Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 15 February 2024 be confirmed and signed by the Chair as a true record.

Councillor Clarkson referred to question numbers 4 and 6 in the Member Request Table where the responses had been marked ‘to follow’ and asked the Director of Housing and Investment for a response to those questions.

Daren Turner, Director of Housing and Investment offered his apologies that a response had not been provided before the papers were published. A response would be circulated as soon as possible following the meeting.

RESOLVED that the answers to questions 4 and 6 in the Members Request Table be circulated to members as soon as possible following the meeting.

Please note that, in accordance with the Members' Code of Conduct, when declaring interests members must disclose the existence and nature of the interest, and whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) or personal and/or pecuniary.

Councillor Pat Vaughan declared a Personal Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Strategic Performance Measures and Targets 2024/25'. His granddaughter worked in the Finance Department at City of Lincoln Council.

Councillor Pat Vaughan declared a Personal Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Strategic Performance Measures and Targets 2024/25'. His daughter worked in the Benefits Department at City of Lincoln Council.

Graham Rose, Senior Strategic Policy Officer:

a.    presented the  strategic performance measures and their targets for 2024/25 for review prior to being presented to Executive for consideration

b.    advised that the Council currently had a set of strategic performance measures in place used to monitor the performance of the Council, these measures included a mix of targeted quarterly and annual measures, together with a number of volumetric measures which were used for contextual purposes

c.    stated that those measures performing above or below target were highlighted within the quarterly Operational Performance Report as success stories or measures of concern requiring further monitoring/action

d.    gave an overview of the new tool named the Local Authority Data Explorer which was being developed by the Office for local Government (Oflog) and advised that all measures which were relevant to district councils were already included in the target set

e.    referred to paragraph 5.3 of the report and highlighted the new performance measures that had been included for the Directorate for Major Developments and advised that performance measure to monitor the progress of the Western Growth Programme would be included once agreed

f.      highlighted that for 2024/25 target setting; some measures had seen their targets relaxed due to increasing financial pressures on the Council, resource impacts, recruitment pressures and the cost of living crisis - all of which would inevitably continue to impact on performance, however, in some cases the targets had been increased where some improvement in performance was expected.

g.     welcomed questions and comments.

The committee discussed the report in detail and asked the following questions, it was agreed that answers would be provided from the relevant officers following the meeting:

·         Referred to performance measures BE 1, BE2 and BE3 in relation to Housing Benefit Administration.  Why was there reduced DWP funding?

·         Referred to performance measure REV3 in relation to the number of outstanding customer changes in the Revenues Team. Could information on the Citizens Access Revenues Portal be provided? What was it and what was it used for? Was it linked to Citizens Advice?

·         Referred to performance measure DCT2 in relation to the percentage of invoices that had a purchase order complete. It was positive to see that the target had been increased even further to 75%. Would it be possible for the measure to only focus on invoices where it was suitable to have an associated purchase order? If so, could the target be set nearer 100%?

·         Referred to performance measure FHS1 in relation to percentage of premises fully or broadly compliant with Food Health and Safety Inspection. This measure monitored the compliance of premises. Did any monitoring of delivery services take place to ensure the items being used to transport food met the required standard of cleanliness?

·         Referred to performance measure PPASB4 in relation to the satisfaction of complainants relating to how their ASB complaint was handled. The committee was happy this measure was being removed due to the low response rate to the surveys. With this measure being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79.

Claire Turner, Democratic Services Officer:

a.    presented the draft work programme for 2024/25 as detailed at Appendix A of the report

b.    advised that the work programme for the Performance Scrutiny Committee was put forward annually for approval by Council; the work programme was then regularly updated throughout the year in consultation with the Performance Scrutiny Committee and its Chair

c.    reported that items had been scheduled in accordance with the existing work programme and officers’ guidance regarding the meetings at which the most up-to-date information could be reported to the committee; the work programme also included the list of portfolio holders under scrutiny

d.    requested any relevant comments or changes to the proposed work programme for 2024/25.

RESOLVED that the work programme 2024/25 be noted.