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Title |
Key Performance Indicators |
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Purpose of the report |
To note |
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Report Author |
Sandy Muirhead Group Head Commissioning and Transformation |
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Ward(s) Affected |
All Wards |
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Exempt |
No |
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Exemption Reason |
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Corporate Priority |
Services |
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Recommendations
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Committee is asked to: Note the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to be reported on an annual basis to CPRC.
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Reason for Recommendation |
Monitoring performance via KPIs ensures service delivery is meeting expectations. |
1. Summary of the report
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What is the situation |
Why we want to do something |
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• Across the Council services have key performance indicators which enable them to benchmark year on year or quarter by quarter depending on the KPI to assess how the service is performing. |
• To ensure transparency in activities and performance • To demonstrate successful delivery of services |
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This is what we want to do about it |
These are the next steps |
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• Need to ensure KPIs are reported across the organisation to demonstrate services performance and opportunities for improvement. Key KPIs are also reported quarterly across Surrey • To enable better presentation and monitoring of KPIs a dashboard has been in development which will also link to service plans. |
• To continue to monitor KPIs in appropriate timelines • To finalise a digital performance dashboard building on current annual and quarterly reporting |
1.1 This report seeks to inform this Committee of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) reported within the Council to monitor service delivery.
1.2 KPIs are critical indicators of progress towards intended outcomes and help provide a focus for delivering strategic and operational improvements in the Council. The 23/24 figures for the majority of KPIs clearly demonstrates delivery in services. The performance targets and outcomes complement the staff and resident’s survey’s and substantiates the outcomes of the surveys.
1.3 The Key Performance Indicators currently recorded are listed in the attached Appendices. Services use them to ensure they are on track in terms of delivery on their service plans and operational success.
2. Key issues
2.1 Key Performance Indicators across services have been monitored in the Council on a quarterly or annual basis (Appendix 1) resulting in a final annual summary. The annual resulting KPIs or not in achieving the KPI have been colour coded to provide guidance on whether they have been achieved or not.
2.2 The exception to “internal” Council monitoring is for a suite (Appendix 2) of indicators reported quarterly across Surrey to the Surrey Chief Executives meeting.
2.3 Appendices 3 and 4 list the investment and asset KPIs used to monitor the relevant portfolios which are reported via Commercial Assets Sub Committee and Business Infrastructure and Growth Committee.
2.4 In Appendix 2 which provide figures across Surrey, there are some concerns that KPIs for sickness and waste do not reflect a true picture. On sickness one or two long term absences can skew the figures and although attempts have made to harmonise the method of reporting these figures across Surrey but there are still some reporting inconsistencies between authorities.
2.5 Additionally, the Council have an in-house Depot where staff cannot work if sick, yet a good number of authorities do not record figures associated with this area as they have outsourced those functions. The short-term figures are good in comparison to others, but there are a number of long-term sick staff.
2.6 The low turnover of staff as compared to a number of other authorities is indicative of “content” staff as further evidenced by the staff survey. The staff survey undertaken by the LGA identified us as the best authority against the relevant markers for the last 12 years.
2.7 The planning team have performed exceptionally well for a long while against government[HM1] targets. The government is also investing more in planning services, and an increase in fees will help ensure the right level of resource can be secured to help maintain turnround times.
2.8 The amount of rubbish (non-recyclable waste) collected is offset against the recyclable waste when calculating the recycling rate. As a borough the Council collects proportionally more non-recyclable waste than most of our other comparable councils and this is not always related directly to bin collections. Although there is a higher proportion of flats and shared accommodation properties than most other Surrey councils, these types of accommodation have been shown to produce more rubbish and less recycling than individual houses. The garden waste collection service is significantly smaller than many other Surrey authorities; houses tend to have smaller gardens and as a result generate less green recyclable waste. The higher proportion of flats also impacts the potential number of subscribers to this service too. The Council runs a thorough and effective street cleaning programme in Spelthorne, the waste collected from this is also offset against recycling which would further contribute to a lower overall recycling rate.
2.9 The housing benefit team is performing well in relation to other Surrey authorities with change of circumstances applications processed on average within 1.6 days and new claims assessed within 18 days.
2.10 Borough Council has the second highest number of residents across Surrey in temporary accommodation. This is related to several reasons including developments not being implemented, lack of affordable accommodation due to the proximity to London, viability squeezing schemes and limiting what can be justified at the planning stage, together with the Council moving away from direct development and Registered Social Landlords (RSL’s) not wanting to develop or take on s106 affordable housing secured as part of a planning permission.
2.11 The fact that no new affordable homes were completed in the year demonstrates the whole issue and directly correlates to the Council being the second highest in terms of numbers in temporary accommodation
2.12 Although businesses are impacted by cost pressures related to the cost-of-living crisis the business rate outturn was better than target. Whereas the council tax figure was 1% below target but we were aware of the difficulties some residents had in paying and we put in place payment plans to assist them e.g. paying over 12 months instead of 10.
2.13 Spelthorne has reported on its KPIs for many years internally and externally including those reported to Surrey Chief Executives.
2.14 In addition, however, to improve the reporting mechanisms for Councillors and residents the project team are developing a digital performance dashboard. The dashboard development will make it easier for staff to complete and monitor KPIs and it will link to annual service plans. Completion is expected in Q4 24/25.
3. Options analysis and proposal
3.1 Option 1 To note the KPIs in Appendices and to make comments with respect to any areas of focus for improvements.
4. Financial management comments
4.1 None for this report
5. Risk management comments
5.1 Extenuating circumstances can mean key performance indicators are not achieved and this will vary with the service concerned. For example, the cost-of-living increases may impact Council Tax collection rates.
5.2 There is a risk that if Government changes to planning rules are implemented (for example removing time extensions that can currently be agreed with a developer to allow time for negotiations) statistics on performance may well drop. This situation will apply nationally. The team is actively looking at this to try and ensure their high performance is not reduced due to a functional change.
6. Procurement comments
6.1 The report covers KPIs for services and there are no procurement requirements.
7. Legal comments
7.1 There are no specific legal comments in relation to this report.
8. Other considerations
8.1 None
9. Equality and Diversity
9.1 A service should take account of any equality and diversity issues that impact on delivery of services and therefore on KPIs.
10. Sustainability/Climate Change Implications
10.1 All services need to build climate change actions within their service activities, and it is anticipated that further KPIs will be put in place for climate change as the programme of work grows and learning from other organisations can be used in identifying further relevant KPIs beyond measurement of annual greenhouse gas emissions by the Council.
11. Timetable for implementation
11.1 KPIs will be reported annually to Corporate Policy and Resources and
12. Contact
12.1 Sandy Muirhead Group Head Commissioning and Transformation. 01784446318
Please submit any material questions to the Committee Chair and Officer Contact by two days in advance of the meeting.
Background papers:, There are none.
Appendices:
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Appendix 1 Annual summary of Key Performance Indicators 23/24 Spelthorne Borough council
Appendix 2 Surrey District and Borough Performance Indicator Benchmarking
Appendix 3 Investment KPIs
Appendix 4 Assets KPIs
[HM1]Can we move the second sentence onwards to the risks section as this is not in place yet and might not happen.
The general comment also needs to move as its doesn’t follow on from 2.3 which talks about sickenss and waste