Archived decisions
AT A MEETING of the RECREATION AND HERITAGE POLICY REVIEW COMMITTEE held at The Castle, Winchester on Thursday 15 November, 2001.
PRESENT:
Councillors: M.S. Geddes (Chairman); Mrs. S.E. Allbright; Mrs. E.M. Byrom; K.G. Chapman; P.J. Chegwyn; C.R.H. Davidovitz; Dr. R.J. Ellis; E.F. Gale; Mrs. P.G.E. Holden-Brown; Jo Kelly; Mrs. C.A. Leversha; P.K. Mason; R.H. Price; A.W. Rice TD; M.L. Sheehan; Mrs. M.D. Snaith.
Councillors J. Waddington and W.H. Wheeler were also in attendance.
7 MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting held on 11 October, 2001 were confirmed by the Committee and signed by the Chairman.
8 BEST VALUE INSPECTION REPORT - OCTOBER, 2001
The Committee considered the report of the Best Value team leader (Item 2 in the Minute Book) on the Audit Commission inspection of the Library Service Best Value review. The review had begun in March, 2000 with the remit to consider the whole service and after a lengthy process which included consultation with the public, staff and other stakeholders four main outcomes have been agreed. These were to improve the equality of access to services, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of services to the public, to provide better IT access and support for the public and to evaluate the range of resources and speed of supply. An improvement plan with more than 50 actions with specific target dates has been drawn up and a number of specific recommendations arising from the plan have subsequently been agreed by the Best Value Review Panel (Recreation and Heritage).
The Audit Commission inspection had been undertaken in July, 2001 by two inspectors, one being a generalist and the other a library specialist. The subsequent report judged Hampshire Library Service to be "good" but judged the service "unlikely" to improve because the scope of the review encouraged a focus on specific operational issues whilst missing opportunity for change at the strategic level.
RESOLVED:
That the improvement plan be revised in the light of the Audit Commission inspection report prior to being reported to the Recreation and Heritage Executive Member and the Cabinet.
9 REGISTRATION SERVICE - BEST VALUE OPTIONS AND CHALLENGE REPORT
The Committee considered the report of the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services (Item 3 in the Minute Book) on progress with the Registration Service best value review. Much work had been undertaken as part of the review and the main challenges which had been identified included improvement of some register offices, improvement of accessibility for the public and upgrading of telephone and computer communications.
Four options for the future of the service had been identified; namely, no change, incremental improvements, proposals for substantial change and proposals requiring recommendation for legislative change to Central Government. The third option appeared to offer the greatest advantage and would entail, inter alia, the creation of a single registration district rather than the existing 10 in the County and the amalgamation of some offices. The public would thus be able to attend at any register office in Hampshire and cost savings and more effective use of staff resources should result. As regards Option 4 the Government's report on the national review of the registration service was to be published later this year and it was possible that in response the Hampshire Service would wish to make comments to the Government outlining proposed changes to registration legislation.
RESOLVED:
(i) That progress made with the review to-date be noted.
(ii) That further work be carried out in developing Option 3 entailing the proposals for substantial change but careful consideration be given to the adverse impact of closing local offices on the public and staff.
(iii) That legislative changes be recommended to Central Government in regard to the issues listed in paragraph 5.4 of the report should the Government's report on the national review of the registration service not cover these changes.
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