Agenda item

Interview with Ellie Kershaw, Policy and Performance Manager

The Chairman welcomed Ellie Kershaw, Policy and Performance Manager to the meeting. The Chairman thanked Miss Kershaw for the recent training session on Policy and Performance which had been arranged to equip and prepare the Committee to deal with this area of their work.

The Officer explained that the Quarter 1 report was provided for information, subsequent reports would include Quarter 2 and Quarter 3 data which would allow a comparison and analysis to be made.  Miss Kershaw informed the Committee that many of the performance indicators were showing as being on course to achieve the targets set but more would be known at Quarter 2.  The Officer assured Members that if targets were not being met Managers would address those areas. 

Miss Kershaw made reference to paragraph 1.5.10 in the report which identified the impact of the current economic climate in relation to performance indicator LVE 002 (number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance) exceeding the annual target. This illustrated the factors that needed to be given consideration when scrutinising the performance report. Miss Kershaw explained that the number of people, particularly females, claiming Job Seekers Allowance had risen compared to the same period last year.  The Economic Development Manager had noted that this was attributed to weakening retail and public sector employment which traditionally had a higher proportion of female workers.  The Officer explained that at present this indicator would slightly miss the annual target and advised Members that it could impact on other areas including benefits and housing. The Committee highlighted performance indicator DCV 003 and the target relating to residential planning applications, observing that as with the target relating to Job Seekers Allowance, this too was an area affected by the recession.

Miss Kershaw referred Members to Appendix A of the report, explaining that the reporting system used was Covalent and the status indicators for targets: red -  target missed, amber - within 10% of the target, green - hits target, unknown - new targets so nothing to measure against from the previous year and data only for contextual information. 

The Committee asked a series of questions regarding the performance figures for KPI R&B 077 and partnership working.  Members discussed the target set and whether a higher target could have been achieved if staff cuts had not taken place. Miss Kershaw explained that all service related enquires would need to be raised with the appropriate officer, advising that in this case that would be Steve McGuiness, Head of Revenues and Benefits. It was felt that this would be extremely beneficial, particularly as the income aspect of this investigation would feed into the Committee’s current review topic with its focus on income generation and efficiency savings.

The Committee asked Miss Kershaw to investigate whether there would be any benefit in aligning performance management with seasonal trends rather than the current quarterly reporting method.

Members also discussed the performance indicator explanations on page 23 of the agenda relating to the outcome, ‘By 2015 Maidstone has decent, affordable housing in the right places across a range of tenures.’  It was felt that these should be highlighted to the Housing Consultative Board.

It was resolved that:

a)  Steve McGiness, Head of Benefits and Council Tax should be invited to the next available meeting to discuss Performance Indicator R&B 007 – value of fraud identified by the fraud partnership;

b)  Ellie Kershaw, Policy and Performance Manager, should report back to the Committee on her findings on why Performance Management targets  are not amended to take seasonal trends into account; and

c)  All performance indicator explanations relating to outcome ‘By 2015 Maidstone has decent, affordable housing in the right places across a range of tenures’ should be highlighted and referred to the Housing Consultative Board.