Report - London Borough of Hillingdon

12 Hillingdon Performance Management │
• Sickness absence has been identified as a significant issue and is being
addressed through the provision of training, such as the Building Hillingdon's
Future programme that has resulted in reductions in sickness absence within
some service areas. However the projected level of 10.1 days per staff
member exceeds the target of 9 days I ;
• Provision of additional resources, for example funding for the provision of
document scanning facilities to speed processing of benefits claims;
• Departmental restructuring, for example moving Older Peoples Services from
a geographical to a functional system;
• 'Away days' and Planning and Performance workshops;
• Reduced staff supervision ratios and defined quality management roles for
supervisors;
• I.T. resources to enable staff to reduce time spent in the office and increase
time with users;
• The introduction and resourcing of Quality Assurance posts.
47 However recruitment and retention are still issues in some services although
initiatives such as the Benefits Service Trainee Programme are having a positive
impact.
48 Whilst managers and staff we spoke to at focus groups were positive as to the
use of performance indicators there were concerns expressed as to the long term
potential danger of focussing on quantitative indicators to the detriment of
delivering a quality service. There was a common belief at all levels within the
Council that there were too many indicators, especially at a local level where
value and relevance was limited. Collecting unnecessary information adds to the
burdens on staff and has the potential to divert attention from the key indicators
and skew service delivery. We recommend that the Council review the range of
local performance indicators and remove those where the cost of data capture
outweighs the value of the information provided.
Impact in 'Probe' Services
Planning
49 The speed of processing planning applications is measured by BVPI 109a-c. The
indicator differentiates performance in terms of determining major, minor and
other applications. The government has set a target of 13 weeks for a major
application to be determined and 8 for minor and other applications. In 2003/04
43% of the Council's major applications were determined within 13 weeks. This
has increased to 70% for 2004/05 placing the Council in the top performance
quartile. The performance in terms of meeting the government's processing time
targets for Minor and other applications placed the Council in the bottom
performance quartile for 2003/04. The figures for both minor and other have now
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Making a Difference - Performance Supplement
London Borough of Hillingdon