Corby Borough Council

Transcription

1 Corby Borough Council Street Scene August 2001 Best Value Inspection Version: Final

2 Best Value The Government has placed a duty of best value on local authorities to deliver services to clear standards of cost and quality by the most economic, efficient and effective means available. Best value is a challenging new performance framework that requires authorities to publish annual best value performance plans and review all their services every five years. From 1st April 2000, best value authorities are conducting best value reviews for all their functions over a five-year cycle. The Audit Commission has the responsibility for inspecting these reviews to determine whether authorities have complied with the requirements of the best value legislation and associated guidance Authorities must show that they have applied the 4Cs of best value to every review:! Challenging why and how a service is being provided;! Comparing their performance with others (including organisations in the private and voluntary sectors);! Embracing fair competition as a means of securing efficient and effective services; and! Consulting with local taxpayers, customers and the wider business community. Authorities must demonstrate to local people that they are achieving continuous improvement in all of their services. The Government has decided that each authority should be scrutinised by an independent inspectorate, so that the public will know whether best value is being achieved. The purpose of the inspection and of this report is to:! Enable the public to see whether best value is being delivered;! Enable the inspected body to see how well it is doing;! Enable the Government to see how well its policies are working on the ground;! Identify failing services where remedial action may be necessary; and! Identify and disseminate best practice. Page 2 of 27

3 Contents Best Value 2 Contents 3 Summary and Recommendations 4 Summary 4 Recommendations 6 1 A Profile of Corby Borough Council 8 2 Findings : How good is the Service? 9 Are the Aims Clear and Challenging? 9 Does the Service meet these aims? 10 How Does Performance Compare? 14 3 Will The Services Improve? 20 Does the Best Value Review Drive Improvement? 20 How good is the Improvement Plan? 21 Will the Council deliver the Improvements? 23 Summary: Will the Service Improve? 25 4 Appendices 26 Appendix 1: What Did The Inspectors Do? 26 Appendix 2: Documents Examined 26 Appendix 3: Reality Checks 26 Appendix 4: Interviews Conducted 27 Page 3 of 27

4 Summary and Recommendations Summary Scoring 1 During March 2001 we inspected Corby s Street Scene Service. Corby is a former new town and one of eight Northamptonshire districts. It has an urban centre and seven surrounding villages. During the period of the inspection, unemployment was 2.9% which was slightly below the national average of 3.3% but higher than that of Northamptonshire (2.4%) and 1.2% of the population are from ethnic minority communities. 2 Corby Borough Council s revenue budget for 2001/02 is 5.942m and non-housing capital expenditure is 0.5m. The Council s mission statement is Sustaining Corby as a better place for people and a centre for business. Delivery of services is through four themes of community, environment, economy and leadership. The Borough has been successful in securing an Urban Regeneration Company which will aim to stimulate growth and rejuvinate the town centre. 3 The best value review of street scene comprised the following service: refuse collection, environmental cleansing and grounds maintenance. The inspection also considered a related review of vehicle management, procurement repair and maintenance. 4 We have assessed Corby Borough Council as providing a Poor street scene service that is Unlikely to improve significantly. 5 The scoring chart below displays performance in two dimensions. The horizontal axis shows how good the service is now, on a scale ranging from no stars for a service that is poor (at the left hand end) to three stars for an excellent service (right hand end). The vertical axis shows the likelihood of improvement for the service also on a four- point scale. 6 We believe street scene services deliver a poor no star service for the following reasons:! Whilst many villages appear clean and tidy, many of the areas in and around the town are heavily littered, despite evidence that this is of concern to the public;! During the inspection the delivery of street scene services was not well co-ordinated with, for example, streets being cleaned before refuse is collected; Page 4 of 27

