CONTENTS
ForewordPage 2
The Council’s Vision and Partnership WorkingPage 3
The Council’s Strategic PlanPage 4
Themes, Policy Priorities and High Level Outcomes 2004/05Page 5
Improvement PlanningPage 6
BVPI’s – To Monitor Progress Against Policy Priorities (Outturn 2003/04 and Targets 2004/05, 2005/06, 2006/07)Page 7
Tackling Anti-Social BehaviourPage 7
Supporting The VulnerablePage 8
Protecting The GreenbeltPage 10
Green And Clean Open SpacesPage 11
Providing A Mix Of Leisure Facilities For All AgesPage 12
BVPI’s – To Monitor Progress Against Corporate GovernancePage 13
BVPIs - To Monitor Progress Against Services Not Directly Linked To Policy PrioritiesPage 15
User Satisfaction Surveys – Base Numbers and Confidence IntervalsPage 17
Procurement – Statement On Contracts Awarded During 2003/04Page 19
FOREWORD
The production and publication of the annual Best Value Performance Plan (BVPP) is a key element and statutory requirement of best value. It provides us with the opportunity to clearly state our ambitions and priorities and what we expect of our services over the next three years, as well as reporting how well we have done over the previous year. You will see that in this years BVPP all BVPI’s are set against either policy priorities, corporate governance or other i.e. those not assigned to policy priorities or corporate governance. This is a change from previous BVPP’s, which set BVPI’s against the portfolios for each of the Policy Panels. The change will inform the local community, our partners and ourselves of progress in improving those services that contribute to the agreed themes and priorities for the district and which can enhance the quality of life in the local area. This overall approach also goes some way to address a key issue raised by the CPA Inspection team (January 2004) which questioned the effectiveness and process of how the Council determines its priorities and how we measure progress against them. We are also aware that we need to monitor and in some cases improve services that may not be directly linked to our priorities but are contextual and reflect our underlying capacity and overall performance, such as how we manage staff, finances, and assets.
The overall content of this BVPP is somewhat reduced from previous years. This is as a result of revised guidance on BVPP’s issued by the ODPM, whereby it is no longer a requirement to include information that is now available from other sources. It also reflects our ‘Good’ CPA category following an inspection carried out by the Audit Commission in January 2004.
The outcome of these changes is that our BVPP 2004/05 is made up of several key elements;
- The Three Rivers Strategic Plan, which provides a statement of our Vision, identifies the agreed shared themes and priorities with our partners, sets out our policy priorities against each of the themes and a number of high level outcomes.
- Improvement Planning against our policy priorities which provides a timetable for improving all BVPI’s over a 2-year period. Our aim is for all BVPI’s related to policy priorities to be in the top quartile in 2005/06 and for all other BVPI’s to be in the upper quartiles within the same timeframe.
- Our outturn for BVPI’s 2003/04 and targets for BVPI’s for 2004/05, 2005/06 and 2006/07.
- A statement on contracts awarded during 2003/04.
1
CONTENTS
The Council’s Vision and Partnership Working
The Council has a Vision of what it wants to achieve for the District that complements national objectives. It is that ““Three Rivers should be a prosperous, safe and healthy place where people want and are able to live and work”.
Three Rivers District Council understands that to achieve this vision it needs to work in partnership with other statutory bodies and other organisations that operate in the area. Therefore, in consultation with other partners across the district, the Council has developed a Local Strategic Partnership.[1] The aim of the partnership is to join up and better co-ordinate the work of all agencies across the District. By working as part of a Local Strategic Partnership the Council is better able to contribute wherever it can.
In addition to the Local Strategic Partnership, Three Rivers District Council welcomes the opportunity to work with other organisations to tackle local issues. Examples of our partnership working with voluntary and statutory agencies include Hertfordshire Environmental Forum, Hertfordshire Prosperity Forum and the Health Partnership Board. Three Rivers is also part of the East of England Regional Assembly and an active participant in the East of England Local Strategic Partnership Network.
