Agenda item

Sarah McCall, Performance Officer, presented the submitted report which summarised RBT’s performance against contractual measures and key service delivery issues for January, 2010, 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 with the exception of CAO5 (contact not abandoned – telephony) which achieved only 80.77% against a target of 90%

-              Efficiency and effectiveness of face-to-face services remained low (36.2%).  The Transformation and Strategic Partnerships was working closely with RBT on improvements in this area

-              5 complaints had been received with 3 ongoing and 2 closed as upheld

-              New Welfare Rights and Money Advice Manager to commence on 8^th March

Human Resources and Payroll

-              All performance targets achieved

-              Technical development to allow for automatic write back of timesheet information to PSE now complete

-              Version 10 YourSelf release due in June, 2010

ICT

-              Achievement of performance targets for the ICT Service in January, 2010, was currently being reviewed by the ICT Client as there were several instances of downtime affecting critical systems during the period not reflected in the performance reports from RBT

-              Continued VOIP rollout progress

-              Principles of BS25999 to be adopted, the core of which was a Business Impact Assessment, which would allow review of the most important corporate services and activities and identify what processes were required to support

-              New website went live on 6^th January

Procurement

-              All performance targets achieved with the exception of PO3 (% of undisputed invoices for commercial goods and services that were input within 25 calendar days of receipt) which achieved 98.96% against a target of 99.22%.

-              Former BVP18 achieved 93.71% in January, 2010, an improvement on 2009.  Average performance to date stood at 94.31%

-              Procurement savings for the period to the end of December, 2009, were £330,278.68

Revenues and Benefits

-              Council Tax Collection Rate 92.19% at the end of January, 2010, 0.45% lower than the same point in 2008/09.  Latest forecasts by RBT suggest that the final collection rate at 31^st March, 2010 could be 0.24% down on last year

-              Overtime continued to be worked and, together with the strict recovery timetable, hoped that any shortfall in collection, compared with the previous year, would be addressed by the end of March, 2010

-              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%

-              There had been 3,306 Council Tax Liability Orders referred to the bailiff during the financial year.  Currently 21.3% of the total bailiff caseload with Council Tax arrears were making regular payments by arrangement whilst a further 13.4% had had their cases put on hold at the request of the Council. 

-              Average number of days taken to action a Council Tax Change of Circumstance was 15.14 days, slightly above the 14 days target and down on the position at the end of December when the average was 14.83 days

-              NNDR collection rate was 94.95% at the end of January, 2010, 0.48% down on the same point in 2008/09.  A large rateable value increase in respect of 1 business had added approximately £850,000 to the debit and, assuming the balance was collected, would obviously improve performance.  However, there were also a number of write offs still to be actioned which would influence the overall position in a negative direction.  As previously, the figure was also adjusted to incorporate the affect of the NNDR Deferral

-              380 Business Rates Liability Orders had been referred to the bailiff in the current financial year up to the end of January, 2010.  currently 12.8% of the total bailiff caseload with NNDR arrears were making regular payments by arrangements whilst a further 13.0% had had their cases put on hold at the request of the Council

-              As at the end of December, 2010, there were 352 live cases on the NNDR Deferral Scheme, allowing deferral of £472,430

-              The average time taken to process HB/CTB New Claims and Change Events continued to be closely monitored.  As at 31st  January, 2010, the figure was 13.33 days

It was noted that the failure of CAO5 was attributed to significantly increased Contact Centre call volumes due to adverse weather conditions (219% increase to the Streetpride Service).  Strategic Measures CAS5 had also been impacted upon by the volumes with only 62% of customers having their call answered within target.

Discussion also took place on:-

-              the TUPE transfer of employees from Ringway Grounds Maintenance and associated issues

-              downtime affecting critical systems

-              Servers

-              Increased case load for Housing Benefits and Council Tax

Resolved:-   (1)  That RBT’s performance against contractual measures and key service delivery issues for January, 2010, be noted.

(2)  That the next report include an update on the situation with regard to servers.