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 February, 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

-              Efficiency and effectiveness of Customer Services remained low (39% efficiency for face-to-face services and 48% for telephony services).  The Transformation and Strategic Partnerships Team was working closely with RBT to generate improvements in this area

-              8 complaints had been received with 4 closed as upheld, 3 not upheld and 1 complaint ongoing

-              Training to up-skill existing registration staff in the Tell Us Once service to take place throughout March and April

-              Registration Service submitted its application for New Governance status

-              Revenues and Benefits Business Process Re-engineering was moving forward.  New arrangements anticipated to be place by July, 2010

-              Notification from the Primary Care Trust that they would not be in a position to fund the Welfare Rights Service in the new financial year

Human Resources and Payroll

-               All performance targets achieved with the exception of HRO2, Accuracy of Payment (99.09% against a target of 99.5%).  This was due to the Systems Team not having picked up that a change to coding tables had resulted in inaccurate calculation.  Although this had been identified and dealt with, under the terms of the Service Level Agreement, it had to be recorded as a failure

-              Yourself release version 9 released on 1^st March

-              Live install of PSe V4.1 scheduled for 12^th March

-              Meeting arranged with Abacus Ltd. regarding the latest version release of the ‘Recruit’ software

-              Auto timesheet now live with the pilot schools

-              School Workforce Census format amended causing additional development work to provide the information

-              Further development of the PSe tables to reflect the change to current car mileage rates

-              Continued training courses for employees using VOIP telephony

-              Talent Pool process commenced

-              Review of the HR Service Centre Management structure and the HR Consultancy Teams to commence during March

-              Version 10 of YourSelf due in June, 2010

ICT

-              All performance targets achieved

-              There was no centrally funded server refresh programme as was the case for desktop PCs.  RMBC was currently virtualising its servers in preparation for the migration to the new data centre in the new Civic Building

-              New 1 GB network link between Civic and Bailey House had been ordered to replace the incumbent link which ran through Crinoline House.  This would be live by the end of April

-              All staff had been asked to open their Outlook calendars as a more agile way of working was adopted

-              All staff had been asked to reduce the amount of documents printed

Procurement

-              All performance targets achieved

-              Former BVP18 achieved 97.69% in February, 2010, an improvement on 2009.  Average performance to date stood at 94.62%

-              Procurement savings for the period to the end of February, 2010, were £326,579

Revenues and Benefits

-              Council Tax Collection Rate 94.86% at the end of February, 2010, 0.13% 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

-              The shortfall was currently less than the predicted figure and it remained possible that the final outturn may be better than anticipated

-              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 3,579 Council Tax Liability Orders referred to the bailiff during the financial year.  Currently 20.2% of the total bailiff caseload with Council Tax arrears were making regular payments by arrangement whilst a further 13.7% 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 12.24 days, an improvement on the position reported previously and better than the performance level which the service aimed to achieve i.e. 14 days

-              NNDR collection rate was 95.93% at the end of February, 2010, 1.18% 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 was awaiting payment.  In early March the relevant balance was cleared and, consequently, the shortfall in collection, compared to 2008/09, had since narrowed considerably.  As previously, the figure was also adjusted to incorporate the affect of the NNDR Deferral

-              430 Business Rates Liability Orders had been referred to the bailiff in the current financial year up to the end of February, 2010.  Currently 12.9% of the total bailiff caseload with NNDR arrears were making regular payments by arrangements whilst a further 11.4% had had their cases put on hold at the request of the Council

-              As at the end of February, 2010, there were 299 live cases on the NNDR Deferral Scheme, allowing deferral of £463,243.73

-              The average time taken to process HB/CTB New Claims and Change Events continued to be closely monitored.  As at 28th  February, 2010, the figure was 12.86 days and improvement on the last reported figure

Discussion also took place on:-

-              Work being undertaken to explore the feasibility of delivering Registration processes via Customer Service Centre advisors

-              Procurement savings

-              The need for a definition of “local” with regard to procurement.  The Procurement Panel had agreed that a performance clinic be convened to discuss this issue further

It was noted that the Council Tax Collection outturn figure for 2009/10 was 97.1% and 98.3% for NNDR.  The Chairman wished to place on record his appreciation and recognition of the hard work that had taken place to achieve these outcomes.

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

(2)  That a more detailed update on the Revenues and Benefits Business Process Re-engineering be submitted as part of the next performance report.