To consider any communications to be submitted by the Mayor or the Chief Executive.
Minutes:
(a) Customer Services Excellence Accreditation – Planning and Building Control Service
The Chief Executive was pleased to report that the Planning and Building Control Service had not only retained their Customer Service Excellence Accreditation but were also awarded the Compliance Plus Standard which demonstrated excellence in the following four categories:
· Putting the customer at the heart of service delivery;
· Management and protection of customer information;
· Improving the customer journey; and
· Development and learning from best practice
Achieving this accreditation provided the Council with a commercial advantage, particularly for the Building Control Service which was in direct competition with the private sector.
Representing the Service and in attendance at the meeting this morning was Mr P Clifford (Directorate Business Change Manager) and Mr M Caddick (Development Officer).
The Mayor and Members of the Council expressed their congratulations to all concerned on this excellent achievement in the usual manner.
(b) Housing Zone Designation
The Chief Executive reported that due to the hard work and perseverance of the Strategic Housing Team, the Government had designated Hoyland and Wombwell as a Housing Zone, one of only three housing zones in the Sheffield City Region. This designation recognised the Council’s strong record of working with developers to bring forward new housing growth, raised the profile of the area and put Barnsley in a strong position to bit for infrastructure and housing funding from the Sheffield City Region and the Homes and Communities Agency.
Mr R Burnham, Head of Housing and Energy was present in the Council Chamber this morning and congratulations were extended to him and to Ms S Cartwright (Group Leader, Housing Growth) and the Team for their hard work.
The Mayor and Members of the Council expressed their thanks to all involved in the usual manner.
(c) Families First Quality Award
The Chief Executive was pleased to inform Members that the Barnsley Families Information Service had recently achieved the Families First Quality Award provided by the Family and Childcare Trust. By achieving the Award, Barnsley Families Information Service had demonstrated a level of quality in successfully engaging parents, carers and children to access a wide range of services, support and advice.
The assessor had said that ‘Barnsley Families Information Service is a team of well qualified and experienced information officers who provide high quality information and guidance to families across Barnsley. A proactive approach to working with other services within the local authority supports seamless transitions to wider children’s services to meet the diverse needs of families’.
The work of the Team demonstrated the importance of early help and was something that needed to be built up across all services within the Council in order to ensure the delivery of a quality service.
Congratulations were extended to the Team and to Mrs C Gilmore (Early Start and Families Strategy and Service Manager) and to Mrs M Eastwood (Families Information Service Manager) who were in the Council Chamber this morning.
The Mayor and Members of the Council expressed their congratulations to all concerned in the usual manner.
(d) Investors in People Gold
The Chief Executive referred to an award given to the whole of the organisation and to the fact that Barnsley MBC was one of only eight authorities in the North of England to achieve this level of award.
In 2013, the Council had achieved Investors in People Bronze, Silver in 2015 and in the three years getting Bronze, had achieved Gold. Staff had delivered this both for the Council and for its customers.
Transformation in the organisation at a time of austerity had been outstanding. Change, improvement, transformation all at a considerably lower cost and level of resource.
The assessors had informed her that the strength and scale of change since the last review was remarkable and was reflected by a sense of higher morale, motivation and optimism than ever before. The feedback also highlighted that there was a collective feeling of looking forward, drive and passion. The Council was a high performing organisation with a committed workforce with lots to be proud of.
The Chief Executive wanted to thank everyone who had worked on this with the Team for their hard work and support. There were too many people to thank personally, however, particular mention should be given to Mrs A Glew (Organisation Development Manager) and Mr A Longley (Organisation and Member Development Officer) and to the Change Enablers (a cross section of officers drawn from various departments across the authority) who had been instrumental in obtaining the evidence to support the process, some of who were in the Council Chamber this morning.
The Mayor and Members of the Council expressed their congratulations on this achievement in the usual manner.