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Agenda item

2017/18 End of Year Performance Business Plan and Finance Period 2 (May) Report

Report of the Director Policy, Performance and Communications and the City Treasurer.

Minutes:

4.1       Steve Mair, City Treasurer, introduced the Finance Period 2 Monitoring report.  He explained that the papers were circulated with less than the 5 working days notice due to a conflict between the internal reporting timeline to the Executive Leadership Team and the agenda publication date.

 

4.2       The report provided details of the forecast outturn in respect of revenue and capital and projected revenue and capital expenditure by Cabinet Member including key risks and opportunities.  The report also included details in relation to the revenue and capital expenditure for the housing revenue account.

 

4.3       With regards to the capital forecast outturn (Cabinet Member for Finance, Property and Regeneration), the Committee noted that £2.564m had been re-profiled for the refurbishment of the Coroner’s Court to 2019-20 as there had been no agreement from Merton LBC. [NB: Westminster, RBK seek and Wandsworth all willing to contribute their share]. In response to questions, Steve Mair confirmed that agreement is required from all four boroughs that the court covers (Westminster, RBKC, Wandsworth and Merton) before the capital project can proceed.

 

4.4       With regards to the place shaping budgets, the Committee asked which projects or schemes the £20.225m of re-profiled capital expenditure related to. The City Treasurer advised that this related to the West End Partnership Programme which is subject to review and will be reported to Cabinet and Council in October and November as part of the review of the Council’s Capital Programme.  The City Treasurer clarified that current expenditure on the Oxford Street district approach is being funded through the revenue budget rather than via capital expenditure.

 

4.5       The Committee asked when the Capital Programme Management Office (PMO) is due to start operating.  Barbara Brownlee, Executive Director, Growth, Planning and Housing, explained that the office started operating in June and consists of three directly employed staff which will monitor and report on the Council’s whole capital spend, including social value commitments, VFM capital spend and physical progress.  She advised that it will start producing reports in the autumn and that an update on its work can be reported to the Committee at the same time.

 

4.6       Julia Corkey, Director of Policy, Performance and Communications, introduced a year end report that presented detailed performance results for the year April 2017 to March 2018 against the 2017/18 business plans.  The report set out how the Council performed against the City for All priorities and included progress towards achieving the deliverables and targets within the Business Plans. The information presented was reported by exception and focused on those areas of notable achievement or concern where action/intervention is likely to be required. The report also provided early views into the challenges that await in 2018/19.

 

4.7       The featured insight for the quarter focused on the diversity of Westminster’s workforce.  The Committee noted that in 2018 63% of Council staff have not recorded a disability statement and that just under 20% have not recorded their ethnicity.  Members commented that this made it difficult to accurately determine the diversity of the Council’s workforce.  The Committee asked how the Council intends to deliver an increase in the level of recorded information which should include sexual orientation.  Lee Witham, Director of People Services, explained that the transfer of Managed Services for Finance, HR and Payroll from BT to the Hampshire County Council Partnership offers an opportunity for the Council to undertake a piece of work to fill in this information gap.  The benefit of gathering this is that it will enable the Council to better address issues such as under-representation of BME and female staff in senior positions.  The Committee was of the view that to encourage participation the communications should emphasise this.  The tone of the message will also be important to avoid dissuading people.  Members also suggested that some members of staff may not identify with the current classification options and therefore the ability for individuals to submit alternatives should be included. Julia Corkey advised that there are a number of representative groups within the Council and that testing with them will be undertaken prior to any communications launch to ensure that a positive message is reflected. 

 

4.8       The Committee then discussed the 2018 diversity results. The Chief Executive stated that the Council needs to understand why it underperforms in this area and examine what better performing local authorities are doing across the piece.  He stated that the Council needs to look at how it can actively encourage applications for senior positions from BME’s where historically it has received few, if any.  Members noted that Westminster has the fifth highest gender pay gap out of London boroughs and asked about the reasons for this.  The Director of People Services stated that women’s hourly mean rate at Westminster is 9.8% lower than mens.  The Council needs to better understand the reasons behind this although he advised one explanation is that historically there have been fewer women in senior positions in the Council.  To close the gap the Council has held workshops to try to understand what the barriers are and then look at opportunities that it can offer to address them.  He further advised that the Council is reviewing a range of HR policies including its maternity pay.  The Council wants to be a competitive, family friendly employer and it needs to look at how it can improve its current offer. 

 

4.9       The committee then considered the overall performance of the City Council and submitted questions to individual members of the Executive Leadership Team on performance within their directorates.  This included the top achievements and challenges at year end and key performance indicators for attention that are critical to the Council's performance which have either missed the ideal target or only met the minimum standard.

 

4.10    Members commented in respect of the top accomplishments by the Council that whilst the transition of Adults, Children’s and Public Health Services from a Tri-borough to a Bi-borough model had been completed it was too early to state that this has been a success this has been as there is insufficient output at present to make such an assessment.

 

4.11    With regards to the key performance indicators for attention, the Committee asked officers for further explanation why the ideal targets had been missed or only the minimum standards met.

 

            Adult Social Care

 

4.12    KPI - Percentage of clients who require long-term service after completing a reablement package: Bernie Flaherty, Bi-borough Executive Director for Adult Social Care and Health, explained that the Council had set itself a challenging target and that the 30% position achieved at year end is considered good across London.

