Consideration was given to the report of the Corporate Programme and Improvement Manager on the Performance Report of the First and Second Quarters 2023/24.  Members were given the opportunity to scrutinise progress towards corporate operations and service delivery and make any necessary recommendations to Cabinet for future service delivery. 

A summary of the Council’s performance against the selected 26 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) broken down into eight service areas was included at Appendix A to the report. Performance was compared to the previous quarter result and to the same quarter the previous year.

Environmental Health: During quarters one and two, both measures had not met their target (Percentage of scheduled food inspections that were carried out; and Percentage of service requests completed in the required timescale).

Housing:  During quarters one and two, all measures had met their target (Number of households either prevented from or relieved from homelessness; Average cost of placing household in temporary accommodation (TA); and Average weeks a household was in TA before placement).  Officers advised that verbal updates could be provided at future meetings concerning further property acquisitions for TA. The Council was on target to reach 50 units by the end of the financial year and a report would be taken to Cabinet in due course to request further funding to acquire more units.  The property acquisition target would then be increased accordingly.

Customer Services: During quarters one and two, one measure was not on target but improving (Telephone calls answered) and three measures had met their target (Percentage of enquiries that were resolved on the first contact; Average call waiting time; and Total number of customer contacts to the Council).

Neighbourhood Services: During quarters one and two, all measures had met their target (Missed bins per 100,000 collections; Percentage of public land found with unacceptable levels of litter when surveyed; Percentage of public land found with unacceptable levels of detritus when surveyed; Fly tips recorded each month, cleared from public land; and Number of fly tip fines issued).

Estates: During quarters one and two, the measure met its target (Income from all assets).

Corporate Core: During quarters one and two, the measure met its target (% of freedom of information requested answered in 20 days).

Planning Development Management: During quarters one and two, all measures had met their target (Percentage of major development applications determined in 13 weeks or agreed extension; Percentage of minor development applications determined in eight weeks or agreed extension; Major development planning appeals allowed by the Planning Inspector; Minor development planning appeals allowed by the Planning Inspector; and Total number of PS1 and PS2 planning applications).

Revenues and Benefits: During quarters one and two, two measures had met their target (Percentage of council tax owed for the year that had been collected; and Average calendar days to process a new housing benefit claim), one measure was improving towards its target (Percentage of business rates owed for the year that had been collected) and one measure had not met its target (Average calendar days to process a change to an existing housing benefit claim).

In order to focus on priorities, the narrative concerning performance against target was now reported by exception and a commentary from the relevant Service Manager included when the performance was significantly above or below the target. Two Service Area commentaries were included for Members’ information:

Environmental Health:

Percentage of Scheduled Food Inspections that were Carried Out: the target was 90% completed; the result in the first quarter was 81% and in the second quarter was 79%. By the end of quarter two, 2,128 food premises inspections had been carried out, the introduction of Idox (software) had greatly delayed the roll out of the alternative enforcement questionnaires, there were high numbers of applications for new food business registrations which slowed down the programme of work, 85 complaints had been received and investigated concerning food businesses and there were the usual pressures of annual leave during the summer months.  The department was currently fully staffed, but there had been additional Health and Safety accidents to deal with, causing further impact.

Percentage of Environmental Health Service Requests Completed on Time: the target was 90%; the result for the first quarter was 88.2% and in the second quarter was 71.04%. Quarter two had been the busiest period for the number of pollution complaints; officers would be able to resolve outstanding cases during quarter three.

Revenues and Benefits:

Average calendar days to process a change to an existing Housing Benefit Claim: current performance was not within target and could continue to dip in quarter three due to being 2.5 officers down. This was being addressed, however recruitment would take time and therefore performance was likely to continue to be affected in the meantime.

A Senior Leadership Team led Performance Board was established in July as part of the new Governance arrangements. This sat alongside the (officer led) Risk and Programme Boards to improve performance management, risk management and accountability in the Council. The Board brought together Heads of Service and relevant Service Managers to discuss performance and service risks collectively and individually across the Council.

Members were asked to consider recommending a change to the target for major planning applications determined. The current target was 95% and the proposal was to reduce this to 80%, which was higher than the national target. Members were also requested to consider a change to the target for minor housing development determined in eight weeks to 80%; on this basis, the service was currently operating above those set targets.

Members were happy to recommend that Cabinet give consideration to both targets being amended accordingly; performance should not fall below 80%, the baseline minimum where customers do not experience a significant delay.

The Government had created a new Office of Local Government (Oflog) as part of the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, tasked with understanding and supporting local government performance.  It was in the process of creating the Local Authority Data Explorer, a dashboard or online tool with sets of key measurements. The sections for waste management and finance had measurements relevant to district councils and the published data for Rother District Council was attached to the report for Members’ information.  Future updates would be colour coded to indicate how the Council’s performance compared to the other published data.

RESOLVED: That:

1)         Cabinet be requested to agree that the target for processing all types of planning applications be 80%; and

2)         the report be noted.