PI Status

RED

Target not achieved

AMBER

Target missed (within 10%)

GREEN

Target met

No data to measure performance against

Data Only

Direction of Travel

Performance has improved

Performance has not changed / been sustained

Performance has declined

No previous performance to judge against

Objective 1. A transport network that supports the local economy

PKG 002

Income from pay and display car parks per space

£304.15

£228.05

£223.66

£301.29

£261.90

£753.00

£970.00

Jeff Kitson

GREEN

PKG 007

Number of onboard Park & Ride bus transactions

114,556

90,246

90,847

106,662

112,000

287,755

400,000

Jeff Kitson

AMBER

Park & Ride patronage has been in decline at about -6% year on year for a number of years. Changes to the service and renewed promotion have reduced this deficit to around -4% for the year to date. Work continues with the contractor and as part of the procurement process (new contract in April 2014) to continue to improve patronage levels in the longer term.

Objective 2. A growing economy with rising employment, catering for a range of the skill sets to meet the demands of the local economy

DCV 001

Percentage of commercial planning applications completed within statutory timescales

96.15%

83.87%

90.48%

65.39%

90.00%

81.82%

90.00%

Rob Jarman

AMBER

A large proportion of the commercial applications had to be reported to planning committee and this combined with the lower overall numbers determined meant a poorer performance.

E&S 001

Work experience placements delivered (by the Council) across the borough

21

3

6

15

30

50

Ellie Kershaw

RED

A coffee morning was held in this quarter but it was not well attended. It is job centre responsibility to bring candidates. We have met with them about better promoting the opportunity. We also plan to hold a event at the depot in order to offer a wider variety of roles.

E&S 002

Number of employers that have engaged with NEETs (not in education, employment or training) through MBC

0

17

0

25

17

100

John Foster; Ellie Kershaw

RED

No employers have been engaged as the employability and skills project officer left her post in October and has not yet been replaced. The replacement will be in the Economic Development team.  They have interviewed and expect the new officer to start in March. Until that time, there is no capacity to undertake this work.

LVE 002

Percentage of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance

2.4%

2.2%

2%

1.8%

2.7%

2%

2.7%

John Foster

GREEN

Maidstone is currently joint fourth out of the twelve Kent districts for the percentage of people claiming job seekers allowance, with the same out-turn as Canterbury. Sevenoaks (1.2%), Tonbridge & Malling were third and second respectively and Tunbridge Wells’ out-turn was top at just 0.9%.

Objective 3. Decent, affordable housing in the right places across a range of tenures

DCV 003

Percentage of residential planning applications processed within statutory timescales

59.62%

62.16%

77.50%

72.09%

75.00%

70.83%

75.00%

Rob Jarman

AMBER

DCV 014a

Average time taken (weeks) to process planning applications (Majors)

22.70 weeks

32.24 weeks

17.75 weeks

24.00 weeks

24.40 weeks

24.00 weeks

Rob Jarman

AMBER

Median: 12.85 weeks

DCV 014b

Average time taken (weeks) to process minor planning applications

15.47 weeks

9.83 weeks

10.27 weeks

15.00 weeks

11.72 weeks

15.00 weeks

Rob Jarman

GREEN

Median: 7.85  weeks

DCV 014c

Average time taken (weeks) to process other planning applications

8.84 weeks

8.1 weeks

8.94 weeks

11.00 weeks

8.59 weeks

11.00 weeks

Rob Jarman

GREEN

Median: 7.57 weeks

HSG 001

Number of affordable homes delivered (gross)

39

70

31

71

102

172

200

John Littlemore

GREEN

HSG PS 003

Number of private sector homes improved

65

101

68

45

234

180

John Littlemore

GREEN

Objective 4. Continue to be a clean and attractive environment for people who live in and visit the borough

DEP 001

The percentage of relevant land and highways that is assessed as having deposits of litter that fall below an acceptable level (NI 195a)

1.67%

1.10%

1.67%

1.67%

1.70%

1.67%

1.70%

Jennifer Shepherd

GREEN

DEP 007

Percentage of fly-tipping reports responded to within one working day

99.14%

97.24%

98.74%

99.77%

99.00%

98.59%

99.00%

Jennifer Shepherd

AMBER

During quarter 1 and 2 the quarterly target was marginally missed due to the cleansing staff being diverted to non-street cleaning duties for a short period. It is possible that the annual target could be achieved however as the current quarter 3 performance is the highest out-turn this indicator has achieved in the past three years therefore the Policy and Performance officer believes that the annual target will be marginally missed.

