Agenda item

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

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

The Business Intelligence and Change Manager introduced the report which provided an overview of how the Council was performing against its key performance indicators. Full details were provided at Appendix A.

The Business Intelligence and Change Manager outlined the following key points of the report:

·       Improvements in performance had been seen since Q2 but further progress was required in the following areas which were below target:

Members considered the report and made the following comments:

• Members referred to the Council’s performance metrics and considered the 22 per cent performance stated as ‘below’ or ‘slightly below’ target, to be poor. Nonetheless, members noted the Customer Contact Service performance and stated confidence in the Head of Customer Contact who had continued to lead on improvements. Concern was raised in respect of the increased demand on the Customer Contact Centre which indicated a gap in outgoing communications from services to residents. The reasons for the increase in Customer Contact Service demand needed to be understood and addressed.
  • The Business Intelligence and Change Manager stated that:
    • the new telephony system would provide metrics relating to ‘avoidable contacts’, ‘first time fixes’ and ‘breakdown on contact type’ and therefore greater context would be available;
    • it was anticipated that the stated data would come forward for Q1 2023/24; and
    • services were working with the Customer Contact Centre regarding anticipated increased demand.

• Members were concerned about the reduction in performance in respect of the processing of housing benefit claims and asked for the reasons behind this. It was important that claims were processed quickly.

• Members referred to the FOI performance and asked for examples of the questions posed.
  • The Business Intelligence and Change Manager responded that a summary of FOI requests would be compiled and circulated to the Panel after the meeting.

• Members referred to point 3 of the report regarding 2 per cent of missing data and asked which service(s) this related to.
  • the Business Intelligence and Change Manager confirmed that the missing data related to a single performance indicator, and this was in respect of waste data requested from Lincolnshire County Council. It was expected that the data would come forward for Q4.

• Members referred to the Homelessness performance and asked for details of the number of homelessness in the district and whether all those who were homeless wished to be housed.
  • the Homelessness Reduction Manager responded that SHDC was aware of one person, at the date of the current meeting, who had chosen to remain homeless;
  • legislation set out ‘priority need’, where provision of council housing was obligatory, such as in cases of domestic abuse; and that of ‘non-priority need’, where support was given;
  • the cost-of-living crisis had impacted demand on the service; and
  • processes within the homelessness service were being reviewed to ensure that the team worked as efficiently as possible.

• Members requested to be advised of the number of homeless people who were being funded by SHDC to live in bed and breakfast accommodation.
  • the Homelessness Reduction Manager stated that the number had recently reduced to 50;
  • homelessness data fluctuated on a daily basis but further work to reduce the number was ongoing; and
  • homeless families were prioritised for SHDC’s temporary accommodation stock.

• Members requested that performance of the previous quarter be included within each Performance Report so that direct comparisons could be made.
  • The Business Intelligence and Change Manager confirmed that this would be implemented for future reports.

AGREED:

That following consideration by the Performance Monitoring Panel, the Q3 2022/23 Performance Report be noted.