Elected Member Briefing - Local Government Benchmarking Framework

About this briefing note

Report by: Charlene Guild, Head of Innovation

Date: 18 April 2023

Subject: Local Government Benchmarking Framework 2021/22 Publication

Responsible Officer: Louisa Dott, Performance Team Leader, Chief Executive's Service

Purpose

This briefing note is to inform elected members of the publication of the 2021/22 Local Government Benchmarking Framework data.  It was published on 17th March 2023 by the Improvement Service via an online interactive tool called 'MyLocalCouncil', which is aimed for public use. 

The Improvement Service have also published a high-level National Overview Report for 2021/22, which is shorter and more streamlined than in previous years, to present key messages.  In addition, this year they have also developed a new interactive dashboard for use by Local Government professionals, which is a very detailed tool. 

The benchmarking data helps the Council, members of the public and other stakeholders see how Perth and Kinross Council is performing in key areas compared to other local authorities.    

All information is available via links on our own website. 

Briefing Information

Background 

The Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) was developed by the Improvement Service, on behalf of SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives), in 2012. The purpose of the Local Government Benchmarking Framework is to: help councils and their services better understand why they achieve their current performance levels; build our understanding of where Council performance varies; and help identify and share good practice across councils. 

All Scottish local authorities have worked together to report on services which can be compared both across councils and year-on-year. This information takes the form of specific 'indicators' that measure aspects of performance.

The indicators cover seven service areas which are: Children's Services, Corporate Services, Adult Social Care, Culture and Leisure Services, Environmental Services, Housing and Economic Development.

The data is gathered from a number of sources. In 2021/22, 4 new indicators have been added to the framework within Corporate Services, these are: Proportion of Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) Crisis Grants decisions within 1 day, Proportion of SWF Community Care Grant decisions within 15 days, Proportion of SWF budget spent and Proportion of Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) funding spent.  

National Context  

The following national context has been taken from the 2021/22 LGBF National Overview Report, which provides analysis and interpretation of data gathered from across Scotland. 

The 2021/22 LGBF report introduces data from a period when communities and council services were still managing the significant ongoing impact of Covid, while new challenges were emerging in the shape of soaring inflationary pressures and a 'cost of living crisis', the effects of which are likely to cause a new economic and public health emergency. The combined impact of these events will be profound both for the services delivered by local government and the lives of the communities they serve. The evidence in this year's LGBF highlights both the challenges faced, and the extraordinary effort and achievements delivered across local government during this exceptional period.  

The National LGBF report outlines 5 key focal points, which are summarised below: 

Local government financial and workforce pressures 

The financial outlook for local government is more challenging than ever before. Funding levels have not kept pace with increased demand and need, Councils are continuing to have to make savings and are facing increasingly difficult choices with their spending priorities and are absorbing a higher level of risk to bridge the funding gap. While total revenue funding for councils increased in in 2021/22 (excluding non-recurring Covid funding), relative reductions continue in non-statutory services to provide balance to statutory/ringfenced commitments and has resulted in a real-terms reduction in revenue funding available to pursue local priorities. Staff absence levels (excluding teachers) reached 12.4 days in 2021/22, their highest ever reported.  More than half of all councils are experiencing skills shortages and recruitment challenges in areas not previously impacted and staff retention and high levels of staff turn-over, is a growing issue for councils.  

Poverty, financial hardship and the 'Cost of Living' crisis 

The cost-of-living crisis is making it more difficult for low-income households to make ends meet and is exacerbating the financial hardship already caused by the Covid pandemic. The scale of this is evidenced in the growth in demand for Scottish Welfare Fund Crisis and Community Care Grants, Discretionary Housing Payments, and increasing levels of rent arrears.  

