Agenda item

The Scrutiny and Overview Committee considered a report on South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Quarter Four (Q4) position regarding its operational Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and 2020-25 Business Plan actions.

At the Chair’s invitation, the Head of Transformation, HR and Corporate Services gave Members an overview of the results from the Customer Contact Centre’s recent mystery shopper exercise that the Committee had requested last year. The Committee noted that South Cambridgeshire District Council had achieved a rating of “+43” as against an average of “-36” at the group of local authorities against which it had been benchmarked. In response to concern raised by Councillor Heather Williams, the Corporate Programme Manager outlined the steps taken to support Contact Centre staff during the exercise. Councillor Judith Rippeth suggested that when a follow-up exercise takes place, account should be taken of the Council’s extended opening hours where they occur.

Following a comment, officers undertook to explore ways of presenting graphical information in a way that enabled the Scrutiny and Overview Committee to identify trends while at the same time recognising the more strategic requirements of Cabinet.

With regard to CC307 (average call answer time (seconds)) the Lead Cabinet Member for Resources reiterated the reason for the March figure with reference to the narrative.

Referring to the amber Business Plan measure (completion of the measure has been delayed but is on track to be delivered by a revised delivery date) at the end of Q4, the Lead Cabinet Member for Resources assured the Committee that the remaining measures would be delivered against revised timescales necessitated by changing circumstances. He emphasised that the majority of Business Plan measures were purple (completed). The Chief Operating Officer undertook to investigate reasons for the delays. Councillor Heather Williams asked officers to make the narrative more “substantive” and called on the Cabinet to make sure that available resources were sufficient to complete tasks on time.

The Head of Climate, Environment and Waste agreed to speak with Councillor Sue Ellington outside the meeting regarding her question about public recycling bins.

The Chair raised two queries. In reply to the first, the Head of Climate, Environment and Waste said that residents in general were coping well with the co-mingling of domestic recycling and that the 6% threshold for cross-contamination had not been breached. In reply to the second, the Head of Housing undertook to identify any trends in tenants’ dissatisfaction with responsive repairs.

Councillor Rippeth asked about FS105 (Council Tax collected). The Lead Cabinet Member for Resources explained that the option for residents to pay over 12 months instead of ten was becoming more popular and affecting collection rates at the beginning of the Quarter.

In connection with PN511 (percentage of major applications determined within eight weeks or agreed timeline – two-year reporting period cumulative (government           KPI), Councillor James Hobro noted that the matrix had changed. The Deputy Director (Planning) assured the Committee that this had not distorted the data provided in the report but undertook to meet with Councillor  Hobro to explain the methodology.

The Vice-Chair applauded the achievement of the measure and target for 2022-23 against Action D3 in the Business Plan (Generate income through delivering the Council’s Investment Strategy).

Having reviewed the Key Performance Indicators, the overview of results from the Contact Centre’s recent mystery shopper exercise, and the progress against Business Plan actions, and subject to comments made during the debate, the Scrutiny and Overview Committee endorsed the report by affirmation for presentation to Cabinet.