Date

5^th March 2003

Reporting Area

RESOURCES

Lead Director

Jean Hinks

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Who

By When

Leadership

· The first series of Fire Service Strikes were successfully managed in terms of impact on council services and business continuity.

· The first winter flooding has passed without a need to call on the major incident plan.

· Council deferred the Financial Plan on 23^rd January for review following the Council elections in May.

· Executive agreed to open negotiations with the preferred supplier for the Paris Strategic Partnership Partnership scheduled to go live in Spring 2003.

· One Stop Shop opened 20^th January at Hollies MSN. Review outcome will need to be evaluated.

· Consequences of the second phase of Fire Service strikes are being determined. Guidance and publicity is also being prepared.

· The ongoing flood situation is being monitored and a programme of education and assistance is being drawn up to help people in flood risk areas.

.

· The consequences of the possible war with Iraq are being assessed and planning is being carried out.

· The budget proposals from the Executive will be submitted to Council on 18^th Feb.

· Service Plans will also be considered by Executive Portfolio Holders in March.

· Negotiations with HBS to agree final Partnering arrangements including financial and staff transfer arrangements and partnership management.

· Need for further development of Council HR policy and procedure. Support and financial arrangements still to be finalised.

Chief Exec. & Emergency Manager

Director of Resources, Head of SRP, &all Heads of Service

Director of Resources, Head of HR, and Paris Project Team

Customer Access Programme Manager

All Ongoing

Feb/ Mar 03

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Who

By When

Leadership continued..

· Revenues & Benefits still experiencing some backlog problems but these are much improved. Off site backlog busting support is being provided.

· BVPIs still showing Red for 2002/3, as these are cumulative for the year; but on track for upper quartile in 2003/04.

Head of R&B

Leadership

· Work has commenced in developing an HR Strategy to meet identified Council corporate and service objectives in the medium term.

· A new Office Accommodation Board has been established to improve management of Corporate Estate.

· Involvement with Stakeholders will be essential. This will also be an element in the CPA Improvement Plan.

· The Board will need the support of the Directors' Group to be successful

Corporate

Social & Housing Services Director.

April 03

People Management

· Insight 2003, the third staff attitude survey, was completed in November 2003 and outputs are being evaluated.

· Customer Access - over 800 staff attended first phase Customer First workshops in last year. Staff appointments & training completed in support of opening of Norton Radstock InfoPlus. A review of HR associated activity is nearing completion.

· Organisational and employee development proposals for 2003/4 being developed.

· Review of Council recruitment arrangements well underway. A number of initiatives to be "launched" in 2003/04 include new documentation, recruitment open day, etc

· Publication of results and development of responses to issues identified now needed.

· Review outcome will need to be evaluated to inform further roll out of customer Access Programme and need for further development of Council HR policy and procedure in support of customer access.

· Subject to identification of resources.

Director & Directors Group

Director & Head of HR

Director & Head of HR

Head of HR

Mar 03

April 03

April 03

May 03

People Management

· Joint workshop held with trade union representatives on evaluation arrangements for jobs not previously evaluated.

· Further joint evaluation necessary to determine appropriate response to single status issues.

Head of HR

May 03

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Who

By When

Policy and Strategy

· A Strategy for Risk Management has been developed, on which Directors and Heads of Service are being consulted.

· The corporate risk register was updated at a corporate risk workshop held with the Directors in November, and the updated register presented to Council on 23^rd January.

· The report from the DA on Information Security confirms the view that, although there are some key issues to address, little work is needed to achieve accreditation in this area.

· The Information Security Policy has been reviewed and approved by the Executive Member for Resources

· A draft report has been received from Weatheralls on the Long Term Accommodation Strategy.

· Facilitated workshops and training will be provided to embed the approach into council processes.

· Need to continually review and link to service risk reviews

· The appointment of an information security support officer is now being investigated.

· The DA Action Plan for improvements to service information security has been agreed.

· This study will have major implications for other services for future ways of working, and extensive consultation on it is planned.

Resources Director

Resources Director

Head of IDS/ All HoS

Director of Resources and Head of Property & Legal Services

Policy and Strategy

· The Code of Corporate Governance gained approval from Council for adoption as part of the Constitution.

· High standards of conduct are required by the code, and compliance will need to be reviewed on an annual basis.

Resources Director

Resources

· The financial position continues to be tight, with some calls on general reserves already this year, and service over-spendings resulting from external pressures. The situation is being contained, but in Social Services particularly, the costs of special care are beyond the capacity of the Service to deal with.

