To consider the report.

Adele Taylor, Director of Resources, introduced the report. She explained that the interim council strategy was in place until the summer, with the quarterly performance reports focussing on this strategy. Of the nine performance indicators:

·         Three were green and exceeding expectations.

·         Five were amber and were meeting expectations.

·         One was red and was not meeting expectations.

There had been challenges for the council to get back to its normal performance levels but there had been evidence of month on month improvement on things like calls answered within 60 seconds, which was now amber and meeting expectations. The number of calls abandoned after 5 seconds was green, while revenue and benefits targets continued to improve. The performance indicator which was red was for the volume of visitors to libraries, which reflected the fact that libraries had not been open due to lockdown. The library team had worked hard to adapt services, for example click and collect, which meant that this target had improved.

The Chairman thanked officers for the report and also for the report being circulated to the Panel early. The Panel had requested that performance reports were circulated once they were ready so that Members could review them closer to the time period in which they reflected. The Chairman asked if the challenges facing the revenues and benefits team had been similar to earlier in the year.

Adele Taylor said that it was difficult to answer at this stage but the pandemic had caused a number of issues at the beginning of the year.

The Chairman believed that the Crucial Conversations programme, which had been rolled out across the council for all staff, was an excellent idea but noticed that 73% of the workforce had attended a session. The Chairman queried why this figure was not higher, given that the sessions were compulsory for staff.

Nikki Craig, Head of HR, Corporate Projects and IT, said that they would expect the figure to be higher but for a number of reasons, including leavers and employees on maternity, some staff had not yet attended a session. Karl Joseph in Human Resources had trained a number of staff to run the sessions across the organisation, it was hoped that the programme would continue over the coming months and on an ongoing basis to allow more staff to attend a session.

Councillor Cannon joined the meeting.

Councillor Sharpe said that the libraries were an issue and wondered how usage of them could be driven upwards over the coming months. There would be a big need for library’s going forward.

Adele Taylor said that for the first quarter of the year, the libraries were physically closed due to the lockdown. The library team had been working hard and libraries were now starting to reopen. Some online events had also been organised, with a recent event with an author attending a session with over 300 people. The library team would look to continue to offer more of these events going forward.

Councillor L Jones commented that the interim council strategy was for 2021 and asked if officers were looking to do a three year or five year strategy. Linking the performance with the environment and climate strategy, Councillor L Jones asked who was involved with that. There was also concern about positions that were covered by agency staff which was consistently high and also the number of voluntary leavers across the council. Councillor L Jones had noted that the summary for each section was not in the same order across the report and asked if this could be changed for the next report so that there was consistency, which would make it easier to read.

Adele Taylor said that she would pass the comment on the report summary on to the team that produced the report. For the question on voluntary leavers, Adele Taylor said that she would provide a written response to the Panel after the meeting. Plans were in place to bring forward the Corporate Strategy which would be completed early in the next municipal year.

ACTION – Adele Taylor to provide written response to the Panel after the meeting.

Councillor Haseler gave his thanks to officers who achieved the good results in the performance report. He asked if there was a breakdown on individual service areas for contacts made by digital forms.

Adele Taylor confirmed that there was more detailed operational information but this would be a significant amount of data to share with the Panel.

Councillor Rayner, Lead Member for Resident & Leisure Services, HR, IT, Legal, Performance Management and Windsor, explained that the libraries had reopened last week. The team had been working hard to get the footfall back and there was a feeling that residents were happy to be back in the libraries. Councillor Rayner thanked Adele Taylor and her team for the report which showed that the council was in a strong position.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel noted the report and:

i)             Noted the 2020/21 Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel Q3 Performance Report in Appendix A.

ii)            Requested relevant Lead Members, Directors and Heads of Service to maintain focus on improving performance.