Meeting documents

            Meeting: Corporate Scrutiny Sub-Committee (County Hall, Durham - Committee Room 1A - 29/08/2006 10:00:00 AM)

                  Item: A4 Effective Corporate Leadership Quarter 1Performance 2006/07

         

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Corporate Scrutiny Sub-Committee 29th August 2006 Effective Corporate Leadership Quarter 1 performance 2006/07

Report of the Head of Corporate Policy

Purpose of the Report

(T) denotes that the target for that indicator was met.

Areas of improved performance

During quarter one (1 April 2006 to 30 June 2006), the authority received 111,788 undisputed invoices, of which 104,885 were paid within 30 days. Although the target for this indicator has not been achieved, quarter one performance has improved since the year end.

The number of black and minority ethnic employees in the top 5% of earners has increased from 4 to 5 during quarter one, exceeding the 2006/07 target. It should be noted that due to the small number of people meeting the criteria and the variation in the cut-off salary and number of employees representing the top 5%, a small increase / reduction in numbers significantly affects the percentage.
The number of employees with a disability in the top 5% of earners has increased from 15 to 16 during quarter one, exceeding the 2006/07 target. Positive efforts have been made to improve the quality of data available with regard to staff declaring a disability. The percentage reported for this BVPI is significantly affected in the same manner as 11b above. Until the early part of 2005/06, the authority experienced a continuous quarter on quarter decline in sickness rate, then during the later stages of 2005/06 the rate increased. Quarter one data shows that sickness is again declining. 6,462.81 fewer sick days and fewer employees have resulted in an improvement in performance for this indicator. This decline can be attributed to the revised Managing Sickness Absence Policy that was introduced during 2005 and training for managers that is still on-going.
Performance of this indicator has improved during quarter one and the 2006/07 target has been met. This is due to a a decrease in the number of early retirements from 137 (75 LGPS, 62 teachers) to 125 (67 LGPS, 58 teachers)
Performance of this indicator has improved during quarter one and the 2006/07 target has been achieved. This is due to a a decrease in the number of ill-health retirements from 43 (26 LGPS, 17 teachers) to 31 (21 LGPS, 10 teachers). This decrease in the number of ill-health retirements follows the publication of the council’s revised Sickness Absence Policy that tightens the previous process. Although below target, performance of this indicator has increased during the first quarter. This is due to an increase in the number of staff declaring a disability from 216 to 226. The increase is due to the positive efforts made to improve the quality of data available. Note, within County Durham 21.5% of the economically active population have declared that they have a ‘limiting long-term illness’.

Areas of deteriorated performance
The number of female employees in the top 5% of earners has decreased from 229 to 223 during quarter one. It should be noted that variation in the cut-off salary and the number of employees representing the top 5%, a small increase / reduction in numbers significantly affects the percentage. The council is continuing to support a focus on the diversity and equality agenda across the workforce through facilities like the on-going Diversity Training Programme and the ‘Action for Equality’ statement that provides our positive approach to job applications from all sections of the community.

Some new additional elements were recently brought into the calculation and these account for the apparent, rather than actual, drop in performance from 100% to 98.27%. We continue to work to a target of 100%.

The number of racial incidents has increased from 142 (1 April 05 to 31 March 06) to 162 (1 July 05 to 30 June 06). The authority has significantly raised awareness of the need for racial incident reporting and the 14% increase is not as high as expected.

Recommendations

That Corporate Scrutiny Sub-Committee Members:

TO VIEW TABLES REFERED TO IN REPORT PLEASE CLICK ON PDF ATTACHMENT OR REFER TO HARD COPIES LOCATED IN CORPORATE SERVICES AND THE COUNTY RECORD OFFICE

Attachments

 Q1 data - corporate.pdf;
 Corporate Report a - 29 August 2006.pdf