· Over spendings will generally be contained by services at the year end, although some will need to be written off against balances. This is being taken into account in the financial planning process, but Directors need to ensure that over spendings do not exceed expected levels.

· Measures are being taken to ensure that the Council mitigates such risks in the future

All Directors

Resources Director and Strategic Director S&HS

March 2003

Ongoing

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Who

By When

Resources continued..

· The financial planning process has enabled the Council to manage the impact of changes to the grant settlement, and over-spendings smoothly.

· A review of Corporate estate costs has been undertaken.

· Financial planning is critical to ensure the good management of the authority, and the review following the election will need to be a priority for the new Executive.

Directors Group and Executive

Process

· New EDM system to form the core for a corporate system is now fully operational, and ready for corporate roll out.

· £75K has been approved under the Customer Access Programme for improvement to the council's telephone access, by merging existing Call Centres.

· Finance BV Implementation & FMS Replacement seeking to standardise and make more efficient and effective all of the Council's financial processes.

· Roll out of Windows XP is going well, but more complex than originally planned due to significant numbers of previously unknown applications and Access databases being present. Solutions are being found for those systems which are not XP compliant. Project timescale extended but no overall adverse financial impact.

· Call centre response times have improved but this service still requires improvement

· The new electronic queuing system installed at Guildhall has improved queue times and customer information, and is also providing valuable management information.

· It is planned to extend this system to other areas of the Council on a rolling programme.

· Support needs to be maintained, and engagement secured to gain support to any necessary changes in working practices.

· Decisions to be made by ITCSG on security lockdown of A:\ and C:\ drives and control of Access databases.

· Lessons have been learned about the creation of expectations with new services, and this will be built in to future developments plans.

Resources and Operations Directors

Head of SRP

Head of Information Development Service

Directors Group / Heads of Service

Progress Made

Issues to be addressed

Who

By When

Process

· The queuing system has been extended to the Hollies InfoPlus.

· Service Plans have all been prepared and are awaiting approval by the Executive following agreement of the Budget in February.

· This should provide valuable customer information.

· The change in timetable for approval of plans from January to March is an improvement on prior years as plans can be adjusted to reflect any changes in the Budget.

Director

Heads of Service

March 2003

Performance Targets

No.

%

RED

8

38

AMBER

4

19

GREEN

9

43

NOT KNOWN

TOTAL

21

100

Ref.

Indicator

Top 25%

2000/

01

Actual

2001/

02 Est/

Actual

2002/3 Target

2002/

03

Estd Out-turn

Status

Comment

BVPI8

Percentage of undisputed invoices which were paid within 30 days

93%

New Indicator

90.7%

93%

90%

Red

Delays in processing Social Services and Education invoices: methods are being reviewed.

BVPI9

Percentage of Council Tax which the authority should have received during the year and did receive in the year, excluding reliefs and rebates

98%

97.0%

96.8%

97.4%

96.5%

Red

Recovery disrupted by dealing with backlog this year. Department workload now back on track: reported performance % will recover in 2003/04

BVPI 10

Percentage of business rates which should have been received during the year that was received

99%

98.3%

99.6%

98.5%

98.5%

Green

This year's target should be achieved.

BVPI 11

Percentage of senior management posts filled by women (New target 2002/03: Top 5% filled a) by women, and b) by BME Groups)

29% NEW

27%

28%

28%

28%

a) 33%

b) 0.43%

Green

BVPI reviewed in 2002/03 Current target is set against existing definition.

BVPI 12

Number of working days / shifts lost to sickness

8.2 days

10.53 days

9.3 days

11.9 days**

9.03 days (f'cast)

Amber

Government target of 10.9 days to be achieved by 2005. *Figure being validated; **revise figure of 9 set in discussion with DA

BVPI 13

Voluntary leavers as a percentage of staff in post

7.6%

12.3%

12.9%

*

*

---

*National target removed 2002/03

BVPI 14

Early retirement as a percentage of total workforce

0.18%

0.52%

0.27%

0.45%

0.36%*

Green

Government target of 0.45% to be achieved by 2005. Status based on current knowledge. Figure being validated. *@ 30.9.02.

BVPI 15

Ill-health retirements as a percentage of total workforce

0.25%

0.50%

0.34%

0.35%

0.06%*

Green

Government target of 0.35% to be achieved by 2005. Figure being validated. *@ 30.9.02.

BVPI 16

Percentage of staff declaring they meet the DDA disability definition (compared with the % of economically active disabled people in the area)

2.7%

1.1% (not available)

1.47% (not available)

1.6%

1.85%*

Green

Future targets to be reviewed by Lawrence Group / Dury Groups. Census information due to be published January 2003. *@ 30.9.02.

