The minutes of the meeting held on 15 November 2018 were signed by the Chair.

No declarations of interest were made.

The Information Governance Manager & Data Protection Officer provided Members with an overview to the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, its impact on the council and the work undertaken by the authority to ensure appropriate compliance.

Members were asked to review the report and project plan developed with regards to the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulations and provide comments as necessary.

The Information Governance Manager & Data Protection Officer highlighted the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) ‘12 Step Program’ and the actions undertaken by GBC to deliver appropriate compliance, as detailed in Table One to the report:

The Corporate Performance Manager presented Members of the Performance and Administration Committee with an update against the Performance Management Framework, as set out within the council’s Corporate Plan 2015-19, for Quarter Three 2018-19 (October – December 2018).

The Corporate Performance Manager explained that two performance measures have missed their target; PM 11 – Average time taken to process Housing benefit / Council Tax claims (days) and PM12 – Average time taken to process Housing Benefit / Council Tax change of circumstances (days). However; both measures are still performing ahead of the equivalent Kent and County averages.

Officers fielded questions from the Committee and highlighted the following:

·         Page 30: of the 11 outstanding Audit recommendations; 3 have moved on and been adopted:

-       Introduction of KPIs for Legal Services

-       Review of arrangements for the use of petty cash

-       Void property management and re-let;

o   A review of the re-let process to identify efficiencies and improve turnaround times,

o   the introduction of a voids policy, and

o   maintaining of records throughout the re-let process

     The Audit team are currently operating at 90.9% of their recommendations.

·         PM 11 – Average time taken to process Housing benefit / Council Tax claims (days): currently at 20.4 days which is slightly above target. It is worth noting that the figures reflect the cumulative total of both Housing benefit and Council Tax claims.

Detailed statistics for each quarter:

Q1: 23.4 days

Q2: 21.8 days       Year-To-Date (YTD) 22.7

Q3: 14.6 days (way above target)            YTD 20.4

Q4: currently 13.7 days – will bring YTD to 19 days and ahead of the set annual target of 20 days.

Housing Benefit only:

Q1: 22.4 days

Q2: 17.6 days       YTD 20.8

Q3: 14.5 days       YTD 19.4

Q4: currently 12.5 days) – will bring YTD to 18 days.

·         PM 12 - Average time taken to process Housing Benefit / Council Tax change of circumstances (days):

Q1: 7.3 days

Q2: 6 days            YTD 6.7

Q3: 4.3 days         YTD 5.9

Q4: currently 3.2 days  -   will bring YTD to 5.3 days

·         The Assistant Manager (Revenues & Benefits) explained that the new recruits to the team are performing well but an apprentice needs to be recruited on the overpayment side.

·         The Corporate Performance Manager advised that the use of targets and the whole performance framework itself will be reviewed in the near future as part of the development of the council’s new Corporate Plan.

·         PM 9 - Percentage of council tax collected: 84.3%

·         PM 10 - Percentage of NNDR collected: At 84.3% for Q3, the Council is heading towards 99% which would equal a record outturn for the authority.

·         Importantly, the recovery doesn’t stop at the end of the year; the team still try and recover the debt year on year. These statistics can be added to the report for future meetings.

·         PI 42 - Total amount of housing benefit overpayments raised and PI 43 - Total amount of housing benefit overpayments recovered: these figures do tend to go up and down but the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

The Corporate Change Manager presented Members of the Performance & Administration Committee with a draft of the updated Working in Partnership Framework for discussion.

Appendix two to the report sets out the revised Framework (and accompanying appendices) for the council; specific changes that have been made are as follows:

·         Updates to reflect changes in officer titles.

·         Reference to the revised General Data Protection regulations and consideration of these when considering partnership and shared-working arrangements.

·         Inclusion of the principles that have been agreed across North Kent for the development of shared working arrangements.

·         Inclusion within the Partnership Evaluation Form of specific consideration to Safeguarding obligations.

The report will be presented to Cabinet for approval, followed by submission to Full Council for formal adoption into the council’s Policy Framework.

The Corporate Change Manager fielded questions from the Committee and highlighted the following:

·         Legal advice is sought on all shared service matters to ensure the Council is protected.

·         Darren Everden, Service Manager - IT Services, is working with the Kent Connects Partnership to progress IT compatibility across Kent.

IT for the Licensing Shared Service has worked well; Medway transferred to the Idox System.

·         The HR Department are involved in every shared service project. The Council tries to engage staff at an early stage to ensure they are fully aware of the proposals.

The Committee discussed the recent article that had appeared in the local news regarding the shared CCTV service arrangements.

The Chair agreed that this matter should be placed on the agenda at the next meeting of the Committee on 26 March 2019.

Resolved that the report be noted.