WCN 001

Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting (NI 192)

41.61%

46.26%

46.30%

48.00%

48.00%

Jennifer Shepherd

WCN 005

Residual household waste per household (NI 191)

119.51

116.47

111.26

109.20

420.00

Jennifer Shepherd

DCE 001

Percentage of planning enforcement cases signed off within 21 days

95.12%

95.1%

94.92%

88.00%

90.00%

92.81%

90.00%

Rob Jarman

GREEN

Objective 5. Residents in Maidstone are not disadvantaged because of where they live or who they are, vulnerable people are assisted and the level of deprivation is reduced

HSG 004

Average time taken to process and notify applicants on the housing register (days)

3.6

25.6

12.0

3.5

3.5

Neil Coles

A data quality issue has been identified with this indicator. A full data quality audit will now be undertaken to ensure that future returns are accurate.

HSG 005

Number of households prevented from becoming homeless through the intervention of housing advice

204

64

118

91

112

273

450

Neil Coles

RED

Performance remains below target due to difficulties in resolving tenancy disputes and accessing new tenancies as a result of the high demand for housing across Maidstone. Work is on-going with partner agencies to improve our effectiveness in intervening in the private rented sector to address this area of concern.

MFM 001a

Number of families accepted on the Maidstone Families Matter programme

76

49

2

30

127

161

Ellie Kershaw

AMBER

Whilst referrals have been made in this quarter, many families have not hit enough criteria. As well as us continuing to encourage partners to make nominations, KCC will be running a data trawl to see if they can fill any spaces in this way. A new professional discretion has been added, meaning that Anti-Social Behaviour and education can now be accepted on the say so of the relevant professional and not only via hard data. A meeting is set with the Community Safety Unit to see how this affects families that were nominated but previously not accepted.

MFM 001b

Percentage of those accepted to the Maidstone Families Matter programme that have been engaged with

22.37%

59.18%

850.00%

Set Baseline

49.61%

Set Baseline

Ellie Kershaw

GREEN

The percentage for this indicator shows as being particularly high for this quarter because only 2 new families were accepted whilst existing families were engaged. When put into a cumulative context the out-turn makes more sense. A total of 17 families were engaged with during quarter 3 with 127 referrals made for the year to date.

R&B 004

Time taken to process Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit new claims and change events (NI 181)

10.16

10.91

7.74

10.29

10.00

9.53

10.00

Steve McGinnes

GREEN

 Objective 6. Services are customer focused and and residents are satisfied with them

CTC 001

The average wait time for calls into the Contact Centre (Seconds)

41 seconds

221 seconds

276 seconds

95 seconds

70 seconds

197.33 seconds

70 seconds

Sandra Marchant

RED

There has been a massive improvement in the average wait times for calls into the Contact Centre during the last quarter but unfortunately the overall target has still not been met. The average wait time has dropped from 4 minutes 35 seconds down to 1 minute 35 seconds. October’s figure was still high at just over 2 minutes but we were under target during December at 60 seconds. The main reasons for the improvement is a 13% decrease in the overall number of calls answered mainly due to the new Waste contract settling down and also the new CSAs who are now trained in various services. Training of all CSAs continues to expand the breadth of services each of them can handle.

CTC 002

Percentage of Visitors to the Gateway responded to by a CSA within 20 minutes

77.41%

79.93%

59.38%

80.56%

75.00%

72.97%

75.00%

Sandra Marchant

AMBER

Although the quarter 3 result is an improvement on that of the previous quarters for 2013 this indicator is marginally behind the year to date target. It is still possible that the annual target will be achieved however, it should be noted that quarter 3 generally performs the best and an out-turn of at least 80.5% will be required for the quarter 4 period in order for the annual target to be met. Based on the last two years of performance data this is unlikely. 