5 Scoring Chart Yes Poor Probably Fair " Unlikely Good "" Likely to improve? Corby Borough Council StreetScene Excellent """ A good service? No! The street cleaning service is expensive and performs poorly in comparison to other authorities;! The standard of grounds maintenance varies across the Borough;! Although there are relatively clear service standards, they are not sufficiently focussed on outcomes for the residents of Corby, such as clean streets and litter free grassed areas;! Corby is one of the worst performing authorities for re-cycling, which is a government priority. 7 We believe the service is unlikely to deliver major improvement, to become one of the best performing authorities because:! Whilst senior members and officers have a vision for Corby and want to improve services this is not recognised by the front line staff delivering services;! Although the review included all the services which impact on the street scene, it did not fundamentally challenge how services are delivered, despite poor levels of current performance;! The review did not assess private sector or partnership options to improve services for the public; Page 5 of 27

6 Recommendations! Although the appearance of grass verges has a major impact on the appearance of the area, little attempt was made to engage the County Council to improve this;! Although the improvement plan does identify important issues and will result in some improvement, many of the actions are about gathering further information rather than delivering better services;! The Council recognises the need to improve performance and intends to develop new ways of working and stronger performance management. However, it has significant financial difficulties to overcome and management capacity is already stretched. This together with a vacancy freeze raises concerns about the capacity to deliver change and improvement; and! Performance and public satisfaction are declining and the Council has not set targets for street scene services which are consistent with the best national performers. 8 If Councils are to rise to the challenge of continuous improvement under best value, they need inspection reports that offer practical pointers toward improvement. In this context, the inspection team feel that the Council should now:! Set clear objectives to make the town more attractive in line with community priorities and align resources accordingly;! Significantly improve performance to become one of the top 25% of authorities on things which matter to residents: recycling, litter, abandoned vehicles, grass verges. This will require a clear assessment of Corby s own performance, learning from the best performers, setting clear targets which aim to match the best, and establishing strong performance management to track performance and enable corrective action, as necessary;! Test the external market to deliver street scene services by April This should include receiving professional advice on external market options, and being prepared not to submit an internal bid if this provides the best deal for the residents of Corby; and! Address long standing issues around financial and performance management. Page 6 of 27

7 This report has been prepared by the Audit Commission ( the Commission ) following an inspection by the Commission under Section 10 of the Local Government Act 1999 ( the 1999 Act ). This report is issued by the Commission in accordance with its duty under Section 13 of the 1999 Act. Susan Fenwick Nigel Smith Inspectors Best Value Inspection Service, Audit Commission, Central Region, 690 Melton Road, Thurmaston, Leicester, LE4 8BA. Tel: OR Page 7 of 27

8 1 A Profile of Corby Borough Council The Locality The Council 9 Until the 1930s Corby was a villlage with a population of about It grew rapidly as steel work was attracted to the area and was designated as a New Town in the 1950s. Corby is one of eight Northamptonshire districts with an urban centre in Corby town and seven surrounding villages. When British Steel, a major local employer closed in 1979, 11,000 jobs were lost. Subsequent investment resulted in the creation of approximately 14,000 relatively low paid jobs primarily in manufacturing. Unemployment is 2.9% which is below the national average. 10 The current population is 53,500 and has an ethnic make up of 1.2%. It is an area of relatively high deprivation ranking 101 out of 354 on the scale of national deprivation. 11 Corby Borough Council has 29 members and is Labour controlled. It still has a traditional committee structure, seven departments and 525 employees. Its revenue budget for this year was 5.92 million 500,000 for non housing capital. The Council s mission is Sustaining Corby as a better place for people and a centre for business. Services are delivered through four themed areas:! Community: to improve the quality of life of residents and create an inclusive community that values and supports everyone;! Environment: to maintain a sustained environment within the continued growth of the Borough;! Economy: to maintain a prosperous economy, encourage inward investment, and use what we have to best effect;! Leadership: to be responsible and accountable community leaders and be open and honest in what we do. 12 The Borough has been successful in securing an Urban Regeneration Company which aims to stimulate growth in Corby and regenerate the town centre. Page 8 of 27

