Issue - meetings

Access Wirral Service Development Proposals

Meeting: 29/03/2017 - Business Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 66)

66 Access Wirral Service Development Proposals pdf icon PDF 95 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Further to minute 6 (12/7/16), the Chair introduced a report relating to the involvement of scrutiny in reviewing new service models as they were developed. A workshop, led by Councillor Matthew Patrick, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Communications, had been held on 14 February 2017 for members of this Committee to scrutinise the service development proposals relating to Access Wirral in further detail. The outcomes from the workshop were detailed in the report which had been referred to Cabinet for consideration.

 

With the permission of the Chair, Councillor Matthew Patrick, addressed the Committee and reported that the report had been approved by the Cabinet at its meeting on Monday, 27 March. He stated that there would be a strong emphasis on the socially and digitally excluded and he would continue to report back to this Committee.

 

Members expressed their support for the proposals which were long overdue and thanked Councillor Patrick for the spotlight session. Appreciation of all the work the call centre staff did was also expressed.

 

Responding to comments, Councillor Patrick stated that the first stage of the Access Wirral roll out would involve Housing Benefit and Council Tax and this would streamline the service for a lot of people reducing the number of telephone calls and thereby freeing up staff resources to help those who were digitally excluded. It was hoped to roll out to further services in future phases and he would be happy to report back to the Committee.

 

Resolved – That the report be noted.