blaby plan 2018-21 progress and performance report six ...€¦ · group as well as making...

Appendix A

Blaby Plan 2018-21 Progress and Performance Report

Six Month Report to September 2019

Introduction

The Blaby Plan 2018 – 21 was adopted by Council November 2017. This sets out

our ambitions and how we will deliver our priorities, with partners, to our community.

This new style report encompasses a whole Council approach focused on three

priorities; A Place to Live, A Place to Work, A Place to Visit, and recognising that all

services contribute to the successful delivery of the Council’s Plan.

This report provides a summary of the Councils’ progress and performance against the priorities. It also includes a selection of statutory indicators, and the most up to date published comparable data is shown alongside performance for all English District Councils.

A Vision for Blaby District

Blaby District is made up of thriving and vibrant communities where people

are happy to live, work and visit.

A Place to Live…..

Strong, healthy, safe, sustainable communities where the most vulnerable are

supported.

We Will:

o Design and deliver housing to meet the needs of our residents o Work well with partners to keep our communities safe o Support our residents to live healthy lifestyles o Create opportunities for community involvement

Progress this year

We have worked with partners and residents at Lubbesthorpe in building a new community, including:

o The new Primary School opened in September 2019.

o The May edition of the Lubbesthorpe Newsletter has been distributed to

over 300 homes by volunteers.

o The new Parish Council is up and running successfully.

A range of projects and programmes are being delivered throughout the District

to increase levels of sport and physical activity. These include:

o The Positive Activity Referral Scheme are working with over 30 young

people.

o There are now 12 Steady Steps falls prevention programmes running

weekly with 150 regular participants.

Appendix A

o As part of the new Leisure Contract with Everyone Active from the 1 April

2019, we have negotiated an Exercise Referral Scheme which is offered

for free in our leisure facilities for the first time.

Blaby District Council’s Community Volunteering ran from the 3 - 14 June

providing support to 22 local groups and organisations. 2 private sector

businesses from the district joined this event.

24 representatives from organisations across the district attended the Funding

Fair held in September.

The Love Blaby Lottery continues to support local causes. ADHD Solutions joined

the lottery from the start and the organisation is raising over £1000 a year.

Income from the lottery has helped to fund a venue for a new Blaby support

group as well as making available more local support.

The Homelessness and Rough Sleepers Strategy is currently being reviewed and

is scheduled to be presented for adoption by the Council early in 2020.

Work has officially started on the new Local Plan. A Call for Sites exercise and

event has taken place. A public Issues and Options Consultation has taken place

which closed at the end of September.

A 3 year agreement has been reached to continue the Lightbulb Service. New

initiatives include:

Developing an Apprenticeship Scheme

A builders procurement framework

The implementation of a Regulatory Reform Order improving access to

the service and equipment.

Work continues on the Air Quality Strategy

o Beat the Street, which finished in April, engaged just under 11,000

residents into actively travelling to school, work and around the area,

covering 93,631 miles.

o Air Quality monitoring continues throughout the District. There are

currently 4 monitoring stations, with an additional new one to be in place

shortly.

The first phase of the development at Everards Meadows opened with a new

cycle centre operated by Rutland Cycling and a new café operated by local

independent business Jenno’s in July 2019. Everards new brewery, beer hall and

offices will complete the new complex, expected to be finished by the middle of

2020.

The old brewery site at Castle Acres has now been cleared with construction

progressing rapidly.

The Council’s website has been rated joint second in the country for accessibility

in its latest assessment in September.

Appendix A

Measures

Benchmarking

Area

Type of

Measure

Period Of

Comparison

National Performance (All English

Districts)

BDC

Planning – the % of Minor** applications processed within 8

weeks %

2018/19

Q4 85% 96%

Planning – the % of ‘Other’*** applications processed within 8

weeks %

2018/19

Q4 90% 98%

Waste - Kg per household of waste sent to landfill

Mean (kg)

2017/18*

Year

459.9 505.6#

Recycling - % sent for recycling % 2017/18*

Year

44.3% 42.4%##

‘* Latest available National figures

# - Waste: The amount of black bin waste collected from the districts households in

2018/19 is projected to be significantly less than in 2017/18 and is closer to the

English national average in terms of waste collected per household.

## - Recycling: Reasons for the percentage of ‘dry’ recycling collected may include:

o Recycling rates have reduced nationally due to a combination of packagers

moving towards producing ‘light-weighted’ packaging. For example,

manufacturers are moving to plastics as opposed to glass, and the reduced

paper consumption continues due to the growing trend of smartphones being

used in preference to newspapers.

o There are more types of packaging on the market that are not accepted for

recycling such as black plastics and food pouches which are made up of

different materials.

o Tighter specifications at sorting facilities coupled with better sorting

technology has resulted in more items being identified as non-recyclable.

