Agenda item

Purpose of Report

To present the Executive with a summary of the operational performance position for quarter four of the financial year 2017/18, along with some full year outturn updates.

Decision

(1)       That the report be noted.

(2)       That the relevant Portfolio Holders ensure that management had a local focus on those areas highlighted as showing deteriorating performance.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

Quarter four outturn highlighted a long list of exceptional performance results, particularly in relation to housing and food health and safety. The following exceptional areas of performance were noted:

·         the number of users logged into the self-service system ‘MyInfo’ had increased from 6,409 in quarter three to 9,865;

·         at 9,826, the number of face to face customer visits had dropped by approximately 3,000 from quarter four in 2017;

·         the City of Lincoln council tax collection rate stood at 97.17% which was above the 97.11% target;

·         the level of outstanding customer changes in the Revenues Team had improved from 296 in quarter four in 2017 to 121 this quarter;

·         the average time to process housing benefit claim changes of circumstances had surpassed its target of five days with an outturn of four days;

·         the percentage of quality checks made where benefit entitlement was correct had improved from 91% last quarter to 92% in quarter four;

·         the number of off-street charged car parking spaces had increased from 2,242 last year to 3,622 this year. This had led to a temporary decline in utilisation, dropping to 45%;

·         the number of service requests for Public Protection and Anti-Social Behaviour had seen improvements reducing from 1,001 last year to 587 this year;

·         the percentage of premises fully or broadly compliant with Food Health and Safety inspections had exceeded the 97% target at 98%;

·         the average time taken from the date of the Food Health and Safety inspection to achieving compliance had improved from 13.25 days to 10.40 this quarter;

·         the percentage of official Food Health and Safety controls that had been completed had improved from 84.5% to 94% and was now on target;

·         the percentage of non-major planning applications determined within the government two year rolling target had reached 95%;

·         the percentage of major planning applications determined within the government two year rolling target had reached 100%;

·         the current tenant arrears as a percentage of the annual rent debit had surpassed its target of 2.15% with a figure of 2.11%;

·         the percentage of reactive repairs completed within target time had surpassed its target of 95% with an outturn figure of 97.49%.

Areas where performance could improve were noted as follows:

·         the average time taken to answer a call to customer services had deteriorated from 28 seconds to 104 seconds, which was outside the target of 40 – 50 seconds;

·         the business rates outturn collection rate had reduced from 99.43% last year to 98.87%;

·         the number of housing benefits/council tax support customers awaiting assessment had increased from 555 in 2016/17 to 696 this year;

·         the reported percentage of waste recycled or composted reached 33.73% but was outside of its target boundaries (35% to 45%);

·         the average time taken to determine a planning application had deteriorated from 58.04 days last quarter to 67.34 days in quarter four;

·         the number of live planning applications had deteriorated from 97 in quarter three to 126 in quarter four;

·         despite the number of affordable homes delivered this year improving from 11 in the previous year to 21 in 2018, it was still significantly below the lower target of 45;

·         the number of empty homes brought back into use this year was below its target boundaries of 20 to 30, with an outturn figure of 18;

·         the number of homelessness applications progressed within the housing team had increased from 216 last year to 279 this year.

Further information in respect of corporate measures and key performance in each service area was included in the main body of the report.

Sickness absence was highlighted as an area where performance had declined and was currently the highest it had been for some time. The Council’s first stress clinic had been introduced in the last few weeks which would enable managers and the authority to better understand any issues and put mechanisms in place to address them. Employee wellbeing and support was integral to the organisation and the Council’s human resources team was working to mitigate the current sickness absence performance.

Councillor Donald Nannestad, Deputy Leader of the Council, referred to homelessness which he said was a serious concern and asked how much influence the Council had in respect of this particular performance measure. It was noted that a broader range of indicators sat behind this performance measure and that a lot of things were taking place in partnership across the city and county to address homelessness. Simon Walters, Strategic Director of Communities and Environment, confirmed that the performance measure would be re-evaluated to ascertain what was being measured and how the Council was measuring it. Councillor Ric Metcalfe, Leader of the Council, explained that it was important in respect of the deployment of the Council’s limited resources to understand what difference the authority could make. For example, if the Council could establish how many of the cases were preventable whereby people had presented themselves as homeless, this could outline what impact had been made. The Strategic Director agreed to give further consideration to the points raised in respect of homelessness.

Other achievements during the quarter were reported as follows:

·         Lincoln Transport Hub – the £30 million Lincoln Transport Hub scheme had significantly regenerated and transformed the city centre, providing a state of the art bus station, a 1,000 multi-storey car park, retail space and a new pedestrian plaza. Led by the City of Lincoln Council, the scheme had also seen fantastic improvements to Lincoln Central railway station and had created a more accessible and attractive gateway to the city;

·         Birchwood Leisure Centre renovation – the £1.5 million renovation project that transformed Birchwood Leisure Centre had been completed. Under the Remarkable Place Vision 2020 priority, the Health and Recreation space had been modernised and updated with state of the art equipment and facilities;

·         Lincoln Lottery Community Fund – the Council’s Executive had approved the launch of a community grant funding lottery to provide support for local voluntary and community organisations in the city and close surrounding areas. All funds raised would benefit local people and communities, with 60% of the proceeds going to local good causes.