Section 1: Chief Executive’s Commentary

1 Introduction

1.1 This report sets out an overview of the council’s performance for the fourth quarter of 2021/22 (January - March 2022). The purpose is to formally provide the Executive with a high-level summary of key achievements, and to highlight areas where performance has not matched targets or expectations, along with any remedial action that is being taken. It complements the detailed Quarterly Service Reports (QSRs) and is based upon the performance data that is available to all Members online.

1.2 The council continued to work closely with partners to lead our community response to the Covid-19 pandemic, nevertheless the council’s strategic objectives continue to progress well overall. This is the fourth quarterly report of the 2021/22 financial year and at the end of the fourth quarter progress in implementing our service plans showed:

▪ 51 actions (46%) are green

▪ 13 actions (12%) are amber

▪ 1 action (1%) is red

▪ 40 actions (36%) are complete

A further 5 actions do not have a progress status assigned.

1.3 Section 3 of this report contains information on the performance indicators across the council for each of the Council Plan’s strategic themes. Again, the picture was positive, particularly in the face of pressures on services due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The status for the key indicators in the Council Plan in the first quarter is:

▪ 20 (87%) green

▪ 0 (0%) amber

▪ 3 (13%) red.

42 further indicators have no set target or data is currently unavailable.

2. Overview of Q4 and what went especially well

2.1 Aside from the progress being made towards the council plan actions and indicators, teams delivered services to a high standard during the period. I have highlighted here a small selection of examples from across the organisation.

2.2 As we have now reached the final quarter of 2021/22, we are continuing to transition to the Government’s Living with COVID-19 plan, with the Public Heath Team and the whole organisation increasingly focusing on recovery and renewal and business as usual. The Covid response team’s focus was on continuing to deliver the remainder of the programme whilst considering how to re-embed any further outbreak management work back into our existing local public health function.

2.3 Redeployment opportunities for the Covid response team were established during Q4 to ensure future resilience was retained within the local authority should any of the functions be required to stand back up at short notice. Our proactive local contact tracing and practical self-isolation offer was closed in February 2022, whilst community testing continued to focus its delivery on underrepresented and targeted groups until the 31 March.

2.4 Covid business grant payments were completed on 30 March, ensuring that no funding was left outstanding by the end of the year. Over the past 2 years the council has paid out grants of almost £25m to over 3,500 businesses in the borough.

2.5 Climate change mitigation has been a key theme of work this quarter. Our investment in a food waste collection scheme has exceeded expectations, taking the council’s recycling rate now well over 50% and residual waste going to landfill to below 10%. The council has also been granted funds from the government decarbonisation scheme to make capital investments in our buildings, which will have demonstratable reductions in the carbon generated by the council. Councillors have been able to monitor these successes via the Climate Change Advisory Panel.

2.6 The Russian Leadership’s invasion of Ukraine in February has caused the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two with at least a third of the population of the country displaced. The Chief Executive’s Office as led a cross-council programme of support for Ukrainian residents already living in the borough and people arriving from Ukraine as part of the Homes for Ukraine and Family visa schemes.

2.7 To date over 60 people have arrived as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme with a further 80 Ukrainians anticipated to arrive. Over 60 people have committed to host Ukrainian ‘guests’ with many more expressions of interest in hosting as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme. A significant number of Ukrainians have also arrived to stay with family as part of the Family visa scheme, although exact numbers are unknown. A far reaching programme of community integration support has been established with close working with partners including the voluntary, community and faith sectors.

2.8 Construction work finished on the new Heathlands facility, which is now open to service users. In addition to providing a “state of the art” new health and social care facility that will benefit Bracknell Forest residents for many years, it has immediately helped provide support for the increased demand for hospital services, due to Covid-19.

2.9 Following the successful peer review in Q3 an action plan was agreed to support the further growth of the council. This included a number of cross council actions linked to the future leadership of the council and the recovery from the pandemic.

3. What are we doing about things not going so well?

3.1 Following the Joint Inspection of Bracknell’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Services, work has progressed relating to the response to the report. This has included engagement with parent carers, Head Teachers and other key stakeholders. The meeting with Ofsted, Care Quality Commission and Department for Education took place with system leaders and the process for producing a written statement of action was outlined (WSOA). The submission date for the Written Statement of Action is 7th June 2022.

