Agenda item

Head of People and Business Change Overview

 

The Head of People and Business Change advised the Committee that the information presented in the report related to the second quarter of this year and was being reported to this Scrutiny Committee before being reported to the Cabinet, to enable the Committee’s comments to be provided to Cabinet to consider together with the Performance Update, in accordance with the revised process.

 

Finance (Corporate)

 

Invitees;

·         Head of Finance

 

The Head of Finance clarified that the measure; CFH/006 - Payment of Invoices within timescales %, was Amber not due to performance, but to ongoing problems with the electronic payments process. However, raining on the electronic system and on-going dialogue with service areas was continuing, to ensure all invoices were paid promptly

 

Conclusion

The Committee noted the Finance performance measures within Appendix 2 and acknowledged the explanation of the Amber performance measure and would continue monitoring progress via Performance Updates.

 

People and Business Change (Corporate)

 

Invitees;

 

·         Head of People and Business Change

·         Cabinet Member for Communities and Resources

 

The Head of People and Business Change advised that a new measure for the service area; PBC/062 %ICT Helpdesk calls resolved at first point of contact; was Red and that the performance of 54.20% against the target of 85% was due to new software implementation requiring staff training upon the new operating system and the direction of travel for the measure is upwards, performance is improving.

 

Members questioned the low level of ICT Customer Satisfaction % reported at 68%, with a target of 85% for measure PBC/061. - It was explained that 68% of customers surveyed were completely satisfied, with a further 25% partially satisfied. This leaves a remaining 7%, 3% of which stated they were completely dissatisfied with the service they received. The Head of Service clarified that the Amber measure: SLT/010 - Performance above target % Green, related to the number of Green measures across the organisation, which was 2% from achieving the target and work was ongoing with other services areas to improve this measure.

 

Members enquired about the performance of measure: C&I/L/005 – FOI Responses in time, which was reported as Amber and was 0.96% under target. -  It was explained that the number of Freedom of Information (FOI) enquires had increased dramatically over the last year with the Council receiving 1500 FOI enquires last year. The Cabinet Member advised that consideration was being given to increasing information published online, so in the future the Public can just be signposted to the information.

 

Conclusion

 

The Committee noted the People and Business Change performance measures within Appendix 3 and acknowledged the explanation of the Red and Amber performance measures and would continue monitoring progress via Performance Updates.

 

 

Streetscene and City Services (Place)

 

Invitees;

·         Head for Streetscene and City Services

·         Cabinet Member for Streetscene

·         Cabinet Member for Communities and Resources

 

The Head of Service and Cabinet Member for Streetscene advised that the Amber performance measure: STR/L/018 - % of municipal waste recycled at the Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) was the only measure for the Service Area which was not Green.  It was explained that the City needed an additional HWRC site and this would increase recycling rates and contribute towards meeting this target and that the direction of travel demonstrated that this had improved. With regard to the other measures, in summary, it was clarified that the street cleaning and fly tipping measures were performing well as was the Number of Visits to City Parks measure, however, this might change colour as the Officers review the way the visitor numbers were collected.

 

Members acknowledged that most of their questions had already been answered during Improvement Plan Update for Objective 7 during the previous agenda item.

 

Conclusion

 

The Committee noted the Street Scene & City Services performance measures within Appendix 6 and acknowledged the explanation of the Amber performance measure and would continue monitoring progress via Performance Updates.

 

 

Regeneration, Investment and Housing (Place)

 

Invitees;

·         Head of Regeneration, Investment and Housing

·         Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Housing

·         Cabinet Member for Communities and Resources

 

The Head of Service provided an overview of the service area’s performance focusing on the Red measures. He explained that for the Red measure RIH/L/060 - Number of renewable energy projects granted planning permission, this is the first year this has been a measure and does not fairly represent the how the council is doing with regards to renewable projects in Newport. The measure would be changed for next year to something more representative and appropriate. Members discussed whether the WG could do more to support renewable projects across Wales.

 

Members were advised that the second Red measure: RIH/L/055 - Number of new business start-ups, had been explained in the previous Agenda Item on Improvement Plan Objective 4.

 

It was explained that the third Red measure: RIH/L/049 - Number of 16-17 year olds progressing from WBLA to further opportunity,  started in September in line with the academic year, so as the  year progresses, will demonstrate  improvement and should be Green by the end of the year.

 

Members were advised that the next Red measure: PSR/006 - Average days non-DFG minor adaptations, is a subset of PAM 015 which was  Green and this measure will be removed from reporting because it is irrelevant.

 

It was advised that the Red measure: PAM/019 - % of planning appeals dismissed was outside Council control and s and could vary, ways this could be challenged to improve the measure for the future were being examined.

 

It was explained that the Red measure: PAM/013 - % of Empty private properties brought back into use,  was due to it being the responsibility of just one member of staff in the Council, and the role being very labour intensive for one person. Officers were looking at best practice across Wales to look for suitable ways to improve performance. It was also explained that dependent upon which data set the Officers used, resulted in a different percentage. There had also been changes to the WG funding.

 

Following on from discussions about the range of the performance measures considered in this meeting including for renewables, empty properties and NEETs, a Member suggested an idea of a project using NEET young people together with Housing Charities to bring the empty properties back into use, thereby providing a domino effect of training, education and employment opportunities for the young people while also increasing the number of housing options available.

 

Conclusion

 

The Committee noted the Regeneration Investment and Housing performance measures within Appendix 7 and acknowledged the explanation of the Red performance measures and would continue monitoring progress via Performance Updates.

 

Law and Regeneration (Place)

 

Invitees;

·         Head of Law and Regulation

·         Cabinet Member for Licensing and Regulation

 

The Cabinet Member explained that the single Red measure in the service area: LR/L/002 -Number of littering and dog fouling offences dealt with through enforcement action, ,  was a new target this year so there was  no comparative data from previous years. The number of Fixed Penalty Notices issued was significantly below target, while the number of resolved complaints was high, which means that overall the Council was performing in this area. The target needed to be reviewed as it was not reflective of the work done by the Council. Members asked why the service area included this measure if it was difficult to control and enforce. The Officer advised that it was included as a measure, as the issue was important to the Public.

 

Members were advised that the Amber measure PAM/023 - % Food establishments broadly compliant with food hygiene standards,   had improved from 84% in the past and the Council was in the second quartile in Wales. However, to achieve this target would be difficult due to the high number of food establishments in the city and turnover of operators. The other Amber measure: LS/L/008 – Legal Searches in 5 days, cumulative over the year and due to a problem with the IT system in May the performance dropped to 70%. Since October the service area had achieved 100%.

 

Conclusion

 

The Committee noted the Law and Regulation performance measures within Appendix 5 and acknowledged the explanation of the Red and Amber performance measures and would continue monitoring progress via Performance Updates.