Issue - meetings

To consider the attached report of the Head of Leadership Support.

The Strategic Director (Corporate Resources) presented the Performance Report for Quarter 1, 2021-22.

Members were advised that the new style Strategic Dashboard was still in development and would be consulted on as soon as a final draft was ready.

Although the new style Strategic Dashboard was not ready there had been several amendments introduced for the Quarter 1 2021-22 Performance Report. These related to the consolidation of the Housing Indicators in a single place and additional Civica indicators relating to the use of the portal and the Council Tax Reduction Scheme. Furthermore, there was a brief introduction to Port Health and future reports would have further information included.

The impacts of the Covid Pandemic were still seen in the Performance Report, and there had been an adverse impact on call waiting times as a result of the challenges with the performance of the waste service. However, overall a huge amount of work and a number of projects continued to be delivered in the circumstances.

Members considered the following points:

·         The impact of the performance of waste services on the council’s call answer time. Councillor T A Bond expressed concern that this had been a problem before the problems with the waste service.

·         The performance of business rate collection and the impact of government support on the collection rate.

·         That problems arising from the switch over of residents to Universal Credit was still impacting on the Council Tax collection figures. Members were advised that the Council was working with Kent County Council to identify families under pressure.

·         To express concerns that the targets in respect of some indicators could be more challenging.

·         To question how vacancy levels in the Council were reported. Members were advised that the Council did not automatically backfill vacancies and each post was examined as it became vacant to see whether it needed to be filled. It was suggested that a more appropriate indicator would be the number of posts the Council was currently advertising for.

In the absence of dissent, it was agreed to note the Performance Report.

To consider the attached report of the Head of Leadership Support.

Responsibility: Portfolio Holder for Finance, Governance, Digital and Climate Change

It was agreed that the Council’s Performance Report and Actions for the First Quarter 2021/22 be noted.