PIT 001

Percentage of complaints resolved within the specified timescale

96.08%

95.75%

97.14%

91.30%

95%

94.65%

95%

Angela Woodhouse

AMBER

The number of complaints received for quarter 3 is comparable to the volume in quarter 2. The team will follow up with managers to emphasise the importance of responding to complaints on time. It is still possible that the annual target could be met as in 2012/13 quarter 4 performed the best.

PIT 002

Satisfaction with complaint handling

35%

20%

40%

36.17%

45%

35.37%

45%

Angela Woodhouse

RED

The number of complaints dealt with out of time has increased which may have impacted on this result. Quarter three results for the past three years has been lower than quarter 1 and quarter 2. Effective complaints training took place in January 2014 which we hope will improve responses to complaints and satisfaction however it is unlikely that the annual target will be achieved.

R&B 009

Overall satisfaction with the benefits service

85.98%

88.57%

93.86%

88.98%

80%

90.29%

80%

Steve McGinnes

GREEN

Objective 7. Effective, cost efficient services are delivered across the borough

BIM 003a

Percentage of customer contacts made in person in the Gateway

7.73%

7.80%

8.75%

7.67%

7.25%

8.07%

7.00%

Georgia Hawkes

RED

BIM 003b

Percentage of customer contacts made online by visiting the councils website

75.39%

75.77%

71.00%

72.85%

76.50%

73.37%

77.00%

Georgia Hawkes

AMBER

BIM 003c

Percentage of customer contacts made by phone through the contact centre

16.89%

16.43%

20.25%

19.49%

16.25%

18.56%

16.00%

Georgia Hawkes

RED

Overall contacts to the Council are down by 40,273 compared to the same quarter last year. A large decrease in web visits accounts for most of this figure (the website had 149,613 visits in Q3 2013/14 compared to 182,316 in the same period last year) and has subsequently skewed the other two contact percentages. Targets for web visits as a percentage of total contacts is off target by around 4% this quarter and 3% year to date. This reduction in the number of visits has been noticeable since we launched the redesigned site in May 2013, though we have seen the number of pages being visited on each visit increase and the number of one page visits decrease. This would point to the customer being able to find more of the information they need and being able to navigate the site better. The fact that the customer finds what they want first time might mean that they have had to make less repeat visits to our site. The number of transactions being carried out online has increased despite the reduction in visits and 8% of visits now result in a transaction, the majority being payments. Put simply, people are staying longer and doing more on our new site, which industry research shows is a good thing.

We have also seen a significant drop in face to face visits - 2942 fewer in Q3 than the same period last year - with big reductions in casual callers and for housing enquiries and this has meant we have only narrowly missed our Q3 target by less than 1%. Targets for telephone calls as a percentage of all contacts is off target this quarter by nearly 3% because of the effect of less website visits to the overall percentage.   The number of calls answered has actually reduced: overall 816 fewer compared to Q3 last year.  We have also seen an increase in the volume of calls for waste services due to the introduction of the new joint contract, an increase of 2847 for waste calls on the same period last year which equates to a 50% increase. However, whilst the drop in calls answered by the Contact Centre is a positive result for this indicator, the numbers of calls being made to the Contact Centre is slightly higher than in Q3 last year, 44,378 compared with 42,612. This means that we have answered fewer of the calls that are being made to the Contact Centre.