Appendix A

Measures vs last year

7 measures have improved over the last year: End to End Times for Major, Minor

and Householder Planning Applications, Fly Tipping incidents, the Number of New

Homes Occupied and the Number of Years Housing Supply, Disabled Facilities

Grants Major Applications End to End Times.

2 measures have remained static: Enforcement Cases Investigated and

Development Monitoring Cases Investigated

6 measures have declined since last year: End to End Times for Other Planning

Applications, Disabled Facilities Grants minor applications end to end times, Number

of people on the waiting list for support services, Homelessness, Empty Homes

Brought Back to Use, and Excess Weight in Adults.

Local measures By exception

Measure: Homeless - number of potentially homeless cases Performance outturn:

There have been 241 potentially homeless cases in the first 6 months of 2019/20 compared to 213 at the same point last year.

Performance over time:

Comments:

Housing Applications remain consistent at around 60 new apps being received per month. Homelessness approaches remain fairly high with PRS evictions remaining the main reasons for approach. Positive outcomes have reduced due to limited availability across the sectors. Affordable homes data has now been received and this will be updated in next months figures.

6

2

7

Live

Declined

Static

Improved

Appendix A

Measure: Planning - E2E time - other applications Performance outturn:

The average end to end time for Other Applications is 50.59 days over the 6 months April to September. The overall average for 2018/19 was 47.74 days.


Comments:

The Others category includes applications of varying complexity which always results in fluctuations in the end to end times for the determination of such applications.

Measure: Planning - E2E time - Householder applications Performance outturn:

Householder Applications are taking an average of 46.2 days to process this year to date. The average in September 2018 was 57.2 days.


Comments:

The backlog of applications awaiting processing has significantly reduced and corresponding improvements in end to end times for householder applications can be expected.

Appendix A

Measure: Number of years housing land supply Performance outturn:

This figure now stands at 7.07 years of housing land supply.


Comments:

Based on the most up to date assessment, the Council can demonstrate in excess of the 5 year supply requirement. It has not been tested at appeal since it was updated as at 1 April 2019.

A Place to Work….

A thriving, prosperous, innovative local economy with a skilled and healthy workforce

contributing to the local community

We Will:

o Support local business development and growth o Work with partners to deliver high quality, accessible job opportunities. o Facilitate training and work experience opportunities o Promote a healthy workforce and work places

Progress this year

Castle Acres, the large extension of Fosse Park, once completed, will offer up to 2,000 jobs and increase Fosse Park’s reputation as one of the largest out of town shopping centres in the country.

We currently have 7 apprentices working at the Council.

We continue to support Employment and Training for example: o A workshop was held with Cabinet Members and Senior Officers to share

the progress of existing initiatives and develop a plan going forward. o Kier Construction, working with Everards Meadows is offering two site

visits to Year 11 students from Brockington and Countesthorpe. o Blaby District Council launched a new ‘work experience’ programme which

has seen 8 young people attend the Council to try out opportunities.

o Working in partnership with Leicester Employment Hub and the DWP, the

CSCS card, fast track to employment programme for long term

unemployed people has been well supported.

o Blaby won the Insider Residential Property Award for Skills and Training

Scheme of the Year for the work at New Lubbesthorpe development,

against commercial companies that had also been shortlisted. This could

Appendix A

not have been achieved without the full support of the land owners, the

Drummond Trustees. The scheme has included getting the constructors to

offer opportunities for young people and those trying to get back into

work whilst encouraging women to choose construction as a career.

Improvement to civic buildings has set new modern standards for our accommodation and created new opportunities to hire out space for events and functions.

Work has commenced on a review of the Council’s Economic Development Strategy which will look at the full range of options for business support and how we best deliver these.

Leicestershire and Rutland Sport (LRS) have been commissioned to deliver a 2 year Workplace initiative. In the last 6 months 9 business have completed the initiative with well over 800 participants.

Measures

o Benchmarking

Area Type of

Measure

Period of Comparison


Districts)

BDC 2018/19

Q4

Benefits - number of days taken to process Change of

circumstances

Mean

2018/19

Q4

3 3

Measures vs last year

1 measure has improved over the last year: The Number of Long Term Unemployed

in the district.

1 measure has remained the same as last year: The Percentage of Benefit Cases

Checked where Payment was Correct.