9 The Service 13 Street scene was identified by Corby as refuse collection, environmental cleansing and grounds maintenance. The budget for this service is 1.33m per year in total. The services for refuse and environmental cleansing are provided by Corby s inhouse team. Grounds maintenance is divided into four with two contracts let to a private contractor, John O Connor, and the other two delivered by the in-house team. The two contracts expire in December 2001 and December Findings : How good is the Service? 14 We reviewed the current street scene services provided by Corby Borough Council, making a judgement of how good the service is by assessing it against the following questions:! Are the aims clear and challenging?! Does the service meet those aims?! How does the service compare? Are the Aims Clear and Challenging? 15 Inspectors look to see how a Council has agreed the key aims for the service being inspected, how clear those aims are to the people that receive the service and whether these reflect the corporate aims of the organisation as a whole. 16 The Council interpreted the street scene as the way Corby looks and had a number of different aims such as:! Promote a wider understanding of the environmental issues and impact of proposals; and! Work together with other agencies and organisations to improve the quality of life for all residents. 17 Corby also has some related objectives such as:! Enable purchase of reduced price home composters; and! Reduce litter. 18 However, there is not a clear aim for the street scene or clear objectives for delivery. Keeping the streets clean, collecting refuse and maintaining the green spaces are important issues for local Council taxpayers and are services that the Council Page 9 of 27

10 must provide. A clear strategy and objectives for delivering this service are important. 19 As far as the corporate aims relate, Corby is developing a Community Strategy, which we understand will include a vision for the local environment. Part of this will be the objectives of regenerating the town centre and changing the demographics and working with the new regeneration company to achieve this. 20 The regeneration of Corby is a critical part of the Council s future strategy. An important part of this will be attracting investment to deliver improvements, and this will be difficult if the town is not clean. However, although this link is understood by the senior management, it was not understood or shared by other staff we spoke to. 21 Although there is no clear vision, there are some service standards that Corby has set, such as collecting the refuse weekly, cleaning the streets regularly and cutting the grass a specific number of times a year. However, these standards do not relate to each other and are based on inputs rather than outcomes. For example, rather than requiring grass to be kept to a specific uniform level, there are standards for the number of times the grass is cut which is again different to the number of times the grass is strimmed at the edges. In areas that are the responsibility of the in-house team, this leads to grass being cut whether or not it needs it and edges looking untidy as they are not cut with the same frequency. Does the Service meet these aims? 22 Having considered the aims that the Council has set for the service, inspectors make an assessment of how well the Council is performing in meeting these aims. This includes an assessment of performance against specific standards and targets and the Council s approach to measuring whether it is actually delivering what it sets out to do. 23 The lack of a clear strategy or aims for the street scene can hinder measurement against targets. However, a clear requirement is that the Borough is clean and tidy. Corby has seven surrounding villages, which generally meet this requirement. Page 10 of 27

11 Stanion Village 24 However, we did not find the same standard in the main conurbation. We observed that there is a clear problem of litter that is not being addressed, with vandalism and dumped rubbish adding to Corby looking untidy. Litter problems in different parts of Corby Page 11 of 27

12 25 Athough Corby recognised the need for refuse collection, street cleaning and grounds maintenance to link, the service delivery that inspectors observed did not link. For example, although refuse collection and street cleaning operates in the same area at the same time, we observed the streets being cleaned before the refuse was picked up. We also observed that some refuse operatives would not pick up refuse if it was not wholly contained in the bin provided, requiring other Council staff to use a separate vehicle sometime later to pick up the rubbish. This practice was not uniform and in other areas operatives picked up all refuse. Inspectors were not given a clear explanation for why this was happening, but it was a recognised problem that was as yet unresolved. 26 Another problem relates to litter that has accumulated around shrub beds, which are not dealt with regularly as part of either street sweeping or grounds maintenance. In fact litter is only picked out of shrubs when they were pruned, a couple of times a year. This adds to the untidy look of Corby. Litter is picked from shrubs only occasionally 27 A specific local issue is the substantial number of grass verges that are part of the streetscape in Corby. These were part of the original layout of the new town and were conceived at a time when car ownership was substantially less than it is now. Over time, custom and practice for residents has involved using them as parking bays, which avoids potential obstructions on the highway. However, as grass verges were never intended to take cars, it results in deep ruts which make the streetscene look very unsightly, especially after rain. Page 12 of 27