Health and social care pressures 

Despite extra-ordinary challenges, exacerbated by the pandemic, Councils and their partners have been able to ensure the continuation of social care service delivery. This included delivering more hours of care at home than ever before to meet increasingly complex needs, continuing to shift the balance of care towards greater home-based support, and maintaining care home provision. There are however clear indications of system pressure and growing concern about levels of unmet need within communities. Although more care at home is being provided it is to fewer people with higher levels of need for personal care at home. Delayed discharges rose sharply and satisfaction declined amongst both those receiving care and the carers who are supporting them. 

Education for children and young people 

Covid and in particular infection control measures such as lockdowns and the closure of schools and early years facilities, have had a profound and ongoing impact on children, particularly amongst those from deprived backgrounds. While data in 2020/21 revealed a decline in developmental milestones of pre-school children, primary phase attainment levels, school attendance levels, and positive destinations for school leavers, more recent data from 2021/22 indicates encouraging signs of recovery, albeit some outcomes remain below pre-Covid levels.  

Performance of local government services 

Overall, local government performance during Covid represents a mixed picture. Councils have sustained and strengthened improvement trends in a number of policy critical areas including positive destinations, gender pay gap, procurement, housing energy efficiency, corporate asset condition, carbon emissions, balance of social care and Self-Directed Support, living wage, and roll out of superfast broadband. There has been a decline in other areas, caused by or exacerbated by Covid including housing quality and repairs, rent arrears, income lost due to voids, street cleanliness levels and satisfaction with care services. In areas such as Culture and Leisure visitor numbers, recycling rates, council tax collection rates, and business start-up rates, while there has been some recovery from the initial Covid impact, performance levels remain below pre-Covid levels in 2021/22.  

PKC Context   

In 2021/22, we compared our position against the Scottish averages. Of the 80 non-cost performance indicators, 9 do not have data available for 2021/22 yet.  Of the 71 indicators that had data available, 43 PIs performed better than the Scottish average (61%), and 28 PIs performed below the Scottish average (39%). This is an improvement on last year where there was a more equal split of 52% and 48% respectively. 

All 71 non-cost performance indicators (PIs) with 2021/22 data have been ranked in terms of their performance out of 32 local authorities, reflecting each local authority in Scotland. They are then divided into four groups, known as quartiles. Shown below is a summary of how Perth & Kinross Council performance indicators compare to all other local authorities in Scotland.  

• 17 indicators (24%) are in the upper quartile;  

• 25 indicators (35%) are in the upper middle quartile;  

• 20 indicators (28%) are in the lower middle quartile; and  

• 9 indicators (13%) are in the lower quartile. 

During 2021/22, 59% of PIs for PKC were in the upper two quartiles.  This is an improvement on last year where 52% of PIs were in the upper two quartiles.  Ranking data gives a sense of how Perth and Kinross Council is performing in comparison to other local authorities. However, it is necessary to take into account that legitimate variations in data will exist across councils due to local policy choices and demographic profiles. 

Local Key Messages:

Education & Children's Services 

• The Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence levels for primary aged children has improved by approximately 4 percentage points in both Literacy and Numeracy, with improvements particularly in the P7 cohort. It is now largely the highest we have seen in almost all curricular areas and stages, though it remains just below the national average.  
• The poverty-related attainment gaps for Literacy and Numeracy in Broad General Education have reduced by 6 percentage points and 7 percentage points respectively and are now close to the national average. 
• Overall attainment in the Senior phase shows long-term improvement and remains generally above the national average.  However, poverty-related attainment gaps remain and as such, they remain a key focus for improvement work in the coming session. 
• The participation rate, measuring the economic and employment activity of all 16-19 year olds in Perth & Kinross remains solid, and we are ranked 10th nationally.  

