Invitees:

Cllr Charles Smith, Cabinet Member – Regeneration and Economic Development

Andrew Jolley, Corporate Director - Operational and Partnership Services         

Lee Jones, Head of Regulatory and Partnerships

Dave Holland, Head of Shared Regulatory Services

The Head of Regulatory and Partnerships presented a report which provided background on the development of the Shared Regulatory Service which provided an integrated Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Licensing service for Bridgend, Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan .  He explained that Mr D Holland, The Head of the Shared Regulatory Service, was in attendance at the committee to provide a detailed briefing for members on the service, its implementation, development and aspirations.

The Head of the Shared Regulatory Service outlined the establishment of the service, described the aims, the functions that were now being undertaken and the benefits that were anticipated to be delivered by the service.  He explained that many of the original Bridgend workforce had secured roles with the shared service including 5 team managers. 

He then explained the governance model including the Joint Committee which had oversight of the service.  He added that Bridgend was represented on this Joint Committee by Councillors CE Smith and R Williams.

The Head of the Shared Regulatory Service emphasised the importance of the service being people focussed and of delivering on the promises which it made. He added that it was hoped that the service would become a recognised leader in safeguarding the health, safety and economy of our communities and for delivering high quality services within budget.

He then outlined some of the key challenges which were being addressed.  These included; mobile working, service access and managing demand, operating processes, performance management and workforce planning. 

The work during the establishment of the Shared Regulatory Service had not stopped and in addition to the normal duties it had been involved with an outbreak in Porthcawl, Operation Fetch and the seizure of illegal tobacco, Legal Highs working with Lucy Owen and the X- ray TV programme to investigate public issues.

The Head of the Shared Regulatory Service stated that the Regulatory Services Business Plan, as appended to the report had been identified as the most important Business Plan the service would have to write.

The Head of Regulatory and Partnerships stated that he was comfortable with the development of the Shared Regulatory Service which had been a significant period of change for many employees but that they had been provided with additional support to manage the transition.  The Food Standards Agency and Public Health Wales had also been supportive during this period.

Members requested clarification of the ongoing workforce development.  They were advised that the appraisal process would be used to identify an individual’s training needs in their current role. 

The Committee queried the Risk Register show on page 63 of the report which identified risk relating to the effective allocation of resources.  It was explained that tasking and the co-ordination of resources happened on a daily basis but the workflow processes had changed and that the allocation of resources was more fluid that previously with officer working across the region.  The Taxi/Licensing service will continue to be managed in Bridgend by Yvonne Witchell 

Members queried the opportunities for income generation and were advised that this could be achieved from a wide range of options including recovery of costs and asset seizure from criminal activities.  The committees was advised of some of the recent successes in recovering costs and advised that the appropriate structures were in place to optimise these opportunities.  The committee were informed that there would be no charge to provide advice to legitimate businesses. 

Conclusions:

1.    Members recommended that Bridgend as an Authority look to expand their out of hours service to provide services similar to what Cardiff provide, due to the fact that instances of noise disturbance, for example, usually occur during the evenings.

2.    Further to this, the Committee recommended that a Performance Indicator be introduced in relation to the time to respond to out of hours requests.

3.    The Committee requested that when the item comes before the Committee again, it incorporate further case studies of where and how the Authority is assisting the public with income recovery.

4.    The Committee recommended that a status column be added to the Action Plan in order for there to be clear evidence of what has been achieved and what actions are still outstanding.

5.    The Committee commented on the fact that the operating model did not provide any detail as to how priorities are dealt with; for example who prioritises daily business?  Member requested that future reports include performance management data such as detail on responses to calls and how daily business is prioritised in order to determine what service the people of Bridgend are getting.  The Committee also requested further evidence as to how information was being gathered from the public in terms of the service they are receiving.