Press Release
Audit & Scrutiny Committee recognises good performance
The Audit and Scrutiny Committee met on Monday this week for the last time before the summer recess. The agenda included a number of items relating to the performance of services, which the Committee commented positively on.
Employee sickness down to 5.6%
Human Resource staff have worked hard with managers to get sickness absence in the Council down from over 6% to 5.6%. Of particular note is the fact that sickness rates in Community Care are down from 11.41% to 8.48%. Other notable examples include the whole Executive Services Dpt - down almost 2% and Sport and Leisure – down almost 2%
Houses re-let 3 times faster
64% of high-demand Council houses were re-let within 4 weeks. This has increased almost threefold, from 22% back in 2008.
Diesel usage down 6%
The amount of diesel used by vehicles across the Council has been reduced by over 6% since 2007-08. Of particular note is the Roads Service, where this was reduced by 18% and Building Services (down by 12%)
LEAN reduces waste
Two excellent LEAN projects have been carried out in Building Maintenance Services and Staffing Recruitment. The staff involved have put in enormous amounts of time finding ways to carry out repairs more effectively and reduce waste in recruitment processes.
Overtime up overall, but down in some areas
The cost of overtime has increased overall across the Council, mainly due to Single Status increasing basic pay in some areas. But there are examples which should be highlighted where managers have worked hard to reduce overtime. Building Services reduced their overtime bill by 21% last year, as did the Housing DLO service (21.5%) and Children’s Services (21.7%).
Councillor Florence Grains, Chair of the Audit & Scrutiny Committee made the following comment, “Unfortunately, Audit & Scrutiny is often just associated with highlighting poor performance in the Council. Most of the time that’s not the case. At the meeting this week the Members discussed a number of reports which highlighted improvements in the way services have been performing over the past year. Members congratulated officers on their hard work, so I thought it was worth sharing that.
“Sometimes it’s easy to forget the fact that the services the Council provide are second to none and are delivered by very dedicated staff. As chair of the Audit & Scrutiny Committee, I would like to thank all the staff in the areas we highlighted for their efforts.”