Issue - meetings

To provide an update on how the Council is performing for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022 (report of the Assistant Director – Corporate enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director – Corporate, which provided an update on how the Council was performing for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022.

Attention was drawn to the following areas that were not performing well – Customer Contact remained an area with performance below target but the service was seeing improvement, and officers were putting in a lot of effort to improve the situation; Housing Voids turnaround was falling behind for a number of reasons.  All the underperforming areas would be monitored with a view to raising performance

The following points were raised:

·         It was stated that the statistics presented within the report covered the period 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022 and therefore did not provide information on the current situation.  It was requested that a quicker turnaround of performance data for consideration be provided in the future.

·         Members commented that performance relating to customer calls had been underperforming for some time – whilst appreciating that there had been some extenuating circumstances, and that some efforts were being made to turn this around, it would be helpful to have more detailed information on what was being done to improve the situation.

·         The Leader questioned whether an interim report could be provided to the next meeting of the Cabinet, for all those areas that were currently underperforming, detailing their past position, what the current position was and where they expected to be in relation to performance in the future.  Some commentary should also be provided on any issues there had been.  He also stated that Portfolio Holders for the underperforming areas should monitor and be responsible for performance.

·         The Chairman of the Performance Monitoring Panel commented that the Panel had also debated the information within the Performance report at its last meeting and had requested that explanations to poor performance needed to come forward, in addition to advising Portfolio Holders of the Panel’s concerns, and an expectation that they be held ultimately responsible for poor performance in their areas, and that they could be requested to attend future Panel meetings to explain issues.

DECISION:

That the contents of the report be noted.

(Other options considered:

·         Do nothing

Reasons for decision:

·         To ensure Council performance is properly scrutinised).

To provide an update on how the Council is performing for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022 (report of the Assistant Director – Corporate enclosed).

·         The Head of Customer Contact (PSPS) will be in attendance to provide the Panel with an update on the performance of the Customer Contact Centre as requested at the meeting of the Performance Monitoring Panel on 9 November 2021.

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director – Corporate which provided an update on how the Council had performed for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022.

The report was introduced by the Senior Change and Performance Business Partner who highlighted the following key points:

Areas of success included:

• a large increase in social media impressions which had been attributed to a highly successful campaign relating to International Women’s Day and had attracted national attention;
• positive food health and safety metrics with only one food business in the district having been graded below 3.

Areas of underperformance included:

• the Customer Contact Centre however improvements had been achieved in call answering rates; and

• housing voids which had increased from 27 in Q3 to 44 in Q4. The Housing team had been carrying a vacant post during this period which had subsequently been filled.

The Head of Customer Contact (PSPS) and members of the Housing team were in attendance to update the Panel on improvements made and to answer members’ questions

The Head of Customer Contact (PSPS) attended to update the Panel on the performance of the Customer Contact Centre. A presentation was delivered which included the following key points:

·         Strategic issues:

o   a 30.43% increase in demand had been experienced as a result of several factors including a significant increase in call times with a focus on providing a fuller service; and the Customer Contact Centre had received an additional 400 calls per day relating to the £150 energy rebate.

·         Service data:

o   a 4.5% increase in demand due to the pandemic in 2020/21, with a further 16.64% rise in 2021/22 had equated to 3,084 hours of continuous service pressure.

o   direct debits had increased from 66.73% to 68.46% as a result of the longer call times resulting in improved customer service;

·         Steps taken:

o   a critical recovery plan had been implemented in April 2022 to improve average call answering times: the Customer Contact Centre had improved from 160 seconds to 75 seconds, and Revenue and Benefits from 308 seconds to 264 seconds. 

o   Measures taken had resulted in 17 of the 21 Key Performance Indicator targets being achieved, compared to 9 in April 2022.

o   Recruitment had taken place and training was ongoing;

o   the Head of Customer Contact was confident that the current improvements were sustainable and would be maintained.

·         Next steps:

o   the implementation of Transformation projects later in the year included a new Customer Relationship Management system and telephony system;

o   future digital and automation opportunities would be explored whilst ensuring that service quality and capacity was maintained for customers not able or willing to engage digitally.

·         Opportunities:

o   To develop alignment of initiatives, systems and processes where possible within the S&ELCP.

Members considered the presentation and made the following comments:

·         Members stated that they were encouraged by the improvements made since the last update.

·         Members referred to Appendix A and asked for targets to be included within the graphs.

·         Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8