Transparency data

Board meeting minutes 21 May 2020 - The Planning Inspectorate

Updated 17 April 2024

Applies to England

Minutes FINAL (12/08/2020)

Title of meeting	Planning Inspectorate Board Meetings
Date	21/05/2020
Venue	Virtual meeting – all participants dialled in
Chair	Trudi Elliot (TE)

Present
Sally Dixon (SD)	Non-Executive Director (NED)
Rebecca Driver (RD)	Non-Executive Director (NED)
Stephen Tetlow (ST)	Non-Executive Director (NED)
Sarah Richards (SR)	Chief Executive
Graham Stallwood (GS)	Director of Operations
Christine Thorby (CT)	Director of Strategy
Paul McGuiness (PM)	Director of Corporate Services
Simon Gallagher (SG)	Director of Planning, MHCLG
Neil Hemington (NH)	Chief Planner, Welsh Government

In attendance
Karin Takel (KT)	Strategy and Corporate Governance Lead
Rachel Graham (RG)	Head of Data and Performance (item 6)
Sean Canavan (SC)	Head of Strategy and Change (item 7
Natasha Perrett (NP)	Strategic Governance Officer (notes)

1.0 Welcome and Declaration of Interests

1.1 The Chair welcomed the Board and called for Declarations of Interest, of which there were none.

2.0 Minutes of previous Board meetings and corporate action tracker

Minutes – part one 2.1 Section 3d needs to be updated it’s to its.

Minutes – part two 2.2 Sentence 6.3 should read ‘ it was not possible to talk to them’.

Agreed: 2a) The Board agreed, subject to the amendments above, the minutes were an accurate record of the March Board meeting.

Actions: 2b) NEDs to complete GDPR training - KT to establish which training package would be appropriate for NEDs, Civil Service training or in-house training due to be released for inspectors.

3.0 MHCLG and Welsh Government updates

3.1 The Board received an update from Welsh Government:

• Guidance has been given to Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) in Wales and advice is being offered on how to continue to operate in the current climate. Latest letter referenced how to start site visits again.
• There is regular contact with each LPA to understand which are fully operational and those which are not.
• Emergency legislation to permit building of Nightingale hospital and emergency facilities is being worked up.
• Fortnightly conversation with Head of Planning Inspectorate Wales is taking place, inspectors are conducting site visits in Wales.
• Evaluation of Covid19 impact is underway.
• Work on the Welsh Separation Project continues.
• Starting to think about digital events, legislation in Wales allows the inspector to decide on the procedure.
• Considering the recovery phase and the role that planning will have and what public services might look like, the impact of lost income on LPAs and what the implications might be.

3.2 The Board received an update from MHCLG:

• The department has moved to a temporary operating model with additional new functions to support the COVID19 response.
• A priority for the Secretary of State is getting the Inspectorate back to operating capacity as soon as possible.
• A package of law has been developed and was announced through the Written Ministerial Statement.
• As the department moves into recovery phase, the operating model will change to support the next steps in the programme of recovery. The economic context has changed vastly, and strategic questions are appearing.

Agreed: 3a) To note the updates.

4.0 Organisation update

Executive Team (ET)

4.1 ET continue to meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the pandemic to discuss our work, receive updates and make decisions following COVID19 Response project updates and recommendations. The move to conduct events virtually and make use of technology for digital events is fast moving.

COVID19 Response Project

4.2 The project has focussed on wellbeing, supporting MHCLG and internal and external communications and are now moving to scenario planning on how we restart events and move staff safely and gradually back into Temple Quay House (TQH), whilst adhering to Government advice. The restart of events will be looked at in phases - site visits, upscaling digital events and supporting the work of the Operations Directorate on when to restart physical events.

4.3 Work has been commissioned to understand more about inspector availability and those that cannot undertake casework due to COVID19 i.e. shielding, caring responsibilities. This also includes making sure this information is captured correctly on our systems and will enable us to move inspector resource to other types of work which will utilise their skills and expertise.

Corporate Services

4.4 Directorate update:

• Finance – Year-end audit has taken place. A deep dive into forecasting within the organisation is taking place by the team. Finance Business Partners will be starting at the end of June, along with a Financial Planning role.
• Commercial – the team are acquiring personal protective equipment for inspectors in preparation for return to site visits and put safety guidance and measure in place to protect those members of staff returning to the office to open and process post.
• HR – providing COVID19 advice, guidance and support and progressing recruitment to support organisation design (OD).
• Data and Performance – supporting digital events and considering the data protection impact. A COVID19 dashboard has been developed for ET and the organisation dashboard is being developed. A business plan tracker for the Senior Leadership Group is also being developed.
• Digital – is support the digital events project and engaging with the ODT team.

The workload across the Directorate has increased as many of the teams will be supporting the digital events project and the preparations to return to physical events and TQH.

Operations

4.5 Directorate update:

• Site visits are restarting, over 600 have been allocated for May. There are challenges around allocating the work and raising customer awareness around visits taking place.
• Enforcement – the number of enforcement cases submitted has dropped as (LPAs) have stopped issuing notices. As the number of submissions drop, the team continue the work to recover enforcement performance.
• OD – From 1st July Inspector Managers will be in place enabling inspectors to move from Strategy Directorate to Operations. HR team is working with Operations to make sure support is available to Inspector Managers.
• COVID19 recovery – temporary teams will be set up to support Planning Casework Operations (PCO) to process casework. We will look at redeploying staff in the organisation and linking inspectors to casework earlier if they are not able to conduct events and site visits.
• The number of appeal submissions continue to rise, we expect to see a drop in September or October.
• National Infrastructure – projects continue and will be progressed digitally. New projects are all also being received.
• Local Plans – The South Oxfordshire local plan will run virtually, longer term we need to work with all LPAs to make sure we are able to progress virtually and engage all community groups.

