W:\DCPI\Policy&Performance\Team Admin\WIP\Q1201819MBPerfReport\CorporateDeliveryPlan201819Q1Report.docx 1 Agenda Item No. REPORT TO: Management Board Overview & Scrutiny Cabinet DATE: 23 rd July 2018 6 th August 2018 22 nd August 2018 SERVICE AREA: Organisational Development and Improvement REPORTING OFFICER: Rachel Glynn Principal Policy and Performance Officer SUBJECT: Corporate Performance Report: Quarter One, 2018/2019 WARD/S AFFECTED: ALL DISTRICT FORWARD PLAN REF: N/A 1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT 1.1 To provide an update on the Quarter One, 2018/2019 progress on the measures within the Corporate Delivery Plan and our Corporate Health performance indicators. 2.0 RECOMMENDATION/S 2.1 To review the report, recognise good performance and determine whether any interventions need to be put in place to improve performance on those measures that are off target. 2.2 That: Management Board receives the report and provides comments before the report goes to Members. Management Board agree that risk assessments will be undertaken for the two areas identified as ‘high risk’ and the Strategic Risk Register reviewed in order to update the strategic risk on financial instability and/or any other strategic risk. The Overview & Scrutiny Commission receives the report and provides comments before the report goes to Cabinet. Cabinet receives the report, noting the comments from Overview & Scrutiny and Management Board. 3.0 RECOMMENDED REASON/S FOR DECISION/S 3.1 Our Corporate Plan sets out our long-term vision for the Harrogate district, our aim as an organisation, our corporate priorities and the long term outcomes that we want to achieve. The Delivery Plan is updated on an annual basis and details what we will do, what our targets are and how we will measure these; this report tracks our progress against the Delivery Plan. 4.0 ALTERNATIVE OPTION/S CONSIDERED AND RECOMMENDED FOR REJECTION 4.1 No alternative options were considered as reporting progress on the Council’s Corporate Delivery Plan and corporate health performance is a key part of the Council’s performance management arrangements.
1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT 1.1 To provide an update on the Quarter One, 2018/2019 progress on the measures within the
Corporate Delivery Plan and our Corporate Health performance indicators. 2.0 RECOMMENDATION/S 2.1 To review the report, recognise good performance and determine whether any
interventions need to be put in place to improve performance on those measures that are off target.
2.2
That:
Management Board receives the report and provides comments before the report goes to Members.
Management Board agree that risk assessments will be undertaken for the two areas identified as ‘high risk’ and the Strategic Risk Register reviewed in order to update the strategic risk on financial instability and/or any other strategic risk.
The Overview & Scrutiny Commission receives the report and provides comments before the report goes to Cabinet.
Cabinet receives the report, noting the comments from Overview & Scrutiny and Management Board.
3.0 RECOMMENDED REASON/S FOR DECISION/S 3.1 Our Corporate Plan sets out our long-term vision for the Harrogate district, our aim as an
organisation, our corporate priorities and the long term outcomes that we want to achieve. The Delivery Plan is updated on an annual basis and details what we will do, what our targets are and how we will measure these; this report tracks our progress against the Delivery Plan.
4.0 ALTERNATIVE OPTION/S CONSIDERED AND RECOMMENDED FOR REJECTION 4.1 No alternative options were considered as reporting progress on the Council’s Corporate
Delivery Plan and corporate health performance is a key part of the Council’s performance management arrangements.
Changes to performance management arrangements: We have introduced quarterly performance and finance Management Board Meetings (in addition to the twice yearly performance clinics). These meetings provide more detailed discussions on areas of concern in order to identify further support required by the service. Monthly exception monitoring enables us to be proactive in supporting services rather than waiting until the quarter has ended to react to areas of concern. Service attendance is prioritised on a risk based approach; at Quarter One this was due to the financial implications of missing targets. The ‘Management Board comments’ (section 8) of this report provides a summary of the interventions put in place at these meetings and as such provide more detailed information on how we are managing performance for members.
Appendix I provides detail on all of the measures within the Corporate Delivery Plan; detailing what we have done and what we plan to do. Each priority in the Corporate Delivery Plan may be made up of more than one action or performance indicator and the following table provides an overall summary of how we are performing against each of our four corporate priorities:
Key messages: Overall, performance is good; with a positive start to the beginning of the financial year. We are aware of the areas where we are not doing so well and are putting measures in place to improve them; namely the Harrogate Convention Centre lettings income and the Parks and Environmental Service Review.