A Community Strategy was agreed by the Local Strategic Partnership in March 2003. It aims to improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the District and is the vehicle through which we seek to achieve government targets as well as meeting local priorities. The Strategy is based on four key themes, which reflect all the partners’ shared priorities:
- Healthy Communities
- Prosperous Communities
- Safer Communities
- Sustainable Communities.
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Making Sense of all this for our Staff - The Council’s Strategic Plan
District Themes. -Three Rivers District Council has adopted the four Themes of the Community Strategy as a focus for its work across the District. They represent priority areas for delivery in the Community Strategy for 2003 to 2008. They naturally, therefore, form the foundation on which to develop and deliver the Strategic Plan. Also contributing to these themes will be a range of other Strategies and Plans such as Implementing Electronic Government Statement, Best Value Performance Plan, Medium Term Financial Plan, and Cultural Strategy. These are further underpinned by individual Service Plans and Team Action Plans.
Policy Priorities have been identified for 2004/05 to bring about the Council’s contribution to the District Themes and departments within the Council are responsible individually and collectively for their successful delivery. Short term priorities for the Council, which are set against the context of the District Themes, are reviewed by Elected Members on an annual basis. These priorities are there to provide an immediate focus for improvement and make a direct contribution in achieving the District Themes.
High Level Outcomes - Specific outcomes have been identified against each of the Policy Priorities. Wherever possible they include performance targets that are either time based or are quantifiable measures.
Corporate Governance - A range of activities exist under the general heading of Corporate Governance. These are services which cannot be directly assigned to specific priorities but which make a contribution on a corporate basis. Under this heading we include
- Council Tax and NNDR
- Accountancy and Treasury
- Personnel
- Property & FM
- Legal
- Elections
- Housing Policy
- Corporate Management
- ITC / Web development
- Communications
The Strategic Plan - Themes, Policy Priorities and High Level Outcomes
– 2004/05
POLICY PRIORITY
/ High level outcomes for 2004/05TACKLING ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR /
- Reduce the fear of crime in Three Rivers District from the levels found by the April 2001 telephone survey
- Delivery of the Community Safety Partnership outcomes
SUPPORTING THE VULNERABLE /
- That those budgets dedicated to supporting those in need are fully spent
- Significant progress in implementing Department of Works and Pensions performance standards to provide a better service to benefits customers
- Action taken to ensure that 2010 Decent Homes Standard targets will be met
PROTECTING THE GREEN BELT /
- Ensure that no development which would be contrary to green belt policies takes places in the Green Belt
- Ensure that at least 65% of development takes place on previously developed land
GREEN AND CLEAN OPEN SPACES /
- Evidence that the streets and town centres of the district are clean places to be
A MIX OF LEISURE FOR ALL AGES /
- Evidence of increased access to leisure provision by the young and the elderly
- Evidence of increased access to leisure venues by people with a disability
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE /
- Implementation of the Improvement Plan which arises from our CPA inspection Jan 2004
- Updated District Community Plan which has been agreed with partners
Progress against achieving the High level outcomes will be reported to each meeting of the Executive Committee
1
Comprehensive Performance Assessment - Three Rivers underwent a Comprehensive Performance Assessment during January 2004. The Council was pleased to be assessed as assessed as “good” by the Audit Commission but is striving to be “excellent”. We recognise that one of the things we can do to help bring this about will be to demonstrate that we can improve service provision for the public, particularly in those areas that we have identified as priorities. How we plan to target those priorities is set out below.
Setting Targets and Monitoring Progress. - In order to effectively measure progress against each of the priorities the relevant Best Value and Local Pi’s that can be associated to each Priority have been identified, against which targets have been set
Improving Performance - One of the ways the Council measures how it is performing in delivery of its services is by comparing its performance for Best Value Performance Indicators relative to other authorities across England. As well as monitoring how it is performing in absolute terms, performance is scored according to the authority co to the best quartile (75 percentile) or worst quartile (25-percentile) performance. In this context, best quartile means the level of performance achieved by the best performing 25% of authorities.
