Issue - meetings

Graham Rose, Senior Strategic Policy Officer:

a)    presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee with an outturn summary of the council’s performance in Quarter 3 of 2022/23

b)    explained that at the end of Quarter 3 2022/23, of the 83 performance measures that were monitored across the directorates of Chief Executive’s, Communities and Environment and Housing and Investment, 64 had targets allocated to them; of these targeted measures, 45 (70%) were within or exceeding the targets set

c)     referred to the count of performance measure outturn statuses by directorate at quarter 3 2022/23 detailed on page 4 of Appendix A

d)    invited members’ comments and questions.

Members discussed the content of the report in further detail, asked questions and received relevant responses from officers as follows:

Question: What was the definition of SME?

Response: Officers advised that they would make further enquiries and feedback to the committee.

Question: Long term sickness appeared to be high throughout all Directorates:

-        How did the Council prove that?

-        Were there specific patterns?

-        How was it being improved?

Response: There were a range of professional interventions:

-        Self-diagnosis

-        Speaking directly to the employee

-        If diagnosed long term, a doctor’s note

-        The employee assurance programme which involved phoneline support.

If the employee’s sickness was work related, a risk assessment would be carried out.

Question: What was being carried out to maintain the cleanliness in the Bus Station?

Response: The City of Lincoln Council had procured Stagecoach to carry out the works but there had been some issues involving the standard of works and pigeon mess which officers were currently in the process of resolving. A full deep clean had been arranged biannually.

Question: How many people on long term sick left the Authority?

Response: After 6 months of being on long term sickness absence, the employee’s pay would drop by half and zero after 12 months. Officers worked with the employee throughout that time. This was a national ruling and part of local government policy.

Question: What needed to be achieved to reduce the completion time of a DFG adaptation down from 13 weeks?

Response: There was a lot of pressure within the Private Sector Housing team at present which included a vacancy. There had been contractor issues also, both of these combined had led to the increased completion time of an adaptation.

With regards to wider enforcement work by the team,. the government were encouraging councils to use the Civil Penalty route against landlords failing to meet mandatory standards, rather than go through the Court. This means a penalty would be issued to the landlord and they would pay it. Lately, Landlords have been challenging the penalties which resulted in more officer time being taken to put the paperwork together ready for Court. With regards the tribunals, more people challenged the decisions than accepted the fine, due to this the tribunal became overwhelmed and some cases weren’t heard for up to 6 months so it massively favoured the landlord.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62

Graham Rose, Senior Strategic Policy Officer:

a)    presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee with an outturn summary of the council’s performance in Quarter 2 of 2022/23

b)    explained that the full report was attached as Appendix A of the report, with the Quarterly and Annual Performance Measure Outturn Tables attached as Appendix B

c)    referred to a recent Audit of Performance Management which had received limited assurance, reported to Audit Committee on 15 November 2022, resulting in Assistant Directors being asked to review and approve performance measures prior to being included in quarterly reports

d)    invited members’ comments and questions.

Members discussed the content of the report in further detail, asked questions and received relevant responses from officers as follows:

·         Question: There had been an increase of 39 customer complaints in Quarter 2 compared to Quarter 1. Was there any apparent trend for this?

·         Response: Officers would seek a more detailed breakdown on this figure from the Customer Services Manager, including any reasons for the increased number of complaints and which areas they were related to.

·         Question: There had been an increase in the average customer wait time to receive a response to telephone calls at 795 seconds in quarter 2. Response: There was the option available of ‘ring back’ or contact via e mail. Call operators had to be sensitive/patient in their approach to protect the most vulnerable clients. Officers would ask the Customer Services Manager to provide further detail on reasons for this increase for circulation to members.

·         Question: Did the Council raise awareness of the quieter times of day to our customers where call times were lower?

·         Response: Officers would seek a response from the Customer Services Manager for circulation to Members.

·         Comment: It was assumed that staff sickness would drop now more people were working from home, rather than having increased. The Chair would ask Councillor Chris Burke as relevant Portfolio Holder to respond to this issue on 8 December 2022 when he was due to report into Performance Scrutiny Sub Committee.

·         Question: There had been recent reports in the news regarding very bad issues of mould in Council properties elsewhere in the country. What advice did officers offer tenant’s to help avoid this problem?

·         Response: There were reports of mould in our council stock, the vast majority due to individual circumstances with insufficiently ventilated rooms, or clothes being dried on radiators. The authority was looking at giving online advice to tenants on measures to help avoid mould. Some properties had design defects and these were being attended to, however, the problem was nothing as bad as that reported in recent news reports.

·         There was also an issue with unscrupulous companies mail dropping council tenants suggesting they should make a claim for compensation for mould problems. There was a loop hole in the law which required government intervention; to redress the responsibility for disrepair claims against the Housing Authority which currently identified any employee recorded as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38