13 Grass verges are a problem 28 Attempts have been made to transform these verges and provide on-street parking bays, but this programme has been halted through lack of funds. Although Corby is not the responsible authority for highway matters, this local issue is very important to the look of the street. Despite the impact of this issue, the Council has done little to address it. 29 Like many authorities, Corby has a problem with abandoned vehicles. While they are making attempts to deal with this, and they work with the police in tracing owners, there is no system to give feedback to people who report problems, or to ensure that complaints do not get lost. Linked to this is the problem of abandoned shopping trolleys, which can take some time to remove. Inspectors reported one such trolley, which had still not been removed 3 days later. Unlike abandoned cars, there is no legislation preventing immediate removal and again there is no system that can establish current action and give feedback to complainants. Page 13 of 27

14 Abandoned vehicles & shopping trolleys are a oroblem How Does Performance Compare? 30 In order to judge the quality of a service it is important to compare the performance of that service against the other suppliers across a range of sectors. The aim is not an exact comparison, but an exploration of how similar services perform in order to identify significant differences, the reasons for them, and the extent to which improvements are required. 31 We have considered Corby s performance across a range of indicators including national published information and local opinion surveys. The Council are in the process of collecting more local measures of the quality of their service but these are not yet available. Page 14 of 27

15 Chart 1: Streets cleaned to a high standard 90% Streets clean to a high standard 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Corby Welwyn Hatfield Stevenage Low performing Harlow Redditch Basildon Dacorum District average Worcester Havant Rushmoor Ipswich High performing Corby: Red bar - Figures for 1999, Blue bar - Figures for Corby is one of the lowest performing Councils in the country on the standard of street cleaning. Less than 2% of its streets are cleaned to a high standard, compared with over 70% in the best performing authorities. However, this is despite spending one of the highest sums of money on the service, almost twice the level of the lowest spending Councils. The situation is also getting worse on both performance and cost in comparison with the previous year. The Council s recent opinion survey, carried out in 2000 by MORI, revealed satisfaction rates of only 42%, which is below average for this type of service, and shows residents were unhappy with this area. Page 15 of 27

16 Chart 2: Spending on street cleaning per head of population 16 Spending on street cleaning Best performing Havant Median District Average Harlow Dacorum Welwyn Hatfield Rushmoor Basildon Worst performing Redditch Worcester Ipswich Corby Stevenage Corby: Red bar - Figures for 1999, Blue bar - Figures for Recycling is an important government priority and currently there is a statutory target for the amount of waste that should be recycled. Corby is currently the worst performing Council in England for the amount of waste they recycle and are some way off their target of 10% which they need to reach by March If the current rate of improvement of 0.5% per year is not increased it will be 15 years before they reach this target. Service users are also unhappy with the lack of facilities which overall showed a 48% satisfaction rating, below average for this service. Page 16 of 27

17 Chart 3: Tons of waste recycled 0.16 Tonnes of waste recycled Corby Harlow Worcester Worst performing Redditch Ipswich Rushmoor Dacorum Stevenage District Average Best performing Welwyn Hatfield Basildon Havant Corby: Red bar - Figures for 1999, Blue bar - Figures for Refuse collection is a service where Corby performs well in comparison to others. It has a very low cost of collection and also has a low number of missed bins, which if they are missed are resolved the following day. Page 17 of 27