Improvement Targets - The Council’s improvement strategy focusing on BVPIs can be expressed as follows;
BVPI Type / Status as at March 2003 / TargetsFor those BVPIs which relate to priorities / Worst Quartile / Move above Worst Quartile by 2004/05 and,
Into 2nd Quartile by 2005/06
3rd Quartile / Achieve 2nd Quartile by 2004/05 and
Achieve Best Quartile by 2005/06
2nd Quartile / Improve on previous year for 2004/05, and
Achieve Best Quartile by 2005/06
Best Quartile / Maintain Best Quartile year on year
For those BVPIs which relate to Corporate
Governance / Other / Worst Quartile / Move above Worst Quartile by 2004/05, and
Into 2nd Quartile by 2005/06
3rd Quartile / Achieve 2nd Quartile by 2005/06
2nd Quartile / Maintain 2nd Quartile year on year
Best Quartile / Maintain Best Quartile year on year
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BVPIs to monitor progress against Policy Priorities
Policy Priority - Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour
BVPI / Description / Quartile 02/03 (ODPM) / Target 03/04 / Actual 03/04 / Target 04/05 / Target 05/06 / Target 06/07 / Dept PlanBVPI 126 / Domestic burglaries per 1,000 households / 3rd / 11.28 / 13.70 / 13.0 / 12.4 / 11.7 / DSS
BVPI 127a / Violent offences committed by a stranger per 1,000 population / 3rd / 1.42 / 1.85 / 1.76 / 1.67 / 1.59 / DSS
BVPI 127b / Violent offences committed in a public place per 1,000 population /
Worst
/ 3.68 / 5.25 / 4.99 / 4.74 / 4.50 / DSSBVPI 127c / Violent offences committed in connection with licensed premises per 1,000 population /
Best
/ 0.19 / 0.44 / 0.42 / 0.40 / 0.38 / DSSBVPI 127d / Violent offences committed under the influence per 1,000 population /
Worst
/ 1.58 / 2.93 / 2.78 / 2.64 / 2.51 / DSSBVPI 128 / Vehicle crimes per 1,000 population / 3rd / 11.22 / 15.87 / 15.4 / 14.9 / 14.5 / DSS
BVPI 174 / The number of racial incidents recorded by the authority per 100,000 population /
Worst
/ 24.13 / 78.78 / 98.48 / 123.10 / 153.88 / DSSBVPI 175 / The % of racial incidents that resulted in further action /
Best
/ 100% / 100% / 100% / 100% / 100% / DSSPolicy Priority - Supporting the vulnerable
BVPI / Description / Quartile 02/03 (ODPM) / Target 03/04 / Actual 03/04 / Target 04/05 / Target 05/06 / Target 06/07 / Dept PlanBVPI 76 / Housing Benefit Security
1)Number of claimants visited (per 1000 caseload)
2)Number of fraud investigators employed (per 1000 caseload)
3)Number of fraud investigations (per 1000 caseload)
4)Number of prosecutions and sanctions (per 1000 caseload) / Amended Definition / 1)294
2)0.87
3)41.92
4)7.86 / 1)384
2)1.31
3)46.28
4)10.48 / 1)384
2)1.31
3)47.16
4)10.48 / 1)384
2)1.31
3)47.16
4)10.48 / DCR
BVPI 78a / Average time for processing new benefit claims /
Best
/ 28 / 25 / 28 / 28 / 28 / DCRBVPI 78b / Average time for processing notifications of changes of circumstance / 2nd / 9 / 8 / 7 / 7 / 7 / DCR
BVPI 78c / Percentage of benefit renewal claims processed on time / 3rd / 75% / 66% / Deleted 2004/05 / DCR
BVPI 79a / Percentage of cases where benefit entitlement calculation was correct / 3rd / 98.5% / 97% / 99% / 99% / 99% / DCR
BVPI 79b / The % of recoverable overpayments (excluding council tax benefit) that were recovered in the year /
Worst
/ 45% / 40.1% / 42% / 50% / 50% / DCRBVPI 80 / Satisfaction with the benefit service
a)Contact with the office.