3.2 The 2020/21 accounts audit is due to be signed off shortly after an initial delay. This is due to continued delays in RBWM receiving sign off for their accounts, of which the Berkshire Pension Fund is a part.

Forward Look

Going forward, the council’s strategic objectives for the 2022/23 financial year have been agreed and published in the Service Plans which will be monitored over the next four quarters.

Timothy Wheadon

Chief Executive

Section 2: Budget Position

Revenue Budget Monitor

The provisional end of year position for the General Fund indicates an underspend of -£1.020m.

CMT resolved to allocate General Contingency and Covid-19 Contingency funding to directorates reporting a net pressure at year-end. As both the Central and Delivery directorates were under spent additional funding was only allocated to the People Directorate which therefore shows a nil variance overall against budget

Details of individual variances are outlined in each department’s Quarterly Service Report (QSR). This net under spend comprises the following significant variances:

Central

· Additional consultancy costs associated with planning appeals (£0.203m).

· An under-recovery of income in Building Control (£0.096m).

· Additional income (-£0.052m) and an underspend on contract maintenance costs (-£0.058m) within the Traffic service.

· Under spends on supplies and services within Transport Strategy (-£0.063m) and Regeneration and Economic Development (-£0.054m).

· Under spends on centralised training budgets within Organisational Development (-£0.077m) because of the skills audit and consequential delays in the delivery of training.

Delivery

· An overspend in ICT projects (£0.266m) partly offset by savings in other budget areas in particular the Print Service (-£0.112m).

· An overspend on Home to School Transport due to increased demand (£0.697m).

· Income generated by Investment Properties was below budget and additional expenditure was incurred which could not be recharged to tenants (£0.165m).

· Additional income generated within Registration of Births Deaths & Marriages (-£0.115m).

· Within Waste Management underspends on waste disposal (-£0.760m) and the brown bin service (-£0.084m) partly offset by an overspend on household collections (£0.123m) relating to additional rounds for food waste collection.

· Under spends in On/Off Street Parking from income exceeding the reduced target (-£0.266m), a Business Rates refund (-£0.169m), contracted services (-£0.139m) and maintenance (-£0.053m).

· Financial support provided under the leisure contract because of the pandemic resulted in an under-recovery of income (£0.412m).

· An overachievement of income (-£0.046m) and operational under spends (-£0.147m) at the Cemetery and Crematorium.

· Under spends in Office Accommodation (-£0.042m), Street Cleansing (-£0.081m) and Other Contracted Services (-£0.065m).

People

· The Management Team experienced some staff changes during the year and required additional management capacity to support the development of key Directorate objectives (£0.135m).

· An overspend on Education and Learning (£0.075m) resulting from overspends on staffing (£0.105m) and loss of income (£0.220m), partly offset by additional income from schools (-£0.061m)and underspends at the Open Learning Centre, on former teachers pensions and on operational budgets (-£0.189m).

· A net underspend on Children’s Social Care (-£0.093m). Care and accommodation costs for Children Looked After underspent (-£0.497m) as average costs were lower than expected and new income contributions were secured for health-related support services. Other significant variances included the transformation programme (£0.250m), general support to Children Looked After (+0.178m), care leavers support and maintenance costs (-£0.154m), support to fostering (+£0.066m), Childcare Solicitors (+£0.217m), Disability Care Needs (+£0.083m) and Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers (-£0.115m).

· An overspend on care packages within adult social care, primarily due to an increase in the number and cost of learning disability clients (£1.351m). This was partly offset by underspends at Waymead, the in-house respite service, as it remained closed throughout the year (-£0.102m) and additional winter pressures funding and staff vacancies (-£0.430m).

· Within Mental Health and Out of Hours, care packages overspent (£1.200m) due to an increase in both numbers and the complexity of needs. Forestcare overspent (£0.180m), mainly due to reductions in income, as did the Emergency Duty Service (£0.029m).