4

1

1 Work

Declined

Static

Improved

Appendix A

4 Measures have declined since last year: Unemployment – Total and 18-24 year

olds, the Time to Process Benefits Change of Circumstances and Benefits

Discretionary Housing Payments.

Local measures by exception

Measure: Number of long term unemployed (JSA) Performance outturn:

Over the last six months the number of long term unemployed people has been falling. There were 40 people in this category this September compared to 65 in September 2018.


Comments:

The number of long term unemployed in the District has remained steady over the previous few months.

Measure: Benefits – End to End time for change of circumstances

Performance outturn:

The average time taken to process a change of circumstances this year is 10.56 days compared to 6.18 at the end of 2018/19. However, the processing times have started to reduce over the last 2 months to 8.57 days in September.


Comments:

At 8.6 days this is the lowest figure since May 19 so good to see an improvement since last month's out turn figure.

The type and frequency of change of circumstances E2E times has changed significantly over the last few years. In comparing the years 2012 to 2014 against years 2016 to 2018 there is a noted 13.4% increase in volumes. This is supposed to be at a time when caseload is reducing. There is a greater variance in this demand area due to special exercises undertaken (self employed reviews, DWP initiatives, the introduction of VEP (earnings alerts) and the rate/volumes of digital notifications received from third parties (Tell Us Once, Inland Revenue, or DWP). For example, the number of DWP notifications rose from 1,901 for the first 2 quarters of 2018/19 by 270% or

Appendix A

more in the second two quarters to 7,054.

The purpose of measuring this E2E times is to ensure that no service user is adversely affected by the time that is taken to complete the work, to constantly look for efficiencies and to prevent failure demand. The team have automated as much of the DWP notifications as is currently possible and have allocated resources to manage times of increased demand.

Measure: Number unemployed in the district Performance outturn:

The number of unemployed people in the district has increased from 555 in September 2018 to 815 in March 2019. This measure however now includes Universal Credit Claimants from June 2018.


Comments:

The number of unemployed in the District has dropped slightly since last month, but is still notably higher than this time last year. The roll out in Universal credit (and the inclusion of universal credit claimants in these figures) is considered to have contributed to this.

Measure: Benefits - Discretionary Housing Payments


A total of just 36.47% of this money has been spent in the first six month of this financial year to date.


Comments:

The total expenditure for September is £3,305 which brings the yearly expenditure amount now to £33,728 (or 36.47% of the annual figure as being spent). Ideally at this half year stage we would have expected this to be in the range circa 48 to 52%. We may be sending funding back to the DWP at year end so there will be some conversations this month and making sure expenditure matches expectations.

Appendix A

A Place to Visit…..

A strong leisure and tourist sector and well maintained and accessible attractions

available in the local area encourage visitors to the district

We Will:

o Promote the area as a place in which to invest.

o Work with partners to promote Blaby District as a destination. o Develop and support places that people want to visit.

Progress this year

The District’s Tourism Partnership chaired by the Private sector continues to

grow with around 20 local Tourism partner organisations. Palmers Garden

Centre have recently joined the partnership.

The Council are working with the Woodland Trust to construct cycle and

walking paths linking Oakfield Pak in Blaby with Countesthorpe Country Park.

We are continuing to improve our parks and open spaces offer by improving

access in our countryside sites. This includes replacement steps at Whistle

Way and work to the bridge access road into Fosse Meadows.

Plans for supporting Blaby Town Centre are progressing with funding secured

to recruit a High Streets Support Officer.

The Tourism Partnership has commenced work on a new Tourism Growth

Plan for the District with a second partnership workshop being held to

continue development of the plan.

The Tourism Partnership attended the Victory Show. Data revealed that 50%

of visitors to their stand were visitors from outside the District.

The new Tourism website that has received excellent feedback and further

improvements continue to be made – www.visitblaby.org.uk

We are making greater use of ‘Twitter’ accounts to promote Blaby and events.

Everards Meadows opened with a new cycle centre operated by Rutland

Cycling and a new Jennos café in July 2019.

Measures

Benchmarking

Area

Type of

Measure

Period Of

Comparison


Districts)

BDC 2019/20

Q2

Planning – the % of Major* applications processed within

13 weeks %

2018/19

Q4 88% 100%

http://www.visitblaby.org.uk/

Appendix A

1

0

3

Finance

Declined

Static

Improved

Medium Term Financial Strategy

Progress this year

We continue to deliver the Commercialisation Action Plan, with progress

being made on a number of elements including:

o Implementation of a new telephony system in August.

o Ability to undertake MOTs at the Depot.

o Agreement with partners to extend delivery of the Lightbulb service,

Building Control, Licensing and Land Charges on their behalf.

