Agenda item

This report sets out the performance against the Council’s Key Measures of Success for the first quarter of 2012/2013. 

Discussion:

The Performance Manager introduced the report advising the committee that it was considering a new basket of measures for 2012/2013 and that the report allowed Members to monitor progress in achieving the outcomes set out in the Council Plan.

Members were advised that performance measures NI117, NI148 and NI185 were not relevant to this Committee but had been provided to give context and clarity of how the priorities as a whole had been performing.

The Committee was advised that the key highlights were:

·        A new performance measure TRSM7 (number of notices for works on the Highway)

·        £600,000 of EU funding secured to appoint a post employment support team as part of Employ Medway

·        pilot arrangements for information sharing between partners on notifications of domestic abuse had begun

·        waste recycling levels had exceeded their target as was usual due to the seasonal patterns of recycling

Members were also advised that the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered this report on 8 August 2012 and had referred two matters of concern to this committee for further consideration. These were H14 (the average length of stay in B&B for households with dependent children and pregnant women) and F4 (user satisfaction with events). Officers advised that they would provide a Briefing Note giving more information about the number of people living in temporary accommodation and with regard to indicator F4, a Member’s concerns about some arrangements for this year’s FUSE Festival had been built into project planning for next year’s festival. Overall there had been positive feedback from this year’s festivals and events.

The committee considered the summary table at appendix 1 where ECD48c (Employment that has lasted 26 weeks) was shown with a red indicator. The Performance Manager advised that there was a time delay to the reporting of this statistic, as it would not be reported until after 26 weeks into the new financial year and Members would then be able to see the impact of performance. There were also statistics awaited for LRCC4 (number of jobs created and safeguarded) as these were reported one quarter in arrears. Members asked that the Portfolio Holder gave further information on these indicators when she attended the committee at the next meeting.

Following discussion on W5 (Satisfaction with how the Council deals with graffiti) officers advised that work was being undertaken to discover why perception was lower than expected when the number of reported incidents was dropping. Members responded that this might be due to graffiti viewed by commuters on railway land and officers confirmed that they had met representatives of Network Rail in order to try and find a way forward on this issue.

Members commented on the numbers quoted in the report in paragraphs 3.11 and 3.14 of the report (feedback scores of 100% and Love Medway Accounts increased by 125%) and requested that, in future, these were made quantifiable. For example, how did the council know it was achieving its targets with no information of what attendance was aimed for at each event. Were the events aimed at residents and/or visitors and if both, what were the targets. Also, how many Love Medway App accounts were opened during quarter 1 to achieve 125% increase?

With reference to performance indicator NI 167 (average journey time along 6 primary corridors into Chatham on page 131 of the agenda), a Member questioned the figures reported for quarter 1 as he was conscious of significant queuing at major roundabouts and suggested that there seemed to be a difference between reported performance and the actual situation. He added that the information for indicator IT2 (percentage of people who think Medway Council helps people travel easily around Medway on page 132 of the agenda) seemed to support his view. The Assistant Director of Front Line Services advised that this measure had been developed a number of years ago with regard to the trend analysis of six routes, which were based on where the police had Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras at that time, so they were not necessarily in the right place. The council now had a new urban management system with access to other areas of Medway, so could look into this further. Members requested that they were involved in the decision of which six routes would now be used for this performance indicator.

A Member asked that consideration was given to only producing the full set of A3 colour performance indicator information for the Cabinet report (which all members receive) and that overview and scrutiny Members are requested to bring that to the meeting with them when considering future Council Plan monitoring reports in order to cut down on the paper and postage costs.

Decision:

The committee agreed to:

(a)   note the first quarter performance against the Key Measures of Success used to monitor progress against the Council Plan 2012/2013;

(b)   request that officers provide further information on performance indicator H14 (the average length of stay in B&B for households with dependent children and pregnant women) via a Briefing Note;

(c)   request that officers review how key performance criteria is reported in the future, providing quantifiable information;

(d)   request that officers re-consider the routes used to report on NI 167 (average journey time along 6 primary corridors into Chatham) and that Members are involved in the decision-making process for the six routes chosen.