Contact your Parish Council

 

 

 

 

Appendix 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHE: Part A – Quarter 4 Performance

 

Key to performance ratings

 

Direction
	Performance has improved
	Performance has been sustained
	Performance has declined
N/A	No previous data to compare

 

RAG Rating
	Target not achieved
	Target slightly missed (within 10%)
	Target met
	Data Only

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Performance Summary

RAG Rating	Green	Amber	Red	N/A[1]	Total
KPIs	11	1	3	9	24
Direction	Up	No Change	Down	N/A	Total
Last Quarter	9	1	7	7	24
Last Year	6	2	8	8	24

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 73.33% of targetable quarterly key performance indicators (KPIs) reportable to the Communities, Housing and Environment Committee achieved their Quarter 4 (Q4) target¹.
• Compared to last quarter (Q3 2020/21), performance for 52.94% of KPIs has improved, 5.88% have sustained, and for 41.18% KPIs has declined¹.
• Compared to the same quarter last year, performance for 37.5% of KPIs have improved, 12.25% have sustained, and for 50% of KPIs performance has declined¹.

 

Safe, Clean & Green

 

Performance Indicator	Q4 2020/21
	Value	Target	Status	Short Trend (Last Quarter)	Long Trend (Last Year)
Percentage of unauthorised encampments on Council owned land removed within 5 working days	100%	100%
The percentage of relevant land and highways that is assessed as having acceptable levels of detritus	N/A	95.00%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Percentage of fly tips with evidential value resulting in enforcement action	100.00%	87.0%
Percentage of fly tips assessed within 2 working days	97.57%	94.00%			N/A
The average weight of fly tipped material collected	209.03kg
Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting	48.76%	52.00%
The percentage of relevant land and highways that is assessed as having acceptable levels of litter	N/A	98.00%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Contamination: Tonnage per month rejected	374.38	287.50			N/A
Actual Spend of Section 106 money (Annual KPI)	£435,291.00			N/A
Maintenance per Hectare Spent on Parks and open Spaces (Annual KPI)	£6020			N/A
Percentage of People using Parks and Open spaces at least once a week (Annual KPI)	N/A			N/A	N/A
Number of Green Flag Parks (Annual KPI)	4	3		N/A

 

Considering the data that Maidstone Borough Council currently has access to, under ‘Safe, Clean & Green’, two KPIs missed their targets in Q4, one by more than 10%. Four KPIs are information-only. Two KPIs are new for 2020/21 and hence it is not possible to compare performance against previous years.

 

When we compare the KPIs to last quarter (Q3 2020/21), three saw an improvement and three declined. Compared to the same quarter last year, three improved, two sustained performance, and two declined.

 

‘The percentage of land and highways with acceptable levels of detritus’ and ‘The percentage of land and highways with acceptable levels of litter’ is only measured three times per year, as per the DEFRA guidance. Data already provided this year covers the three main seasons that would impact the standard of street cleaning, whereby in the winter period of January to March, there is little amount of vegetation growth or leaf fall and a high chance of snow.

 

The ‘Percentage of People using Parks and Open spaces at least once a week’ does not have a figure for 2020/21 because we did not ask this question in our annual residents’ survey this year.

 

The ‘Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting’ KPI missed its Q4 target, achieving 48.76% against a target of 52.00%. The performance throughout the year continues to have been affected by Covid-19 Lockdowns, which has increased the volume, and type, of waste collected from households. In Q4 there was also a period of snow (February), which reduced the garden waster tonnage to zero, and affected the usual collections for around 35,000 households. This impacted the volume of tonnage sent for reuse, recycling and composting.

 

The ‘Contamination: Tonnage per month rejected” KPI also missed its Q4 target, achieving 374.38 tonnes against a target of 287.50 tonnes. Once again, the Waste Management team are partly attributing this to the increase in residents working from home, and in some cases, misusing their recycling bins due to their waste bins filling up quicker. This causes rejections of loads at the sorting facility. The delivery of ‘bin hangers’ to half of the properties in the borough throughout Winter did show a limited improvement in rejections. Therefore, more bin hangers have been ordered to deliver to the remaining half of properties in the borough in early June.

 

At the time of writing last quarter’s report, full data had not been provided for the above KPI, and ‘Contamination: Tonnage per month rejected’, because data was being awaited on from Kent County Council. However, this data is available now:

 

·         ‘Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting’

The final Q3 figure was 48.07%: 15,889.96 tonnes of household waste collected, and 7,637.7 tonnes of it was sent for reuse, recycling or composting. The target was 52.00%, so it was missed within 10%. The KPI is affected by seasonal variations in the waste stream, so a slight reduction was expected due to a reduction in garden waste tonnage over the winter months. This KPI is expected to pick up as garden waste tonnage begins to increase with the seasons changing.

