Council and democracy

Agenda item

End of Year Corporate Performance Report 2017/18

Minutes:

End of Year Corporate Performance Report 2017/18

 

The Director of Strategy, Communications and Customer Services presented the report which outlined the corporate performance monitoring for 2017/18. It detailed the information the Council uses to monitor the progress and performance against the Council priorities. This was the outcome of a full and thorough review of key performance indicators (KPIs) in line with recommendations from Corporate Overview and Scrutiny in 2015/16. The Officer advised the Committee that the report provided a final position in relation to the performance of those KPIs, including a focus on some specific highlights and challenges. This report will go on to Cabinet in July.

 

The Chair drew the Committee’s attention to page 22 of the agenda, point 3.2 which discussed better and worse performing KPIs versus 2016/17. He wanted the Committee to note that it doesn’t include KPIs which have been removed. The Director of Strategy, Communications and Customer Services stated that fourteen KPIs had been removed, of which 60% were on target, which is similar to the overall position outlined in the report.

 

The Chair then moved on to discuss the highlights from the report. One particular item he drew mention to was the success that 97% of schools in the borough achieved a ‘good’ or better rating. The Chair felt this was an impressive move up the scale, considering eight years ago Thurrock was in the bottom quartile. He also drew attention to the number of affordable housing units that had been directly delivered, and how good it was to see this was above ambition. Next he wanted to see ambitions raised so more units could be delivered.

 

The Chair then highlighted page 24 of the agenda, to the point regarding street cleanliness where three quarters of the data was using a new methodology. He underlined the Council’s poor performance during the fourth quarter, which was 14%, in comparison to the second and third quarter which were 8.5% and 6.5% respectively. He then questioned the Council over the differences in these performance figures during the year. The Officer replied that she was unsure for the reasons in the last quarter and would ask the service for a response.

 

The Chair then examined the missed target of sickness and absences within the Council. The target was 9 days absence, compared to 10 days absence which was achieved. He also pointed out that the future target was still 9 days absence, and questioned whether this was an achievable figure next year. The Director of Strategy, Communications and Customer Services replied that this was an achievable figure as the Council are doing everything they can within best practice to meet this figure. She also asserted that there was a positive direction of travel for absence and sickness leave within the Council.

 

Page 26 in the agenda was the next point that the Chair wanted to draw everyone’s attention too, which was regarding the percentage of refuse bins that were collected on the correct day. He noted that this was a missed target, and asked what improvements were underway to improve this number. The Director of Strategy, Communications and Customer Services replied that there were more difficulties in bin collections towards the end of the week, and they have already identified challenges regarding this, such as blocked access to properties. She stated that the Council are working to tackle the specific reasons, but during the fourth quarter there had been an increase in the amount of bins collected on the right day, even though the end of year target wasn’t hit. Councillor Churchman then commented on the adverse weather we have had this year, and wondered whether this had had an impact on bin collection. The Director of Strategy, Communications and Customer Services answered that although this had an effect, the fourth quarter was not hit as much as expected.

 

Councillor Fletcher observed that although KPIs had not been met, there was no ‘route to green’ listed in the report, and enquired what action would be taken to hit targets in the coming year. Councillor Duffin noted that with the volunteer KPI, it does not specify what the volunteers are actually doing. He asked the Director to potentially change the focus of the KPI to volunteer hours, rather than the number of volunteers. This was taken on board by the Director of Strategy, Communications and Customer Service.

 

During discussions a point on the number of potholes filled was raised, and the fact that this number was disappointingly off-target, even though the filling of potholes had seen much extra investment. The Chair asked whether or not any analysis had been performed of the investment to discover its return, to which the Director of Finance and IT stated there was continued review, although there was not a traditional return on investment analysis. It was also mentioned by Councillor Fletcher that there was nowhere to go to find out specifically which areas had had potholes filled, rather than simply borough wide analysis. Councillor Duffin also observed that due to bad weather, maybe the Council should be more pre-emptive in their fixing of potholes in the coming quarter.

 

A discussion then commenced on the proportion of waste which was reused, recycled or composted within the borough, and that it was disappointing the target had not been hit this year, and that there was a negative direction of travel. The Director of Strategy, Communications and Customer Services replied that this was being further looked into by the Cleaner, Greener, Safer Committee who would be undertaking a detailed update in July including work undertaken into recycling within flats, which was more challenging.

The Chair drew the Committee’s attention to point 3.6 of the report, which was regarding the drop of 3% in average household earnings. The Chair commented that with the rising cost of inflation this would lead to a big hit in buying power for Thurrock residents, and asked what was driving these trends. The Corporate Director of Place responded that it was the changing nature of jobs within the borough, and the need to create a diverse range of jobs and economy.

 

The Chair moved onto to Appendix 1 of the report and asked how many KPIs had been removed from the list, and what they were. The Director of Strategy, Communications, and Customer Services replied that six were removed, and the majority were one-off initiatives that had finished, or KPIs where significant progress had been made so they were being monitored at service rather than corporate level.

 

RESOLVED: That:

 

1. The Committee noted and commented on the performance of KPIs for 2017/18, and commented on indicators of 2018/19 and identified areas that required additional consideration in the next monitoring cycle.

 

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