BIM 004

Reduction in number of out-going post items

N/A

-3.83%

9.54%

-10.86%

-8.25%

-1.87%

-11.00%

Georgia Hawkes

RED

As at the third quarter there is an overall reduction in post of 5364 items or 2%, so the indicator is off target. In reality the result is probably worse than this because the post figures for last year for Electoral Registration included post for the Police Commissioner Elections, which we have so far been unable to remove from the figures. Therefore, the reduction in post of 12,683 from this time last year in Electoral Registration is not a fair measure of the Council's performance. There are 2 departments where there have been significant increases: Council Tax had an additional 14319 post items- the service believes this is because of more than 6000 benefit recipients who have had to pay something towards their Council tax for the first time this year. The Council tax department are currently encouraging customers to sign up for ebilling to receive their council tax bill electronically. The other area where post has increased significantly is Development Control with an additional 6207 items this is because MBC is receiving a higher volume of larger planning applications which requires more consultation to be carried out, so in fact this shows a positive sign of improvement in the economy, but the Council needs to look at how it can use other methods of communication for consultations. Many services have reduced the number of items of post they are sending out e.g. Housing by 7953 and Environmental Health by 1394 (this reduction is probably because the new food hygiene scheme was launched in 2012/2013).  Business Improvement will work with services to identify ways of reducing post as part of the programme of service improvement reviews being undertaken over the next 3 years. Reductions in post have been identified by changing the Parking permit renewal process: paper reminders will be phased out from November 2014, customers are being informed of this as they receive their last paper reminder and being asked if they would like an email reminder. However, the results of this will not be seen in the figures until December 2014. Housing is part way through a Business Improvement review which will look at further ways of reducing the levels of outgoing post, a review is just starting in Bereavement Services and Development Control is currently scheduled for a review to start in April 2014.

CTC 004

Avoidable contact: the proportion of customer contact that is of low or no value to the customer (NI 14)

3.6%

5.0%

9.3%

6.3%

4.3%

6.8%

4.3%

Sandra Marchant

RED

The introduction of the new waste contract over the summer accounted for the high proportion of avoidable contact in quarter 2. For quarter 3 the majority of avoidable contact has been logged as service failure and it is likely that this was still as a result of the new waste contract and customers continuing to report missed bins. It should be noted that there has been a 13% increase in all calls to the contact centre for the year to date (April to December) compared to last year’s data. In the same period calls specifically to the waste queue have increased by 96% with an addition 17,231 for the year to date compared to the previous year.

R&B 005

Percentage of Non-domestic Rates Collected (BV 010)

86.48%

33.48%

61.12%

87.82%

86.48%

87.82%

97.00%

Steve McGinnes

GREEN

R&B 006

Percentage of Council Tax collected (BV 009)

86.98%

29.90%

58.20%

86.74%

86.98%

86.74%

98.30%

Steve McGinnes

AMBER

This indicator has marginally missed the quarterly target however, there is a robust recovery timetable in place and it is likely that the annual target will be achieved.

R&B 007

Value of fraud identified by the fraud partnership

£351,074.94

£281,969.76

£130,732.55

£346,687.90

£187,500.00

£759,390.21

£750,000.00

Steve McGinnes

GREEN

BIM 002

Percentage of financial transactions not carried out on-line or by direct debit/standing order

9.03%

10.69%

9.92%

10%

10%

Paul Riley

DCV 009

Percentage of planning decisions taken under delegation

92.95%

92.84%

94.26%

93.27%

92.50%

93.51%

92.50%

Rob Jarman

HRO 001/BV 12

Working Days Lost Due to Sickness Absence (rolling year) (BV 12)

8.50 days

9.39 days

9.84 days

8.51 days

8.50 days

8.51 days

8.50 days

Dena Smart

Although performance has improved since quarter 2 the target is unlikely to be met this year largely due to long term sickness. Several of these people have now left the council and this can be seen by the slowly reducing figure but the absences will continue to be shown in the rolling figures for the 11 months (on a pro-rata basis) after they have left. It should be noted that we are aware of two new cancer cases that could cause further long term sickness issues.

WCN 006

Missed bins

24.84

20.51

186.04

98.47

25

102.67

25

Jennifer Shepherd

The missed bins are taking longer than expected to return to acceptable levels. Analysis has shown that the main reason for this is the way missed collections are now recorded and the way the operatives use the new in-cab technology to report bins which are not out for collection or are contaminated. This figure currently includes many "missed bins" which should not be classified as such i.e were not out for collection or were collected late due to breakdown or access issues. The IT solution is currently being adapted to ensure it correctly classifies missed collections.