Agenda item

The Panel is invited to comment on the Corporate Performance Report 2023/24 Quarter 3.

Executive Councillor: S Ferguson

By means of a report by the Business Intelligence & Performance Manager and the Performance & Data Analyst (a copy of which was appended in the Minute Book), the Corporate Performance Report 2023/24 Quarter 3 was presented to the Panel.

Having heard about the concerns highlighted by the report in relation to Disabled Facilities Grants, Councillor Harvey enquired whether this subject could be investigated by the relevant Scrutiny Panel. It was confirmed that this would be progressed by the Democratic Services Team and relevant Officers.

Councillor Gleadow expressed concerns that the Market Towns project was marked as amber when updates to the Panel had suggested this was on track. The Panel was assured that the St Neots project was on track and that the overall project included many additional projects which had resulted in the amber status.

Councillor Jennings expressed concern that the Priory Centre project was due to commence in 2028 within the report, the Panel were assured that this was an error within the report and that the project was due to begin imminently.

Councillor Martin observed that the reports were much improved on previous years but requested that some context to the number of Disabled Facilities Grants completed, such as the size of the backlog, would be helpful in understanding how this was being addressed. Councillor Pickering agreed with the improvements to the format and asked if it would be possible to adjust the layout to enable a one page view rather than viewing multiple documents side by side.

Following an enquiry by Councillor Pickering on the wearehuntingdonshire website, the Panel heard that an update on the project would be sought and relayed back to the Panel.

Councillor Cawley observed that there were many green statuses throughout the report and whilst this was good enquired if it had been considered for an independent body to review the targets and provide more challenge. The Panel heard that a planned independent Peer Review would assist with this as would Oflog measures which allowed benchmarking against data sets of comparable authorities.

In response to a concern expressed by Councillor Blackwell about staff sickness, the Panel heard that the Council were in line with national averages for similar authorities. However work was also being done to look at separating short and long term sickness reporting within the report to give a more solid understanding of this area. It was also noted that more detailed information is available in the Workforce Report which is published for Employment Committee and publicly available.

The Panel heard that household waste collections had some seasonality, especially with garden waste and it was anticipated that the service was on track for the year.

Following a question from Councillor Pickering, the Panel heard that delays included when processing Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support claims were due to evidence requested from customers and the consequential delays for that as well as seasonality in the volume of work.

In response to a question from Councillor Gleadow regarding procurement rules, the Panel heard that the detail on this would be reported back to the Panel following the meeting.

Following a question from Councillor Pickering regarding funding for a Problem Solving Officer, the Panel heard that a grant had been secured to fund the role which would connect multiple agencies with Council services and that recruitment would be underway once it was established how best to progress this.

Following the discussion, it was

RESOLVED

that the comments of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel be passed to Cabinet for their consideration when making a decision upon the recommendations contained within the report.