to work.  The Director of Community Services added that HR resources dedicated to assisting the Directorate were small but were committed to supporting managers through the sickness absence process.

Following queries raised by Councillor Hardcastle, it was confirmed that return to work interviews were undertaken and that the sickness absence target for all Council employees was no more than 9.8 full-time equivalent (FTE) days per annum.

Councillor P.J. Curtis felt that this target should be reduced and suggested that long-term absence figures should be separated in future to reflect a clearer position.  The Head of Housing agreed that this would be helpful and had been raised on previous occasions with the suggestion for a summary of long-term absences to be given.  She went on to say that no absences had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35