Agenda item

Corporate Performance Reports Q4 2020-21 and Q1 2021-22 (S/21/5)

The Scrutiny Committee is asked to consider the reports of the Head of Business Development and Improvement which provide a progress update on delivery of the Council Plan 2020-2030 as measured by a combination of: progress against priority projects/high level actions; and performance against KPIs. These reports cover Quarter 4 2020-21 (Year End) and Quarter 1 2021-22.

 

Minutes:

The Committee received the report of the Head of Business Development and Improvement which asked Members to consider and comment on the performance information presented to them for Quarter 4 2020-21 and Quarter 1 2021-22.

 

Members noted that the reports provided a progress update on delivery of the Council Plan 2020-2030, as measured by a combination of: progress against priority projects/high level actions; and performance against KPIs.

 

Officers explained that the Quarter 4 2020-21 report included a year-end summary of progress on delivery of the Council Plan 2020-23 as measured by year-end performance against KPIs in 2020/21, compared with year end data for KPIs in 2019/20. In Quarter 4 56% of KPIs were showing improvement over the longer term or had maintained 100% performance; 69% of KPIs were on target, and a further 31% of KPIs were within acceptable tolerances.

 

The Committee were informed that in Quarter 4 a number of things had gone well, including elements of the Council’s response to Covid-19 such as Reopening High Streets Safely (RHHS), the performance of the Environmental Health, Enforcement and Licensing Teams, the payment of business grants and NNDR collection. Positive performance had also been seen in the accessing of benefits forms and taxation direct debit forms online, the average sick days per full time employee, council tax collection, support for SMEs, affordable homes and recycling.

 

However, there were elements of performance that were not as good, council house repairs, particularly those that were routine, had been suspended throughout the third national lockdown, resulting in a backlog of such works. As restrictions were gradually eased in line with the national Government roadmap, the Council was implementing measures to re-introduce delivery of non-urgent repairs going forward and identifying additional resources to address the backlog of repairs as soon as possible.

 

Officers then gave a summary of performance in 2020-21, acknowledging the impact of Covid-19, the average time taken to re-let void properties, planning application processing and enforcement, environmental health and enforcement including food hygiene inspections, caravan sites, inspection of industrial permitted premises and sampling of private water supplies.

 

The Committee were then taken through by Officers the Quarter 1 2021-22 performance report. The period had seen the successful delivery of the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner election, good performance by the Environmental Health, Enforcement and Licensing Teams, payment of business grants, reduced average days to re-let void properties and gradual improvement in repairs to Council owned properties. The number of average sick days per full time employee had slightly increased but was still an improvement from some previous figures. The target for empty homes brought back into use had been exceeded, all major planning applications had been dealt with within the statutory time limit and non-major ones had exceeded the 70% target by 12%. Lastly, 100% of corporate complaints had been responded to on time and exceeded the 90% target.

 

However, there were still some issues with performance in relation to the collection of council housing rent and arrears, planned savings and responses to FOIs and stage 1 complaints.

 

RESOLVED:

The Committee considered and noted the content of the reports.

Supporting documents: