Agenda item

To consider the attached report.

The quarter 4 performance figures for the Corporate Plan 2019-20 was introduced by L Wade, Service Manager (People and Performance). The Corporate Plan Action Plan provided a mechanism for reporting to Members on the Council’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and key programmes of work and highlighted the Councils overall performance against agreed Corporate Objectives.

She asked that the Committee acknowledges the impact that Covid has had on the corporate objectives. The council had moved on since this report and part of the planning cycle looked to establish the corporate priorities for 2020/21 by this point, but with the focus being on Covid response and recovery this had not been the case. What had been completed was a summary update for each of the areas and that is as part of the supplementary paper published for the agenda. This provided an overview of the capacity for each of the service areas. We will be reviewing the corporate programmes and the service objectives; but most importantly the Covid recovery activities and the financial impacts and the prioritisation around these and taking into account the capacity of resources available and the funding needed to deliver these. We will also be looking at the KPIs to see if they needed to be refreshed.

Councillor Bassett commented that the maths on the report did not seem to add up, such as the target on page 49 of the agenda ‘safeguarding and supporting people in vulnerable situations’  the target keeps going up but the actual suddenly drops in Q4 and also on page 51 when the Q1 figures were higher than the target. There seemed to be inconsistencies throughout on how things were reported. L Wade said that she would investigate this.

Councillor Neville noted that some of the swimming attendances in Ongar and Loughton, figures were below target but still marked as green. L Wade replied that it was probably related to the fall in direct debits. Councillor Neville went on to ask about (page 43) how many calls completed positively after feedback, figures only for one quarter but no other quarters. He would like to know how many people called us and how many people then completed the survey and how many were positive. L Wade noted that they would be refreshing the KPIs and would include this for next year.

Councillor Dorrell noted that the recycling targets had dropped due to a change in the recording system. Any details on what this was about and were we planning to change the target because of this. He was told that the officers involved in this would be asked to provide a response for the minutes.

Councillor Bassett commented that there had been comments made that we did not pick up green waste at certain times of the year. He was told that a report was being produced at present on this. Councillor Neville noted that the Waste Task and Finish Panel report would be going to the next O&S Committee.

Following the meeting L Wade supplied the following comments to answer some the questions raised:

Page 49 – KPI – Households accepted as being unintentionally homeless - Q4 actual number should read 91 as cumulative number rather than the quarterly number.

Page 50 – RAG status for casual swimmers in Q3 and Q4 should be red due to it not meeting the target in Loughton and Ongar.

Page 51 – Cultural activity attendance – Albeit reported in 2019, it has been noted that the Q1 figure in the comments was incorrect and was a different number than the table.

Page 51 – Cultural activity attendance - It was also noted that the Q1 attendance was unusually high and that the target was not adjusted in  line with this.  The reason being a “Man on the Moon” exhibition was held during this period and contributed towards the high number of attendees.  As this was unusual and the planned exhibitions for the year were not seen to have attracted the same numbers the future targets did not include this.

Page 53 – Increase in recycling KPI - Cllr Dorrell asked what the system reference was in the recycling figures:

There was no directly understood impact of this.  The reference to the adjustment on the system was an update as opposed to an impact on the number.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee reviewed and commented on the Q4 performance in relation to the Key Performance Indicators and work programmes within the Corporate Plan.