Agenda item

Corporate Performance Update - Quarter Three 2018-19

To present 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).

Minutes:

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 Council is on target to collect more than last year but this will be shown at the end of the year.

 

·         Licensing Shared Service became operational on 01.01.2019, with officers previously employed by Medway Council transferring to the employment of Gravesham Borough Council. At this stage, there are no further shared service or shared working arrangements being explored. As has previously been agreed across the council, shared working arrangements will be explored as and when opportunities arise and as such, this is an area of activity that will be monitored closely moving forward.

 

·         Over recent years, officers have been working to deliver the savings required against each of the activities identified in the 'Bridging the Gap'  Strategy and have made significant progress; approx. £800k is still required in order to meet the full £2.9m required and work is continuing to deliver these initiatives. Over the course of the past two years, however, there have been a number of further changes which have culminated in the need to identify additional savings/income generation initiatives to deliver at least, a further £1 million in order to balance the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan.

 

·         In November 2018, both the Cabinet and the Overview Scrutiny Committee considered a report which set out a number of proposals for the council, in order to address the additional budget gap identified. The proposals set out in the report amounted to a total of £1.3m in budget savings, more than the £1m identified. Members felt that it would be prudent to consider options that deliver more than the identified budget gap at this time, due to the number of potential 'unknowns' in the future of local government financing.

 

·         The Corporate Performance Manager agreed to circulate the suite of 43 Financial Indicators to the Committee and highlighted  the following statistics:

-       74% of the suite of Financial Indicators have improved on the year before.

-       79% of the suite of Financial Indicators are now more efficient than the Kent averages.

-       Total level of expenditure for this authority per head of population:  in 2017/18 GBC was spending £111.47 for every person in the Borough, this positions Gravesham third least in Kent.

 

·         The Corporate Change Manager provided the following figures for the Committee regarding the ‘Bridging the Gap Strategy’:

-       Property Acquisitions Activity (first phase): Target of £400,000 (target has been met, no further work required)

-       Fees and Charges Activity: Target of £270,000 (still a saving of £100,000 to be achieved)

-       Service Review Process: £1.4million identified.

-       Shared Service progression: Target £240,000 (£120,000 achieved, another £120,000 to be identified)

-       Property Acquisitions Activity (second phase): Target of £390,000 (this has been achieved)

-       Budgetary challenge measures: Target of £200,000 (this has been achieved)

 

 

 

 

 

Resolved that the report be noted.

 

Supporting documents: