Statutory Performance Indicators

Contents

• Overview 
• Quantifying our performance 
  • Economic Development 
  • Waste to landfill 
  • Recycling Rate 
  • Waste Arisings 
  • Average processing time for major planning applications 
  • Average processing time for local planning applications 
  • Enforcement Cases Concluded 
  • Prompt Payments 
  • Sickness Absence Rates 

Overview

This past year has been very challenging for everyone around the world. Covid-19 has brought new challenges for our health, for society and for the economy. Individuals and communities have pulled together to follow public health guidance and restrictions, and to support each other during this difficult and unprecedented time. 

During the initial stages of the pandemic Belfast City Council quickly adapted key frontline services for our residents and businesses.  Our initial priorities were minimising the human cost, providing relief to communities and delivering essential day-to-day services. We continued with safe delivery of critical council services including bereavement services, waste collection and street cleansing

In 2020-21 being able to respond to constraints and opportunities as they arose was also critical and this was evidenced by the significant outputs and outcomes achieved by Council’s, Statutory partners and Community & Voluntary sector partners in terms of the work that was carried out.  This included the establishment of the Belfast Community Response Hub to support residents during the initial stages of the pandemic. 

As well as continuing to deliver essential day-to -day services, a major challenge for the Council and city partners was to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on local economies, so that businesses could once again thrive and provide employment opportunities, minimise potential job losses and retain the vibrancy of local communities and the city centre.  As the Northern Ireland Executive began to ease restrictions on a phased basis, we sought to maximise our contribution to the safety, health, wellbeing and economic recovery of our city by re-opening key services including our parks and open spaces, and in supporting businesses to re-open safely. As the effects of the pandemic began to emerge, we worked to understand how our city economy and communities were likely to be impacted, and what we needed to focus on to rebuild in the months and years ahead.

Performance Improvement / Assessment Process

Given the pressures being faced by local government during this time, Councils were allowed to defer the publication of their Improvement Plans for 2020-21, to allow them to refocus efforts and reconfigure services to support the pandemic response.  Given the annual performance assessment plan is a review of the progress of the Improvement Plan the production of that plan in 2020–21 was also not possible. Instead in September 2020 the Belfast: Our Recovery document was published which sets out the areas identified that we needed to focus on in the short term during the pandemic, and looking forward, what we needed to build on and do to lay the foundations for sustained recovery. 

Going forward through our 2021-2022 improvement plan, which was published in June 2021, we now want to build on the work caried out to date and to look ahead and help our city recover and bounce back even stronger. To ensure our focus remains on helping the city deal with and recover from the pandemic, we have aligned the improvement objectives for 2021-2022 on the Belfast recovery plan.

The Plan for 2021-2022 includes six improvement objectives, these are:

Our city

We will support our city to recover by helping to restore the social and cultural vibrancy of our city spaces and places in a safe and sustainable way.

Our services

We will take steps to ensure our services adapt and improve in the short and longer term.

Our communities

We will work with and support our communities, helping them to become stronger, healthier and more resilient.

Our economy

We will work in collaboration with others to protect and create jobs and support people into employment.

Our environment

We will take action to protect the environment and improve the sustainability of Belfast.

Digital innovation

We will improve digital inclusion and enhance our digital infrastructure to support jobs, our economy, sustainability and wellbeing.

As we continue to respond to these exceptional challenges, our commitment to continuous improvement remains.  Given the current changing environment, we recognise the need to be agile and adapt to changing circumstances and this has been reflected in both how we adapted during 2020-21 and what we have included in our Improvement Plan for 2021 -22. Belfast City Council has well established governance arrangements in place to ensure delivery of all of our plans and these arrangements are used to ensure that all of the activity underpinning our improvement objectives for 2021 -22 is monitored on an ongoing basis.

Quantifying our performance

Statutory indicators year-end position and benchmark with other Councils

Results of statutory performance standards - 2020-21

The Local Government Performance Indicators and Standards Order requires councils to collect and publish information to allow them to measure performance against a number of indicators set by the Department for Communities. This relates to activity in respect of economic development, waste management and planning applications. Understandably, with the ever evolving situation during 2020-21, there will have been an impact on meeting some of the statutory standards in 2020/21 as a direct result of the pandemic and the restrictions imposed and also given that operational recovery was still ongoing. Our results are outlined below.

Economic Development

The number of jobs promoted through business start-up in Belfast fell short of its 325 target in 2020-21.  ‘Go for it’ provides individuals who wish to start a business with support in the production of their own business plans and in registering for self-employment. Business plans produced as a result of this programme are quality assured by the ‘Go for It’ management team. Once verified the results of the programme are issued to each of the 11 councils and reported to Invest NI and DFE.

