Scrutiny Committee - 15/06/2011

At a MEETING of the SCRUTINY COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 15th June, 2011.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Councillor Kevin KEENAN, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 20th April, 2011 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I HILLSIDE PRIMARY SCHOOL

There was submitted Report No 253-2011 by the Director of Education reporting on the findings of the HMIE Inspection of Hillside Primary School.

The Committee, having questioned the Director of Education and senior management, agreed to:-

(i) note the contents of the report; and

(ii) instruct the Director of Education to monitor progress towards meeting the areas for improvement contained in the report.

II FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002 - ASSESSMENT REPORT AND ACTION PLAN

After considering Report No 300-2011 by the Depute Chief Executive (Support Services) reporting on the findings of the Scottish Information Commissioner's assessment relative to the Council's handling of information requests, the Committee noted the Action Plan appended thereto.

III COMPLAINT STATISTICS 2010/2011

There was submitted Report No 311-2011 by the Assistant Chief Executive providing the Committee with an analysis of formal complaints processed through the Council's electronic recording system during 2010/2011.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the analysis of complaints processed through the electronic recording system between April 2010 and March 2011, with comparisons to the figures for 2008/2009 and 2009/2010;

(ii) remitted to Chief Officers to ensure that complaints were logged on the system to analyse their own department's complaints and to aim to use lessons learned from complaints to drive service improvements; and

(iii) noted that changes made by departments to processes, training etc as a result of complaints, continue to be summarised as part of the annual report to the Policy and Resources Committee on how the Council uses feedback from customers and service users to improve its services.

IV INTERNAL AUDIT PLAN 2011/2012

There was submitted Report No 322-2011 by the Chief Internal Auditor, together with the Internal Audit Plan for 2011/2012.

The Committee agreed to note the information contained within the report and plan.

V INTERNAL AUDIT REPORTS

There was submitted Report No 323-2011 by the Chief Internal Auditor providing Committee with a summary of the Internal Audit Reports finalised since the last Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee agreed to note the information contained within the report.

VI PUBLIC SERVICE IMPROVEMENT FRAMEWORK (PSIF)

There was submitted Report No 305-2011 by the Performance and Improvement Manager providing a summary of the strengths, areas for improvement and high level performance indicators of each of the services that had completed a PSIF assessment between August 2009 and March 2011.

The Committee agreed to note the findings of the PSIF assessments completed to date.

VII EXTERNAL EVALUATION OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES

There was submitted Report No 313-2011 by the Director of Leisure and Communities presenting the results of a review by the Scottish Library and Information Council of the self-evaluation process undertaken by Library and Information Services using the Public Library Quality Improvement Matrix Framework.

The Committee:-

(i) noted the contents of the report and the report from the Scottish Library Information Council appended thereto; and

(ii) noted the award of 10,000 from the Scottish Government Fund for provision of an e‑book and e-audio book service to members of the community who were unable to access library services.

VIII CORPORATE PERFORMANCE SELF-ASSESSMENT 2010/2011 - REPORT FOR TWELVE MONTHS TO 31ST MARCH, 2011

There was submitted Report No 282-2011 by the Director of Finance advising elected members of the performance of Dundee City Council for the twelve months to 31st March, 2011 as defined by the key quarterly performance indicators.

The Committee:-

(i) noted that performance levels for the financial year had generally been maintained or improved; and

(ii) remitted to all Chief Officers to review the contents of Appendix 1 of the report as it related to their service, and consider if there were any indicators for which performance could be improved over the 2011/2012 financial year.

In addition, it was remitted to the Chief Executive to give consideration to the way in which figures relating to the incidents of violence towards Council employees were recorded and to report back to the next meeting of this Committee.

Kevin KEENAN, Convener.