Members considered the report of the Executive Director which summarised the Council’s performance against the selected set of eight key performance indicators (KPIs) for the financial year 2018/19, giving the position at the end of the fourth financial quarter (1 January to 31 March 2019) and for the financial year 2018/19.  The report gave Members an opportunity to scrutinise progress towards the Council’s stated aims, outcomes and actions in the Corporate Plan and make any necessary recommendations to Cabinet for future service delivery.

The Programme Office and Policy Manager advised that during quarter four, of the eight individual measurements, six met or exceeded their target/forecast (green) and two indicators did not meet their target/forecast (red); these were Homelessness Applications Received and Prevention of Homelessness Cases per 1,000 Rother Households.  This was an improvement on quarter three. 

During the discussion the following points were noted:

New Housing Benefit Claims on Time:  The average number of calendar days to process a new housing benefit claim from the date the claim was received to the date the decision was taken.  The 2018/19 target was 35 days, the result for the fourth quarter was 21.57 calendar days, the average for the year was 29.82 calendar days (lower was better). The figures reflected the positive effect the Council’s decision to invest in the service had had and Members wished to extend their thanks to staff and officers.

Changes to Housing Benefit Claims on Time:  The average number of calendar days taken to process a submitted change to an existing housing benefit claim from the date of submission to the date of the decision.  The end of year target was an average of 20 days; the target for quarter four was 17.33 days.  The result for quarter four was 4.97 days, which was the best quartile performance; the result for the year was 18.66 days (lower was better).

Homelessness Applications Received: The number of applications of homelessness from Rother households that had come into the Council.  The forecast for 2018/19 was 204 applications; the Council received 331. The forecast for the fourth quarter was 51 and the Council received 106 (lower was better).  Rother had 62% more applications than was forecast for the year.

New Affordable Homes:  The gross number of new affordable homes that had been completed in the district.  The target for 2018/19 was 10 new affordable homes.  This target was based on anticipated delivery at the time of setting the target.  The Council had exceeded the annual target with 60 new homes built over 2018/19.  The target for quarter four was three new homes; the result was nine new affordable homes.

Performance Indicators by Exception:  Any performance that was doing significantly better or significantly worse than its target.  There were three indicators to report:

•     complaints made against licensed premises to Environmental Health, with a 127% increase compared to the previous year.  This would continue to be monitored;

•     graffiti when surveyed on public land and buildings, with an annual average result of seven incidents of graffiti per 300 sites surveyed.  The Committee would be updated if the apparent increasing trend continued under the new waste and recycling contract, which included street cleansing; and

•     fly tips reported to the Council, with an annual result of 579 fly tips on public land in Rother, which was the highest on record.  The Programme Office and Policy Manager reported that an increase in fly tipping was being monitored nationally and further updates would be reported if the increase continued after the implementation of the new contract.

Waste and Recycling Rates:  Rother’s recycling rate of 50.2% of households’ waste sent for either re-use, dry mixed recycling or composting was 79 out of 345 local authorities, sitting in the above median quartile but just on the edge of the best quartile, that started at 50.4%. 

The Head of Service Acquisitions, Transformation and Regeneration reminded Members that the indicators for 2019/20 would be reported within four themed areas (Housing and Homelessness, Benefits Performance, Waste & Recycling and Asset Income) and a qualitative report on each of these areas would be provided.  Members would be provided with a clear picture of performance in each of the themed areas, as opposed to relying on narrow areas of performance. 

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.