Agenda item

Mark Gannon, Transformation & Strategic Partnerships Manager, presented the submitted report which summarised RBT’s performance against contractual measures and key service delivery issues for October, 2009, across the areas of Customer Access, Human Resources and Payroll, ICT, Procurement and Revenue and Benefits.

Key points for this period included:-

Customer Access

-              All performance targets achieved

-              Productivity measures had been measured for a second month and positive actions were being taken to increase levels

-              New Legislation came into force on 16^th November, 2009, which meant that registrars must check the General Council Register before registering a death to ensure that the doctor who signed the certificate was licenced to practice at the time of signing.  This would increase the transaction time for dealing with bereavements

-              The Client Team were currently reviewing the proposed Revenues and Benefits business process re-engineering project

Human Resources and Payroll

-              All performance targets achieved

-              Millside Learning and Development Centre officially transferred to RBT management on 1^st October, 2009 with 3 Strategic HR employees transferring on 19^th October, 2009

-              The Orgplus software successfully implemented during October.  The new software would facilitate the automation of establishment changes and also give basic management information in an easy to understand chart format

ICT

-              All performance targets achieved

-              Crinoline House decant ongoing

-              Annual ICT Customer Satisfaction Survey showed a 80% satisfaction rate, 13% neither satisfied or dissatisfied and 7% dissatisfied

Procurement

-              All performance targets achieved

-              Former BVP18 achieved 92.22% in October, 2009, an improvement on 2008.  Average performance to date stood at 94.06%

-              Procurement savings for the period to the end of September, 2009, were £260,000

Revenues and Benefits

-              Council Tax Collection Rate 65.14% at the end of October, 2009, 0.49% lower than the same point in 2008

-              The target for 2009/10 continued to be a Council Tax Collection Rate which placed Rotherham in the upper performance quartile for Metropolitan District Councils with a minimum collection level of 97.0%

-              Average number of days taken to action a Council Tax Change of Circumstance was 15.09 days, above the 14 days target and linked to the current high volumes of work outstanding.  RBT had arranged for staff overtime between now and Christmas

-              As at October, 2009 68.22% people paid their Council Tax by direct debit.  The comparative point in 2008/09 was 67.82%

-              NNDR collection rate was 69.58% at the end of October, 2009, 0.16% down on the same point in 2008

-              This was the collection rate before the £456,764 that had been deferred under the NNDR Deferral Scheme had been deducted; once this was factored into the calculation the collection rate rose to 70.05%

-              More than £0.5M of advance payments had been received at the end of October

-              As at the end of October, 2009, 415 deferral applications had been received; 321 had been granted allowing deferral of £456,764 which businesses would have to repay in the next 2 tax years.  A further 94 applications had been refused

-              Central government had now issued guidance confirming that the ‘headline’ collection rate performance figure that should be reported at the end of the financial year would be the figure net of the deferred amounts as those were designated as not collectable in that year

-              Average time taken to process HB/CTB New Claims and Change Events continued to be a cause of concern.  As at 25^th October, 2009, it was 12.08 days

Resolved:-  That RBT’s performance against contractual measures and key service delivery issues for October, 2009, be noted.