Valuation Office Agency  (VOA) Management Board Meeting

21 February 2008

ATTENDEES

HR Learning Strategy for 2008-09

Steve Todd, Clare Johnson and Dave Lewis provided the background to this item so that the discussions would provide a steer for the overall 2008/09 Learning Strategy, before a more detailed plan could be presented to the Management Board.

Data Security

David Hughes and Andrew Hudson provided an update on data security guidelines for the Agency. The Board supported the view that encrypted laptops and memory sticks would only be allocated once a Director had established that there was ‘business critical’ need.

The Rent Service

Paul Sanderson advised that he and VOA colleagues had attended a TRS event in Manchester, where the organisational design for the Rent Service (TRS) had been discussed.

Patrick Boyle provided an update on the transfer project and gave an overview of the next steps for TRS from now to the implementation of the new organisational structure in October 2008.

Agency Performance

This item was a discussion on performance and in particular the key performance indicators where the outlook was not at green.

David Park told the meeting that results from the customer satisfaction surveys continued to be strong, and the Billing Authority surveys were also very good. A challenge still remained around hitting the target for elapsed time on council tax reports (England) and this was being closely monitored. Council tax reports for Wales were on target, as were the statistics for banding accuracy and RV loss. Productivity was on track, and although the industrial action could have an effect on this, the final outturn would not be at risk. David reported that some Empty Property Rate (EPR) proposals had been received and this was being monitored.

Steve Prendergast advised the meeting that DVS were striving to meet a 10-day outturn on IHT initial appraisal cases.

Sue Townsend provided an overview of the financial position for the Agency.

Steve Todd reported that 12 staff were currently at risk of not having the core skills and competencies within 6 months, out of 320 who had changed roles in the last 6 months. The indicator for getting inefficient performers back on track remained at amber/green. Sickness absence levels remained relatively stable and over the last month, and generally showed a downward trend over the year.

Industrial Action

Steve Todd provided an overview of Prospect’s plans for action short of a strike.  PCS had balloted its members for strike action and action short of a strike.  Confirmation of the outcome of the PCS ballot were expected in the following week.