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Agenda item
Quarter Two Performance and Financial Monitoring Report
Minutes:
The Director of Corporate Services and Governance submitted a report which advised members of performance against the 2015/16 targets and performance indicators in the corporate plan for quarter 2. The report also provided a summary of financial information.
The Assistant Director for Financial Services and Revenues presented an update on key areas of activity during this quarter. He explained that the Legal Services team had been making arrangements for the lease of space at the Town Hall to East Sussex County Council and SEAP. The council had previously agreed that the majority of its democratic and civic functions would be transferred to Aquila House. The Assistant Director for Financial Services and Revenues commented that staff across the organisation had continued to work flexibly during the office moves.
Members were advised that a busy programme of recruitment had been undertaken during quarter 2. This included the appointment of two new officers to the accountancy team. Discussion also took place regarding the work of the East Sussex Procurement Hub; an experienced member of the team had recently left the service. The Assistant Director for Financial Services and Revenues commented that the procurement hub had made arrangements to redistribute tasks amongst the team.
The committee noted that call waiting times at the Community Contact Centre had improved during this quarter. The Lead Member for Corporate Services added that reporting of transactional enquiries, such as missed bins and fly tipping, via the My Hastings Online portal had increased. Consideration was given to the integration between the My Hastings Online portal and the council’s contractor’s systems. The Accommodation and Transformation Manager explained that the team engaged with key contractors, including Kier, to develop this system. The initial testing phase had identified some areas for improvement, which had been addressed.
Members noted that there had been an increase in short term sickness absence, and added that this was likely to increase further during the winter months. The Executive Manager of People, Customer and Business Support explained that her team continued to work closely with service managers to consider sickness absences on a case-by-case basis and take appropriate action where necessary.
The Assistant Director for Financial Services and Revenues updated members on the latest in-year collection rates for council tax and non-domestic rates. The council tax collection rate had increased to 73.16%, compared to 73.34% at the same point last year. The collection rate for non-domestic rates had also increased to 73.3%. Although this was slightly below the collection rate for the previous year, a number of customers had opted to pay their business rates over 12 months rather than 10, so the year end target of a 98% collection rate remained achievable.
Discussion took place regarding the benefits customer first and efficiency service review. The Assistant Director for Financial Services and Revenues explained that the outcomes and recommendations of the review were due to be presented to senior managers soon. After the meeting an action plan to implement the recommendations would be drawn up.
Councillor Beaver thanked the Assistant Director for Financial Services and Revenues and his team for gaining an unqualified audit opinion on the council’s annual statement of accounts on behalf of the Audit Committee. The committee also thanked the Assistant Director for Financial Services and Revenues for his earlier presentation on the medium term financial strategy.
RESOLVED (unanimously) that: -
1) The committees comments on quarter 2 performance be addressed by the relevant lead member(s) with appropriate action and report back;
2) Members reflect and feedback on ways of reporting performance information being tested and set out in the report, and;
3) Staff in the Corporate Services and Governance Directorate be thanked for their hard work and achievements in this quarter
The reason for this decision was:
To assist the council enhance performance management arrangements in the context of broader organisational transformation.
Supporting documents:
- Performance Review Quarter 2 2015-16, item 8. PDF 109 KB
- Appendix A, item 8. PDF 116 KB
- Transformation Programme, item 8. PDF 153 KB
- Briefing Note from the Director of Corporate Services and Governance on Performance in Quarter 2, item 8. PDF 55 KB
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