Communities, Housing & Environment Committee

20 March 2018

 

Key Performance Indicator Update Quarter 3 17/18

 

Final Decision-Maker

Communities, Housing & Environment Committee

Lead Head of Service

Angela Woodhouse, Head of Policy, Communications, and Governance

Lead Officer and Report Author

Anna Collier, Policy and Information Manager and Ashley Sabo, Performance and Business Information Officer

Classification

Public

Wards affected

All

 

Executive Summary

Communities, Housing & Environment Committee are asked to review the progress of Key Performance Indicators that relate to the delivery of the Strategic Plan 2015-2020. The Committee is also asked to consider the comments and actions against performance to ensure they are robust.

 

This report makes the following recommendations to Communities, Housing & Environment Committee:

1.   That the summary of performance for Quarter 3 of 2017/18 for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) be noted.

 

 

Timetable

Meeting

Date

Communities, Housing & Environment Committee

20 March 2018



Key Performance Indicator Update Quarter 3 17/18

 

 

1.      INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

 

1.1     Having a comprehensive set of actions and performance indicators ensures that the Council delivers against the priorities and actions set in the Strategic Plan.

 

1.2     Following the refresh of the Strategic Plan for 2017/18 the Committees agreed 28 Key Performance Indicators in April 2017.

 

1.3     Performance indicators are judged in two ways. Firstly on whether performance has improved, sustained or declined, compared to the same period in the previous year. This is known as direction. Where there is no previous data, no assessment of direction can be made.

 

1.4     The second way is to look at whether an indicator has achieved the target set and is known as PI status. If an indicator has achieved or exceeded the annual target they are rated green. If the target has been missed but is within 10% of the target it will be rated amber, and if the target has been missed by more than 10% it will be rated red.

 

1.5     Some indicators will show an asterisk (*) after the figure. These are provisional values that are awaiting confirmation. Data for some of the indicators were not available at the time of reporting. In these cases a date has been provided for when the information is expected.

 

1.6     Contextual indicators are not targeted but are given a direction. Indicators that are not due for reporting or where there is delay in data collection are not rated against targets or given a direction.

 

 

2.        Quarter 3 Performance Summary

 

2.1     There are 28 key performance indicators (KPIs) which were developed with Heads of Service and unit managers, and agreed by the four Service Committees for 2017/18. 11 are reported to the Committee for this quarter. 

 

2.2     Overall, 78% (7) of targeted KPIs reported this quarter achieved their target for quarter 3. For 71% of indicators, performance improved compared to the same quarter last year, where previous data is available for comparison.

 

2.3     There are 2 contextual indicators (indicators without targets) represented in the chart below as N/A, these indicators were requested for inclusion as they are important to assessing how the council is performing by examining the outcomes. These indicators are number of litter reports attended to and the number of households living in TA at the last night of the month. 

 

 

 

RAG Rating

Green

Amber

Red

N/A

Total

KPIs

7

1

1

2

11

Direction

Up

No Change

Down

N/A

Total

Last Year

5

0

2

4

11

Last Quarter

6

0

5

0

11

 

3.        Performance by Priority

 

Priority 1: Keeping Maidstone Borough an attractive place for all

 

3.1     For the period of October to December, 99.7% of land and highways had acceptable levels of litter against a target of 93.5%. The areas visited and graded for cleansing in this tranche of monitoring were High Street, Detling and Thurnham, Staplehurst and Headcorn. Littering levels were very low in these areas on assessment, with only a couple of roads falling below the required standard of Grade B.

 

3.2     For the same period, 97.8% of land and highways had acceptable levels of detritus, against a target of 84%. Resources have been focused on the removal of detritus over the past few months since the leafing period started and this has had a positive effect on the levels of detritus across the Borough.

 

3.3     130 reports of litter were attended in the borough during quarter 3. This is a decrease of 3 in comparison to quarter 2. This relates to the number of litter reports received which the team visit. Unfortunately there is no way to determine whether litter picking was required or not as this information is not captured in a way it can be reported on. The quarterly figure equates to 1.4 reports per day, which has been consistent over the past 3 quarters.

 

3.4     89.3% were cleared of fly-tips within 2 working days during quarter 3 against a target of 88%. The removal of fly tips has significantly improved this quarter. Many of the issues experienced last quarter have been resolved with staff sickness reduced, no further issues with the mobile technology and no requirement to divert resources to high speed roads. The cleansing manager has also made some minor resource changes to ensure the fly tipping is removed swiftly.

 

3.5     51.7% of household waste was sent for reuse, recycling, or composting during October and November. We are currently awaiting figures for December from Kent County Council. Tonnages for garden waste have been lower this quarter; however it is common for these to fall during the colder months.

 

3.6     During quarter 3, 89.3% of fly-tips with evidential value resulted in enforcement action. The outcomes for this indicator have remained high and significantly above target. It is anticipated this will improve further with the addition of a new waste crime officer to the team and the new street scene enforcement officers. Within this quarter there are also 3 prosecutions related to fly tipping.