Corporate Plan
5.6 5.7
This report provides an overview of each corporate priority; highlighting areas for further discussion.
Overall, the priority measures within this corporate priority are performing well. We are taking an active leadership role in devolution discussions and the internal resources are in place to support this via the sub-regional governance group.
We agreed our 2024 Programme in June 2024. This will support the delivery of the ‘Sustainable’ and ‘Digital’ corporate ambitions. Although the Programme is in its infancy, with the Boards due to meet for the first time in August and September, a significant
amount of work has been carried out on the projects that they will deliver (e.g. Station Gateway, Harrogate Convention Centre redevelopment and Town Centre Wi-Fi). The 2024 Programme will ensure that resources are aligned to priorities; bringing in capital and external facing projects. Work is underway to develop an Events Strategy and arrangements for the UCI World Cycle Championship are on track; helping us to deliver our ambition to increase the contribution that tourism makes to the local economy.
5.9 The main area of concern within the strong local economy corporate priority is that to ‘promote the Harrogate Convention Centre (HCC) as widely as possible to attract new events to the district and grow its income to support our local economy’. Lettings income is significantly under target (as reported in the July budget report presented to the same meeting as this report); impacting on potential additional income and the economic impact that HCC brings to the district. This will be discussed in detail at the Management Board meeting and a summary of the interventions agreed to improve performance will be included in section 8 of this report prior to it being presented to Members.
5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13
Overall, the priority measures within this corporate priority are performing well but we need to ensure we continue to tackle air pollution and increase recycling.
Our emerging Local Plan is progressing well and remains on target for examination in the autumn. There are two areas within the sustainable environment corporate priority that we need to keep an eye on. We are working hard to ‘deal with the problems associated with traffic congestion and poor air quality in the district’. Although we are not the responsible authority for transport, we are working in partnership with NYCC to progress our Air Quality Action Plan; however, we do have four Air Quality Management Areas within our district. We are also providing strategic input into the Junction 47 and Harrogate Relief Road studies. We are putting in measures to reduce the use of single use plastics, both across the district and within the council. However, our recycling performance remains below the national average. Our recycling performance will be discussed in detail at the Management Board meeting and a summary of the interventions agreed to improve performance will be included in section 8 of this report prior to it being presented to Members.
Overall, the priority measures within this corporate priority are performing well but we need to keep our eye on our timescales for the Sport and Leisure Review and reducing the number of families in termporary accommodation.
We are being ‘proactive in our approach to the way we provide housing’ and following a viability assessment, we will be presenting a Project Initiation Document to set up a Housing Development Company to the first Transformation Board in September 2018. The review of our Housing Strategy is progressing well, with the consultation due to start in late summer. Work towards our aim to ‘do more – with other organisations and the police – to help ensure the Harrogate district is safe and healthy’ is progressing well and actions to develop the Integrated Community Hub are on target. However, we need to keep an eye on the delivery of our Sport and Leisure Review. The deadline for the Review has been extended to align to the Local Plan progress; although this ensures that we are aligning the review to the Local Plan, it could create financial implications if the savings from the review are not realised, with the review playing a large contribution to the Efficiency Plan. Cumulatively, attendance at the six main sites is down on the previous year, with income down at Knaresborough Pool due to the closure. The service has a number of other compensating savings to minimise the risk to the delivery of the Efficiency Plan savings target. We need to keep an eye on our ambition to ‘reduce the number of families living in temporary accommodation by helping them find a permanent home’. We have implemented a new system to help us manage the new, extended homelessness duty. However, at the end of Quarter One we were unable to automatically generate accurate performance information from this system; we need to review this next month. Our review of the homelessness prevention service is on target and we are awaiting a decision on our planning application to build a specialist temporary accommodation site. However, there has been an increase in demand for temporary accommodation, with 68 families accessing the service during Quarter One, an increase on the average of 50 families last year. This has been impacted by the change in legislation, higher demand and further demand due to universal credit issues. Although the action to reduce our re-let times is on target, re-let times are at their highest levels; taking an average of 26.13 days (in comparison to 15 days last quarter). This has had an impact on the percentage of rent lost due to homes becoming vacant, which increased from 0.65% to 1.37%; equating to circa £49k. The service has received record high numbers of voids over the period, including a higher proportion of category 3 (those in greatest need of repairs) than normal. The service has been unable to recruit skilled trade officers and contactors to address these issues. Measures put in place to improve performance include service representation at the council recruitment sat and a working group has been established to review the void process.
