Members received and considered Minute OSC23/36 arising from the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) held on 20 November 2023, that had considered a report on the Council’s Performance Report: First and Second Quarters 2023/24.  It was noted that the Q1 performance for scheduled environmental health inspections was 81% and not 51% as shown at Appendix A to the report.   

It was advised that to focus on priorities, commentary from a Service Manager would only be included by exception, when performance was significantly above or below the target.  A Senior Leadership Team led Performance Board had also been established to sit alongside the Risk and Programme Boards to improve performance management, risk management and accountability in the Council.

Cabinet noted the OSC’s comments and agreed that the target for processing / determining all types of planning applications should be set at 80%, which was higher than the national target and would provide a reasonably good customer service within current resources.  It was confirmed that the national target was 70% for minors/ others and 60% for major applications.

Whilst the environmental health KPIs had not reached their targets, Members had no concerns with the performance, for the reasons given, and following a recent Food Standards Agency audit, Members were appreciative and proud of the work carried out by this successful team.  

With regard to Customer Service KPIs, it was noted that the number of calls abandoned had increased in Q2 and that this KPI would be reduced through the increased use and development of digital on-line solutions (artificial intelligence) rather than additional human resources, which was not possible, due to budget constraints.

RESOLVED: That the target for processing / determining all types of planning applications be set at 80%.