The Head of Democratic Services submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to update the Democratic Services Committee on the performance of Member Referrals.

The Group Manager Legal and Democratic Services, reminded Members of the definition of a referral, which is a complaint / request / query which a Councillor has received from their constituent which the Democratic Services Team forward to the relevant department / external organisation for attention. This process is carried out so that each part of the referral process is logged and to ensure that a response is received by an agreed deadline.

She referred the Committee to the table in paragraph 4.2 of the report, that showed the number of referrals made per month between 1 March 2020 and 28 February 2021.

It was noted, that there had been a significant increase in the number of referrals made than in the corresponding period for the previous year (2789 referrals). 

The Chief Executive had previously advised Members at a meeting of Council, that there had been over a thousand more member referrals to deal with during the pandemic (March to December 2020). 

The Group Manager Legal and Democratic Services, referred the Committee to the table attached at Appendix 1 to the report, which reflected the number of referrals made between 1st March 2020 and 28th February 2021, per Directorate. 

She stated that a Member Referrals Project Board was established to consider whether the current system is fit for purpose and to explore any opportunities to improve the referral process. In pursuance of this, an online Councillor Portal and built in member referral process was being trialled with members of the Democratic Services Team, which would then be rolled out to a pilot group of Members.  A revised Member Referrals Protocol would also be drafted and sent to all Members accordingly.  Additionally, in order to support Members in making referrals, training sessions will be put together and made available to Members, added the Group Manager Legal and Democratic Services.

A Member noted that the number of referrals had increased, but there had not been any further staff recruited in Democratic Services, to manage such further work. He felt that this was something that may be needed to be looked at. The Member added that, Councillors were at the frontline in terms of supporting their constituents and any complaints they made, including in the form of referrals. Therefore, they had to respond to these in a timely manner though this was not always possible, as Departments were not responding to referrals quickly enough. He emphasised however, that this was not in any way a criticism directed at Members Services, as staff there processed the referrals through to the appropriate Departments in a timely manner. He added that some Departments take months to respond to a referral, even by way of just an acknowledgement, let alone a substantive response. He felt that, a system could be considered to be introduced, whereby Departments of Directorates should give a timeline for a response and keep to this. Other Committee Members, agreed with these comments.

A Member added that the pandemic and lockdown had given rise to an increase in constituents complaints, some of which were referrals. An example of this, was with people going out for walks more, litter was being deposited along footpaths. He had received a number of complaints regarding this, he added.

The Chairperson noted from data included in the report, that in March 2020, only 65% of referrals were being shown as completed. This reduced to 35% in April 2020. She understood why these may have not been completed during the peak time of the pandemic, but she felt that by now, they should have been.

The Group Manager Legal and Democratic Services advised that she would look into this and respond to Members on the same, outside of the meeting.

She added that in terms of Members concerns regarding responses being received by them in a timely manner, to referrals they have made, this would be considered in conjunction with the new on-line Councillor Portal that was being trialled currently by Democratic Services staff.

Members asked if they, as Members of the Democratic Services Committee, could also pilot the new Portal before it went live, in order to establish if it was fit for purpose.

The Group Manager Legal and Democratic Services replied that this could be arranged and that Committee Members could have an involvement in training how to utilise the Portal, with Member Referral training also being included as part of this.       

RESOLVED:                          That the Committee noted the report, subject to the observations above being considered going forward.