Overall, the priority measures within this corporate priority are performing well. Our commercial programme is being reviewed as part of our 2024 Programme and the profit and loss accounts for the current commercial projects are showing a profit.
We are continuing to provide an active leadership role for the Harrogate District Public Service Leadership Board, with a review of the Group planned. The main area of concern within the excellent public service corporate priority is the review of our parks and environment service; the financial implications of this review have a significant impact on our Efficiency Plan (as per the July budget report presented to the
same meeting as this report). This will be discussed in detail at the Management Board meeting and a summary of the interventions agreed to improve performance will be included in section 8 of this report prior to it being presented to Members. Corporate Health
All of the performance indicators included within the Corporate Health dashboard on Pentana help contribute towards our corporate priority of excellent public services. Appendix II summarises performance against each of the indicators
Financial Non-domestic rates collection levels are below target and the previous year’s performance levels but we are predicting that the annual target will be met. Appendix II provides a full explanation on performance and details the actions put in place by the service to improve performance. However, it should be noted that there are external factors impacting on performance such as the economic downturn and valuation appeals relating to the 2010 and 2017 listings. Likewise, Council tax collection is slightly below target at Quarter One but the annual target should be met. Although the percentage of total sundry debt over 90 days old is well within target and at a similar level to the previous year, in-year sundry debt collection is slightly below target. 44% of the Community debt relates to trade waste, one of our commercial services; a number of the Trade Waste customers are awaiting a credit or refund brought forward from 2017/2018; this will reduce the value of a number of the outstanding balances once processed. The service has put in measures to improve performance in this area by introducing monthly invoicing and transferring customers to direct debit. Legal services debt recovery performance is significantly below target at 6.7%. This relates to nine cases (£3592), it is estimated that nearly half of this will be written off. The new Civil Procedure Rules protocol re debt recovery has slowed the process down for debts involving non-corporate entities (there must now be a 30 day period between sending the pre-action letter and considering issuing proceedings, there are reasons why that period must also be extended, if a debtor asks for further information for instance). Workforce This section incorporates the data previously reported in the Workforce Digest Report. We have been developing our approach to workforce data and analytics over the past 12 months and have created individual service profiles, enabling us to highlight service-specific issues. This section of the report will now provide annual updates on the overall corporate workforce profile (distribution, age, gender); we recently reported these in the year-end report. The annual monitoring helps to inform our workforce planning. For new councillors, the majority of our workforce is distributed within frontline services:
More detailed workforce planning is taking place with Park & Environmental, Housing & Property and Finance. This includes workforce profiling, assessing future needs, apprentices, skills and competencies, recruitment & retention, employee engagement, learning & development, performance management and leadership & development.
In addition to the annual corporate workforce monitoring, we will include the relevant quarterly updates on sickness absence and organisational development interventions in these reports. We have 1 Apprentice (meeting the Levy Criteria) at the start of the new financial year. and have five expressions of interest due to commence by the end of Quarter Two. The annual target is 26 apprentices and we had 25 apprentices at the end of 2017/2018. We have adjusted our reporting of sickness absence. Previously we reported against the former Best Value Performance Indicator (BV12) which forecasted the annual sickness data by multiplying the monthly sickness absence by 12. Feedback from managers highlighted that they would prefer to receive updates on actual rather than forecasted sickness absence. This is the first time we have reported sickness in this format at a corporate level. Sickness absence was an average of 1.91 days at Quarter One. This Quarter, long-term and short term absence were evenly split. Sickness levels were highest in Parks & Environmental at an average of 3.58 days lost and lowest in Organisational Development & Improvement with an average of 0.75 days lost to sickness absence. The highest proportion of days lost to sickness absence is due to musculo-skeletal reasons, followed by stress/depression. HR have indicated that the majority of stress-related absence is non-work related:
We have continued to proactively help employees to cope with stress and depression; running health and wellbeing events, providing specialised training and referrals to Insight. We have started an additional 17 coaching and mentoring relationships (8 of these on the Yorkshire Accord Scheme) which provide a variety of professional and personal development support for staff. 86% of employees had both had an appraisal and had this reported on Trent; below the 90% target. This is mainly due to the shortage of staff within the service (due to staff turnover and training need), if Parks & Environmental were excluded, the final appraisal percentage would be 97%. The outstanding appraisals are all from waste services (the parks/bereavement side have all been completed). It has been agreed with HR that Parks & Environmental will complete appraisals over a 12 month period rather than all being done in the 3 months after Christmas.
