Agenda item

Report of the Business Intelligence Manager

The scrutiny committee received the report of the Business Intelligence Manager setting out the council’s End of Year 2021/22 key performance indicators (KPIs).

 The Business Intelligence Manager introduced the report. She highlighted some key areas and provided responses to some of the questions that the committee had sent in advance. Further answers to queries would be circulated after the meeting. 

Key highlights included:

·                    There had been good improvement in the Revenues and Benefits indicators following a challenging time for the service. The end to their additional responsibilities as part of the Covid response had provided more capacity.

·                    The percentage of calls answered by the Customer Service Centre (CSC) within timescales was just below target. When the service anticipated surges in demand staff were not able to take annual leave. Additional staffing pressures had also been experienced this year due to a resignation and sickness absence.

·                    The number of households in temporary accommodation remained steady. Details of how the target was determined would be circulated.

·                    It had been agreed to set the waste and recycling targets at more challenging levels. From Q1 22/23 the level of recycling would be set at 48% rising to 50% and 52% in 2023 and 2024 respectively. The targets for levels of residual waste would also be reduced to be more challenging.

·                    The IT helpdesk had seen a dramatic improvement with the Littlefish contract; the target for first time fix was 45% and the result was 96%; the service would be reviewing these figures.

Following the recent approval of the Council Plan, the process to review the KPIs and targets had begun as part of the council’s service planning process. This would include looking at whether the right measures were included and how the data was presented. The committee was invited to send feedback on this.

Members felt that the format of the document was easy to follow and were pleased that performance was good overall. A number of the KPIs had had the same target levels for a number of years and a request was made that these be reviewed and brought back to the committee. Officers confirmed that the Q1 data would include the latest set of targets and where these were continually achieved they would look to increase them. A wider piece of work would be undertaken in relation to performance management including benchmarking with other, similar, councils.

Starting with KPI 7, long wait calls received, it was noted that calls to Revenues and Benefits were not included in the data. The committee asked why this was the case and how their inclusion would change the figures. Officers undertook to circulate that information. It was noted that a balance had to be struck with staffing levels to ensure resilience without the service being overstaffed. The move to online interactions meant that those who did call the CSC often needed more support with complex queries. The committee further suggested that there should be targets for the percentage of queries that were dealt with online to help achieve the right staffing levels. A suggestion was also made to look at call-back technology which would avoid the need for people being on hold.  Officers agreed to consider these suggestions as they reviewed the KPIs and the Customer Experience Strategy.  

Discussing the number of green flags achieved, the committee commended the outstanding work and asked what the limitations were to increasing the number. It was explained that achieving the 17 green flags was a substantial annual task to prepare management plans and delivery of action plans. There were also resource implications to make the applications and to have the support from Veolia for the maintenance standards. While there was no further capacity to increase the number at present, the distribution across borough was good. There were other ongoing projects which had a positive impact on the green spaces including the River Colne programme.

In relation to the numbers of households in temporary accommodation, members suggested that it would be useful to have a measure of how long families with children were spending in such accommodation.  This would be considered in the service planning process. The committee further noted that the housing service had very few targets; officers undertook to provide an explanation for this.

Following a request for an explanation of the process for reviewing KPIs, it was noted that the council plan for 2022-26 had recently been launched. In order to deliver the commitments, each service prepared a service plan to include Business As Usual (BAU) performance targets as well as the delivery of specific projects and how these would be measured. A process of peer challenge and check sessions would take place across services as part of this process, which would include the KPIs for each service. There was also more detailed work to develop a continuous improvement regime which sought to ensure that the monitoring of performance translated into improved performance.

RESOLVED –

1.                  that the key performance indicator results for 2021/22, appended at Appendix A to the report are noted.

2.                  that the committee notes that the KPIs will continue to be reviewed as part of the Business Intelligence Strategy, and that Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be kept up to date with any changes to the KPIs, or the process for collecting, analysing or presenting KPI data.

3.                  that the Customer Experience Strategy be added to the work programme to enable members to feed into that area.

4.                  that further information around how the housing KPIs, particularly for temporary accommodation, be provided.

5.                  that the revised KPIs come back to Overview and Scrutiny Committee.