To consider the performance monitoring report.

Rebecca Hatch, Head of Strategy, said the report would be split into three elements. An update would be provided on the new performance monitoring arrangements following the adoption of the new Corporate Plan, there would be a brief overview of Q3 performance and finally an introduction to the new Citizens Portal. The new Corporate Plan set out three overarching objectives along with 50 specific goals which RBWM would look to achieve over the next five years. Officers had been working hard to achieve the goals set out in the plan and had been considering relevant milestones and metrics with which to show progress against the goals. This information had been brought together to create the performance monitoring Citizens Portal. The goals were primarily focused on outcomes, with a small number of goals focused inwards which considered the council as an organisation and how it was viewed by residents. As had been discussed at the January 2022 meeting, the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel would have a key responsibility in the oversight of the process. The Panel would receive quarterly performance reports, with reporting by exception so that there was focus on areas where there had been challenges. The first report would be brought forward at the July 2022 meeting. Officers would be encouraging Members to review the data on the Citizens Portal so that progress could be viewed independently. The role of the Panel would be to review the performance against the plan, the Panel could make recommendations to other Panels if required for further scrutiny and consideration. Further data and support would be provided by officers for any review and the Panel could look to make recommendations on how performance could be improved.

 

Councillor Sharpe commented on the proposal for reporting to be by exception, so that issues would be flagged up by officers where they arose. He asked if a goal was amber for a long time, would this be flagged up to the Panel.

 

Rebecca Hatch said that Members would be able to review the performance of all of the goals from the Corporate Plan on the Citizens Portal, officers would choose a selection of goals which they felt should be highlighted to the Panel. This would include, for example, goals which were felt could turn amber.

 

Councillor Werner asked if things could be flagged up by Members and brought to the meeting, he asked if there was assurance that relevant officers would attend Panel meetings to answer any questions from the Panel.

 

The Chairman commented that timing was important, questions from the Panel could be asked of officers but Members needed to allow officers time to give factual information. If questions came at the meeting, it could lead to more questions needing to be answered offline after the meeting.

 

Councillor Werner said the issue was timing, Members only received the agenda a week before the meeting.

 

Adele Taylor, Executive Director of Resources, said that the Citizens Portal would allow Members to review trends over previous months, which would allow questions to be asked in good time.

 

Councillor L Jones suggested that it would be useful to have presentations offline before the meeting. This would then allow Members to be more informed when attending the meeting, this would add value to the Panel. On metrics, Councillor L Jones said that the Panel had not had any input into what metrics would be used. She said that the Panel should have been consulted on the metrics and milestones to be used before the portal went live.

 

Councillor Sharpe asked if the portal would only consider data moving forward, or if it would also include previous data when it went live.

 

Rebecca Hatch said that historic data would be included, where it existed. Some metrics were new and therefore current data did not exist, while others would need to establish a baseline. On the question asked by Councillor L Jones, Rebecca Hatch responded by saying that metrics had been decided by officers for practical reasons, the portal would soon be live and there would be a Member briefing next week which would also consist of a question and answer session. The portal was the start of the process, more information would be added to the portal over time.

 

The Chairman said that the portal would be a useful tool for Members, he agreed that it was a process that would be developed over time.

 

Councillor L Jones said it was a shame that the Panel did not have knowledge of the metrics before the portal went live, she felt that the Panel should have been involved earlier in the process.

 

Adele Taylor said that this was a new way of working and the practicalities needed to be considered. It was a big leap forward but officers should be able to see what was working and change anything that was not. Ideally, the system would have been tested in advance but this was not possible. This was not the end of the conversation, the Panel would be able to guide officers.

 

Councillor Rayner, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Business, Corporate and Resident Services, Culture and Heritage, and Windsor, said that the Corporate Plan was a huge piece of work. The portal was the start of the process and she was pleased to see it going live shortly.

 

Councillor Werner raised a point of order, he did not feel that the Cabinet Member was answering any questions or giving additional information which would help aide the Panel. He did not feel the contribution was appropriate.

 

The Chairman understood the point made by Councillor Werner but noted that the Cabinet Member was speaking in relation to the point raised on the criteria for how metrics had been selected.

 

Councillor Hilton, Cabinet Member for Asset Management and Commercialisation, Finance, and Ascot, said that the portal could be accessed by any resident in the borough. This was a good way of publicly opening up data and improving transparency.