6.15
Customer The majority of customer contacts remain via the telephone:
During Quarter One, customers mainly used our online web forms for payments; finding a planning application, bins, recycling & waste, election results and voting and elections. Although customer satisfaction for the desktop version of the website increased from 59% to 66%, satisfaction with the mobile version of the website has decreased in comparison with the previous quarter; from 75% to 64%. Website availability has averaged at 99.99% throughout the quarter and continues to be AA compliant and we have reached the Better Connected four star rating. The number of informal complaints significantly increased in comparison to the previous quarter (a percentage variance of 125%) from 162 to 364. 40% of these were not actioned within the specified timescale for each stage (we have a corporate target of dealing with 100% of complaints within the agreed timescale). The majority of these were within the Parks and Environmental Service and related to missed green garden bin collections. Likewise, we missed our 100% target on the percentage of stage 1 and stage 2 complaint response times; with 58% of stage one complaints responded to within 10 working days and 71% of stage 2 complaints responded to within 25 working days. Performance on both of these indicators has decreased in comparison to the previous quarter, with both of the Stage 2 complaints within the Parks and Environmental Services breaching the response time. The service has worked with Customer Services to put measures in place to improve performance in this area by ensuring timely availability of supporting information to address these complaints, as well as reviewing service delivery mechanism to address concerns. We also ask customers to rate out satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5 stars (with 5 being the best) and our average levels of satisfaction fell slightly from 3.1 stars to 2.9 stars. It should be noted that the target is being met on website and web forms, the general feedback which only received 34 responses has negatively influenced the figures. As well as being able to identify areas for improvement, the customer feedback questionnaire also requests information on what we have done well; individual officers mentioned by customers are congratulated on their performance at Management Board and via the corporate stars recognition scheme. Processing times for new and changes to Council Tax Reduction (CTR) claims remain below target as does the processing times for new Housing Benefit Claims; we did meet the target on changes to Housing Benefit Claims. Performance has been impacted by Universal Credit applications taking a number of weeks to process; there is a knock on effect with the information then being passed onto us to process the CTR claim as well as other DWP changes such as the roll out of the Right Benefit Initiative. We continue to work closely with the DWP to resolve ongoing issues. Quarter One is also a busy quarter with end of year notifications and significant volume of rent changes. The work tray has reduced substantially and the next quarter is likely to be an improvement on performance:
Governance We regularly monitor the number of FOI and data breaches (no targets are set against these indicators). The number of FOI requests increased from 258 to 274 between Quarter Four, 2017/2018 and Quarter One, 2018/2019. The percentage of these that go to appeal/review remains low at 1.1%. There were 20 data security breaches during Quarter One. We proactively encourage staff to report any data breach; an increase in numbers does not necessarily reflect a decrease in performance and reflects the work carried out to promote the importance of reporting data breaches. One (5.0%) was referred to the ICO; the outcome being it was a third party data breach, not the council:
Management Board are asked to consider the risk of not achieving the Delivery Plan Supporting Projects highlighted in Appendix I and flagged as areas of concern in section 5 of this report. It is recommended that the risk assessments are undertaken for the ‘high risk areas to update the Strategic Risk Register as required, particularly the Strategic risk of ‘financial instability’. Management Board were aware of these risks prior to the meeting and the Heads of Service for the ‘high risks’ will be in attendance to discuss these areas in detail: High risk:
Promote the Harrogate Convention Centre as widely as possible to attract new events to the district and grow its income to support our local economy.
Deal with the problems associated with traffic congestion and poor air quality in the district.
Encourage more of us to re-use or recycle the household waste we produce and reduce our reliance on single use plastics.
Review the sport and leisure services we provide.
Reduce the number of families living in temporary accommodation by helping them find a permanent home.
Management Board are asked to consider the Corporate Health performance reported within this report. Overall, performance is on track. We are not hitting our quarterly targets on council tax and NDR collection levels but the service is forecasting the annual target will be met. Management Board should pay attention to:
Debt collection levels
Complaint response times
Processing times for benefit claims This report is focussed on the Delivery of the priorities within our Corporate Delivery Plan. However, in addition to this, there has also been a number of other achievements that contribute to our corporate priorities, including:
A strong local economy Secured £ 203,354 of grant funding to support local
businesses
A sustainable environment Successfully prosecuted an illegal fly-tipper: A Harrogate man who illegally dumped tonnes of rubbish across the district was sentenced to a 12 month community order and told to pay more than £6,000 in costs.
Supporting our communities THE LOCAL LOTTO launch sign up events were
held in with ticket sales ready to launch in July. The Local Lotto is a fundraising platform for local voluntary and community sector groups across the Harrogate district which also enables players to support the good causes they care about the most.
