Issue - meetings

Members considered the Progress and Delivery report for quarter 2 (July to September) 2020/2021.

The format of the report was new, as were the types of measures being reported.  For those key performance indicators (KPIs) where it had been identified that significant remedial action was required, actions would be created. In order to monitor progress, these action plans would be included in Progress and Delivery reports on a rolling basis until all actions identified had been completed.  It had not been necessary to include any actions plans within the quarter two report.

It was noted that the Corona virus pandemic had had a significant impact on the Council’s performance in quarters one and two. In some cases this had led to improvements the example cited being increased recycling rates as a result of people being at home longer.  In other cases the effects had been negative, with some services unable to operate fully, or at all for lengthy periods of time, including the Leisure Centre, Town Centre Markets and the Trinity Arts Centre.  Services seeing such impacts were unlikely to meet their performance target by year-end.  Other services such as Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support had experienced unprecedented spikes in demand placing additional strain on capacity.  The easing of lockdown in June, would see performance improve in some of these areas, however it was currently too early to estimate whether or when performance would return to pre-Covid levels.  Update and analysis would continue to be provided through the Progress and Delivery reports.

Members noted the overall summary position across all indicators as follows: -

Overall, 54% of KPIs were above target, 19% were meeting their target, and 27% were below target.  Of those measures exceeding their target, 75% had been above target for two quarters or more.  Of those below target, 25% had been below target for two quarters or more.  Where performance was below target, it was overwhelmingly because of Covid 19 – some underperformance was likely to continue due to new national restrictions.

Discussion of the report was then broken down into sections of the organisation the first two areas being Corporate Health and Finance and Property.

It was noted that during the last two quarters staff sickness absence had increased on previous reports; however WLDC was benchmarked against other similar-sized Councils and was currently out-performing them in this category.

Members raised no questions in respect of these service areas.

The next section discussed was performance relating to the Homes and Communities portfolio, in which a number of performance indicators sat below target.  Members asked a number of questions in respect of this section during which it was noted that the target for the ‘number of nights spent in Bed and Breakfast (B and B) accommodation was a statutory target set by government at 0.  This meant it was unlikely to ever be met.  However, the target remained at 0 rather than be changed as the authority did not want to place people  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32

Members considered the Progress and Delivery report for quarter 2 (July to September) 2020/2021.

The format of the report was new, as were the types of measures being reported.  Discussion of the report was broken down into sections of the organisation, the first of which was the new layout:

·         There needed to be assurance given within the commentary in the report about what service areas needed to do in the next quarter, particularly those service areas that were underperforming. It may be that some service areas had valid reasons for their underperformance, but this wasn’t clear from the commentary at present.

The Senior Performance Officer reminded Members that this was the first iteration of this report and there would be more detail on points raised during the next report cycle;

·         It may be useful to have a code to link key performance indicators (kpis) to commentary elsewhere in the report;

·         Overall, 54% of kpis were above target, 19% were meeting their target, and 27% were below target.  Of those measures exceeding their target, 75% had been above target for two quarters or more.  Of those below target, 25% had been below target for two quarters or more.  Where performance was below target, it was overwhelmingly because of Covid 19 – some underperformance was likely to continue due to new national restrictions;

·         The measures below target included the West Lindsey Leisure Centre, markets, car parking income, disabled facility grants, and those around food standards safety inspections, and empty properties.

The next section of the report discussed was Corporate Health:

·         During the last two quarters staff sickness absence had increased on previous reports; however WLDC was benchmarked against other similar-sized Councils and was currently out-performing them in this category;

·         One Member felt that lowering the target for percentage of complaints where the Council was deemed to be at fault could improve the service.  Officers agreed to take this point back to the Customer Service Manager.  In addition, a light touch review on Progress and Delivery was about to be embarked upon.

Members then commented on, and asked questions of Homes and Communities Performance.  The following information was provided:

·         The target for ‘number of nights spent in Bed and Breakfast (B and B) accommodation was a statutory target set by government at 0.  This meant it was unlikely to ever be met.  However, the target remained at 0 rather than be changed as the authority did not want to place people into B and B.  WLDC had recently been informed of some grant funding that would be put towards 6 units of accommodation;

·         The wording of the target ‘number of households prevented from becoming homeless would be looked at during the light touch review.

The next topic was the Operational and Commercial Performance Summary:

·         The target for missed bins was collection within 5 days, although in most cases it would be 24 hours;

·         Fly tipping target times did depend on the land type; in the town centre it would be 24  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43