 

·         ‘Contamination: Tonnage per month rejected’

The final Q3 figure was 468.19 tonnes (127.21 in October, 149.54 in November, and 191.44 in December), against target of 287.50 tonnes. The Waste Team stress that contamination continues to be a problem affecting all partners in Mid Kent. After delivery to Allington, Maidstone Borough Council’s loads are bulked together and so it is difficult to track down the crew or area responsible for any contaminations. In addition, during the Autumn, Kent County Council started a more rigorous check at Allington, which has increased the number of rejected loads. The team are awaiting the delivery of more bin hangers, giving residents clear information on how they can improve recycling. The team are aiming to distribute these in June 2021.

 

Other things the team have been working on to help reduce contamination and improve the quality of recycling, includes:

 

Ø  Featured in the borough’s Insight magazine

Ø  Increased social media presence

Ø  Revised bin stickers

Ø  Updated the crew pack

Ø  Crew (refresher) training

 

Homes & Communities

 

Performance Indicator	Q4 2020/21
	Value	Target	Status	Short Trend (Last Quarter)	Long Trend (Last Year)
Percentage spend and allocation of Disabled Facilities Grant Budget (YTD)	110.7%	75.0%
Number of households living in temporary accommodation last night of the month (NI 156 & SDL 009-00)	137
Number of households living in nightly paid temporary accommodation last night of the month	52
Number of households housed through the housing register	210	112.5
Number of households prevented or relieved from becoming homeless	157	112.5
Percentage of successful Prevention Duty outcomes	66.06%	60%
Percentage of successful Relief Duty outcomes	39.34%	60%
Percentage of gas safety certificates in place on all residential properties	100.00%	100.00%			N/A
Percentage of all electrical safety certificates on all residential properties	100.00%	100.00%			N/A
Percentage of high priority fire safety certificates on all residential properties	100.00%	100.00%			N/A
Number of houses of multiple occupation brought to compliance by private rented sector licensing (Bi-annual KPI)	13	15
Number of completed housing assistances (Annual KPI)	342			N/A

                             

Under ‘Homes & Communities’, of the nine KPIs with targets, seven met these and two missed them by more than 10%. Three KPIs are for information-only purposes. Three KPIs are new KPIs for 2020/21, and so previous performance data is unavailable.

 

When we compare the KPIs to the last quarter (Q3 2020/21), six saw an improvement, one sustained its performance, and four declined. Compared to the same quarter last year, three improved, and six declined.

 

The ‘Percentage of successful Relief Duty outcomes’ achieved a figure of 39.34% this quarter compared to a target of 60%. Performance has improved since last quarter (35.29%) but has declined since last year (55.77%). This quarter saw a total of 122 applicants whose relief duty ended, and 48 of these had their duty ended because they had suitable accommodation for at least 6 months. The team highlight that the target set is ambitious, and is higher than national figures reported on the percentage of successful outcomes. The latest published homelessness statistics at national level (Jul-Sep 2020) demonstrate that the percentage of successful relief duty outcomes were 41.7%, with the South East achieving 36.8%. Although this does not allow for seasonal/trend variations, it does give a benchmark to measure performance against.

 

Furthermore, if the Council is unable to relieve homelessness within a 56 day period, applicants who are unintentionally homeless and in priority need proceed to be owed the main housing duty by the authority from day 57. Whilst these applicants are subsequently secured settled accommodation, these outcomes are not recorded as a successful relief of homelessness. In this quarter, 56.9% of applicants whose relief duty ended after day 56 were owed the main housing duty.

 

The ‘Number of houses of multiple occupation brought to compliance by private rented sector licensing’ KPI missed its target of 15 by 2 in the second half of 2020/21. Overall, the annual 2020/21 target has been achieved. Over the last 6 months, proactive visits to houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) for licensing have been affected by access difficulties due to the lockdowns imposed around COVID-19. HMOs continue to be licensed, and some inspection visits being rescheduled to take place in the 2021/22 year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHE: Part B – 2020/2021 End of Year Outturn

 

 

 

 

Safe, Clean & Green

 

Annual Performance of KPIs

 

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Indicator	Q1 2020/21	Q2 2020/21	Q3 2020/21	Q4 2020/21	Annual 2020/21	Annual Target 2020/21	Annual Status	Direction of travel (Last Year)
Percentage of unauthorised encampments on Council owned land removed within 5 working days	100%	100%	0%	100%	83.33%	100%
The percentage of relevant land and highways that is assessed as having acceptable levels of detritus	94.87%	94.54%	95.59%	N/A	94.97%	95.00%
Percentage of fly tips with evidential value resulting in enforcement action	93.1%	93.1%	76.2%	100.0%	90.4%	87.0%
Percentage of fly tips assessed within 2 working days	97.38%	99.31%	84.44%	97.57%	95.3%	94.00%		N/A
The average weight of fly tipped material collected	36.62kg	73.35kg	61.36kg	209.03kg	98.59kg
Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting	52.81%	50.85%	48.07%	48.76%	50.24%	52.00%
The percentage of relevant land and highways that is assessed as having acceptable levels of litter	98.18%	94.16%	97.17%	N/A	96.48%	98.00%
Contamination: Tonnage per month rejected**	314.46	395.43	468.19	374.38	1552.46	1150.0		N/A
Actual Spend of Section 106 money	Annual KPI				£435,291.00
Maintenance per Hectare Spent on Parks and open Spaces	Annual KPI				£6020
Percentage of People using Parks and Open spaces at least once a week	Annual KPI				N/A			N/A
Number of Green Flag Parks	Annual KPI				4	3

 

 

Notes

 

·         Direction of travel for targeted performance indicators shows if performance has improved or declined. For data only performance indicators direction of travel shows if there has been an increase or decrease in volume.