In 2020-21, BCC had 210 new jobs promoted [1] through business start-up (342 client led business plans completed).  Although below target Belfast as a City Council with a considerably larger population, outperforms other council areas, representing approximately 15 per cent of the overall programme performance.

[1] The jobs promoted indicator is calculated using a multiplier for business plans based on previous programme evaluation, the current multiplier set by Invest NI is 0.61472. 

Waste to landfill

Amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill. The Landfill Allowance Scheme Regulations place a statutory responsibility on councils not to exceed allocated allowances (although allowances can be transferred across Councils). During 2020-21, BCC landfilled 30,071 tonnes of biodegradable waste, well within the 50,753 tonne target set out in the Order. As in previous years all Councils performed well against their statutory targets and NI as a whole has demonstrated continued improvements by continuing to reduce the volume of waste landfilled over time.

[2] DAERA Jan – Mar 2021 Provisional figures (Table 18 - NI Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste Management Statistics) Fully validated figures due November/December 2021

Recycling Rate

As outlined in the Circular Economy package there is a legislative requirement to recycle a minimum of 55 per cent municipal /household waste by 2025. Household waste sent for recycling includes all household waste prepared for reuse, dry recycling and composting.  In 2020/21, the volume of waste sent for ‘recycling’ in Belfast was 43.1 per cent demonstrating consistency in recycling rates over time.

[3] DAERA Jan – Mar 2021 Provisional figures (Table 18 - NI Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste Management Statistics) Fully validated figures due November/December 2021

Waste Arisings

Belfast City Council had the largest volume of arisings out of all 11 Councils in 2020-21 with 171,794 tonnes. Unsurprisingly there is a direct correlation between total waste arisings and the population count of local council areas.  There is no statutory target for this indicator but performance over time shows that waste arisings in Belfast has remained relatively consistent over recent years, despite continuing population growth in the Belfast City Council area.

[4] DAERA Jan – Mar 2021 Provisional figures (Table 18 - NI Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste Management Statistics) Fully validated figures due November/December 2021

Average processing time for major planning applications

Major planning applications relate to developments with important economic, social and environmental implications; most are housing schemes of 50 units or more, larger office block developments, hotels and civic types of development. During 2020/21, the average processing time in Belfast to bring major applications to a decision or withdrawal was 44.2 weeks.  Performance was slightly down on the previous year, as a result of the restrictions put in place due to the pandemic. This compares to a regional average in 2020/21 of 61.4 weeks. [5]

[5] Source: DfI Northern Ireland Planning Statistics 2020/21 Annual Statistical Bulletin

Average processing time for local planning applications

Local Planning applications are mostly householder, residential and minor commercial applications. They can also include more complex residential schemes up to 49 units and larger commercial proposals. In 2020-21 the average processing time was 19 weeks, which is over the target of 15 weeks. However, this was directly impacted by the restrictions put in place due to the pandemic. This compares to a regional average of 17.8 weeks [6]

[6] Source - DfI Northern Ireland Planning Statistics 2020/21 Annual Statistical Bulletin

Enforcement Cases Concluded

Enforcement cases are investigations into alleged breaches of planning control.  The time taken to conclude an enforcement case is calculated from the date on which the complaint is received to the earliest date that a notice is issued; legal proceedings commence; a planning application is received; or the case is closed. In BCC during 2020-21, 66.2 per cent of all enforcement cases opened were concluded within the 39- week target which was 3.5 per cent below the statutory target. This was due to prioritisation being given to reducing the total number of live complaints on hand.

[7]

[7] Source: DfI Northern Ireland Planning Statistics 2020/21 Annual Statistical Bulletin

Prompt Payments

Councils are encouraged to pay suppliers as promptly as possible.  BCC endeavours to pay 90 per cent of valid invoices within 30 days.  BCC continues to show steady improvement since 2016-17 and the figures have remained broadly consistent in achieving our target.

Sickness Absence Rates

This is the average number of working days lost due to sickness absence per full time equivalent and the corporate target for BCC is currently at 11.07 days. The BCC rate has decreased to 10.9 days on last year’s rate of 13.6 days an overall reduction of 20 per cent. It was not a typical year due to the pandemic.  BCC continue to provide a series of initiatives to assist with absence management, these include mental health First Aid Training and webinars to raise awareness and to provide support and signposting for staff.  We will continue to monitor and review to ensure adequate resources are in place.