18 Chart 4: Cost of refuse Cost of Refuse Corby Worcester Redditch Welwyn Hatfield Low spending Ipswich Stevenage Havant Basildon Average Districts Rushmoor High spending Harlow Dacorum Corby: Red bar - Figures for 1999, Blue bar - Figures for However, one of the reasons that the refuse costs are so low is because the recycling rate is so poor and the landfill site is within the Borough, so transport costs are minimised. Summary of Findings: How good are the Services? 36 Corby wishes to revitalise its town centre and regenerate the community. A clean and tidy environment is an important part of that vision, which is why Corby chose to review the street scene. As part of this, the refuse service is currently performing reasonably with good satisfaction rates and low cost. One of the reasons for this is the poor rate of recycling, and it will take 15 years to meet their statutory target at the current rate of progress. In a critical aspect of the street scene, ie what the area looks like, it is performing poorly outside the villages, with litter uncollected, many grass verges looking unsightly and a number of abandoned trolleys and cars. The cost of cleaning the streets is also very expensive in comparison to other similar Councils. 37 Overall, Corby provides a poor street scene service because even though the refuse service performs well, the overall visual appearance of Corby is poor, the Council is failing to deliver a Page 18 of 27

19 minimum level of recycling and residents are unsatisfied with both of these areas. Page 19 of 27

20 3 Will The Services Improve? Does the Best Value Review Drive Improvement? 38 It is important that a best value review fundamentally challenges why a particular service has delivered, asks current and potential users what they want and expect, looks outward and learns from those who perform better, and evaluates other options for the future delivery of the service. 39 Where services are delivered in partnership with others or where there are implications for other organisations, it is important that all are involved in, and have the opportunity to contribute to the review. 40 It is positive that the Council carried out a review of all the services it delivers which contribute to the public view of the streets in Corby. This provided the opportunity to make a significant improvement to the appearance of the area rather than examine services in isolation without considering the impact they have on each other. 41 The importance of involving all those who have a stake in the appearance of the Borough was recognised and street tours were organised which included the public, Councillors and officers. The purpose was to look at the appearance of the streets and highlight issues of concern to residents. 42 When visiting the area we were struck by the impact the condition grass verges have on the overall appearance of Corby. Other than grass cutting this was not considered as part of the review. 43 The review did not fundamentally challenge whether the Council should continue to provide street scene services. For example, some authorities may choose not to provide certain services themselves, in order to free management time to concentrate on other priorities. Consequently the market assessment was incomplete and did not examine why there had previously been little interest from the private sector in tendering to provide services. For example, there was no assessment of:! Private sector provision of street scene services in the surrounding area; and Page 20 of 27

21 ! Conditions which might make the provision of services in Corby more attractive to the private sector or partner organisations (e.g. other local authorities). 44 Because the review did not include a complete market assessment, it was not possible to compare present and projected in-house performance with that which could be obtained by providing services differently. 45 Although the Council did attempt to liaise with front line staff, those we spoke to during the inspection did not feel that they had been involved in the review and did not feel ownership of the outcomes. 46 When discussing options for improvement, some of the managers and staff we spoke to believed that significant changes could not be implemented until the expiry of agreements with the Council s Direct Service Organisation. The agreement was regarded in the same way as a contract with an external company. In fact, an agreement between different parts of the same organisation has no legal standing and should not be regarded as a barrier to change. 47 In support of the review of street scene services, the Council also carried out a review of vehicle management, procurement, repair and maintenance. It is positive that this was carried out at this time as the availability of vehicles and equipment impacts on the delivery of street services. 48 The review identified some improvements but did not answer the fundamental question of the viability threshold for providing the service internally, that is, at what volume of business would it no longer be economic to provide the service in-house. This is particularly important since the review did identify the loss of business from service departments as a threat to viability. 49 The review did not result in improvement targets for future cost reduction of improved quality of service (for example, reducing the time when vehicles or equipment are not available). How good is the Improvement Plan? 50 A Best Value Review should produce an Improvement or Action Plan that sets out what needs to improve, and why and how that improvement will be delivered. It should contain targets which are not only challenging, but also designed to demonstrate how continuous improvement will take place to ensure the service is among the top 25% of Councils within five years. Page 21 of 27

