Cumberland Council needs to make significant improvements in several areas, a new report has revealed.
The authority’s executive was told that processing benefit claims and planning application decisions were among the areas needing action.
Long-term sickness and the difficulty in recruiting staff were among the reasons for the issues.
Councillors were discussing its Corporate Performance Report for the second quarter of 2024/25.
According to the report, 15 service areas were rated red, meaning they were off target and action was required, six were amber, meaning they were close to target, and 32 were green, meaning that they were on target.
It said: “Work is still ongoing across the council to aggregate and disaggregate legacy council data sets which does present ongoing data challenges.
“Every effort has been made to ensure accurate and robust data to support effective monitoring and scrutiny of performance, and ongoing data quality assurance is taking place to mitigate the complexities of integrating four different systems, process and practices.”
According to the report, the areas needing action are:
Benefits
Rated red were the number of days to process new Housing Benefit claims and change of circumstances claims and number of days to process new Council Tax claims and change of circumstances claims.
The authority said the main reason for the performance was resource pressure, compounded by delays in the recruitment process.
It added: “However, some gaps have now been addressed and training is underway.”
It said the level of automation for Universal Credit Data Shares (UCDS) has been improved and further work on automation and service design was ongoing with strategic partner EY.
Percentage of children who received a two to-two-and-a-half-year review
These checks, carried out under the Healthy Child Programme, are commissioned from North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust. Only 53% were carried out in quarter two.
The council said: “We are working with the provider to increase the number of clinics taking place in the West Cumberland area and have identified locations, including community hubs, that can be used.”
Percentage of people prevented from becoming homeless within 56 days and those who presented as homeless, and a long-term tenancy was secured within statutory timeframe
The preventing people becoming homeless figure stands at 51%. The council said: “The comparative baseline figures for England and the North West are 51%. Cumberland’s averages for both prevention and relief of homelessness are expected to be better than national and regional performance.
“As part of the process in dealing with cases, the team must overcome significant factors outside of its control in terms of increased need and demand and the
availability, suitability, and types of affordable housing.”
“This also applies to percentage of people who presented as homeless, and a long-term tenancy was secured indicator. This was rated red for quarter two – 49%
against a target of 65%.”
Building control
The authority should decide 100% of all applications within statutory period of five weeks or two calendar months (with the consent of the applicant). only 58.9% were in quarter two – a drop from 84.5% in quarter one.
The council said the figures were attributed to significantly reduced staffing levels due to vacancies and long-term sickness.
It added: “The department has a plan to resolve this issue which includes bringing in external resource in the short term. However, it is struggling to recruit due to a
shortage nationally of qualified building control officers.”
Trading Standards
It should carry out inspections of 100% of high and medium risk premises. The team had carried out 22% of inspections by the end of the reporting period but remains confident that it will achieve its 100% target by the end of March, the council said.
It said a further contributory factor to the performance was that one member of the seven-strong team had been on long-term sickness absence.
Active children
Children should be active for over 60 minutes a day. The council said: “This is taken from the Active Lives Children’s Survey, which is calculated on an academic year basis, with data released each December.
“Surveys are undertaken with about 20 schools across the council area. Due to the relatively small sample size, we see significant fluctuations in the results from
individual surveys, so it is sensible to view the results over multiple survey periods.
“We are continuing engagement with schools around the importance of whole school approaches to physical activity and building in regular opportunities for all pupils to be active in and out of school. We are expanding the number of Cumbria School Games events. In addition, we have begun to roll out Sport England-funded Place Expansion work.
“This involves working with the communities in Maryport, Workington and Whitehaven to increase activity levels there.”
Land searches
Land searches should be completed within 10 working days.
The council said: “The figure of 46.5% – against a target of 65% – was almost 15 percentage points behind last quarter and was the second lowest figure (behind Q3 last year) since the council was formed in April 2023.
“The performance is a combination of multiple single points of failure and multiple systems which limit the ability to extend support and resilience.
“Long-term staff absence and a high volume of requests contributed to the reduced response time. During the quarter, the service as a whole received 475 requests, of which 221 were dealt with within the prescribed 10 working day time limit.
“The Copeland area team has been short-staffed as a result of long-term sickness. Allerdale area staff have been helping to process search requests which has had a knock-on effect in that locality. There is also a vacancy in the team, which does not have an overall manager.
“Resources have been diverted to land charges from technical support in environmental health. That team is itself dealing with a high volume of service requests and has its own KPIs to maintain which means this can only continue for a finite period of time.”
Percentage of Freedom of Information/EIR responded to within 20 working days
The Q2 figure – 78% – was below the 90% target but was higher than Q1 (75.4%) and the same period last year.
The report said: “Staff turnover and reassignment together with the disaggregation of services are making it difficult to identify the most appropriate person or team for a response. Despite a legal obligation to complete requests within the required timescale, responses are often delayed.
“To help achieve the deadlines, the service says there needs to be high level ‘buy-in’ and accountability from management and services to complete responses within the given timescale; Awareness and active promotion of the statutory timescales and legal responsibilities of the authority and co-operation in ensuring requests are directed to the right person or team.”
A proposal for service harmonisation is underway, the authority said and it will review and close the backlog of requests.
The report states: “Targets are applied to most of our indicators, but it is not always appropriate to set targets, and some indicators may be monitored for trends.
“Targets may be statutory or designed to demonstrate continuous improvement. They may also demonstrate performance relative to benchmarks.”
Councillor Bob Kelly (Millom, Labour), the Cumberland policy and regulatory services portfolio holder, told members that it was good news regarding the success of the key performance indicators (KPIs) which were on target.
He added that the report had also “flagged up areas we need to focus on” including the turnover of staff.
He proposed that they agree with the recommendation that they note the overall performance relating to delivery of the Cumberland Council Plan priorities as measured by the activities and KPIs set out on the report.
Cllr Kelly was seconded by councillor Mark Fryer (St John’s and Great Clifton, Labour), the leader of the council, who said there were significant issues around areas such as investment and IT systems at the council. Members agreed the recommendation.
