Agenda item

This Mid-Year update report outlines South Kesteven District Councils performance against the Corporate Plan Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the year of 2022/23.

The Leader of the Council presented the Corporate Plan Key Performance Indicators 2022-2023 Mid-Year Report.

The South Kesteven Corporate Plan 2020-23 was approved by Council on 1 October 2020.  It was agreed by Council that actions, key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets would be developed by the relevant overview and scrutiny committee, which would retain oversight of the performance management arrangements at a strategic level.  These actions and indicators were presented to this committee and agreed on 17 November 2020.  The Year End report for 2021/22 was presented to the Committee on 19 July 2022 and outlined the performance against the Corporate Plan for the previous financial year.  This report provided an update on performance to the mid-year point of the 2022/23 financial year and incorporated the changes recommended by the last KPI review to outline areas of the council’s performance which were successful and to advise where challenges may lay.

Appendix 1 outlined the overall performance against the 15 actions being presented in this report, as well as specific performance against the sub measures contained within those.  The summary was as follows:

11 of the actions are rated Green. These are actions which were on or above target as planned.

3 actions are rated as Amber.  These were those off target by less than 10% or where milestone achievement was delayed but with resolution in place to be achieved within a reasonable timeframe.  The Heritage Action Zone was rated Amber and Members were to note that the progress of the Grade II listed Westgate Hall was shortly going out to tender.

0 actions are rated Red. These were those falling significantly below target or overdue with no specific resolution date planned.

1 action is listed as unreportable as the action was currently under review and an update was to be presented as part of the year end reporting process.

There have been no areas of significant under performance identified in this report.

The Leader informed Members that A Grantham Engagement Officer had started their role this week and the Hello SK app was progressing well with over 170 businesses engaged currently.  The delivery of a new Maintenance Depot was underway although works had currently paused whilst procurement work was continuing.

Completed projects for noting included:

·                              The Constitution Review

·                              The People Strategy

·                              The Governance Review

·                              IT Strategy

·                              Asset Management Strategy

The Leader confirmed that the ‘Investing in high-quality Leisure’ KPI was rated green as it referred to existing Leisure Centres currently in operation.

During discussion, Members raised the following points:

·            There was no mention within the KPIs of one of the corporate priorities – ‘housing that meets the needs of all residents’.  Why was this?

·            A Member welcomed the full condition surveys carried out on Grantham, Bourne and Stamford Leisure Centres.  There being no operating Leisure Centre at the Deepings surely meant that leisure facilities were not catering for the whole of the district and therefore how can the action be rated green?

·            Some of the KPIs were not specific enough to be rated anything other than green.  The report did not address some of the urgent details or specify failings.

·            It was noted that the format of reports had changed and no longer showed who reviewed and approved each report on its front page.  It was considered that there was a value to knowing who knew what information and when they knew it.  A suggestion was made that this was an attempt by Officers to avoid the openness and transparency required.

The Leader of the Council that all KPIs are reviewed under the relevant committees.  The Corporate Plan was agreed in 2020 which was before the Pandemic.  It was clarified that the report covered up to the end of September 2022 and at that time no decision had been confirmed on the Deepings Leisure Centre refurbishment.

The Deputy Chief Executive informed Members that there was considered no value in having names on the front of the report for how had approved and signed off each report.  The Head of Corporate Projects, Policy and Performance added that the Directors that were responsible for each area were always on hand at committee meetings to respond to any questions.  It was noted that the report format had changed over two months prior to the meeting and no comments had been made previously.  The Officer confirmed that measures and targets were agreed at previous meetings.

The Vice-Chairman requested that it was put on record that a request had been made for the Member responsible to withdraw a comment that suggested a deliberate attempt to avoid transparency by Officers in reference to signing off reports and that the Member refused to withdraw the comment.

It was proposed, seconded, and AGREED:

That the Committee:

a)         Noted the contents of the 2022/23 Mid-Year performance report.

b)         Members to consider if any concerns highlighted by the report required additional investigation to be added to the work programme.