·         As per the DEFRA guidance, the ‘The percentage of land and highways with acceptable levels of litter’ and the ‘The percentage of land and highways with acceptable levels of detritus’ KPIs are measured three times per year, hence the Q4 2020/21 figures are ‘N/A’.

·         The ‘Percentage of People using Parks and Open spaces at least once a week’ does not have a figure for 2020/21 because we did not ask this question in our annual residents’ survey this year.

Summary of 2020/21 year

 

Street Cleansing Manager Comments:

 

During the various lockdown periods of 2020/21, Street Cleansing have identified a number of changes to the public attitude and behaviour with general increases of requests for litter picks and reporting of fly tips. We can only presume that this is due to an increase on the public walking in localised areas and spotting environmental issues. As a result of these additional reports we have needed to increase the resource to deal with reaction requirements.

 

Waste Services Manager Comments:

 

Annual performance has been affected by the continued Covid-19 lockdown, which has increased the volume (and type) of waste collected from households. Every Local Authority has seen a slight dip in recycling performance, caused by an increase in contamination in 20/21. We also were affected by the service disruption in early February 2021, caused by severe weather. During this period, the snow reduced garden waste tonnage to zero for weeks and affected the usual waste/recycling collection regime for about 35,000 households. This dramatically reduced recycling performance for February, which contributed to the dip in the annual result.

 

Additionally, the large increase in homeworking over the year has resulted in residents generating more waste at home. In some cases, the recycling bin has been misused causing more rejections at the sorting facility then previous years. The delivery of information (bin hangers) to half of the properties in the borough during November 2020 did show a limited improvement. Therefore, we will be rolling out the delivery of information to the remainder of the Borough in early June 2021.

 

 

Homes & Communities

 

Annual Performance of KPIs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary of 2020/21 year

 

Head of Housing & Communities Comments:

 

The early stages of the pandemic lockdown affected both the willingness of vulnerable people to have staff visit them at home and our ability to deliver the disabled facilities grant scheme, which requires the involvement of a range of external agencies and contractors. However, as we came out of the more extreme measures associated with the early lockdown and as our Housing & Health Team together with other services adapted to the new environment, more disabled facilities grants were able to be delivered. This is reflected in the final quarter’s spend which increased exponentially compared with the first quarter’s figure. The Housing & Health Team continued to deal with properties reported as being in disrepair or affected by other issues, which resulted in over 340 interventions and 30 houses in multiple occupation being able to be licensed. 

 

A similar pattern emerged with activity around lettings from the Housing Register. This indicator relies on the performance of our housing association colleagues together with our Homechoice Team. During the early stages of the pandemic, most housing partners closed down their operations and vacant properties reduced significantly. Over the year, we worked closely with our partners to ensure that a steady flow of accommodation could be achieved and new build developments could come forward. The strenuous efforts made collectively within the profession enabled more lettings to take place than in the previous financial year. This has proved to be one of the contributory reasons why temporary accommodation (particularly for families) has remained relatively low despite the consistent demand on service as the through flow of families into settled housing could be maintained.

 

Other contributory factors to the relatively low use of temporary accommodation for families has been the successful application of new ways of preventing homelessness delivered through the Housing Advice Team. A range of options have been delivered, including the use of predictive analytics; proactive grants for individual households; and the change in the Allocation Scheme. In addition, the government measures around the moratorium on possession proceedings and evictions from rented accommodation also contributed to the management of numbers having to enter temporary accommodation.

 

Where growth in emergency accommodation did occur was in response to the “Everyone In” campaign sponsored by government, as a result of the pandemic and separately during the harsh weather experienced during the winter months. Due to the achievements of the Outreach Service, the numbers of persons sleeping on the streets remained low but as the impact of the pandemic was felt, more households who have tenuous housing arrangements such as ‘sofa-surfing’ found these options reducing. As a result, we had a steady flow throughout the year in the number of people who were new to the street but they were rapidly assisted before succumbing to the worst aspects of street homelessness. Flexible use was made of the Council’s own temporary accommodation by the Accommodation Team to make best use of the stock in a deft and responsive way. The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government was equally impressed by the combined efforts of the various teams within the Housing Service to assist those accommodated into emergency housing to more settled accommodation in a relatively short space of time.    

 

Throughout the period the Accommodation Team has ensured that the Council’s accommodation is compliant with a range of safety measures, with all of the temporary accommodation compliant. The Team is also tackling a historic compliance issue relating to a small number of properties transferred into the Housing Service earlier in the financial year.