Agenda item

Report by Director of Finance and Support Services, setting out the finance and performance position as at the end of June 2022.

The Committee are asked to examine the Council’s corporate performance, finance, savings delivery and business performance for services within the remit of this Committee and to make any recommendations for action to the relevant Cabinet Member. 

Members are reminded that only the performance data on Community Support in section 4 (Community Support, Fire and Rescue Portfolio) falls within the remit of this Committee.

Communities

25.1     The Cabinet Member for Community Support, Fire and Rescue, Cllr Crow, reported that business was getting back to pre-pandemic levels but there were still a lot of challenges to both staffing and workload.

25.2     The Assistant Director (Communities), Mrs King, reported that customer demand was rising, particularly for the Ceremonies team, but also in libraries.  This had put pressure on staffing levels and some services were struggling to meet the demand of customers due to challenges on recruiting staff.  The Coroner’s Service was under pressure due to the level of need.

25.3     Mrs King reported that the Homes for Ukraine scheme had not been in the business plan and there had been no workforce ready to respond.  The directorate had modelled their response on the pandemic response and gathered colleagues from across the directorate and remodelled.  She had been very proud of the outcome. 

25.4     Mrs King reported that the increase in demand for ceremonies had raised income, which had been used to offset losses such as video rentals in libraries.  Officers were looking at changes in customer behaviour in order to provide the best service to customers. 

25.5     Members of the Committee then asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

25.6     Homes for Ukraine Scheme – When the national online portal launched, a lot of interest had been expressed by West Sussex residents, leading to a very busy time in April and May.  Expressions of interest continue to feed through but many who initially expressed an interest in hosting have not taken the matter further.  Many hosts are keen to continue support beyond the initial 6 months of the scheme.  New guests continue to arrive through various schemes e.g. the unaccompanied minors pathway, and extended family scheme.  Records are held on the guests within the Homes for Ukraine Scheme and all guests have 4-monthly check-ins from their date of arrival and each guest has a tailored package. Information is fed back to the Government on the grant scheme.  Within this scheme there have been minimal safeguarding issues presented. 

25.7     Other refugee schemes are based on a tariff model with an allocation per individual where the Government identifies the cost over several years.  The directorate ensures costs do not impact on the County Council by ensuring the money achieves the most it can.

25.8     It was difficult to measure how judicial sentences, as the outcome of Trading Standards investigations, were proving a deterrent to others.  Successful outcomes were always publicised to raise public awareness.  Information would be sought through the National Trading Standards (NATS).

25.9     Communities Hub – The hub was transitioning well from its initial Covid-facing service to more general information e.g. cost of living, callers seeking government grants, etc.  The team were skilled and talented people who could be trained to answer questions on any subject. The team are trained to understand and reflect on tone, trigger words, and help to explain what is going on to callers. 

Environment and Climate Change

25.10  Members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

25.11  The 1-2-3 collections trial in partnership with Arun District Council had gone extremely well and another trail was being run in Mid Sussex.  District and borough councils were awaiting an announcement from Government on future proposals before committing to such schemes.  A report detailing the outcomes of the trial could be shared with the Committee.  Lobbying of Government continued by the Cabinet Member who had written to the new Secretary of State, through consultation responses and through the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) via their current president Mr Read, Assistant Director of Environment and Public Protection.

25.12  The Solar Together Sussex scheme had reached a milestone of 1,000 installations during the reporting quarter.  It was reported that suppliers were struggling to get sufficient staff and components to complete installations, so the project had been paused until spring 2023.  The County Council in partnership with district and borough councils received a commission for installations.  The County Council receipt goes into the fuel poverty fund and the district and borough councils used their income to promote and market the next round of the scheme.

25.13  It was hoped to open a Re-Use Shop in a southern centre and ways were being explored with the sub-contractor of the waste sites.  Due to space constraints and health and safety it would not be possible to have a re-use shop at every household waste recycling centre.

Highways and Transport

25.14  The Assistant Director (Highways Transport and Planning), Mr Davey, reported that report gave a good summary of the key issues the portfolio was dealing with.  Like other portfolios staffing capacity was a major concern.  He reported much effort was being put in to changing the approach to recruitment.  He reported that that there had been a good uptake of apprenticeship roles.  The impact of the increasing energy costs had started to show in the quarter and efforts were being made to address this however there was capacity in the County Council budget to accommodate the rise in costs in year. 

25.15  Members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

25.16  Bus Service Improvement Plan – It was confirmed that the consultations which had taken place had been on the bus station improvements in Horsham and a bus lane in Manor Royal, Crawley.

25.17  KPI 18 Percentage length of A and B roads that require maintenance – It was confirmed that the data was an average of information over a period of time rather than being based on a benign winter.

25.18  KPI 41 Killed or seriously injured casualties – It was difficult to prove that the road safety schemes delivered had a direct impact on the number of road casualties, but it was hoped that by making the overall road network safer that a reduction in injuries would be seen.

25.19  A29 Road Scheme – For the northern section the County Council had agreed to work with the housing developers to provide the road. However, the developers were having difficulty in acquiring the land for the scheme, so a compulsory purchase process had commenced.  The southern section is expected to be funded by the housing developers which would be impacted by the viability of their developments, however there was confidence the scheme would be delivered.

25.20  A284 Road Scheme – There was confidence that the scheme would be delivered despite recent price increases.

25.21  The Government had continued to fund support for the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme for this financial year.  Further announcements were awaited.  Data suggested there was still a reduction in bus patronage.