 

4.13    KPI - Total number of new permanent admissions to residential/nursing care of people aged 65 years and over: Bernie Flaherty explained that the target is set to reflect the desire of those aged 65 years and over to live at home.  Due to developing complex requirements, however, more people will ask to move into residential care. Therefore meeting the measure will continue to be challenging.

 

            Children’s Services

 

4.14    KPI - Number of social care contracts that go on to early help: Ian Heggs, Borough Director of Schools, explained that this this is a new local measure for 2017/18 for which the service did not have a baseline. As this work is in its first year this year’s performance will help to set future targets. He advised that the ideal target of 20% had been set quite high.  Having an Early Help manager in the front door will ensure that thresholds are consistently applied.

 

            Growth, Planning and Housing

 

4.15    KPI - New enterprise space created: Barbara Brownlee explained that the new enterprise space is being delivered in partnership with stakeholders. Only a small proportion of the funding is being provided by the Council. Only 1000 sq feet had been delivered at year end against a target of 40,000 sq feet due in part to a change in landlord at Paddington Works and a squatter at Ingestre Court. Mitigation measures were being progressed in both cases to unblock delays in the delivery of the schemes.

 

4.16    KPI - Connect 1000 businesses to super and ultrafast broadband: Members asked how the voucher scheme is publicised as a few businesses reported that they had only come across it by accident. Barbara Brownlee advised that the Council uses many third parties such as BIDs, Cross River Partnership and business partnerships to promote and encourage applications. She explained that despite the receipt of applications small and medium-sized enterprises are failing to provide sufficient evidence to meet the European Regional Development Fund evidencing requirements. She stated that the Council needs to consider how it can better facilitate take up. Greater success may be achieved through grouping businesses together. She confirmed that connection would be all the way into the businesses’ premises.

           

City Management and Communities

 

4.17    KPI - Number of hazards removed from residential dwellings which pose a serious and immediate threat to people’s health or safety: Richard Barker, Interim Executive Director for City Management and Communities, explained that the target had been missed as the Residential Services Team had been under significant pressure during what had been a unique year as it separately responded to government requirements around fire safety investigations and inspections in the wake of the Grenfell Tower Fire.

 

4.18    KPI - Percentage of total licences issued within 28 days from the publication date of the Licensing Sub-Committee decision: Richard Barker explained that the target was missed due to staff shortages as a result of officers leaving the Council. He reported that staffing levels had since improved and that in the first quarter of this current financial year 88% of licences had been issued within the 28 day target.

 

4.19    The committee then asked for further information on a range of key service updates against the 2017/18 performance business plans.

 

4.20    Mr Heggs was referred to the fact that the Minerva Free School which would be closing at the end of the week had been due to occupy a development site at Paddington Basin.  He was asked what will now happen to the site.  Mr Heggs explained that the decision to close the school has been supported by the Secretary of State for Education. The Council has provided alternative primary school places at nearby schools for all families of students. The decision regarding the future educational use of the site is a matter for the Department for Education (DfE). The Council has been in discussions with the DfE and has explained that there is a pressure in the borough for secondary rather than primary school places.

 

4.21    Members welcomed the results relating to the percentage of carriageway and footway defects repaired or made safe within 24 hours but expressed  disappointment over the quality and responsiveness of TfL to repairs of manhole covers and gullies on roads that it manages. Mr Barker advised that the Council has relationships on a number of fronts with TfL and works to encourage them to undertake works on their roads more speedily and to a better standard.

 

4.22    Mr Barker was asked whether the Council achieved full cost recovery for supplying RBKC and LBHF’s contractors with 51 tonnes of grit during the peak snowfall period? The Chief Executive advised that the Council has a mutual aid recovery agreement with neighbouring local authorities where only the cost of the salt is charged for.

                                                                                                                                      

4.23    The Committee noted that all three targets relating to the City Survey (keeping residents informed) had been missed at year end. Julia Corkey advised that despite the outcome, 65% of residents feeling informed about services and benefits was still a good result. She explained that there had been changes in year regarding residents’ preferred channels of communication. The service area will undertake a review so that it can better understand where and how best to communicate with residents.

 

4.24    Members suggested that future quarterly monitoring reports should include other risks to the Westminster economy. The Chief Executive agreed that only risks that have some certainty of occurring and which the Council can mitigate against should be included.

 

4.25    ACTIONS: 

 

            Finance Period 2 Monitoring Report

 

            Capital Programme Management Office – The Committee would like an update in one year’s time on the outcomes and outputs of this project (Action for:  City Treasurer/Committee and Governance Services)

 

            2017/18 End of Year Performance Report

 

1.            Performance achievements and opportunities – Westminster’s Employment Service has supported 881 unemployed residents into work.  The Committee would like to know how many of the residents are still in employment after six months (the current sustainment measure).

 

2.            Performance challenges - Westminster accounts for 7% of all hate crime incidents in London and this has increased by 44% over the last 2 years.  The Committee would like a breakdown of the increase by year and by type of incident to understand the trend pattern.  It would also like a standing update on hate crime in future quarterly monitoring reports.

 

3.            Growth, Planning and Housing – Local Full Fibre Network Funding – The Committee would like clarity on whether the aim to connect 9,500 premises and 80,000 addressable premises covers all Westminster residential properties?

 

4.            Policy Performance and Communications – Community Contribution Scheme - Provide Councillor Boothroyd with a breakdown of the individual contribution values and the dates they were received.

 

(Action for: Mo Rahman, Evaluation and Performance Analyst, Evaluation and Performance team)

 

                       

Supporting documents: