Agenda item - 2ND QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE AGAINST PIs

REPORT OF THE CONTROLS, RISK AND PERFORMANCE MANAGER

To receive the Performance Monitoring report for Q2 2020/21.

RESOLVED:

(1) That the Quarter 2 Update on Performance against Performance Indicators be noted;

(2) That the Executive Member for Recycling and Waste be requested to circulate the spreadsheet containing waste route map information to the Committee;

(3) That any Members who are aware of any issues with regard to waste collection routes be requested to inform the Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management so that this information can be passed on to the contractor;

(4) That Recommendation No.2 of the Shared Internal Audit Service (SIAS) report dated November 2020 concerning performance indicators, which concerned the role of Overview and Scrutiny Members in challenging performance data, be noted.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

(1) That Cabinet be requested to consider reviewing the PIs for Environmental Health to allow for the lockdown period where no business was possible;

(2) That Cabinet be requested to consider revising the PI in relation to usage figures for the leisure centres in line with the revised recovery programme, due to the loss of business caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

REASON FOR DECISIONS: To update the Committee on the performance indicators as well as other indicators that officers have updated and activated on Pentana Risk.

Audio Recording – 57 minutes 06 seconds

The Controls, Risk and Performance Manager presented the report entitled 2020/21 Quarter 2 PI Data and drew attention to the following:

Summary

The summary showed that there were 6 red indicators. This was mainly due to the impacts of Covid-19.

RES 1 – Electricity and gas energy consumption (kWh)

This indicator continued to remain green although this was due to the District Council Office only being partly used during the pandemic.

MI P&R 001 – Percentage of raised sales invoices due for payment that have been paid

This indicator remained red. Recovery processes had been relaxed in order to support customers during the Covid-19 lockdown. Collection rates continued to increase each month. The Leadership Team and Corporate Debt Management Group continued to monitor the debt closely.

BV 10 – Percentage of NNDR collected in year

There were indications that some businesses continued to struggle which would have an ongoing negative effect on collection rates.

REG 2 - Rate of homelessness prevention and relief

Rates were much improved on this time last year due to the hard work of officers reflecting the government’s ‘Everyone In’ initiative, however this had an impact on the number of households living in temporary accommodation (LI 035a).

REG 3 – Percentage of Environmental Health programmed inspections completed

This indicator was red. Formal food inspections had resumed at a much reduced level due to businesses being shut down but it was unlikely that the target would be achieved by year end.

MI LI 015 – Number of visits to leisure facilities

This was a red indicator with August and September figures lower than expected in the recovery plan. Following the second lockdown, officers were working with SLL to discuss the implications for the recovery plan.

NI 191 – Kg residual waste per household and NI192 – Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting

These indicators were red and it was thought that these figures would be unlikely to recover by the end of the year.

The Controls, Risk and Performance Manager advised that a report would be taken to Cabinet in January with proposed changes to targets in-year to reflect the current position caused by the pandemic. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be given the chance to review the report and make recommendations to Cabinet at its January meeting.

The following Members took part in debate and asked questions:

· Councillor David Levett

· Councillor Claire Strong

Comments from Members included:

· There was some concern over how meaningful any revised targets could be due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic;

· It was hoped that the pre-pandemic targets could be re-instated in future.

In response to questions the Controls, Risk and Performance Manager advised:

· The intention was to make the scrutiny more meaningful by adjusting the targets;

· In keeping the same targets, the PIs would remain at red status and not reflect the progress being made.

Members noted the Shared Internal Audit Service (SIAS) report dated November 2020 concerning performance indicators.

The Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management gave a verbal update on waste routes and advised that a spreadsheet containing the waste routes was available and could be circulated to Members. She advised that an online map had been considered but this would be resource and cost intensive to produce.

The following Members asked questions and took part in debate:

· Councillor Sam Collins;

· Councillor Claire Strong;

· Councillor Kate Aspinwall.

Comments from Members included:

· The matter had been ongoing for some considerable length of time;

· There were areas where waste collections had been repeatedly missed;

· A website page was available where a postcode could be input to find the date of collection;

· Routes had been changed which had made collections more inconvenient for some areas due to traffic congestion;

· The situation had improved over time, but there were still areas where the routes/scheduling could be improved.

Members were reminded to challenge the performance data, which was now circulated one month in advance of each Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, to ensure that the relevant Executive Members or officers could be invited to address the Committee.