Work continues with the other Leicestershire district councils to establish

opportunities for greater collaboration on service delivery.

Work on Council budgets for the 2020/21 financial year are underway. This

work will feed into the further development of the Medium Term Financial

Strategy (MTFS), taking into account assumptions around future government

funding.

The new web site and associated online forms continue to be delivered and

enhanced. To date 17,889 forms have been submitted electronically this year.

Measures

Benchmarking

Area

Type of

Measure

Period Of

Comparison


Districts)

BDC Year End 2018/19

Council Tax Collection Rate % 2018/19

97.9% 98.0%

Business Rates collected % 2018/19 97.8% 99.3%

Appendix A

1 measure needs improvement: Number of online forms completed 3 measured have improved: Payments by Direct Debit, Number of Self-Serve Transactions completed and Number of Payments Made in Person at the Council Offices.

Local measures by exception

Measure: Number of online forms completed


Cumulatively to September 17,889 forms have completed on line compared to 24,489 at the same point in 2018/19 ( 27% less).


Comments:

This cumulative figure for the financial year is showing a decrease compared to September 2018 of 24,489. The main reason for this is that that customers were placing orders for larger and additional bins between April and August last financial year as part of the changes to the refuse and recycling scheme.

Measure: Number of Self Serve Transactions completed


Cumulatively to September 14,720 self serve transactions have completed compared to 13,887 at the same point in 2018/19 (6% increase).


Comments:

The cumulative figure is showing an increase compared to September 2018 of 13887. The same period of time has also seen a drop of 10% of customers making payments in person at the Council offices.

Appendix A

People Strategy

A great place to work…….. and be developed.

and be healthy.

and be valued.

Progress this year

Be Developed:

o An induction programme for Members has been developed and

delivered to ensure that their knowledge and understanding is as up to

date as possible. Positive feedback has been received, and future

sessions will be planned taking this feedback into account.

o Quarterly workshops are now being held, covering HR policies, for

people managers at the council.

o Apprenticeship workshops have been held to support future job

searches and applications.

o We currently have a total of 7 apprentices working at Blaby District

Council.

Be Healthy :

o Love Your Liver free health checks were delivered to over 100 staff at

the Council. As well as providing advice and information, the data will

be used to inform future health initiatives.

o A number of events were held for both Mental Health Awareness Week

and Healthy Eating Week.

Be Valued:

o The Council has signed up to the Disability Confident Scheme and is

working towards achieving level 2.

o Pay Gap data is being analysed in order to identify any areas of

concern and develop a plan to ensure that staff are being treated fairly

in relation to pay.

o Office accommodation requirements are under review in order to

maximize space and to implement any office moves, redecoration and

structural alterations.

o The Abuse Against Staff Policy has been reviewed and revised. This

will go to Cabinet and Council shortly.

o Personal Safety Training is being developed for staff working at the

Depot.

Appendix A

Measures

Benchmarking

Area

Type of

Measure

Period Of

Comparison


Districts)

BDC Year End 2017/18

Gender Pay Gap – Mean % 2017/18**

5.3%*** 2.5%

** This measure is reported a year behind i.e. 2017/18 data was submitted and

reported in March 2019.

*** All English Districts Comparator – Source: CIPFA UK Gender Pay Gap Data

Analysis.

Local measure

Measure: Sickness - Average number of days per employee (BV 12)


The average days sickness per employee for the year to date is 4.56 days compared to the period to September 2018/19 of 3.7 days.


Comments:

The absence figures for the two years to September 2019 that overall absence rates remain steady. Blaby's absence figures in the YTD suggest a 3.62% absence rate which compares favourably to the latest LGA Workforce data showing an average absence rate of 4.3% within the sector. Further breakdown of the absence figures shows an ongoing reduction in short term absence rates, achieved through a holistic approach including swift manager contact, meaningful return to work discussions and ongoing health and wellbeing support being provided by the Council. Until June 2019, figures also showed an ongoing reduction in long term absence rates (over 20 days; however in July 2019 an unusually high number of long term absence started and numbers remained higher than average throughout the last quarter. A number of phased returns to work started in September and October so we expect a reduction in these figures over the coming months. Common themes in the long term absences include mental ill health and strained work place relationships. All of the staff who are absent long term are being proactively supported by managers and HR through various interventions including access to work, occupational health, trade union support and, where appropriate other related policies and procedures.

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