· An underspend on Early Help and Communities (-£0.128m). The main elements were underspends within Housing Welfare & Benefits (-£0.171m), largely caused by a reduction in the provision for bad debts, from staff vacancies (-£0.152m) and other budgets, in particular in the Youth Service (-£0.149m) within Early Help. These were partly offset by an overspend on Housing Management and Property (£0.508m) due to voids and additional repairs.

· Transfer of General and Covid-19 Contingency Funding into People to cover additional pressures experienced during the year (-£2.300m).

Non-Departmental / Council Wide

· A significant under spend on interest budgets (-£1.119m). Average cash balances have been substantially higher than expected removing the need for any new borrowing in 2021/22. This has resulted from a combination of slippage on the capital programme, the underspend on the revenue budget and positive cashflows from grants being received pending their allocation.

· Internally funded capital expenditure was financed from internal borrowing rather than revenue contributions to spread the cost impact (-£0.232m).

· Higher than forecast capital receipts in 2020/21 and significant capital carry forwards into 2021/22 have created an under spend against the Minimum Revenue Provision (-£0.112m).

· The impact of staff retention initiatives was less than expected (-0.162m). There were also underspends on corporate budgets for superannuation (-0.024m) and repairs and maintenance (-0.015m).

· Other under spends primarily relating to pension recharges and joint arrangements, and the provision for bad debts and write offs (-£0.060m).

· Within Business Rates, reductions in the grant receivable from central government (£0.538m) partly offset by an underspend on the levy payable to central government (-£0.527m).

· Not all the Covid-19 Contingency Fund was required in 2021/22 resulting in an underspend (-£2.109m).

Earmarked Reserves

· Transfers into the Transformation (£1.220m), Regeneration of Town Centre (£1.000m) and Inflation (£1.500m) Reserves partly funded from the Structural Changes Reserve (-£0.500m) and the closure of the Repairs and Maintenance Reserve (-£0.030m).

The final accounts will be presented to the Governance and Audit Committee once the external audit is complete

A full review of all the variances arising in 2021/22 will be undertaken so that any variances that have an impact in 2022/23 and beyond can be identified and built into the Council’s medium term financial plans.

The General Reserves balance at 31st March 2022 was £11.346m.

Staff Sickness

Department	Quarter 3 21/22 (days per employee)	Previous Financial Year (Actual Average days per employee)	2021/22 Estimated Annual Average (days per employee)	Notes
People	2.55	5.93	8.03
Delivery	2.48	7.67	7.02
PPR	0.97	2.47	3.69
Resources	1.52	4.65	6.76
Chief Executive’s Office	1.1	2.3	4.98
Total staff sickness excluding maintained schools	2.14	5.67		6.94

Comparator data	All employees, average days sickness absence per employee
Bracknell Forest Council (Non-Schools) 20/21	5.67 days
English Local Authorities 2017/18	8.6 days

(Source: Local Government Workforce Survey 2017/18)

People

Absence this quarter is higher than last quarter. Long term sickness accounts for 52% of the absence this quarter whilst Covid-19 accounts for 26% of the absence this quarter which is much higher than last quarter. Absence rate for 21-22 are 8.03 days per employee which is substantially higher than the 5.93 days in 20-21.

Delivery

Absence levels within the directorate have increased this quarter by approximately 38%. Long Term Sickness equates to 52% of the absence. Covid Levels have increased significantly and now contribute 23% of the absence this quarter. The annual average for 21-22 is 7.02 days per employee which is slightly lower than the figure 20-21.

Resources

Absences in Q4 has decreased slightly since Q3. Long term sickness equates to just 22.5% of the absence this quarter whilst Covid levels still remain high and account for 35.5% of the absence this quarter.

Absence levels for 21-22 stand at 6.76 days per employee which is significantly higher than 4.76 days in 20-21.

Place, Planning & Regeneration

Absence in Q4 has reduced slightly on last quarters figures. Long Term Sick continues to reduce and now accounts for approximately 10% of the sickness this quarter. Covid-19 rates are on the rise however with 35% of absence being because of Covid-19.

The sickness rate for 21-22 was 3.69 days per employee which is higher than the 2.47 days in 20-21 but substantially lower than the overall BFC figure.

