Agenda item

To consider a report from the Director of Strategy and Resources which presents a summary of performance data relating to Council and city priorities that fall within the remit of the Scrutiny Board (Strategy & Resources).

The Board received a report from Director of Strategy and Resources which provided a summary of performance against the on the 17 KIPIs covered by the Strategy & Resources Scrutiny Board.

In attendance for this item;

• Councillor James Lewis – Leader of Council
• Councillor D Coupar - Executive Member for Resources
• Mariana Pexton - Director of Strategy and Resources
• Mike Eakins - Head of Policy
• Andy Dodman - Chief Officer HR

The 17 KPIs, which fall in Strategy & Resources remit are drawn from five service areas:

• Human Resources

• Financial Services

• Customer Access

• Information Management & Governance

• Procurement & Commercial Services

It was noted that KPI number 5 as listed within the appendix included a mean hourly rate of 4.5%, with the correct figure being 3.8%.

The Board requested that the statistical breakdown of women working within the Council is replicated with other protected characteristics.

Board Members considered the various ways in which the pandemic has impacted the ability to accurately compare different datasets over different years.

The Board expressed concern at the number of complaints coming from families who have children with SEND. The Director of Strategy and Resources noted that this matter is for the Directorate of Children and Families, but that a note would be supplied to Members of the Board examining the detail of this issue.

The Head of Policy clarified that the ways in which customer service complaints had been recorded has changed, and therefore providing a year-on-year analysis has been complicated. There will be further analysis provided to the Board where possible.

Responding to a question on prompt payment of invoices the Director of Strategy and Resources considered ensuring 100% of due payments from the Council to be paid on time may not be possible logistically and considered the current statistics to be relatively high.

The Board considered the issues with disclosing staff happiness and mental health results due to staff confidentiality and privacy, especially for those within smaller teams. The Director of Strategy and Resources informed the Board of some of the ways in which the Council supports staff with their mental health including;

• Mental health first aiders across the organisation
• Counsellors in the workplace
• Additional training and support for managers
• Freedom To Speak Up Guardian

Board Members noted that in addition to staff without digital access, there are staff without regular and sustained digital access, and that their needs ought to be identified and supported so that they can fully access the Council’s mental health offer.

The Chief Officer HR offered to request colleagues in other cities exchange mental health statistics within their organisation so that Leeds City Council can assess its performance compared to others. The Leader of the Council clarified that Leeds City Council directly employs a larger number of employees that some other councils, for example three times the number as Sheffield City Council despite not having three times the population, which can make comparison difficult.

Responding to a board member’s question it was noted that mental health waiting lists for NHS GP services were not considered possible for the Council to access for its staff, however Council occupational health service statistics will be examined.

Cross city analysis on the gender pay gap was also requested by the Board.

RESOLVED – That the performance information contained in Appendix 1, be noted.