Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors G Howman, J Moriarty, A Morrison and T Wing-Pentelow..

To approve the minutes from the previous meeting.

The Minutes of the Corporate Performance Panel held on 21 May 2018 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on any item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chairman proposed to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chairman of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard before the meeting commences.  Any Member attending the meeting under Standing Order 34 will only be permitted to speak on those items which have been previously notified to the Chairman.

There were no Members present under Standing Order 34.

There was no Chairman’s correspondence.

Presentation from B Brandford

The Panel received a presented from the Waste and Recycling Manager (a copy of which is attached to the Minutes).

The Waste and Recycling Manager and Portfolio Holder - Environment responded to questions relating to:

·         Net revenue income (£1m per annum) generated from the Garden Brown Bin service.

·         Recycling Centres – change in service of which items can be deposited/not deposited.

·         Impact of fly tipping and robust monitoring arrangements in place to identify any trends.

·         Income generated from Bulky Items collection service.

·         Recycling of paper.

The Chairman, Councillor Humphrey thanked the Waste and Recycling Manager for his informative and useful presentation.

Presentation by H Howell, Assistant Director

The Panel received a presentation (copy attached) from the Assistant Director – Central and Community Services.

The Assistant Director responded to questions relating to:

·         Staff based at King’s Court who worked at Downham Market/Hunstanton on a rota basis.

·         Role of Visiting Officer.

·         Importance of the telephone service to be available to those customers who were unable to access the Council’s services on-line.

·         Facility for customers to post or scan documents.

In response to questions and comments from Councillor J Collop, the Leader, Councillor Long outlined the reasons why the decision had been taken to close the two area offices and added that other rural areas did not have an area office and therefore accessed the Council’s services either by telephone, the internet or an appointment at the King’s Court offices.  The importance of providing a uniform service across the Borough was highlighted.

The Chairman, Councillor Humphrey thanked the Assistant Director for attending and providing the Panel with an update.

In presenting the report, the Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager explained that the Corporate Business Plan monitoring report had been developed to demonstrate progress against the Council’s Corporate Business Plan.  It was noted that the report contained information on the progress made on the key actions up to the end of Quarter 4 2017/18.

The Panel was informed that there were currently 42 agreed actions being undertaken to progress the Council’s Corporate Business Plan.  The 2017/18 Q4 monitoring report indicated that 35 of the actions are progressing well, 7 new key actions had been added and 3 actions had been completed.

Members were advised that 27 actions had been completed from Q4 2015/16 to Q4 2017/18.

In response to questions on Priority 1:  Progress towards £3.1m savings required by 2015-2020 identified in the Financial Plan for 2015-2010, the Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager explained that the target was cumulative and that the target was long term until 2020.  The savings identified in the Financial Plan for the period 2015 to 2020 were banked on an annual basis.

Following questions on Priority 4:  Footfall in King’s Lynn Town Centre compared to the same quarter in the previous year, the, Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager outlined the combination of factors which had led to a decrease in footfall in King’s Lynn during the period January to March 2018.

In response to questions relating to Grounds Maintenance and maintaining sustainable levels of service delivery that meets the needs of the community, the Chief Executive outlined the issues being experienced with the recruitment of temporary seasonal contracts and the steps being taken to make a number of posts permanent in order to retain employees.  The Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager explained that the Borough Council was working with the Department of Work and Pensions to develop a scheme to encourage younger age groups to apply for grounds maintenance posts when vacancies were advertised.

The Leader, Chief Executive and Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager responded to questions relating to the Growth in Business Rates target which was reported on an annual basis.

Following questions from Councillor J Collop on the improvements to the train services for King’s Lynn to Cambridge, the Leader provided an overview of the improvements driven by the Borough Council had undertaken to improve services and frequency of trains to and from King’s Lynn.

In response to a question from Councillor Tilbrook on the Cost Reduction Programme, the Chief Executive agreed that Members could view the plan.

Councillor J Collop commented on the number of vacant retail units in the Town Centre and whether the Council would try to establish a lesser rent to encourage potential new businesses to trial their service/produce to ensure that the town centre remained vibrant.  In response, the Leader advised that other town centres across the country had a number of empty retail units and gave examples of recent visits he had made to Cambridge and Coventry.  The Leader explained that the units in the ownership of  ...  view the full minutes text for item CP23

The Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager presented the above corporate performance monitoring report which was in place to monitor progress against agreed performance indicators for the year.  The report contained information on the corporate performance monitoring undertaken during 2017/18.

