Issue - meetings

To endorse the Council’s response to the recent Development Management review; approve the high level action plan, attached at Appendix 1 to the report; and agree that the Transform Working Group will monitor delivery of the action plan.

1.    That the Council’s response to the review be ENDORSED and the high-level action plan attached to the report be APPROVED.

2.    That the Transform Working Group monitor the delivery of the action plan.

56.1           The report of the Head of Development Services, circulated at Pages No. 13-34, outlined how the Council planned to respond to the findings of the review undertaken into the Development Management service which was focussed on the delivery of a high-level action plan that encompassed the recommendations from the final review report.

56.2           The Head of Development Services explained that, as Members would be aware, POS Enterprises had recently undertaken a review of the Council’s Development Management Service. The review had looked at areas such as performance, structure, software, procedures and customer satisfaction and found a number of strengths in the service in respect of motivated staff, good systems, good public speaking procedures at Committee, well informed Committee debate and effective procedures introduced through lockdown; however, there were also areas identified for improvement which were listed within the report. In response to the issues highlighted, it was proposed that a corporate project would be set up with support from the Corporate Services Manager which would enable the workstreams to be driven forward as part of a corporate programme. The principles for the review were to ensure the outcomes were implemented looking at customer focus and ensuring development management was shaped around the needs of the customer meaning customer service was improved. Tewkesbury Borough Council was an ambitious authority so it needed to ensure it was able to respond to the growth agenda, that its staff were empowered and that high performance was both expected and achieved. Using the skills and expertise of the Business Transformation team and Corporate Services Manager meant change could be achieved more easily, particularly in terms of digital services.

56.3           A high-level action plan was being put together in response to the POS Enterprises report which set out a number of recommendations for the Council to take forward and the action plan would address those in the short, medium and long term. Paragraph 4.2 of the report set out how the programme of work had been split into workstreams: corporate ambition – setting out the foundations of the preferred direction for the Development Management service; performance management – ensuring performance management was meaningful with effective monitoring and management in place; processes and transformation  - reviewing the way the service worked to ensure a customer focus and adoption of a ‘digital by default’ approach to processes; Planning Committee – reviewing all aspects of the Planning Committee including the Scheme of Delegation and training; and people and culture – reviewing the organisation of the service, the empowerment of staff and the culture of the teams. There was a lot more work to do on each workstream and each would have its own team, action and timescales; at this point the Executive Committee was asked to endorse the Council’s response to the review and agree the high-level action plan with the Transform Working Group monitoring the delivery of that action plan.

56.4           A Member noted that the consultants had found several things that needed to be ironed out,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56