Agenda item

(Deputy Chief Executive) To consider the attached report (FPM-025-2013/14).

The Director of Finance & ICT presented a report on the Council’s Key Performance Indicators for 2013/14 (Performance) and 2014/15 (Targets).

The Director of Finance & ICT stated that pursuant to the Local Government Act 1999, the Council was required to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which its functions and services were exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. As part of the duty to secure continuous improvement, a range of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) relevant to the Council’s service priorities and key objectives, were adopted each year. Performance against all of the KPIs was reviewed on a quarterly basis, and had previously been a focus of inspection in external assessments and judgements of the overall progress of the authority.

The Director of Finance & ICT advised that a range of thirty-five KPI’s were adopted for 2013/14 in March 2013. A three-monthly progress report in respect of all the KPI’s was reviewed by Management Board, the Finance and Performance Management Scrutiny Panel and service Director’s reviewed KPI’s with the relevant Portfolio Holder on an on-going basis throughout the year.

The position with regard to the achievement of target performance for the KPI’s at the end of the third quarter, 30 June to 31 December 2013, 28 indicators achieved the cumulative third-quarter target, 7 indicators did not achieve the cumulative third-quarter target, although 1 of these KPI’s performed with the agreed tolerance for the indicator. Overall 83% (29) of the indicators were currently anticipated to achieve the cumulative year-end target. The detailed cumulative performance reports for each of the KPI’s were considered by the Finance and Performance Management Scrutiny Panel on 11 March 2014 and they were happy with the targets.

A new KPI would be created regarding the response time of the Switchboard in conjunction with the new telephone system that had been installed. It was felt that the service area not picking up the calls had more to with the responses times and this would be looked into with the management information that could be obtained from the new system. This information would presented at a future meeting of this committee.

RESOLVED:

(1)                    That the Committee noted the nine-month performance for the Key Performance Indicators adopted for 2013/14; and

(2)                    That the proposed Key Performance Indicators and targets for 2014/15 be agreed.

Reasons for Decision:

The KPIs provide an opportunity for the Council to focus attention on how specific areas for improvement would be addressed, and how opportunities would be exploited and better outcomes delivered.

A number of KPIs were used as performance measures for the Council’s key objectives for each year. It was important that relevant performance management processes were in place to review and monitor performance against the key objectives, to ensure their continued achievability and relevance, and to identify proposals for appropriate corrective action in areas of slippage or under performance.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

No other options were appropriate in this respect. Failure to identify challenging performance targets, could mean that opportunities for improvement were lost and might have had negative implications for judgements made about the progress of the Council.