Ref.

Indicator

Top 25%

2000/

01

Actual

2001/

02 Est/

Actual

2002/3 Target

2002/

03

Estd Out-turn

Status

Comment

BVPI 17

Percentage of staff from ethnic minorities (compared with the % of economically active minority ethnic community population in the area)

2.67%

1.4% (1.4%)

1.6% (1.4%)

2.0%

1.61%*

Amber

Future targets to be reviewed by Lawrence Group / Dury Groups. Census information due to be published January 2003. *@ 30.9.02.

BVPI 76

Has B&NES a written and proactive strategy for combating fraud and error on Benefits?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Green

We have an appropriate strategy

BVPI 77

Average cost of handling Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit claim

£47.75

£37.02

£44.08

£40.00

NYA

Red

Year End Indicator. Costs savings from re-organisation unlikely to be realised this year. Service overspend and backlog to clear. Costs higher due to additional transitional Housing Benefit work.

BVPI 78a

Average time for processing new Benefit claims (days)

36

30

39

30

50

Red

A cumulative indicator, and performance is affected adversely by backlog in the first six months of the year. Current performance is ahead of target and should show significant improvement in 2003/04.

BVPI 78b

Average time for processing notifications of changes in Benefits circumstances (days)

9

6

6

7

12

Red

A cumulative indicator, and performance is affected adversely by backlog in the first six months of the year. Current performance is ahead of target and should show significant improvement in 2003/04.

BVPI 78c

Percentage of renewal Benefits claims processed on time

83%

63%

65%

75%

65%

Red

Over-ambitious target in a year of major organisational change.

BVPI 79a

Accuracy of Benefits processing (Percentage accurate on available information)

98%

93%

93%

93%

92%

Red

Major changes in working practice have adversely affected this figure. Improvement expected in 2003/04.

BVPI 79b

Percentage of recoverable Benefits overpayments (excluding CTB) that were recovered in year

69%

60%

55%

75%

NYA

Amber

Year End Indicator. Target will be difficult to achieve this year.

BVPI 80

Percentage of users satisfied with the benefits service (18 separate indicators)

85%

71.6% Avg

Not Req

Best 25%

Not Req

Indicator not required for 2001/02 or 2002/03. Local customer surveys in process.

Local

Percentage (by value) of Council Tax accounts paid by direct debit

NA

New Indicator

New Indicator

56%

65%

Green

Successful campaign to encourage payment by BACS.

Local

Percentage (by value) of Business Rates accounts paid by direct debit

NA

New Indicator

New Indicator

45%

46%

Green

On track to achieve this year's target.

Ref.

Indicator

Top 25%

2000/

01

Actual

2001/

02 Est/

Actual

2002/3 Target

2002/

03

Estd Out-turn

Status

Comment

Local

Commercial Property Estate gross rental income £Millions

NA

New Indicator

New Indicator

£10.6

£10.6

Green

Year End Indicator. Best Estimate reported.

Local

Gross initial yield on Commercial Estate

NA

New Indicator

New Indicator

7.6%

NYA

Amber

Year End Indicator. Depends on year end estate valuation.

Local

Manage effectively the Council's Capital Programme to support delivery of the Council's service priorities and strategic targets so that actual spending in any financial year is at least 90% of planned spending

NA

96%

95.8%

90%

85%

Red

Education capital spending behind Plan.

Local

EQUALITIES INDICATORS BY SERVICE

Ref.

Indicator

Top 25%

2000/

01

Actual

2001/

02 Est/

Actual

2002/3 Target

2002/

03

Estd Out-turn

Status

Comment

Human Resource Service

Black & Minority staff (%)

2.67

1.7

1.7

None Set

1.7

Disabled staff (%)

2.7

1.7

1.7

None Set

1.7

Strategic Resources Planning/ Business Services

Black & Minority staff (%)

2.67

3.0

3.0

None Set

3.0

Disabled staff (%)

2.7

2.3

2.3

None Set

2.3

Emergency Management Service

Black & Minority staff (%)

2.67

0

0

None Set

0

Disabled staff (%)

2.7

0

0

None Set

0

Revenues & Benefits Service

Black & Minority staff (%)

2.67

0

0

None Set

0

Disabled staff (%)

2.7

1.2

1.2

None Set

1.2

Information Development Service

Black & Minority staff (%)

2.67

4.3

4.3

None Set

6.5

Disabled staff (%)

2.7

4.3

4.3

None Set

4.3

Property & Legal Service

Black & Minority staff (%)

2.67

2.8

2.8

None Set

2.8

Disabled staff (%)

2.7

0

0

None Set

0