Excellent public services Hosted our first recruitment days; more than a
hundred people attended the event where representatives from a number of service areas were on hand to answer questions relating to the jobs on offer and we successfully recruited into 6 posts on the day.
8.0 MANAGEMENT BOARD COMMENTS 8.1 Management received the report and noted the positive performance; congratulating staff
on the work undertaken during Quarter One. The following table summarises the Management Board discussion:
Promote the Harrogate Convention Centre as widely as possible to attract new events to the district and grow its income to support our local economy.
HCC lettings performance was discussed in detail during the ‘focus on service performance’ section of the meeting and agreed that:
2018/2019 short-term strategy had to focus on revenue savings and short-term lead in business.
2019/2020 – Medium Term Financial Strategy and budget preparation would include a greater emphases on HCC to ensure that the budget setting is achievable
HR/Organisational Development support will be provided to drive performance management of the sales team
Lettings performance is wider than the sales team and that resources should be prioritised to the establishment of a convention bureau
HCC financial performance will be monitored on a monthly basis as part of the Management Board Finance/Performance Exception Reports and HCC will attend the Quarter Two Management Board Finance/Performance Meeting to check progress
Review our parks and environmental services team.
The Operational Review was discussed in detail during the ‘focus on service performance’ section of the meeting and agreed that:
Although there would be some delays in realising the budget savings on two of the three Operational Review projects that were off target, the service had made other efficiencies/increases to income that would offset this. Profit and loss accounts for Trade Waste and Green Garden Waste were positive and the service has greatly reduced its agency spend
The risk to realising other savings on the Green Garden Waste Review (reduction in vehicles) would be reviewed alongside other compensating efficiencies that the service is currently investigating
The service required further corporate support for recruitment and apprenticeships
Further monitoring will remain on a monthly exception basis
Medium risk:
Deal with the problems associated with traffic congestion and poor air quality in the district.
Management Board noted the number of AQMAs within the district and are satisfied with the work ongoing to support this via the multi-agency Air Quality Management Action Plan. Monitoring will remain on an exception basis.
Encourage more of us to re-use or recycle the household waste we produce and reduce our reliance on single use plastics.
Recycling performance was discussed in detail during the ‘focus on service performance’ section of the meeting and agreed that:
Although recycling performance is below the national average, the contamination levels are extremely low.
The Government have announced that they are publishing a White Paper on recycling in the autumn and that we will wait until the publication of this until any further work is carried out
Management Board noted the financial implications of the six month delay to the review but agreed that it needed to be aligned to the work on the sport and leisure built facilities review of the Local Plan. The service has put forward a number of other compensating savings and these will be reviewed in detail at the Management Team Efficiency Plan Review Workshop on 25th July 2018. The Quarter Two Management Board Finance/Performance Meeting will review progress in further detail.
Reduce the number of families living in temporary accommodation by helping them find a permanent home.
Management Board noted the budgetary pressures against this priority. Work is being carried out within the Housing Service to minimise the impact of the changes brought from the Homelessness Reduction Act, the purpose-built temporary accommodation and a process review of the void process. Management Board will review performance in more detail at the Quarter Two Management Board Finance/Performance Meeting if no changes have materialised from the service actions.
9.0
REQUIRED ASSESSMENTS AND IMPLICATIONS
9.1 9.2
The following were considered: Financial Implications; Human Resources Implications; Legal Implications; ICT Implications; Strategic Property/Asset Management Considerations; Risk Assessment; Equality and Diversity (the Public Sector Equality Duty and impact upon people with protected characteristics). If applicable, the outcomes of any consultations, assessments, considerations and implications considered necessary during preparation of this report are detailed below. Risk Statement Management Board is asked to consider the risk of not-delivering the Delivery Plan measures as set out in this report and determine the implications (particularly in relation to the delivery of the Efficiency Plan). Management Board can also consider the interventions in place to mitigate against these risks and confirm if these are adequate. It is recommended that risk assessments of the two ‘high risk’ areas are undertaken.
Background Papers – Corporate Plan dashboard and Corporate Health dashboard; Appendix I – Corporate Delivery Plan Appendix II – Corporate Health OFFICER CONTACT: Please contact Rachel Glynn, Principal Policy and Performance Officer, if you require any further information on the contents of this report. The officer can be contacted at Crescent Gardens, PO Bo 787, Harrogate, HG1 9RW or the relevant office address) ext. 58111 or by e-mail – [email protected]
