Issue - meetings

FSD22020

The Chairman commented on section 3.18 of the report which highlighted the common theme of issues around data management and quality assurance. A discussion took place around the differences between performance management and quality assurance.

A Member commented that in the past he had invited Mal Owen to provide training to officers with respect to statistical process control—he said that this training was used for approximately six months but was unfortunately abandoned. He also mentioned training that had been provided via Cranfield Business School and a book that had been recommended that was written by Professor John Seddon who had attended the Council. The book highlighted various techniques for dealing with quality and data control and he expressed the view that these various modes of learning had not been utilised by officers.

The Chairman drew the attention of the Committee to section 3.2.10 of the report which dealt with Housing Needs, Early Intervention and Advice. He was concerned to note that the audit had made the observation that the information provided on the Council website was inadequate for people to properly navigate and find solutions to their various needs. He said that it should not be up to Internal Audit to have had to identify this, but perhaps it should have been picked up in some way by the Housing Needs Contact Centre. He wondered if the contact centre had anything in place to identify this and the Head of Audit and Assurance said that she would investigate this with the relevant Assistant Director. 

A Member followed on from this by highlighting a difficult case that he had been involved with when he was contacted by a priest who was trying to assist two teenagers after the death of their mother from Covid. There was no guidance on the website for this type of situation and the Member stated that consideration should be given to providing wider information on the web site that would cover non-standard scenarios—some thinking ‘out of the box’ was required.

It was noted that many of the Personal Housing Plans of clients were of mixed quality and many had not been closed off by managers and this was a cause of concern.

Members were very concerned to learn of an incident where an email had been sent to a Housing Needs client which detailed much personal information such as the household ID, security question with answer and the password. It was very much hoped that this was an isolated case; the Head of Audit and Assurance assured that relevant guidance had now been circulated to the particular officer concerned and the whole team. The Chairman commented that it would be good if the Housing Portal Software could issue such information in a secure way. A Member wondered why a housing officer would have access to the password. 

Section 3.2.11 of the report referred to a ‘Housing Performance Digest’ and a Member enquired if it was possible to have sight of this. The Head  ...  view the full minutes text for item 100