Agenda item

The Panel received details on the performance and financial information for services relating to Corporate and Communities, specifically:

·       Performance Information (PI) for Quarter 4 (January to March 2020)

·       Financial information for the 2019-20 draft outturn.

Performance Indicators for Quarter 4

The Strategic Director of Commercial and Change advised the Panel that the data set provided an overview of the key performance indicators as at March 2020. The Panel had received a full update on services at its previous meeting.

Registration and Coroners

The Assistant Director explained that performance for the previous year had been good across all indicators. The Birth Registration Service had recently re-started following lockdown and staff had managed to clear the majority of the backlog, with just 125 births still to register. This was a great achievement in such a short timescale and the Council was currently the highest performing authority in the West Midlands in this respect. In response to a Members question, the Panel was assured that checks and balances were in place to ensure that all births during lockdown were registered.  Some small wedding ceremonies were now taking place in registry offices and other licensed premises, with a maximum of 30 attendees in line with Government guidance. The Team was also very busy re-arranging wedding dates for couples whose ceremonies had been scheduled to take place and now needed to be moved. The Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Communities praised the efforts of the Team for their achievements under the considerable time pressures they faced.

Communications and Consumer Relations

The Strategic Director highlighted that there had been an increasing proactive use of social media during the year. During lockdown a range of methods had been used to communicate with staff and the annual staff survey was currently underway to obtain feedback. He expected to see a significant increase in the ‘increasing staff engagement’ indicator by the next set of data.

The Chairman referred to the red RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rating for the PI’s relating to Stage 2 Children’s Social Care complaints (in 65 days) and Stage 2 Corporate complaints (in 25 days). It was acknowledged that waiting for information from external bodies sometimes added to delays in response time and that this was an ongoing challenge affecting all local authorities. Following the discussion, more detailed information was requested on:

·       the total number of complaints received for each PI

·       the number completed within threshold and the number that went over the threshold

·       the nature of complaints

·       a new indicator giving the number of compliments received

Management Information Analytics and Research

The Strategic Director commented that the PI’s for these Teams were positive with all statutory returns completed on time. The Chairman praised the data updates that Members had received during lockdown.

Human Resources and Information Technology

The Panel was reminded about the investment that the Council had made in ICT services over the past few years, particularly focusing on the resilience of the services, the end-user experience and cyber security. These improvements had continued during lockdown despite the additional challenges of enabling and supporting staff to be able to work from home. The staff were praised for their efforts in this respect.

The Chairman commented that Members being able to engage in the democratic process, and particularly last week’s Full Council via zoom had been a huge step forward and one which he hoped would be built on going forward. There were significant savings in time and money to be gained, but also the on-line processes seemed to have encouraged more public interest and participation in the Council’s meetings. The Strategic Director commented that the systems and technology in place were proven to be able to support the Council going forward. He highlighted that the results of the annual Staff Survey which was currently underway would be used to help shape the future of the organisation.

The Panel was informed that Sandra Taylor, the new Assistant Director for IT and Digital had started in post earlier this month. She would be taking forward the digital agenda to ensure that the Council continued to develop digitally and that all systems were digitally safe and resilient.

The Cabinet Member with responsibility for Transformation and Commissioning was pleased to announce that the Council had been shortlisted for the Municipal Journal  (MJ) Local Government Achievement Award in the Digital Transformation category. She was very proud of the IT Team for this achievement and was looking forward to the final on 2 October.

The Panel discussed the Human Resources PI’s data and the following points were made:

·       There had been a slight deterioration in long term sickness levels for the quarter, although short term levels had improved.

·       Sickness reporting procedures had not altered during lockdown although, good practice had been adapted to respond to the differing needs of staff working from home.

·       In response to the concern about use of agency staff, the Strategic Director explained that sometimes there was a need for people with specific skills sets to be used for short periods of time for certain specialist tasks, however the cost of Agency staff was continually monitored by the Senior Leadership Team to ensure that the use was essential and that value for money was achieved.

·       The Strategic Director praised the Human Resources Team for the efficient way in which they had managed the process of staff transferring from Babcock and Civica back in-house.

Communities

The significant increase in the use of the E-library service, especially during lockdown, was highlighted. The Chairman praised the E-library services which had been a really helpful resource during lockdown. He questioned how the Council’s provision compared to neighbouring authorities, for instance offering access to online newspapers and magazines. The Assistant Director explained that the Council’s service was based on the current contract in place with BorrowBox, the terms of which would be reviewed at the point of renewal. It was agreed that comparative information about what other local Councils offered would be provided to the Panel. The Cabinet Member for Communities thanked the Libraries and IT staff for the speed at which the libraries digital offer had been expanded and for the raft of new initiatives that had been set up, including virtual job clubs and sessions for children.

The Assistant Director reminded the Panel of the timeframe for the further re-opening of libraries.  6 main libraries had already opened, a further number would be re-opening on 1 August and all remaining libraries would open on 1September. It was anticipated that browsing within libraries would be re-introduced on 1 October, subject to appropriate safeguards.

The Panel was advised that the Countryside standards PI showed a deteriorating situation, which was largely as a result of the impact of the February floods on the country parks. During lockdown, the country parks had been well used in a sensible manner.

The data revealed that visits to the County’s museums had increased by 8.5% in the last year. Hartlebury Museum had just been re-opened following lockdown. In a discussion about the difficulties faced by other museums in the County, the Cabinet Member reported that funding from the Government was now available through the Cultural Fund to support museums and theatres facing financial difficulties due to COVID-19. She also referred to the work of the Joint Museums Committee and the annual report of the Museums’ service which had just been published.

Financial information for 2019-20 Draft Outturn

The Strategic Director highlighted that since the Panel had previously received financial data, there had been some changes to the figures due to capitalisation of some costs. The Council was now in a trading arrangement with Worcestershire Children First and a series of service level agreements had been set up.

The Panel was informed that the Outturn figures for the corporate areas was very positive, with an overall underspend of £1m.  Key variances included savings relating to the Talent Programme, a reduction in contract costs in both Commercial and Property services and reduced staffing costs in Human Resources, Commercial Services and Legal Services, the latter also having increased income levels during the year. It was also highlighted that the organisational change programme which, had impacted the corporate areas was within the agreed financial parameters. The CMR (Transformation and Change) thanked all the staff for their efforts and commitment towards enabling the organisation to be safe and well managed throughout COVID-19.

It was noted that the Gross Budget column had been omitted from the data but would be included in future updates.

A Member sought clarification in relation to the Programme Office heading being shown as ‘no variance’. The Head of Finance explained that there were two funding streams involved, capital and reserves, and that each had a different way of being capitalised.

The Chairman asked whether the Reserves/Grants column could be split in future so that Members could see the breakdown for each. The Head of Finance advised that the items included in this heading were all ‘one-off’ amounts to be used in one financial year. Grants which were of an ongoing nature, would be included instead within the Revenue Budget.

The Assistant Director reported a strong end of year position for Communities with an underspend of £260k and an improvement of £0.5m from Quarter 3. The majority of the underspend had resulted from an underspend in libraries relating to staffing and supplies and a reduction in the contract costs relating to the Hive, as well as additional income generated by Registration Services. The Panel was informed that the Archaeology Field Service had a lower than forecast income, which was partially offset  by a reduction in supplies and services.

The Chairman thanked the Head of Finance for providing a summary of the Council’s budget areas split by Directorates and Scrutiny Panels.