 

Councillor Werner raised a further point of order, he did not feel that the contribution from the Cabinet Member was appropriate.

 

The Chairman said that he welcomed clarity and explanation from Cabinet Members, he was trying to allow everyone watching the meeting the opportunity to understand what was being proposed.

 

Councillor L Jones reiterated her point that the presentation could have been delivered in advance of the meeting, the point of the meeting was to allow Panel Members to ask questions.

 

The Chairman said that he had taken these comments on board, the work being delivered was about to go live.

 

Councillor Werner said that he welcomed the approach of the new Chairman. He felt that the previous Chairman of the Panel had blocked discussion on certain topics. Councillor Werner commented on the financial detail and the value for money, he asked when savings from this would be delivered.

 

Councillor Luxton did not feel that the comments from Councillor Werner on the previous Chairman of the Panel were fair or appropriate.

 

The Chairman said that all Chairman worked hard to try and balance all interests, he said that he would do his best to be as fair and balanced as possible.

 

Adele Taylor, responding to the question from Councillor Werner, said that she would pick the point up as part of the Finance Update agenda item. Value for money was one of the measures which could be tracked on the portal.

 

Adele Taylor moved on to outline the Q3 performance report. All targets were green other than two, one was amber and one was red. Council tax collection was amber and was slightly behind target, while business rate collection was behind target due to the various government schemes which had been introduced over the course of the pandemic. Despite this, RBWM had kept its target on business rate collection the same which was why it seemed like it was off target.

 

Councillor L Jones commented on the percentage voluntary turnover, she believed that the aim was to be below target.

 

Nikki Craig, Head of HR, Corporate Projects and IT, responded by explaining that it was still within tolerance and the target was low.

 

Councillor L Jones said it was around 2% higher than the target, therefore this should be considered as amber.

 

Nikki Craig added that considering the trajectory across the whole year the target would be green. She added that she was happy to confirm this after the meeting with Councillor L Jones.

 

ACTION – Nikki Craig to confirm if the percentage of voluntary turnover would be on target according to the trajectory.

 

Adele Taylor added that it was a cumulative figure, officers expected it to be within the target by the end of the year.

 

Nikki Craig said that the data was usually presented in a graph which was clear to see the trajectory.

 

Councillor L Jones said it would be helpful to see the graph, especially where the figure was cumulative.

 

Councillor Sharpe asked if anything was a concern for officers in the Q3 performance report.

 

Adele Taylor replied by saying the targets that were off were due to Covid, everything else was green. It had been a pressured year for the council and it had performed well in the circumstances.

 

The Chairman said that he understood the distortion that government grants had on the business rate collection target. He suggested, where possible, it would be useful for the Panel to have some clarity on this going forward.

 

Councillor Werner commented that Covid needed to be considered, it had been difficult for the council to operate in its usual way. He wanted to see ambition and said that stretch targets could be needed, it was easy to achieve a low target so the council should look to see if it could stretch itself as a result. It would be useful to see previous years performance so that the data could be compared. On calls answered after a certain period of time, Councillor Werner had noted that this target was now within two minutes which was easier to achieve compared to the old target.

 

Adele Taylor said that the right metric needed to be set, it did not matter how fast a call was answered, the quality of the call was the most important thing to consider. The target had been discussed and RBWM needed to be realistic about its priorities and how well resourced it was.

 

Rachel Kinniburgh, Service Lead – Strategic Policy, Performance and Insights, gave a demonstration of the Citizens Portal to the Panel. She said that the portal would be accessible on a separate webpage which would be linked through from the RBWM main website.

 

Councillor L Jones asked how many items were on each page of the portal.

 

Rebecca Hatch said that the 50 goals had been split between the three overarching objectives. She added that the template could be better but it was easy to use.

 

Rachel Kinniburgh added that it was a standard template from the supplier and a lot of the ambition for the portal was not currently possible. Officers had held positive discussions with the supplier about how to improve the portal in the future.

 

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

 

i)             Noted the new performance management arrangements and the progress made since publication of the Corporate Plan; and considered the future role of Corporate Overview and Scrutiny in monitoring performance.

 

ii)            Provided feedback on the new public-facing dashboard, ‘the Citizen’s Portal’.

 

iii)           Noted the Q3 Performance Summary (October-December 2021).