Agenda item

To update Overview and Scrutiny on performance of the Council's Revenues and Benefits service, since it became part of ARP on 1 April 2014.

Members considered the annual review of Anglia Revenues Partnership (ARP), which updated the Panel on the performance of the Council’s Revenues and Benefits service since it became part of ARP on 1 April 2014.  The Chairman welcomed Councillor Mrs French to the meeting in addition to Paul Corney and Adrian Mills from ARP.

Members made comments, asked questions and received responses as follows:

1.    Councillor Miscandlon said that it is a very comprehensive report and shows the benefits to Fenland District Council and its residents over the period it has been operating and for the future.

2.    Councillor Yeulett referred to the challenges that have been faced by organisations due to Covid, such as FACT and Freedom Leisure, and asked if there was any likelihood of similar challenges to ARP going forward?  Peter Catchpole responded that he does not feel that ARP are comparable with Freedom and FACT in that they have not been forced to close or curtail their operation, but a lot of officers are now working from home and the workload for ARP has risen because there are more claims coming in due to the pandemic.  He made the point that the budget contribution required to ARP from Fenland District Council is lower than it was in 2014/15 and continues to fall and the Council is not expecting to make any further contributions at this time.  Peter Catchpole stated that the impact on ARP has been the volume of work related to the pandemic, but it has some real successes in automating 50% of Universal Credit changes, which has been critical in managing this increased workload and the KPIs are all on track and performing well, with him not being aware of any other councils achieving these sorts of levels.  He said that ARP have really worked well in the pandemic and have embraced the new flexible working arrangements.

3.    Councillor Cornwell said that ARP is doing remarkably well under some difficult circumstances, but asked if it was going to make a change to their operation overall as a result of the things they  have had to do in the pandemic, such as less hard accommodation required due to more home working?  Paul Corney responded that a survey has been undertaken with all the staff looking at the new pattern of working and all core councils themselves are investigating what accommodation will be needed for the future.  He said that productivity is certainly not reduced by home working in fact the evidence is that it has improved and now that ARP has access to Microsoft Teams it is finding the communication side, which was the big problem, no longer exists and it will be looking long and hard at what the accommodation requirements will be needed moving forward working with all the partners.  He stated that in terms of learning they are looking at soft reminders for customers, trying to give customers an opportunity to make payment before statutory reminders are sent, and also how well partners have worked together around the business grants and all of the returns from HMCLG.

The Chairman thanked officers and ARP for the very encouraging report.