Corporate & Democratic Services 

• Sickness absence has increased, in line with the national and family group trends, and remains a key focus area. However, it is a mixed picture for Perth & Kinross as we are in quartile 1 for non-teacher absences (ranked 8) and quartile 4 for teacher absences (ranked 25). We have identified some factors that we consider have contributed to increases in absences and these are used to shape our wellbeing support for employees, including advice and support for managers. We will continue to work with our trade unions and professional associations to prioritise support for the health and wellbeing of our workforce. 
• Our Council tax collection rate of 97.7% is the joint highest collection rate in Scotland; 2% above the Scottish Average for 2021/22 and exceeding our own expectations. Despite the ongoing challenges during 2021/22 (e.g. impact of COVID and the increasing Cost of Living), this is an excellent achievement.  
• We have also achieved good performance levels and are in quartile one for indicators relating to the gender pay gap and percentage of operational buildings that are suitable for their current use. 
• Caution should be applied when reviewing the new welfare Corporate PIs as some of this data is still being trialled. 

Communities Service 

• The level of investment in our roads, per kilometre, increased in 2021/22, reflecting the decision of Council as part of the budget setting process.  As a result of this additional investment, there has been an improvement in the standard of the road network and positive results in roads maintenance benchmarking data and ranking for road class types B, C and U.  
• Whilst the net cost of street cleaning remained largely similar, there was a reduction in our street cleanliness score, and we are currently sitting in quartile 4 for this indicator (ranked 31).  Short-term resourcing issues, redeployment of staff to higher priority areas, such as on-street refuse collection, and slippage targets have all contributed to this. However, public satisfaction with street cleanliness is still high and we are sitting in quartile 1 for this indicator (ranked 2). 
• We also rank well, and are in quartile one, for indicators relating to public satisfaction with museums and galleries, number of days to complete non-emergency housing repairs and claimant count percentages of the population for both working age and 16-24 year old ranges. 
• The town vacancy rate methodology for collecting the numbers of vacant units has changed and therefore previous years are not comparable. This has been highlighted to the Improvement Service.  During 2021/22, the Council continued to provide further support to retail and other businesses to help economic recovery through a range of measures including business advice, employment and business support and grant assistance for repair and conversion. 

Health & Social Care Partnership 

• Performance against the 11 Health and Social Care indicators is positive when compared to Scotland with 7 indicators (63%) in the upper or upper middle quartile. Nevertheless, Perth and Kinross' ranking reduced from 15 in 2020/21 to 12 in 2021/22. 
• Our approach to Self-Directed Support continues to provide high levels of choice for the way in which people receive their care and support.  We are ranked well at 3 and performance in this area has been sustained over the long term. 
• Our ranking in support for carers to continue in their caring role has improved over time and we are now ranked 7 (up from 16 in 2015/16). Carers have good opportunities to seek support and to pass on their views and experiences. The Carers Strategy will be updated in 2023 and will address the need to ensure carers are supported to carry on their caring role. 
• The percentage of adults supported at home who agree they had a say in how their support was provided has improved to rank 11 from 10 and remains 3% above Scotland.  However, the percentage of people who agree their support improved or maintained their quality of life declined by 4%.   
• The percentage of people with long term care needs receiving personal care at home has increased marginally since 2019-20 (0.66%). The delivery of care at home has been challenging due to significant workforce shortages exacerbated by the rural nature of Perth and Kinross. A whole system approach to redesigning this area of service provision is being undertaken to support long term delivery. 
• Delayed discharges have improved by 31% since 2016/17 and remain significantly better than Scotland overall, overall (594 days per 1000 population compared to 748 days per 1000 population) despite a significant increase in delays from 20/21. Performance was heavily influenced by changes in service provision as a consequence of the pandemic. This remains a key area of focus for improvement with significant service redesign being implemented.  

Next Steps  

• A virtual session on the new interactive LGBF dashboard aimed at Local Government professionals has been arranged for all Elected Members on Tuesday 9 May 2023. Exact timings will be confirmed shortly.    
• Elected Members can raise any queries around the dashboard and its contents by emailing corporateperformance@pkc.gov.uk  
• We will collate queries and provide responses, raising any particular themes or areas of concern with the Convener of Scrutiny & Performance Committee.