b)Service in the office.
c)Telephone service.
d)Staff in the office.
e)Forms.
f)Speed of service.
g)Overall satisfaction / a)86%
b)92%
c)83%
d)88%
e)71%
f)85%
g)87% / 3 Year Survey / DCR
BVPI / Description / Quartile 02/03 (ODPM) / Target 03/04 / Actual 03/04 / Target 04/05 / Target 05/06 / Target 06/07 / Dept Plan
BVPI 156 / The % of authority buildings open to the public in which all public areas are suitable for and accessible to disabled people. /
Worst
/ 33% / 8% / 85% / 100% / 100% / DL&EBVPI 164 / Does the authority follow the Commission for Racial Equality's code of practice in rented housing [and follow the Good Practice Standards for social landlords on tackling harassment included in the Code of Practice for Social Landlords: Tackling Racial Harassment]? /
Best
/ Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / DHHBVPI 176 / The number of domestic violence refuge places per 10,000 population which are provided or supported by the authority / 3rd / 0.0532 / 0.055[2] / 0.055 / 0.055 / 0.055 / DHH
BVPI 177 / Percentage of authority expenditure on legal and advice services which is spent on services that have been awarded the Quality Mark and meet a priority need as defined in the Community Legal Service Partnership strategic plan / 3% / 2.93% / 3% / 3% / 3% / DCR
BVPI 183 / The average length of stay in (i) bed and breakfast accommodation and (ii) hostel accommodation of households which include dependent children or a pregnant woman and which are unintentionally homeless and in priority need. / (i) 3rd / 6 weeks / 3 weeks / 3 weeks / 3 weeks / 3 weeks / DHH
(ii) N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A
BVPI 202 (New) / The number of people sleeping rough on a single night within the area of the local authority. / New BVPI 2004/05 / DHH
BVPI 203 (New) / The percentage change in the average number of families, which include dependant children or a pregnant woman, placed in temporary accommodation under the homeless legislation compared with the average from the previous year. / New BVPI 2004/05 / DHH
Policy Priority - Protecting the Green Belt
BVPI / Description / Quartile 02/03 (ODPM) / Target 03/04 / Actual 03/04 / Target 04/05 / Target 05/06 / Target 06/07 / Dept PlanBVPI 106 / Percentage of new homes built on previously developed land /
Best
/ 65% / 94% / 65% / 65% / 65% / DL&EBVPI 200a / Do you have a development plan (or alterations to it) that has been adopted in the last 5 years and the end date of which has not expired? / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / DL&E
BVPI 204 (New) / Percentage of appeals allowed against the authority's decision to refuse planning applications. / New BVPI 2004/05 / DL&E
Policy Priority - Green and clean open spaces
BVPI / Description / Quartile 02/03 (ODPM) / Target 03/04 / Actual 03/04 / Target 04/05 / Target 05/06 / Target 06/07 / Dept PlanBVPI 82a / The percentage of household waste recycled / 2nd / 22% / 18.66% / 24% / 25% / 25% / DL&E
BVPI 82b / The percentage of household waste composted. (Amended definition) /
Worst
/ 0% / 0% / 2% / >8% / >8% / DL&EBVPI 84 / The kg of household waste collected per head per annum /
Best
/ 316.85kg / 337.92kg / 345kg / 365kg / 365kg / DL&EBVPI 86 / Cost of waste collection per household /
Worst
/ £71.65 / £57.79 / £93.29 / £96.34 / £99.95 / DL&EBVPI 89 / The percentage of people satisfied with the cleanliness standard in their area / 75% / 61% / 3 Year Survey / DL&E