4.6 The Board discussed site visit options and workload, GS explained this is being looked at by the team working on events and suggested this come back to the Board/ Strategic Assurance Panel in July.

Strategy

4.7 Directorate update:

• The Directorate continues to establish with vacant roles being filled, building capability and capacity.
• Planning for the Strategic Plan review is underway.
• The Change Portfolio Board will be restructured.
• A blueprint is being developed to map what needs to be delivered within the Directorate.
• Professional Leads are involved in the COVID19 work, whilst maintaining professional standards.

Strategic Assurance – Excellent Customer Service during COVID19

4.8 Strategic scoping sessions were held with Non-Executive Directors, Professional and Operational leads to discuss our response to COVID19 and our strategic priority to put the customer at the heart of everything we do.

4.9 The following points were raised as part of the Board discussion:

• Whilst we are updating customer guidance, we need to do more to explain to our customers what we are doing in the digital events space, how we are trailing the work and what will happen next. Explain the journey, outcomes and next steps. Also explain issues to our customers and explain what we are doing to resolve these and where possible, what the customer can do to help.
• Make better use of local social media channels i.e. LPA websites to sign post use of the appeal casework portal (ACP) to promote digital submissions.
• The Board would like to see data on ACP submissions to see the impact on messaging to customers to use digital services.
• Clarity of message to customer, what is it we want them to do i.e. submit appeals and comments via the ACP and why.
• Look at the language used across the casework types, is it clear and user friendly to all regardless of experience and familiarity with the process.
• Consider adding more resource to the Communications team to help deliver messages quickly and consistently.
• Gather learning from our casework teams and log for system changes and improvements.

Agreed and action:

4a) CT - More customer metrics to come to the Board around the channels used by customers, how they are engaging with us, how interactions are changing and the effectiveness of communications.

4b) GS to bring site visit options and assumptions and workload to the July Board or Strategic Assurance Panel.

4c) GS to make sure there is a learning and evaluation process in place to gather data on the trials, success rates and make sure the Head of Innovation is linked to this work.

4d) CT with Customer and Communications Lead to review customer communications to make sure messages are inclusive and connect the audience with clear and consistent messages. Encourage the use of the ACP and setting out why customers should use this method to submit appeals and correspondence. Take a wider view of digital channels and look for the opportunities to link with local websites to promote the ACP and guidance.

4e) CT and Customer and Communications Lead to come back to July Board or Strategic Panel to discuss communication capacity, lines to take and strapline for COVID19 response as we move to the next phase and consider the things we would like our customers to do to support us make changes.

4f) PM to bring forecasting methodology to autumn Strategic Assurance Panel.

4g) CT and GS to make sure we are logging learning, innovation and decisions and action points.

5.0 Operational Delivery Transformation (ODT)

5.1 The key update for the Board:

• Regular communications are taking place with MHCLG colleagues and stakeholders.
• New approach to the programme is to deliver small incremental improvements which have been developed.
• A new ‘now, next, later’ roadmap will be developed for each service, which will have a clear three-month delivery plan.
• During June and July the business case will be reviewed and updated, including benefits profile and plan to deliver the benefits.
• The approach is to have a core product which can be developed and can be linked to other pieces of work in the digital space in future years.

Agreed and actions:

5a) The Board agreed the following would provide assurance at Board level:

1. View of the governance process, including who is accountable for various aspects of delivery.

2. Budget and forecast.

3. Delivery schedule from the customers perspective and staff, what will be delivered and when and clear tracking to demonstrate when things have been delivered.

4. Benefits tracking.

5. Board to see a 12-month delivery programme, with clear accountabilities established and requirements from the Board.

5b) GS to come back to September Board with clear schematic – delivery, costs against budgets, delivery schedule and benefits tracking.

5c) Change Portfolio Lead to come to July Board with Change Portfolio Board update and assurances.

6.0 Data Governance Project update

6.1 The project status remains at Amber.

6.2 As GDPR awareness increases in the organisation, an increase in the number of breaches reported is expected as more and more staff are starting to seek advice on potential breaches.

6.3 The first restructured Information Security Management Forum took place with all Information Asset Owners attending which has established the role and clear accountability for asset management in the organisation.

Agreed: 6a) To note the Data Governance Project update.

7.0 Strategic Plan Review

7.1 The Strategic Plan review will be an opportunity to look at the impact of COVID19 on our organisation and the work underway in Operations Directorate to process casework digitally.

Action: 7a) KT when reviewing the Strategic Plan, make sure risks are also identified.

8.0 Forward agenda, review of meeting & AOB

8.1 The following additions were agreed for the forward plan:

• Strategic Plan Review – high level Plan – July and detailed review – September
• Customer communications and data to capture customer shift in submissions through digital channels to be connected to the Customer Orientated Productivity Measures work, Executive Team to signal when this work will be ready for a Strategic Assurance Panel discussion.

Agreed:

8a) GS - ODT Governance process to be circulated outside of Board for information and add to a future Board if considered to be necessary.

Next meeting: 04/06/2020