Agenda item

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. This again took staff resource away from other works such as DFG work.

 

Question: Members asked whether a table of compliments could be included for future meetings? Rather than all statistics being only complaints.

 

Response: Officers agreed to add this to future performance reports going forward.

 

Question: Should the City of Lincoln Council be advertising further afield for apprentices due to the decrease in numbers employed?

 

Response: The number of placements had decreased mainly due to the different ways of working. Officers agreed to find out more information on this to report back to the committee.

 

Question: Had the Universal online Housing Management repair system been fixed?

 

Response: Officers advised they would source this information from the relevant officers to feed back to the committee.

 

Question: With regards to the 8,978 users that logged into the online self-service system, was it 8,978 log ins as a total or 8,978 unique users?

 

Response: Officers advised it was the total amount of log-ins but advised they would check with the relevant officers and report back to the committee.

 

Question: Was the top floor of the Central Car Park still closed or was it being used?

 

Response: It was at full capacity over the Christmas period but when it wasn’t busy the top floor was closed off, but officers would check the latest situation.

 

Question: In relation to Food and Hygiene, what was meant by a premises being ‘broadly compliant’?

Response: Officers advised that they would speak to the relevant service area and report back to the committee.

 

Question: Was it possible to find out the percentage of Citizens Panel responses? The figure provided in the report wasn’t relatable and members felt a total number of responses needed to be included.

 

Response: Officers agreed that this would be included in future reports going forward. 

 

Members expressed their concerns about the number of responses received by the Citizens Panel and requested a review in the new municipal year.

 

Democratic Services agreed to add this to the work programme for May/June 2023.  

 

Question: Why hadn’t the 46.17 FTE (full time equivalent) vacant posts been actively recruited to?

 

Response: Up until recently positions were being approved by the Chief Executive before going out to advertisement. It had also been difficult to recruit in general and it depended on each individual service on how recruitment was processed.

 

RESOLVED that:

 

1.     Further detail to be provided to members in the following areas:

 

Ø  What SME was defined as and what the Council was working towards

Ø  When the Universal Housing System was being repaired

Ø  Why there were less Apprenticeship placements being advertised

Ø  Clarification of the 8,978 figure quoted for number of users logged on to the on-line self-service online system this quarter and whether it was the number of total log ins or the total number of unique users.

Ø  Of the 67 FTE posts, why only 20.83 posts were being recruited to

Ø  How was stress and depression diagnosed

How many days were lost due to stress and depression

How many people left whilst on long term sick and didn’t return

Ø  What was meant by ‘broadly compliant’ in Food and Hygiene terms when a premises was concerned.

Ø  The reason behind the top floor of the Central Car Park being closed

 

2.     A review on the Citizens Panel to be scheduled for the new municipal year

 

3.     The contents of the Quarter 3 2022/23 Operation Performance Review found at Appendix A be approved, to be presented to Executive on 20 February 2023

 

4.     The content of Quarter 3 2022/23 Operational Performance Report format be confirmed and referred to Executive on 20 February 2023.