Apologies of absence were received from Cllr Conrad Broadley and Cllr John Knight (Vice-Chair). 

The Chair was advised that Cllr Narinder Singh Thandi was running late but unfortunately did not make it to the meeting.

The Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, 27 March 2018 were signed by the Chair.

No declarations of interest were made.

Further to minute 18 (27.03.2018) the Corporate Performance Manager presented Members with an update against the Performance Management Framework, as set out within the council’s Corporate Plan 2015-19, for Quarter Four 2017-18 covering the period January to March 2018.

The Corporate Performance Manager advised the Committee that it was a standard report that is brought to the Committee every quarter to update them on the performance of the work carried out within the Portfolio. He gave a brief overview of the layout and what the performance measures and performance indicators were as well as what they outlined in the report.

The Portfolio has traditionally been one of the highest achieving and, as a result, has seen a period of increasingly challenging targets being adopted for the services involved. The results of Q4, many of which present year-end outturns, reflect those targets and have been impacted primarily by a number of external factors.

The Chair advised that each policy commitment would be looked at giving officers a chance to update Members further on the work that was involved in calculating the performance results as well as feedback on the relevant departments.

1. Underpin all council activity with sound governance and internal control measures minimising the opportunities for fraud and corruption 

Performance Measure 41: Percentage of internal audit recommendations implemented

The Chair advised that although the percentage of recommendations implemented was the same as quarter three, eight more recommendations were made by the Audit team during the year 2017-18. Without those extra audit recommendations being implemented the overall percentage for quarter four would have been 87%, the same result as for quarter four in 2016-17. The Chair stated that it should also be noted that despite the Audit & Counter Fraud service now being shared with Medway, 91% of their annual audit plan for the 2017-18 year was successfully delivered. 

In addition, the Corporate Performance Manager addressed Member concerns informing them that at the previous Finance & Audit Committee the results of an external audit into the  Audit Service had concluded that the team were compliant with Public Sector Internal Audit Standards. 

2.    Quality frontline services delivered on time and to the right people

Performance Measure 11: Average time taken to process Housing Benefit/Council Tax new claims (days)

The Corporate Performance Manager explained that the target of eighteen days was not hit but it was a very ambitious target, with the service having faced a number of external challenges through the year. Key staff were lost as a result of moving ahead with the shared service knocking the team back, that was coupled with continued high levels of work being received from the DWP. The recruitment process was kick-started but it was difficult to find experienced staff to replace the lost officers. So far two conditional offers have been given but they will need a large degree of training before they become fully able to deal with all aspects of their jobs.

Members commended the level of work undertaken by the team but raised concerns  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

The Chair outlined to the Committee several topics which relate to the Performance & Administration Portfolio and that are likely to see reports presented to the Committee in the future. 

The Chair invited the three officers to give a brief overview of each topic listed below:

• Universal Credit
• General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
• Citizens Access Portal
• Property Acquisitions