Chief Executive’s Office

Absence levels this quarter are very similar to last quarter. There was no long term sickness absence this quarter. Covid-19 accounted for approximately 21% of the absence this quarter. Absence levels for 21-22 were 4.98 days per employee which is higher than the 2.3 figure from 20-21 although still well below the figure for BFC as a whole.

b) Summary of Complaints

Department	Type of complaint	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total cumulative complaints	Outcome of all complaints received year to date
People: Adults	Statutory	12	14	11	12	49	8 – upheld/fully substantiated 20 – partially upheld/partially substantiated 15 – not upheld/not substantiated 2 – no finding 3 – in progress 1 – external investigation
People: Adults	Local Government Ombudsman	0	0	0	0	0
People: Childrens	Statutory stage 1	25	17	23	25	90	7 – upheld/fully substantiated 42 – partially upheld/partially substantiated 25 – not upheld/not substantiated 6 - no finding made 3 – in progress 7 – proceeded to stage 2
	Statutory stage 2	2	1	2	2	7	7 – partially upheld
	Statutory stage 3	0	0	3	0	3	3 – partially upheld
	Stage 2	1	1	0	0	2	2 – not upheld
	Stage 3	0	2	0	0	2	2 – not upheld
	Local Government Ombudsman	0	0	0	1	1
People: Housing	Stage 2	2	2	1	1	6	5 – partially upheld 1 – not upheld
	Stage 3	0	0	0	0	0
	Local Government Ombudsman	0	0	0	0	0
CXO	Stage 2	0	0	0	0	0
	Stage 3	0	0	0	0	0
	Local Government Ombudsman	0	0	0	0	0
Resources	Stage 2	0	1	1	2	2	4 – Not upheld
	Stage 3	0	0	0	0	0
	Local Government Ombudsman	0	0	0	0	0
PPR	Stage 2	5	6	4	0	15	1 – in progress 4 – not upheld 2 - upheld 8 – proceeded to stage 3
	Stage 3	4	2	2	0	8	2 – in progress 3 – not upheld 1 – upheld 2 – proceeded to LGO
	Local Government Ombudsman	3	0	0	0	3	2 - Not upheld 1 - Upheld
Delivery	Stage 2	3	0	0	3	4	4 – in progress 2 – not upheld
	Stage 3	0	0	0	0	0
	Local Government Ombudsman	0	0	0	0	0

People: Adults

There were 12 complaints in quarter 4. Compared to this time last year, the figure is up from 9.

People: Childrens

There were 28 complaints in quarter 4. Compared to this time last year, the figure is down from 32. This is 4 less.

Delivery

There were 3 complaints in quarter 4. Compared to this time last year, the figure is up from 0.

Resources

There were 2 complaints in quarter 4. (QSR established this year).

Place, Planning & Regeneration

There were no complaints in quarter 4. (QSR established this year).

Chief Executive’s Office

There were no complaints in quarter 4. (QSR established this year).

c) Strategic Risks and Audits

During quarter 4 the Strategic Risk Register was reviewed by Strategic Risk Management Group (SRMG) and the Corporate Management team (CMT) on 10th February and 9^th March before being presented to the Governance and Audit Committee for comment on 23^rd March 2022. The key changes to the Register agreed for quarter 4 were to regrade the Finance Risk from a red to amber risk and reduce the Covid Risk score.

	Performance is very good
	Performance is causing concern
	Performance is weak
	RAG rating not applicable
	Missing data
	Missing target

Department	Previous Figure*	For the last 4 quarters	Notes
People	15.82%	15%
Delivery	11.54%	13.22%
Resources	6.59%	11.82%
PPR	15.09%	12.16%
Chief Executive’s Office	10.26%	10.91%
Total Voluntary Turnover	14.08%	13.83%

Comparator data	%
Total voluntary turnover for BFC, 2020/21:	11.2%
Average voluntary turnover rate UK public sector 2016:	10.0%
Average Local Government England voluntary turnover 2016:	14.0%

Section 1: Chief Executive’s Commentary

Section 2: Budget Position

Section 3: Strategic Themes

Value for money

Economic resilience

Education and skills

Caring for you and your family

Protecting and enhancing our environment

Section 4: Corporate Health

a) Summary of People

b) Summary of Complaints

c) Strategic Risks and Audits