22 51 The best value review resulted in an action plan that is aimed at ensuring the results of the review are delivered. 52 The actions identified in the plan connect to the findings and recommendations of the review. It is clear who is responsible for the delivery of each action and when this should be achieved. Issues are given a priority rating which should help to focus resources on those actions which will deliver the greatest benefit, although the resource implications of proposals are not included. 53 The plan identifies some important issues, which if acted upon, should result in improvement. For example:! The review revealed that there is a perception that the performance of the private contractor is better than that of the DSO, and actions are intended to ensure equal performance and standards across the Borough; and! The importance of developing community responsibility and ownership by involving residents and communities in street scene maintenance. 54 However, many of the improvement plan actions highlight the need for further information gathering or investigation before decisions can be made and the service improved. Therefore, many of the actions in the plan will not in themselves improve the service and benefit the people of Corby. 55 The plan does not connect the actions proposed to measurable outcomes. It is therefore difficult to assess how the proposals will deliver improved performance to the people of Corby, and it will be difficult for the Council to monitor progress without specific milestone targets. 56 The Council recognises the importance of street scene (referred to as environmental maintenance) in delivering it s strategic environmental objective To maintain a sustained environment within the continued growth of the Borough, and this is included in the Council s Best Value Performance Plan 2001/2. This sets the aim of providing integrated environmental services that are co-ordinated to respond to community needs at a local level. However, this is not translated into local performance indicators which matter to local people. 57 This area of activity includes only one national target, which is for re-cycling. The Council has recently prepared a recycling plan. However, this is at the early stage of identifying possible actions to improve performance and it is not clear from this Page 22 of 27

23 document or the improvement plan how the target will be achieved and what the consequences might be. For example, increasing recycling to 10% by 2003/4 is likely to result in higher cost which could impact on the resources available for other street scene services. 58 The improvement plan does not address the high cost of the street cleaning service, and does not identify means of achieving a desired cost/quality balance overall. Consequently there are no plans to align resources to identified priorities or re-allocate resources across services. It is not clear from the improvement plan how the street scene services will achieve the performance which puts them amongst the top 25% of Councils. Will the Council deliver the Improvements? 59 Inspectors look for evidence that a Council will deliver what it has set out in the improvement plan. We look for a track record of managing change within the Council and, ideally, within the service itself. The plan should also have sufficient support from councillors, management, staff, service users and others. 60 All the officers and councillors we spoke to during the inspection recognised that street scene services needed to improve and identified this as one of the Council s priorities. 61 The Council recognises the need to improve performance and is developing a new performance management framework to monitor and take action on priorities. Whilst the need to operate in a way which enables community choice and continuous choice is reflected in the Council s policy framework document New Thinking For Corby, this needs to be grounded in clear actions which will change the way in which the organisation provides services for its residents. 62 It was encouraging that officers and councillors considered that best value would be a valuable tool for securing improvement across the Council. The establishment of a best value team in Autumn 2000 demonstrates commitment to this. However, the Council did not make an early start in developing its approach to best value and has, for example, only recently prepared a draft procurement strategy. 63 The Council recognises the importance of partnership in delivering its objectives, and has formed a partnership with Rockingham Forest Trust with the aim of bringing in external resources to help maintain open spaces. The provision of grass cutting in some areas by an external contractor has been a catalyst for improving standards across the Borough. Page 23 of 27

