Agenda item

Part A - Portfolio Progress and Performance

Report of Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Regeneration and Planning

Part B - Financial Performance

Report of Chief Finance Officer

Luke Dreeling, Performance Lead, presented part A of the performance report which provided an update to Members on the Council’s performance against

Corporate Plan priority actions, performance indicators and targets for the first quarter of the year 2022-23.

·         Officers advised that Action days, including work with residents in the Borough’s housing estates had taken place, to remind residents about the items that could be disposed of through the Council. Work had had also taken place with ‘Furniture Now’ to reduce the number of furniture items going into the ‘waste-stream’. It was hoped that furniture manufacturers would take responsibility for old items when new, replacement items were delivered.

·         Officers noted that the percentage of abandoned calls was a concern and the indicator referred to customers who had abandoned a call after approximately 5 seconds. Vacancy levels (including back-office vacancies) and the resources needed to complete the training for new staff had impacted on the indicator. The process for replacing a member of the Contact team to the point where the new starter was fully trained took approximately 8 months. Small improvements were being made, with activity specific responses being focused on. Artificial Intelligence had been introduced on the phones and this would provide answers from a database. Calls were more complex as a result of the cost-of-living crisis and therefor took longer with the average Quarter 2 wait time at 11.5 minutes.

·         Officers explained that appendix 2 to the report provided a summary of the achievements to date, in the first two years of the Corporate Plan, which had been amended as a result of an assurance review and agreed in May 2022.

·         Officers confirmed that the increase in the figure for the number of households living in emergency (nightly paid) accommodation had increased as a direct result of the cost-of-living crisis. The number of people presenting as being at risk of homelessness had also increased. Previous recruitment issues in the House of Multiple Occupation team had been addressed and improvements in Quarter 2 were expected.

·         Officers agreed to provide a report to the Committee’s next meeting which gave an overview of the work of the customer contact team.

Homira Javadi, Chief Finance Officer, Parmjeet Jassal, Interim Head of Finance and Ross Sutton, Head of Financial Reporting. Presented part B of the report which provided an update to Members on the Council’s financial performance in Quarter 1. During discussion, the following points were highlighted:

·         An update on the Council’s financial position would be presented to the Cabinet on the 2 of December. However, a fuller picture, reflecting the impact of inflationary changes and changes in interest rates on financial planning, would not be available until later in December. The Chancellor of the Exchequers announcement and the local government financial settlement plans would also have an impact.

·         The inflationary impact together with the increase in cost of living meant the Council continues to face an increased demand for its services and the cost of delivering those services would increase. Recruitment was a difficult area for the Council and a pending pay award for staff would add pressure also.

RESOLVED (unanimously) – To note the report.