Agenda item

The first part of this report provides an analysis of the Council’s performance in the fourth quarter of 2016/17 in the service areas of Finance, Strategic HR and Complaints. Annexe 1 to the report details performance against key indicators. Annexe 2 gives outturn performance on the Service Plan objectives for 2016/17.

The second part of this report serves as a discussion item and asks the Committee to consider their future requirements on performance monitoring.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Customer Service & Value for Money Overview & Scrutiny Committee:

1.      Considers the performance figures for Quarter 4 as set out in Annexe 1, and agrees any observations or recommendations about performance and progress towards targets it wishes to make to the Executive; and

2.      Considers how performance monitoring should be achieved in 2017/18 and agrees a way forward.

Nora Copping, Policy and Performance Officer, introduced the Performance Management Report to the Committee. In regard to time taken to process Housing Benefit support new claims, it was noted that the processing time had increased slightly due to increased end of year workload, however this was still within target. The percentage of Council Tax collected also showed very good performance, particularly in relation to other Surrey districts. The performance in relation to percentage of invoices paid with 30 days had dropped slightly however it was noted that the criteria for this indicator would change in 2017/18 to pay invoices in accordance with supplier terms.

The average number of working days lost due to sickness absence per employee had improved but was still outside the target of 1.38 days. The number of complaints had increased from Quarter 3 which had been exceptionally low, however it was noted that the number of complaints received annually was 10% lower than other South East Councils.

The Service Plan Annual Outturn Report 2016/17 showed that 63 out of 68 actions had been achieved, with the remaining 5 to be carried forward to 2017/18.

Louise Norie, Corporate Policy Manager, also invited the Committee to consider how the reporting of performance indicators could be improved going forward. She stated that the Committee currently received a good number of indicators, but that the majority of these related to ‘value for money’ rather than ‘customer service’. She suggested that it might be useful to have a baseline of customer satisfaction against which to measure customer service.

The Committee felt that it only needed to receive indicators on an exception basis, and there were differing views as to whether the trend analysis should be presented quarterly or annually; overall more members expressed a preference to retain the quarterly trend analysis. The Committee also emphasised the importance of having a consistent approach between all Overview and Scrutiny Committees so as to make the best use of officer time. Cllr Nasir also suggested that the other indicators (non-exception) could be circulated to Members for information outside of the committee environment.

The Committee noted that while outcome measures were often harder to collect, they would provide a better indication of performance and requested that officers focus on this. In terms of Customer Service, it was agreed that it would be useful to get a baseline of customer satisfaction. Cllr Martin suggested utilising a survey already conducted by Surrey County Council however Cllr Townsend was concerned that this method might dilute the Waverley ‘brand’. Another suggestion was to include a customer satisfaction survey  in the ‘Your Waverley’ magazine combined with an online version on the survey. While there was some concern that surveys didn’t always provide representative feedback, the Committee agreed that it was most important to collect customer feedback. Robin Taylor informed the Committee that work had been undertaken to make the Citizens' Panel surveys more representative. Officers agreed to investigate the various options further and would bring back suggestions for establishing a customer satisfaction baseline.

Members also felt that that there should be a clear link between performance indicators and service plan and corporate plan objectives.