Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors S. R. Colella and L. J. Turner.

No declarations of interest were received.

The minutes of the Performance Management Board meeting held on 15th February 2010 were submitted.

RESOLVED subject to the request for a customer satisfaction indicator for DFGs to be included in the Minute No. 76/09, the minutes be approved as a correct record.

The Board were advised by the Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Resources) that the Council was currently looking at the integration of the Financial Plan, efficiencies and transactional measures and explained what Value Form Money (VFM) meant to the Council, residents’ expectations and the need for residents to see that the Council was providing VFM.

The Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Resources) gave background information on the Audit Commission rating system for VFM and advised that the Council was currently rated 2 out of 4, the highest rating being 4 and was hoping to progress to 3 at the next inspection.  Examples were given of other authorities who had received high ratings, including authorities who were also moving towards Shared Services.  The Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Resources) confirmed that this rating was based on information provided for 2008/09 and therefore many of the issues raised had already been addressed.

The Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Resources) gave information on, and Members discussed, the following items which had been raised by the Audit Commission:

• Customer Services and identifying customer priorities
• Managing capital programme
• Improving procurement
• Identifying efficiencies
• Options and identifying these
• Comparisons with other authorities

Members discussed how the Council was not good at publishing success stories and the Director of Policy, Performance and Partnerships agreed that the Council could make better, more positive use of the media.  This could be done by reviewing the current Communications Planner and planning further ahead what the Council was able to communicate to the public and what opportunities the Council had available to promote these.  It was confirmed that this was being considered as part of the Scrutiny Task Group, Improving Residents’ Satisfaction, as a recommendation.

The Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Resources) advised that a trend analysis would be prepared to measure a number of areas per department with red, amber and green indictors to pick up key issues to enable the Council to monitor these.

Members then discussed residents’ negative perception of the Council and how it would be possible to turn this view around.  The Director of Policy, Performance and Partnerships advised that the Council needed to continue the promotion of services through such schemes as the Budget Jury and U Decide and also more positive publicity through the local media about what the Council were doing, either by articles in the press or via “wrap rounds” providing information on specific topics.  The Council had already begun to work towards this by producing the Older Peoples Directory and Members discussed the possibility of using the Council website to reach a wider audience for the Budget Jury.  Members shared the view that this would be a continual process year on year in order to show residents that the Council Tax they paid was well spent and value for money.

The Board considered the Improvement Plan Exception Report for January 2010 and Members noted that the Executive Director (Planning & Regeneration, Housing Services) would attend a meeting on 24th March in respect of the Railway Station’s revised design and costings.  The purchase of the oil depot by Network Rail was also noted.  Members shared their concerns over the potential for street parking and the introduction of a civil parking enforcement scheme.  The Director of Policy, Performance and Partnerships reminded Members that this would be considered at the Overview Board meeting on 30th March 2010.

RESOLVED:

(a)               that the revisions to the Improvement Plan Exception Report together with the corrective action being taken be noted; and

(b)               that it be noted that for the 83 actions highlighted for December within the plan 78.3% of the Improvement Plan is on target (green), 2.4% is one month behind (amber) and 4.8% is over one month behind (red).  14.5% of actions have been reprogrammed or suspended with approval.

The Board considered the report on the Council’s performance as at 31st January 2010.  The Director of Policy, Performance and Partnerships advised that although the percentage of performance indicators that were stable or improving was lower than usual, it was not a cause for concern, and was expected to return to a higher figure next month.

Members discussed the following points:

• The number of domestic burglaries
• Number of attendances at arts events
• Town Centre car park useage
• Number of complaints
• Average speed of answered calls at the Customer Service Centre

The Director of Policy, Performance and Partnerships advised Members that sickness absence had remained at the same low level for the fifth consecutive month, which confirmed excellent progress had been made in this area.

RESOLVED:

(a)               that it be noted that 37% of performance indicators are stable or improving;

(b)               that it be noted that 65% of performance indicators that have a target are meeting their target as at the month end and 85% are projected to meet their target at the year end;

(c)               that the performance figures for January 2010 as set out in Appendix 2 be noted;

(d)               that the particular areas of improvement as summarised in section 3.5 of the report be noted; and

(e)               that the areas of concern as set out in section 3.6 be noted.