Agenda item

This report is to update the Committee on the Q1 Performance Outturn for the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which make up the Corporate Plan, for the period 1 April 2024 to 30 June 2024.

The Committee received a report from the Group Head of organisational Excellence updating Members on the Quarter 1 Performance Outturn for the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which made up the Corporate Plan for the period 1 April to 30 June 2024.

Members were alerted to section 3.7 of the report as this provided a full commentary for each indicator when looking at the overall performance at Quarter 1. This illustrated that 29 out of the 39 indicators were either achieving target or were within 15% of doing so. The next section of the report provided a summary of the actions proposed for the remaining indicators that were not achieving.

Turning to the recommendations made by Service Committees, it was explained that the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) had recently undertaken a review of KPIs and it was proposed that those listed in the table at Section 3.10 of the report should no longer be reported to Members via Service Committees and the quarterly performance reports due to their operational nature, allowing Members to focus on strategic issues.

The recommendations were then proposed by Councillor Nash and seconded by Councillor Stanley.

The Chair invited debate, and many Councillors spoke on this item. The majority confirming that they felt uncomfortable removing these indicators as they had fought hard to have them reporting into Committees; they appreciated the level of detail provided;  and as eight of the KPIs were underachieving. It was also explained that for many, especially CP29 [the average number of days to determine applications], this was information that was very important to Councillors and questioned why such critical information be removed from their scrutiny.

This same message was strongly argued in respect of other indicators such as  CP6 [Compliance with Health and Safety Programme] as Members needed to know if such an important corporate undertaking was up to date and on track performance wise. Similarly, it was important for Councillors to be updated with any concerns or briefed if there were any delays and the reasons for them. The argument being presented was that Councillors and the public needed to know that the Council was functioning in an effective way operationally.

Another query raised was that CP7 [Average call wait time (secs) for the last month] was not proposed for removal but was argued to be more operational than CP6 and some of the other KPIs listed for removal. Members felt that any underperforming KPIs should continue to be reported through Service Committees so that Councillors could keep track on improvement or have opportunity to raise further concerns or request additional information. In response, it was confirmed that the proposals to remove some KPIs reflected feedback received from Councillors that that level of information was not required. Should the Committee confirm that it wished to continue to receive the information, then this would be provided.

Councillor McDougall as a non-committee member was permitted to address the Committee. He confirmed that he was comfortable for the KPIs covering planning to be removed as these were mostly national targets but provided useful data for internal monitoring. He praised the performance of Arun’s Planning Department confirming that it was the third best performing planning authority in England and so this could be seen as an argument for continuing to publish data on a regular basis. 

The Chair confirmed that although this information could still be provided to Members through Officers, he took on board the strong feelings expressed by the Committee.

The Committee

            RESOLVED – That

(1)  The recommendations from the Corporate Support Committee held on 10 October 2024 to remove CP6 [ ] from the KPI list are not approved;

(2)  The recommendations from the Planning Committee held on 11 September 2024 to remove CP29, CP30, CP31, CP32, CP33 and CP34 [ ] from the KPI list are not approved;

(3)  The recommendations from the Environment Committee held on 19 September 2024 to remove CP37, CP38, CP39 and CP40 [ ] from the KPI list are not approved; and

(4)   The content of the report is noted.