Agenda item

This report is to update the Committee on the Q2 Performance Outturn for the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which make up the Corporate Plan, for the period 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022.  It will also report on any items referred by other committees to this committee.  The process is described in Section 4 of this report.

The Group Head of Organisational Excellence presented her report and provided an update on the council’s key performance indicators up to Quarter 2 covering the period 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022

The covering report explained the structure of the council’s performance reporting and at Appendix A set out the actual performance for each indicator that had been measured at the end of Quarter 2.

The Group Head of Organisational Excellence reminded Members that they had seen the first of these reports earlier in the year which reported on Q1 performance.  The difference in the Quarter 2 report was starting to show trends in performance with an additional three columns at the end of the table showing commentary, Quarter 2 status (colour coded) and the final column which showed the % change from Quarter 1.  This had been indicated numerically and as an arrow and had been included to give Members more detail than the simple colour coding.    

It was confirmed that the indicators for Quarter 2 had been provided to the relevant committees and that although there have been discussions and questions to officers at those meetings, no items have been referred to this Committee for this quarter.

The Chair then invited questions.  Discussion focused on the many under achievements which were largely due to staffing numbers being considerably low in certain departments. Members were interested to hear about the active steps being taken to fill vacancies with full time staff rather than agency staff and whether there were plans to increase the use of apprentices wherever the council was under achieving. Although it was accepted that these were relatively small in number, they were still significant for those affected by it and so needed to be addressed.

Other Members asked specific questions on the following indicators:

·       CP26 – [Major Applications determined in 13 weeks or agreed extension of time]. The Director of Growth was asked to explain the background to this under performance. It was highlighted that these applications related to major planning applications representing 10 units or greater. For Arun the majority of the applications were substantially greater than that often being into the 100s. This often meant that if the council was seeking to negotiate a better scheme, planners had to undertake that negotiation and revised plans were then submitted and a further consultation process then had to be undertaken. That was additional significant work that was often impossible to conclude within the 13 week period. Also, many of these had to be presented to committee and further delays could be experienced depending upon the committee cycle of meetings. The preparation of Section 106 agreements also took a substantial amount of time to prepare. Case management was important in monitoring what was going on and ensuring that proactive action was taken. The Director of Growth reassured Members that he would continue to try and improve on the staffing situation and would provide a further update on staffing. 

·     CP42 – [Occupied Retain Units in Bognor Regis] – an explanation was sought and provided by the Director of Growth to the commentary provided.