Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Gary Harding and Benjamin Sizer. Cllrs Samir Jassal and Alan Metcalf attended as their substitutes.

The minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 18 September 2024 were signed by the Chair.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Committee was presented with an update against the Performance Management Framework, as introduced within the Council’s Corporate Plan, for Quarter Two 2024-25 (July to September 2024).

The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) advised that the report was for information only and highlighted key areas from the report:-

·        PI 60 – Average processing time for New Housing benefit claims, in quarter two, there had been an improvement in turnaround days from 19.4 to 19 which compared favourably with the Council’s target of 20 days. The latest published performance statistics, at quarter one, saw at a national level the average being 21 days and Kent Districts at 22 days.

·        PI 61 - Average processing time for change of circumstance in Housing Benefit claims, in quarter two, there had been a slight drop however performance remained strong at 3.8 days which compared favourably with the Council’s target of 5 days. The latest published performance statistics, at quarter one, saw at a national and Kent Districts level the average being 8 days.

·        PI 62 -  Average processing time for New Council Tax Reduction scheme (CTRS) claims, in quarter two, there had been an improvement in turnaround days from 26.7 to 24.9 which was outside of the Council’s target of 20. This was due to temporary resourcing issues although those vacancies had since been filled. There was a continuing improvement with the month of October showing an average of 16.7 days. It was envisaged that the target performance of 20 days would be met by year-end.

·        PI 63 -  Average processing time for change of circumstance in CTRS claims, in quarter two, performance remained strong at 2.1 days which was well below the target of 5 days.

Whilst feeding back to Members on the performance of the Benefits Team, the Assistant Director (Corporate Services) provided a brief update on the collection figures for quarter two:-

o   council tax collection rate was at 55.6% which was down by 0.3% on the same period last year. This was due to a continued increase of council taxpayers opting to pay over 12 months as opposed to the standard 10 months. There had been an 18% increase in the number of households who now paid over 12 months instead of 10 months (6,557 in September 2024 compared to 5,573 in September 2023); and

o   business rates were at 59.1% which was down by 0.1% when compared to this time last year. Business rate collection/liability remained volatile.

·        PI 68, % of agreed internal audit actions implemented, this figure tended to fluctuate as it was dependent upon the number of actions that became due. The total number of actions due for implementation by the end of September was 45, 35 of which had been implemented, giving an outturn of 77.8%.

Whilst feeding back to Members on the performance of the Internal Audit & Counter Fraud Team, the Assistant Director (Corporate Services) provided a brief update on the activity of Team as at 30 September. Plan delivery stood at 14% with a further  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

Members of the Performance & Administration Committee was presented with a copy of the annual review that had been conducted in respect of the Information Governance Shared Service with Medway Council.

The Director (Corporate Services) drew Members’ attention to appendix two of the report which provided an overview of the shared service arrangement together with an update against the recommendations identified in the previous year’s review and the recommendations/service improvements for the coming year. The Council was supportive of Shared Service being continued with Medway Council.

The Committee considered the report and sought clarification on the savings generated by the Shared Service. The Director (Corporate Services) advised that the actual cost incurred for providing the service amounted to £77,684. This was significantly lower than the cost that would have been incurred were the service to have been kept inhouse which had been estimated at £89,400 therefore there was an efficiency saving of £11,716.

The Cabinet noted the information contained within the report.

The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) informed the Committee that funding from Central Government had been made available to County Councils and Unitary Authorities in England initially from October 2021 to support those most in need to help with significantly rising living costs. Kent County Council (KCC) was allocated the funding from Central Government and would decide on what monies (if any) would be allocated to the district/borough level.

The Council was currently in phase 6 of the initiative which covered the period October 2024 to March 2025. The Council had for the first 5 phases allocated nearly £1.5m to vulnerable households covering energy payments, food provision, school and winter clothing, furniture and ensuring security of tenure where otherwise households could had become homeless. In the past 10 days, the Council had just signed off its allocation under phase 6 which amounted to £184,130.

These phases had generally been for a 6-month period with the announcement of the next phase being near to the expiry of the previous phase therefore there had and continued to be uncertainty as to whether there would be another phase and what the allocation (if any) would be.

The Council had tried in many instances to allocate monies proactively via the Low-Income Family Tracker (LIFT) system by targeting where need was required. Under phase two (April 2022 to September 2022), there was a strong push to protect pension age households due to the cost-of-living crisis and soaring energy bills. Consequently £254,000 was awarded to those of pension age who were identified as vulnerable and suffering energy poverty.

Under phase four (April 2023 to March 2024), the Council was aware of a number of requests for assistance in clothing children particularly with school and winter clothing. Consequently, £62,000 for school clothing was awarded to 190 households with 391 children where the household was identified as being below the poverty line.

The Council also stepped in at a very late stage to assist KCC under phase five (April 2024 to September 2024) where a major carpet supplier had gone into administration so additional funding was therefore used to provide and fit carpets to identified Gravesham households. The Council’s Local Authority Trading Company Rosherville Repairs & Maintenance carried out the works.

Under the latest phase 6, the intention will be for £184,130 to be allocated as follows:-

·        LIFT (energy support) - £75,430;

·        Hardship Support (via the Housing Team – e.g. Ellenor scheme) - £25,800;

·        Contributions (Foodbank and Citizens Advice) -  £47,900; and

·        Security of Tenure (to reduce homelessness) - £35,000.

The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) advised that, in summary, the Council had so far helped on over 20,000 occasions allocating the following:-

·        £394,000 to households with children;

·        £472,000 to pension age households;

·        £153,000 to households with persons in receipt of disability and carers allowance; and

·        £279,000 to other households (where not identified).

The number of households in relative poverty had decreased from over 3,000 to currently 2,445 households and over 800 children were no longer in poverty.

The Committee thanked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.