 

3.7     The Housing and Enabling team have spent or allocated 86.6% of the Disabled Facilities Grant budget in quarter 3 against a target of 70.0%. This represents an allocation/spend of £836,314 against a budget of £966,000. The allocation is well ahead of the budget target and reflects the methods of working and the energy that the team has put in to deal with demand for this assistance.

 

Priority 2: Securing a successful economy for Maidstone Borough

 

3.8     The quarterly target of 150 for the number of applicants housed has been exceeded by 30 due to an increase in the amount of available vacant and new build properties received from our Registered Providers.

 

3.9     There were 43 affordable homes delivered during quarter 3. There has been good progress with schemes, and completions are picking up.  As usual, the majority come forward in the final two quarters of the year. There have been 156 affordable completions as at 31 December 2017. The overall quarter target of 50 completions is slightly short by just 7 completions. However it is still expected that the year-end target of 200 affordable completions will be exceeded.

 

3.10 A total of 107 homeless preventions were made during quarter 3. This represents 40 homeless preventions completed within the Housing Advice Team; 57 with assistance from Discretionary Housing Payments; and 10 Sanctuary Scheme support. This is a slight decrease in comparison to the previous quarter; however there is a marked increase in comparison to quarter 3 of 2016/17.

 

3.11 The number of households in temporary accommodation (TA) on the last night of this quarter is the lowest figure seen since quarter 1 of 2015/16. Of these 73 households, only 26 are in nightly paid accommodation and the remainder are in stock owned by MBC or units of accommodation provided by Registered Providers (Housing Associations) and down from 51 compared to the last quarter.

 

 

4.       RISK

4.1    This report is presented for information only, managers and heads of service can use performance data to identify service performance and this data can contribute to risk management.

 

5.       CONSULTATION RESULTS AND PREVIOUS COMMITTEE FEEDBACK

 

5.1     The Key Performance Indicator Update will be reported quarterly to the Service Committees; Communities Housing and  Environment Committee, Strategic Planning, Sustainability and Transportation Committee, and Heritage Culture and Leisure Committee. Each Committee will receive a report on the relevant priority action areas. The report will also go to Policy & Resources Committee, reporting only on the priority areas of: A clean and safe environment, regenerating the Town Centre, and a home for everyone.

 


 

 

6.       NEXT STEPS: COMMUNICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECISION

 

6.1     The Council could choose not to monitor the Strategic Plan and/or make alternative performance management arrangements, such as frequency of reporting. This is not recommended as it could lead to action not being taken against performance during the year, and the Council failing to deliver its priorities.

 

 

7.       CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

 

Issue

Implications

Sign-off

Impact on Corporate Priorities

The key performance

indicators and strategic

actions are part of the

Council’s overarching

Strategic Plan 2015-20 and

play an important role in the

achievement of corporate

objectives.

They also cover a wide range

of services and priority

areas, for example waste and recycling.

Head of Policy, Communications & Governance

Risk Management

The production of robust

performance reports ensures

that the view of the Council’s

approach to the management

of risk and use of resources

is not undermined and allows

early action to be taken in

order to mitigate the risk of

not achieving targets and outcomes.

Head of Policy, Communications & Governance

Financial

Performance indicators and

targets are closely linked to

the allocation of resources

and determining good value

for money. The financial

implications of any proposed

changes are also identified

and taken into account in the

Council’s Medium Term

Financial Plan and associated

annual budget setting

process. Performance issues

are highlighted as part of the

budget monitoring reporting

process.

Senior Finance Officer (Client)

Staffing

Having a clear set of targets enables staff outcomes/objectives to be set and effective action plans to be put in place

Head of Policy, Communications & Governance

Legal

There is no statutory duty to report regularly on the Council’s performance. However, under Section 3 of the Local Government Act 1999 (as amended) a best value authority has a statutory duty to secure continuous improvement in the way in which its functions are exercised having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. One of the purposes of the Key Performance Indicators is to facilitate the improvement of the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of Council Services. Regular reports on the Council’s performance assist in demonstrating best value and compliance with the statutory duty.

 Keith Trowell, Interim Team Leader (Corporate Governance)

Privacy and Data Protection

We will hold data in line with the Data Quality Policy, which sets out the requirement for ensuring data quality.

 

There is a program for undertaking data quality audits of performance indicators.

 Keith Trowell, Interim Team Leader (Corporate Governance)

Equalities

The Performance Indicators reported on in this quarterly update measure the ongoing performance of the strategies in place. If there has been a change to the way in which a service delivers a strategy, i.e. a policy change, an Equalities Impact Assessment is undertaken to ensure that there is no detrimental impact on individuals with a protected characteristic.

Equalities & Corporate Policy Officer

Crime and Disorder

None Identified

Policy & Information Manager

Procurement

Performance Indicators and Strategic Milestones monitor any procurement needed to achieve the outcomes of the Strategic Plan.

Head of Policy, Communications & Governance, & Section 151 Officer

 

8.        REPORT APPENDICES

 

The following documents are to be published with this report and form part of the report:

·         Appendix 1: Key Performance Indicator Update Quarter 3 17/18

 

9.        BACKGROUND PAPERS

 

None