Issue - meetings

To consider the attached report of the Chief Executive.

Representatives of Civica and East Kent Housing

The Performance Report – Quarter 1, 2019-20 had 5 red performance indicators, which were as followed:

·         Civica: KPI06-D (Average call waiting time in seconds)

·         East Kent Housing: EKHL1 (Average time taken to re-let council dwellings)

·         East Kent Housing: EKHC2 (Rent arrears as % of annual debit)

·         East Kent Housing: EKHC3 (Former tenant arrears as % of annual debit)

·         Corporate Resources:HOU010a (Number of households living in temporary accommodation including B&B)

Civica

In response to concerns raised by Members about the Quarter 1 performance of KPI06-D (Average call waiting time in seconds) at 349 seconds (against a target of 233 seconds and an outturn in 2018/19 of 74 seconds), the Partnership Director (Civica) advised that the way the indicator had been calculated had been changed in order to give a more accurate indication of the customer experience.

The method of calculation for the indicator in 2018/19 included (1) switchboard calls (2) automated calls and (3) service calls (i.e. speaking to a customer services team member) while the indicator for 2019/20 only included service calls. If the performance indicator for Quarter 1 was calculated using all three components, it would have resulted in an outturn of 106 seconds.

Members welcomed the more accurate reporting of the wait time for customers calling the Council but questioned whether performance of 233 seconds was an acceptable target from the perspective of residents. The Partnership Director (Civica) advised that customer services had 60 members (increasing to 63 shortly) of staff. These were funded from within the resourcing levels set by the Council. The distribution of the staff was split between revenue and corporate and work was being undertaken to ensure that those in the corporate section could deal with calls for all areas. This would increase performance in the longer term but in the short term it meant that members of staff were being taken off the telephones to undergo the necessary training. 

It was expected that Quarter 2 performance would not be within the target as while July 2019 and September 2019 (to date) had been on target, the performance for August had missed the target. In response to a question from Councillor L A Keen, Members were advised that the mailboxes of individual officers were not part of the system that Civica were responsible for dealing with.

The Partnership Director (Civica) invited Members to visit customer services during one of the National Customer Service week open days in October 2019.

East Kent Services

Members queried why performance indicator EKS02d.1 (percentage of incidents resolved within 1 working day) had a target for 2019/20 of 60% when the outturn for 2018/19 was 72% and requested an explanation as to the rationale behind the target setting.

East Kent Housing

The Chief Executive (East Kent Housing) advised Members that the performance of EKHL1 (Average time taken to re-let council dwellings) in July 2019 was 6.83 days and it was expected that Quarter 2 would show improved performance.

Members were advised that delayed payments by the DWP had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26

To consider the attached report of the Chief Executive.

Responsibility: Portfolio Holder for Finance and Governance

It was agreed that the Council’s Performance Report and Actions for the First Quarter 2019/20 be noted.