Agenda item

To receive and respond to the findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee‘s review of the quarter three performance management information.

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s comments on the Performance Management Report for Quarter Three of 2017/18 be NOTED.    

113.1         The report of the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, circulated at Pages No. 15-57, asked Members to review and, if appropriate, take action on the observations of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee following its review of the 2017/18 quarter three performance management information.

113.2         Attention was drawn to the observations made by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, attached at Appendix 1 to the report, and to the Council Plan Performance Tracker, attached to the report at Appendix 2. 

113.3            The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee advised that Members had noted the key actions achieved since the last update, the majority of which the Executive Committee had been central to. Those included the preparation and approval of the annual budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy – although ‘routine’ business this was a significant piece of work undertaken during the course of the year; the success of commercial property investment had been built upon with Council having approved a further £12 million; the main phase of the public services centre refurbishment had commenced and, in December, one third of the top floor had been let; the Joint Core Strategy had been adopted; the new garden waste project had entered its final stages with the renewal of 15,000 customers to date; and Council had approved the adoption of Public Space Protection Orders. The Committee had also noted that, due to the complex nature of some of the actions, there had to be recognition some would not progress as smoothly or quickly as envisaged. These were transparently reported through the performance tracker and included the regeneration of Spring Gardens; the production of a vision for Junction 9; working with partners to progress the Healings Mill site; and working with partners to increase the heritage offer at the Battlefield site – the revised dates for the project milestones had been noted. In terms of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the Committee had noted the improved performance across all planning processing indicators compared to the previous year; the reduced number of reported enviro crimes; and that the Council’s recycling rate remained strong. Following its continued scrutiny, a short workshop had been held for Overview and Scrutiny Members on how sickness absence was managed which Members had found helpful. A number of questions had been raised, for information purposes, around the financial information which had been provided. This had included questioning around business rates retention; funding of, and associated risk in relation to, improvements to the Longford roundabout; planning income not meeting target; and a general query around the amount of income from the leisure centre contract. Overall, the scrutiny of the report had been fairly high level as the previous quarter the Committee had gone through it page by page.

113.4            In addition, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chair indicated that the previous evening a special meeting of the Committee had been held to enable questioning of partners as part of the Scrutiny review in respect of the water supply outages which had occurred during 2017. He offered his thanks to the Members and Officers involved with the review which, to date, had been extremely successful. The initial questions asked by Members had been scripted but he felt the supplementary questions asked had been of an extremely high quality. The Executive Committee Chair thanked the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Officers for the work that had gone into the review – he felt it showed how well the scrutiny process could work. He did, however, express concern that there had been no media attendance at the meeting. In response, the Chief Executive indicated that the Committee still had work to do on its report so there was still time for press involvement. He agreed that the review to date had been an excellent piece of work with a challenging but fair style of questioning. He felt the partners involved had welcomed the opportunity to have their say in the public arena which had helped the way the review had run.

113.5            Referring to sickness absence targets, a Member questioned how many staff were currently absent due to long term ill health. In response, the Head of Corporate Services confirmed that there were approximately six people affected at the moment; some with significant illnesses. He reminded Members that, as a small authority, the Council was affected by long term absences quite badly. The Vice-Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee explained that he had recently attended the Overview and Scrutiny workshop to review the absence management policy and he felt the Members involved had been pleased with the steps being taken to address the issues and the procedures which were in place.

113.6            Referring to KPI 14 – Percentage of ‘minor’ applications determined – a Member questioned whether a target of 90% was actually realistic. The Head of Development Services responded by advising that this was a “stretch” target which was significantly higher than the national target of 65% but she felt that an aspirational target was a good thing to aim for. There were improvements that would be implemented following the review of the Development Management service so she felt the 90% target would be achievable in future. The Member also questioned what the start date would be for the improvements at Longford roundabout. The Head of Development Services advised that she was currently looking at the programme and Members would be updated as the project progressed; it was envisaged that the work would commence during the 2020/21 period.

113.7            Accordingly, it was