Issue - meetings

(NOTE: A copy of the report that was considered by the Strategy and Resources Committee on 4^th November 2019 is attached).

Council considered the Performance and Financial Management report for Quarter 2 of 2019/2020 to the Strategy and Resources Committee on 4^th November 2019 (circulated previously).

Report by Head of Resources (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Head of Resources (circulated previously) regarding the Performance and Financial Management for Quarter 2 of 2019/20.

The Accountancy Services Manager highlighted the following:

·         As at 30 September 2019, the latest forecast net budget was £12.605m, which produced a budget deficit of £0.087m.  The deficit for Quarter 1 was £0.028m.  Work would be undertaken towards reducing this throughout Quarter 3 and Quarter 4.  The measures detailed in paragraph 4.1.5 of the report were already factored in to the £0.087m deficit.  Details of all variances were shown in “Appendix A – Variations in the Revenue Budget”.

·         Operational Services have seen increasing pressure in Quarter 2 on various budgets due to increased levels of missed collections and higher levels of sickness absence.  Employee costs were currently forecast to exceed the budget by £0.229m, the main reasons contributing to this overspend were increased use of agency and overtime to cover the inefficiencies above.

·         The Head of Operational Services had outlined plans to address some of these issues by:

o   Introducing changes to the workshop to reduce vehicles off the road – The working hours of the vehicle workshop had been extended as part of a trial to increase vehicle availability and to reduce overtime both in the workshop and on the collection crews. The number of technicians had also been increased from 5 to 6 as part of the trial. Previously the workshop had been operating between 6am and 5pm with one technician in at 6am. The workshop was now operating between 6am and 6pm with two technicians in from 6am to 2pm, two from 8am to 4pm, and two from 10am to 6pm. Productivity would be closely monitored to establish the level of repairs/maintenance that were undertaken between 6am and 7am and 3pm & 6pm (the vehicles need to be available to the collection staff between 7am and 3pm). The intention was to complete more work outside of core hours and to minimise reduced vehicle availability from breakdowns and maintenance. This in turn would reduce/remove the need for collection crews to work beyond 3pm or on a Saturday to “catch up” due to the lack of vehicle availability.

o   Challenging the resource allocation across all Works and Recycling manual sections had identified that the street cleansing team could be reduced by 2 (over the winter months) and they will now be redeployed to assist with cover on the refuse and recycling services which in turn will see a positive reduction in the number of agency staff used for cover. In addition, an analysis of winter tonnages had been undertaken for the green collection service. Resource requirements have been challenged across the 10 day collection cycle and crew sizes have been reduced accordingly (in consultation with the staff).  This created a pool of staff that would now be redeployed to cover holiday and sickness across black and recycling services which would produce a positive reduction in agency support. Weekly usage of agency and overtime would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60