Members were reminded that Performance Indicators for 2017/18 had been agreed by Portfolio Holders and Executive Directors as the key performance measures for the year which covered all Directorates.  It was explained that the monitoring report highlighted specific performance issues; where indicators had not met agreed targets they were drawn out into an Action Report, which provided additional detail on what actions were being taken to correct performance that had a variance to target.

The Panel was advised that the 2017/18 monitoring report showed that 49% of targets had been met, and performance had improved against target for 16 indicators.  It was noted that the percentage of indicators where performance had improved against the target for 2017/2018 remained similar to 2016/2017.

The Panel was invited to ask questions, a summary of which is set out below.

In response to questions on Corporate Projects and Assets and the target not being met, the Performance, Policy and Personnel Manager explained that the reasons were detailed in the Action Report.

Following questions on the 7 targets which had not been met in the Central and Community Services Directorate, the Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager explained that there were a wide range of services which were provided in this Directorate and added that the actions referenced with CC set out the details of why those targets had not been met.

The Chairman, Councillor Humphrey thanked the Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager for attending and presenting the report.

RESOLVED:  The Panel:

1)         Reviewed the Performance Monitoring Report.

2)         Agreed the actions outlined in the Action Report.

The Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager reminded Members that the Council’s Performance Management Framework included quarterly monitoring and reporting of performance.  Each quarterly performance report was presented to the Corporate Performance Panel.

It was noted that the report provided an overview of the corporate performance monitoring indicators and associated targets which had been set for the 2018/19 year.

Members’ attention was drawn to the key issues section of the report.

The Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager referred to the Addendum to the report which had been published separately and explained that Performance Indicator CC4 – telephone satisfaction rates, will be withdrawn from the 2018/19 indicator set for the following reason:

The CIC previously collected customer satisfaction data once a month, but take up from customers had been low.  The CIC was now looking at new telephony software which incorporated a customer satisfaction module which will automate the process.  Customers will be given the option to take part in the survey before they speak to an advisor, this will result in advisors not being able to decide themselves who to put through to the survey.

Members were reminded that following the Scrutiny Review it was agreed that Panels would consider their own performance indicators and be encouraged to monitor progress in line with corporate objectives through that route.  However, the Panel was reminded that the Corporate Performance Panel would continue to monitor all indicators in order to ensure a corporate overview of performance was maintained.

The Panel was invited to ask questions, a summary of which is set out below.

In response to questions relating generally to the targets set, the Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager explained that the performance targets were discussed and agreed with the Executive Directors and Portfolio Holders based on a realistic assessment of what could be achieved within the resource available.  In response to a question relating to CC1:  Staff turnover, which was felt to be high, the Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager explained that in her opinion, 10% represented a healthy turnover rate.  The Panel was advised that in the past the level of staff turnover had been higher and that the current level set at 10% allowed new skills and expertise to be recruited to the authority.

Following questions relating to CC2:  Average no of working days lost due to sickness absence per FTE employee, the Policy, Performance and Personnel Manager explained that the Council had undertaken a significant amount of work to reduce the level of sickness and provided an overview of the steps that had been taken.  The Panel was informed that a benchmarking exercise was undertaken with other Norfolk Local Authorities and advised that the Borough Council did not have the highest level of sickness per FTE.  The Leader added that there were a number of serious long term illnesses which did therefore affect the figures reported.  It was noted that each case was dealt with on an individual. 

In response to questions relating to C04:  % of rent arrears on  ...  view the full minutes text for item CP25

The Panel received and noted the Forward Decision List.

To note the Committee’s Work Programme for 2018/2019..

The Chairman invited Members to forward any items for inclusion on the Panel Work Programme.

The Chairman advised that he would forward items to the Democratic Services Officer for consideration at the next sifting meeting.

To note that the date of the next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel  will take place on 10 September 2018 at 6 pm in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, King’s Lynn.

The next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel will be held on Monday 10 September 2018 at 6.00 pm in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Saturday Market Place, King’s Lynn.