Agenda item

The report of the Executive Manager - Transformation and Operations is attached.

The Performance, Reputation and Constitutional Services Manager presented the report of the Executive Manager - Transformation and Operations to provide a summary of the Council’s performance for quarter 3 of 2017/18, with regard to the tasks from the Corporate Strategy 2016-20, and the corporate basket of performance indicators.

The Performance, Reputation and Constitutional Services Manager noted two performance highlights:

·       LIFCS14 Value of income generated as a result of the Investment Strategy being activated – the annual target of £37,100 being achieved with income of £89,300 received up to the end of quarter 3.

·       LINS26 Number of successful homelessness preventions undertaken – there had been 192 achieved (target for quarter 3 was 172) which had helped to prevent residents becoming homeless.

as well as two exceptions:

·       LIFCS15 Value of savings achieved by the Transformation Strategy against the programme in April 2016 – this was largely due to the higher than anticipated NNDR charge for the Arena.

·       LITR35 Percentage of Growth Deal money drawn down and allocated – an application had been made to reallocate the remaining £3.25m and support had been made in principle to progress the making of a business case for allocation to Chapel Lane, Bingham and the Fairham Pastures site.

The Performance, Reputation and Constitutional Services Manager also provided a progress update on the exceptions that had been reported for quarters 1 and 2 including:

·       LITR51 – Corporate Sickness - number of days lost to sickness absence – sickness in quarter 3 had improved, short term sickness was 1.92 days and long term was 3.84 days after the resolution of cases by manual workers at the depot. As a result this indicator was now under target with 5.76 days sickness against a target of 6 days.

Members of the Group welcomed the reduction in the number of working days lost to sickness. Councillor Philips asked whether the figures included days lost to staff being absent due to adverse weather conditions. The Executive Manager - Transformation and Operations advised that due to the Council’s flexible working arrangements that allowed staff to log on to the Council networks and work from home, no working days had been lost during the recent adverse weather.

Councillor Chewings asked about LIFCS4 – Percentage of Community Grant allocation spent to date by Councillors, and asked whether it could be considered that any unspent money could be placed in a central fund that could then be used to support other community projects across the Borough. The Executive Manager advised that this option was not in the scheme currently but that it could potentially be considered by the Member Development Group in the future. Councillor Plant noted that it was important that Community Support Grant money was only spent where there was a specific need, and should not be spent where it was not needed, she also noted that Councillors who were also County Councillors had funding from the County Council to spend in their communities.

Members of the Group asked several specific questions about performance indicators, including Council Tax collection rates and received verbal responses. Councillor Mrs Males asked about the performance indicator on work experience placements and the apparent decline in work experience placements at the Council. The Performance, Reputation and Constitutional Services Manager advised that this was a new performance indicator and that data for this had not yet been recorded for a full year, and that moving forward the figures would improve later in the year when the majority of work experience placements had taken place.

It was RESOLVED that:

a)    the report be noted.

b)    the Member Development Group consider how unspent Community Support Grant money could potentially be used to support community projects across the Borough.