Agenda item

Context

The committee received an update on the performance of the public protection department and had opportunity to scrutinise the performance of the section.

Key Issues

Strong Communities Select Committee received a performance report covering Public Protection services in November 2014.  This was in response to a Cabinet report in March 2014 that recommended budget reductions to these services.  Those recommendations included a £140,000 budget reduction for 2014/15, representing a 7.2% staff decrease.

The impact of this reduction was scrutinised by Strong Communities Select in November 2014 and reported to Cabinet on 7^th January 2015.  Cabinet requested regular six monthly reports to Strong Communities Committee to monitor performance over time.  In this way, any negative impacts could be assessed and acted upon if necessary.

The attached report summarises recent performance and highlights the following:-

·      The four service teams, for the vast majority of services they deliver, meet the Authority’s legal obligations in relation to Public Protection services.

·      Some proactive work, for example animal health visits and housing inspections, has decreased as a consequence of prioritising reactive work. 3145 new requests for service were responded to in the 2014/15 year.

·      Line managers will need to monitor workloads, prioritise and respond as necessary.  Team performance is highly dependent upon the continued hard work, professionalism and good health of its staff.

·      Six monthly reports will continue to be made to this Committee, to review the impact of budget reductions on Public Protection performance.

·      Recent audits, by Wales Audit Office and Food Standards Agency Wales, indicate current performance is satisfactory within Environmental Health, but the service would struggle to take on any new statutory duties that protect the public and the environment.

Member Scrutiny

Members questioned the overall health of the team given the reduction in staff resources to meet the requirements of the service. The Head of Public Protection and Culture confirmed that generally staff morale is positive with a small level of sickness recorded in the previous 12 months.

Members queried the process involved with licensing functions relating to taxi licences and Temporary Event Notifications (TENs). Members were informed that taxi licence renewals are every three years rather than annually. The Principal Licensing Officer explained the process involved with a TEN application and the pressures that the service face when they receive and application however existing processes allow the service to manage these applications effectively.

Members noted the increase in Freedom of Information (FoI) requests and queried the nature of the requests. Members were informed that generally requests are from the press for data gathering and some requests for licensing are from sales companies selling insurance etc.