Agenda item

The Committee are asked to consider the content of the Quarter 2 report and make any comments on the Council’s corporate performance.

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 2 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 summarised progress in Quarter 2, with 57% of KPIs reported showing improvement over the longer term or having maintained 100% performance, and 63% of KPIs reported were on target, with 25% of KPIs within acceptable tolerances.

The Council was currently finalising a Covid-19 variation to the leisure contract that included revised KPI’s, and as such the Council had not recently been reporting any leisure KPI’s due to the variation, and the fact that leisure centres had been closed most of last year and part of the current year. From Quarter 2 onwards Officers would be reporting three KPIs: the number of memberships at combined leisure centres, the number of visits to combined leisure centres and the and number of GP referrals.

Members noted that examples of what had gone well in Quarter 2 included performance in Environmental Health, Enforcement and Licensing relating to responses to complaints, targeting sector specific businesses and undertaking spot checks and assessed compliance with the relevant COVID-19 regulations and government guidance, ongoing support relating to the COVID-19 Outbreak Control Teams (OCTs), by working closely alongside colleagues from Public Health England, Health and Safety Executive and NYCC to manage COVID-19 outbreaks related to workplaces and the local community, continued work with colleagues at NYCC and the Police to share intelligence and co-ordinate responses and any necessary enforcement action that had been taken; supporting the work of the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) by providing advice and support to the operators of events in the district to ensure they are adhering to the relevant COVID-19 guidance.

Officers explained that with reference to business grants, the Restart Grants scheme closed for payment on 31 July 2021; in Quarter 2 a further £741,784 was issued in grant payments to businesses to assist with reopening through the restricted measures. In August 2021, phase 3 payments of the Additional Restrictions Grant were considered and £477,408 in discretionary grants were issued in payments to eligible businesses.

Members were pleased to note that other general positive performance included the total number of empty homes being brought back in use through direct action; the average wait time in minutes before a customer phone call was answered by an advisor for Quarter 2 was 1.86 mins, against a target of 5 mins; the percentage of people accessing benefit forms and taxation direct debit forms online in relation to other channels; the total number of missed bins for Quarter 2 was 188, against a target of 321; percentage of sundry debt collected was 55.80% ahead of the 45.79% target and an improvement on the Q2 figure for 2020/21 which was 50.61%; lastly, the average days to re-let standard void types had improved since Quarter 1 with the average time taken to bring a standard void back into re-use sitting at 21.5 days, which was a reduction of 2.03 against a target of 26 days.

Members acknowledged however that some performance had not been as hoped; this included the percentage of stage 1 and 2 corporate complaints fully responded to in required time; the percentage of non-domestic rates collected; the percentage of Council Tax collected; the average days to re-let major void types; the average days sickness per full time employee (FTE) rolling 12 months; planned savings and repairs to council owned properties.

RESOLVED:

The Committee considered and noted the content of the report.