Agenda item

Sarah McCall, Performance Officer, presented the submitted report which summarised RBT’s performance against contractual measures and key service delivery issues for December, 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

-              Average waiting time for face-to-face customers had significantly improved – 95.5% of customers being seen within 15 minutes

-              Revenues and Benefits customer contact was improving with a reduction to 15.49% of telephone calls being abandoned.  Waiting times for Revenues and Benefits telephone customers achieved 44.10% of calls answered in 21 seconds

-              Revised performance measures had now been agreed in principle.  Subject to RBT concluding any remaining issues with trade unions, it was expected that the Business Process Re-engineering work would now progress

-              2 complaints received in December, both closed as upheld,  relating to the Cashier Service

-              RBT currently developing options for the staffing of Aston Joint Service Centre and for incorporating cashiers within the wider customer services network

-              Office launch event scheduled for the MacMillan Welfare Rights Project on 29^th January, 2010

Human Resources and Payroll

-              All performance targets achieved

-              Maltby Academy was set up on PSE as a new organisation in readiness for transfer of employees from Maltby Comprehensive School to the new Academy in January

-              Version 9 of Yourself was due for release in February

ICT

-              Achievement of performance targets for the ICT Service in December, 2009, 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

-              Eric Manns Building re-opened in December, 2009, and had VOIP throughout together with a wireless network to enable flexible working

-              RBT, ICT and EDS had been working with an external company to design the audio-visual infrastructure for the refurbished Town Hall

-              ICT specification for the new Civic Building completed in December, 2009, and passed to the building contractors

Procurement

-              All performance targets achieved with the exception of PO6 (% of orders placed against electronic catalogue framework agreements) which achieved 17.85% against a target of 19%.  Performance was expected to increase to normal levels during January

-              Former BVP18 achieved 95.49% in December, 2009, an improvement on 2008.  Average performance to date stood at 94.38%

-              Procurement savings for the period to the end of November, 2009, were £216,195

Revenues and Benefits

-              Council Tax Collection Rate 81.12% at the end of December, 2009, 0.34% lower than the same point in 2008 once the impact of comparative timing of Direct Debts run over the Christmas period had been taken into account

-              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 3,079 Council Tax Liability Orders referred to the bailiff during the financial year.  Currently 21.8% of the total bailiff caseload with Council Tax arrears were making regular payments by arrangement whilst a further 8.2% 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 14.83 days, slightly above the 14 days target and down on the position at the end of November when the average was 12.45 days

-              NNDR collection rate was 88.79% at the end of December, 2009, 0.87% down on the same point in 2008.  The situation was distorted by the comparative timing of Direct Debit runs over the Christmas period.  The figure was also adjusted to incorporate the affect of the NNDR Deferral

-              368 Business Rates Liability Orders had been referred to the bailiff in the current financial year up to the end of December, 2009.  currently 12.7% of the total bailiff caseload with NNDR arrears were making regular payments by arrangements whilst a further 6.6% had had their cases put on hold at the request of the Council

-              As at the end of November, 2009, there were 340 live cases on the NNDR Deferral Scheme, allowing deferral of £467,291

-              The average time taken to process HB/CTB New Claims and Change Events continued to be closely monitored.  As at 2^nd January, 2010, the figure was 12.90 days

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