Agenda item

Cabinet received a performance report which detailed the key performance measures reported through the Corporate Performance Framework for 2022/23. Cabinet also received the performance scorecard, which provided information on four key elements of performance for the Council covering Finance, Customer Service, Performance and Human Resources indicators. Within the performance report and performance scorecard, outturns which were performing at or better than target were classified as Green, those which were within 5% of the target were Amber and those which were more than 5% of the target were Red. At the end of Quarter 3, 98 indicators had outturns reported with a Red, Amber or Green status. Of these, 66 are Green (67%), 10 are Amber (10%) and 22 are Red (22%).

RESOLVED –

1) That the Council’s performance for the Quarter 2 period 2022-23 be NOTED.

2) That the actions being taken to improve performance, where required, be NOTED.

Cabinet received a performance report which detailed the key performance measures reported through the Corporate Performance Framework for 2022/23. Cabinet also received the performance scorecard, which provided information on four key elements of performance for the Council covering Finance, Customer Service, Performance and Human Resources indicators. Within the performance report and performance scorecard, outturns which were performing at or better than target were classified as Green, those which were within 5% of the target were Amber and those which were more than 5% of the target were Red. At the end of Quarter 3, 98 indicators had outturns reported with a Red, Amber or Green status. Of these, 66 are Green (67%), 10 are Amber (10%) and 22 are Red (22%).

The following updates were given on red performance indicators:-

Leader

Buckinghamshire unemployment rate as a percentage of National unemployment rate

The Claimant Rate measured the percentage of working age population claiming ‘out-of-work’ benefits from the total working age population.  The target was for the percentage unemployed in Buckinghamshire to be less than 55% of the percentage unemployed nationally – the current value was 73%. Bucks LEP continued to monitor, conduct analysis alongside partners, and develop reports and area profiles to target activity effectively through programmes such as Opportunity Bucks supporting the most deprived wards focusing particularly on central Wycombe, Aylesbury and Chesham, and also to help inform the development of the Local Skills Improvement Plan with Buckinghamshire Business First (BBF) as the employer representative body. It was important to identify reasons behind unemployment such as transport or language which could be causing difficulties.

Cabinet Member for Accessible Housing and Resources

Average webchat response time (target was 50 seconds but the current value was 59). As there was pressure on phone lines resources moved to answer phones. Training and further resource would be organised, including new starters to support the web chat service going forwards. There would be a rollout of webchat across the whole website, currently it was on the contact us page only. The good news was that the target for answering phones was being met and they were well within target.

Average time for processing new Housing Benefit claims (days)

Average time for processing Housing Benefit change claims (days)

These two indicators were impacted by the 11 week closure during the rollout of the new single county wide revenues and benefits system which has been successfully implemented. This was in two phases which impacted Q1 and Q3. Additional resources over and above the planned additional capacity has been brought in to clear the outstanding work back to normal service levels by the end of Q4 2022-23. The Leader referred to pressure on phones due to the problems being experienced with waste collection in South Buckinghamshire for which the Leader and Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment had apologised. This had been largely overcome and the Council were now only dealing with a few complaints. However, this previously had a big impact on the webchat and the customer service centre.

Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment

% of waste collected for recycling, reuse, composting or anaerobic digestion from household sources (household collection and Household Recycling Centres)(target -55%, current value 49.6%)

The dip in performance was due to unseasonably hot weather. There was less green waste as a result and it would be difficult to meet the target because of this by the year end. Food waste recycling promotions were planned for Q4, which would be aimed at increasing the amount of food waste recycled.

% of Missed Bin Collections

This had improved and complaints relating to missed bins were infrequent. 330,000 bins were collected per week in the south; 157,000 in the north of the County (500,000 bins in total). The target was 80 per day to be missed which was small, although it was appreciated that having a bin missed was very frustrating for the householder. There were improvement actions in place.

Cabinet Member for Communities

Number of assets devolved to Town and Parish Councils, and Community Organisations

Q3 performance was one against a target of two and the delay in the devolution of Prestwood Recreation Ground was as a result of complex lease negotiations and the asset was now expected to be devolved by the end of Q4. There were 10 assets that he hoped to be devolved by the end of Q4 but this target may not be achieved. Future projects included the Green Street pilot which was at lease negotiation stage and the Aylesbury Special Expenses, where negotiations were being carried out with the Town Council. There were improvement actions being carried out; projects have a dedicated project group which met regularly to ensure progress and regular meetings were held with the organisations to which the assets were to be devolved. The Devolution Programme progress was being monitored frequently by a dedicated officer group and Members' Board.

Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure

Number of library information enquiries (signposting and referral)

The Leader reported that libraries were being used as Council Access Points where enquiries could be made about Council Services and this was a log of how well they were being used. The Leader commented that libraries perform a very important function and referred to numbers dropping due to the cold weather experienced in December. The Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture reported that a project with customer services was currently underway to review the CAP model and identify improvements to optimise this service.

Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services

Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) Annual Reviews - % of CYP with an EHCP who have had an annual review within the last 12 months

% of re-referrals within 12 months

% of children with Initial Child Protection Conferences completed within 15 working days of the strategy discussion

% of Children in Need seen within 4 weeks

The Cabinet Member reported that there was a common theme running through the red indicators in that the Council was reliant on reports from partners for every assessment made such as schools, GPs, Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub and also were impacted by staff shortages.

Health and Wellbeing

Percentage of all clients attending GUM clinics seen or assessed by a healthcare professional within 48 hours (2 working days) of first contacting the service

The provider was Buckinghamshire Hospital Trust but some patients were refusing appointments which was their choice which could be also linked to the cost of living crisis and taking time off work to travel to the clinics which were in Aylesbury and Wycombe.  The service had re-introduced 6 walk-in clinics per week across two locations (Aylesbury and Wycombe) from mid-September, allowing patients to be seen and assessed without needing to book an appointment. The online booking system was upgraded in November making it easier for patients to book an appointment at a time convenient to them. The service issues letters to patients to show their employers that they have a medical appointment which should help some people to be able to take paid time off work to attend appointments.

% of births that receive a face-to face New Birth Visit within 14 days by a health visitor in the quarter

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing reported that 20 children in the whole of Buckinghamshire had missed an appointment. Only 3 had not received a new birth visit. The resident may have refused the visit or moved away from the County itself. Visits were focused in areas of deprivation and areas of most need.

% of service users due an annual review that receive their review

Team Managers were allocating a larger number of reviews to social workers during Q4, to further increase the number of annual reviews being completed. The short-term project team would continue to complete the 300 reviews overdue from last year (2021/22), with additional resource agreed during Q4. A named social worker would continue to be allocated to service users to oversee their care, which would improve how annual reviews were completed.

Number of older people (65+) admitted to permanent residential or nursing care homes per 100,000 population

The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System (BOB ICS) were in the process of developing a Transfer of Care Hub, which once implemented would help to reduce admissions to care homes from hospital settings.

% of carers who report that they have been included or consulted in discussions about the person that they care for.

Implementation of the ‘Carers Transformation Project’ had commenced as planned and would be delivering a strength-based approach to supporting carers achieve their personal outcomes. Further work engaging Carers on the Carers Passport would take place during Q4 and was seen as a crucial part of the Service.

Cabinet Member for Transport

NHT Public Satisfaction on the condition of road surfaces (HMBI 01).

Six out of eight increased and only two out of eight decreased so there was some improvement.

A communications strategy was being developed and would be included in the new contract model from April 2023 to help improve public satisfaction scores. It was particularly key with the new model and investment into roads to identify any improvement in customer satisfaction.

Highways capital programme % spend against forecast

All works were now programmed for delivery before the end of the financial year.

% Streetlights in light

Resourcing to the end of the contract was being reviewed to identify if further improvements can be made and an additional team was addressing this.  Programmes of work were being pulled together for delivery by the new service provider from April onwards. It was unlikely for this target to be met by the year end.

Average daily cycling count per active cycle counter per day

This was a new KPI this year and in Q2 in the summer months there was a larger number of people cycling which has fallen over the winter months. £400,000 had been awarded to the Council to increase the capabilities of the cycle network which was good news and increasing coverage of cycling counters to increase data coverage would help. In terms of gully cleaning (amber indicator), 13,560 gullies had been cleaned which was 73%, however with a target of 73.5% this showed the difficulty of meeting a hard target.

RESOLVED –

1) That the Council’s performance for the Quarter 2 period 2022-23 be NOTED.

2) That the actions being taken to improve performance, where required, be NOTED.