BVPI 90a / The percentage of people satisfied with the household waste collection / 88% / 77% / 3 Year Survey / DL&E
BVPI 90b / The percentage of people satisfied with the waste recycling / 75% / 66% / 3 Year Survey / DL&E
BVPI 91 / Percentage of population resident in the authority’s area served by a kerbside collection of recyclables. /
Best
/ 100% / 100% / 100% / 100% / 100% / DL&EBVPI 180a / The energy consumption/m2 of local authority operational property, compared with comparable buildings in the UK as a whole, i) electricity ii) fossil fuels / (i) 2nd / (i) 97% / (i) 141% / (i) 139% / (i) 130% / (i) 128% / DCR
(ii) 3rd / (ii) 99% / (ii) 87% / (ii) 85% / (ii) 80% / (ii) 79%
BVPI 199 / The proportion of relevant land and highways as defined under EPA 1990 Part IV section 86 (expressed as a percentage) that is assessed as having combined deposits of litter and detritus (e.g., sand, silt, and other debris) across four categories of cleanliness (Clean, Light, Significant, Heavy) /
New BVPI 2003/04
/ 6% / 6% / 6% / 6% / DL&EPolicy Priority - Providing a mix of leisure facilities for all ages
BVPI / Description / Quartile 02/03 (ODPM) / Target 03/04 / Actual 03/04 / Target 04/05 / Target 05/06 / Target 06/07 / Dept PlanBVPI 114 / The adoption of a Local Cultural Strategy /
Best
/ 100% / 100% / Deleted / DL&EBVPI 119 / The percentage of residents satisfied with the Local Authority Cultural services overall, and shown as
(a)sports and leisure facilities,
(b)libraries
(c)museums/galleries
(d)theatres and concert halls,
(e)parks and open spaces / Amended Definition / a)46%
b) N/A
c) N/A
d)43%
e)70% / 3 Year Survey / DL&E
BVPIs to monitor progress against Corporate Governance
BVPI / Description / Quartile 02/03 (ODPM) / Target 03/04 / Actual 03/04 / Target 04/05 / Target 05/06 / Target 06/07 / Dept PlanBVPI 1a / Does the authority have a Community Strategy developed in collaboration with the local strategic partnership, for improving the economic, social and environmental well being in a way that is sustainable? /
Best
/ Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / Yes / DSSBVPI 1b / By when will a full review of the Community Strategy be completed? If such a review was scheduled for this year was it completed on time? / March 2004 / Not Completed / March 2005 / Major Review to be carried out 2007/08 / DSS
BVPI 1c / Has the authority reported progress towards implementing the community strategy to the wider community this year? If no by when will this be undertaken? / Yes / Yes -November 2003 / Yes / Yes / Yes / DSS
BVPI 2a / The level (if any) of the Equality Standard for Local Government to which the authority conforms /
Worst
/ 1 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 1 / TRDCBVPI 2b / The duty to promote race equality. / Amended Definition / 63% / 72% / 100% / 100% / TRDC
BVPI 3 / The percentage of citizens satisfied with the overall service provided / 75% / 62% / 3 Year Survey / TRDC
BVPI 4 / The percentage of complainants satisfied with the handling of their complaint / 75% / 29% / 3 Year Survey / TRDC
BVPI 8 / The percentage of invoices for commercial goods and services that were paid by the authority within 30 days of such invoices being received by the authority. / 3rd / 100% / 95.10% / 100% / 100% / 100% / DCR
BVPI 9 / Percentage of Council Tax collected. / 3rd / 97.50% / 96.8% / 97.3% / 97.6% / 97.8% / DCR
BVPI 10 / The percentage of non-domestic rates due for the financial year which were received by the authority. /
Worst