24 64 The Council has a history of financial difficulties and has not previously taken an effective approach to aligning resources to priorities. Although this is recognised as an issue and the District Auditor has reported that Difficult financial decisions have to be taken the budget for 2001/02 is based on that for the previous year. 65 In order to help overcome these difficulties, the Council has formed an Asset Management Team with a remit to identify assets for disposal, thereby generating income and reducing expenditure on asset maintenance. However, the Council is likely to remain under financial pressure which will consume already stretched management resources and inhibit its capacity to deliver improvement. 66 The only measure identified to contain expenditure is a vacancy freeze. The sample analysed by the inspectors (March 2001) indicated a 20% vacancy level which reduces the capacity of the authority to deliver improvement. 67 Although the cost of street cleansing is high, there are no plans to seek efficiency savings which could be invested in improving the quality of street scene services for the public of Corby. 68 The Council has high levels of staff sickness which were estimated to cost the equivalent of 360,000 during 1999/00. This is a problem for the Council as a whole as it seeks to deliver and improve services with an already reduced workforce (due to the vacancy freeze), and was identified and observed as a difficulty for street scene services. In September 2000 the Council introduced a new sickness management policy. The impact of this appears limited as our analysis shows staff sickness levels of 11.7% in the street cleaning and refuse services during March and April This coupled with holiday absence results means that there are not enough staff at work to collect the refuse. Consequently staff are taken from the grounds maintenance, which means this work falls behind shedule and detracts from the street scene with for example, areas of long grass. 69 The DSO has a history of poor financial performance which in 1999 was highlighted as of concern by the District Auditor. However, the Council has not resolved this problem and based on the most up to date financial information available at the time of the inspection, March 2001 was as at the previous December and showed a total contract trading deficit of 124, The following table (Chart 5) illustrates user satisfaction levels between 1998 and The figures are based on two surveys, Page 24 of 27

25 which, whilst not asking exactly the same questions, indicate that resident satisfaction with the street scene in Corby is declining. Chart 5: Mori Residents Satisfaction Survey, 1998 and Litter 48% 42% Street Cleaning 52% 42% Refuse 89% 82% Recycling 73% 48% Parks & Open Spaces 77% 51% Summary: Will the Service Improve? 71 The Best Value Review has identified the need to improve street scene services, and the all the councillors and officers we spoke to during the inspection recognised this as a priority for the Council. Some of the actions identified in the improvement plan will help to deliver improvement and it is important that the plans to help resolve the problems of litter at source (e.g. by developing community ownership and responsibility) are implemented. 72 However, many of the actions are concerned with carrying out further research which in themselves will not deliver significant improvement for the residents of Corby. The problems identified are not new and it is of concern that performance trends are declining. On balance, we believe that some improvement will be delivered but that the degree of change is unlikely to put Corby street scene services amongst the best in the country. Page 25 of 27

26 4 Appendices Appendix 1: What Did The Inspectors Do? 73 The purpose of best value inspection is to make two judgements. The first is, how good is the service being inspected? The second is, how likely is it to improve? We carried out a range of different activities to enable us to reach our judgements. Appendix 2: Documents Examined 74 Before going on site we reviewed a range of documents which had been provided in advance. These included:! The Best Value Review Street Scene Final Report;! Tender documents;! Work schedules;! Various committee reports;! Budget and financial monitoring information; and! The Best Value Performance Plan. Appendix 3: Reality Checks 75 When we went on site, we carried out a number of different reality checks building on the work described above, in order to get a full picture of how good the service is. These on site reality checks were designed to gather evidence about what it is like to use the service and see how well it works on the ground. We also followed up on issues relating to the management of the review and the improvements flowing from it. Our reality checks included:! Reporting problems observed (e.g. abandoned vehicles, shopping trolleys) and checking action taken;! Observing the condition of certain areas and different times (over a period of several weeks);! Observing the effectiveness of services;! Visiting the works depot; Page 26 of 27

27 ! Focus groups with community representatives and front line staff; and! Attending Economy and Resources Committee meeting. Appendix 4: Interviews Conducted 76 We also met a range of different people involved with the service: Nigel Rudd Lynn Aisbett Chris Wade Sylvia Delahay Steve Lovell Ian Cook Martin Lever Ian Pitkin Richard Broome Steve Burton Chris Stephenson Debbie Scott John Betts Councillor Crawley Councillor Gordon Chief Executive Strategic Director Director, Rockingham Forest Trust Finance and ICT Director Accountancy Accountancy Client Officer Contractor Contractor DSO Manager Service Director LA 21 Officer Service Director Elected Member Elected Member Page 27 of 27