Benchmarking 2012

1. Benchmarking 2012 Staff PresentationPlanning Service Benchmarking for costs and performance2012 Oct 2012 www.pas.gov.uk

2. Staff PresentationPlanning Service Benchmarking for costs and performance2012 October 2012

3. Contents • Explain what this is about • How it works • Your role & Input • Answer questions

4. Situation briefing Pickles urges local authority planning departments to merge during Commons debate

5. This much we know • Under “localism”, the government have created new tasks – CIL, neighbourhood planning. We want to know how much these jobs cost. • Under the new “growth” Bill, poor performing councils will loose the right to make planning decisions, and there are more new tasks like renegotiating s106 agreements • Who knows what the impact of new PD changes will be on costs and income? • The squeeze on council funding continues • A whole service approach to improvement is more important than ever

6. Use only if you are new to benchmarking What are we doing ? • Collecting data on performance in the same way as others across the country using the PAS Benchmark • Gives a better chance of influencing the debate on performance. • Gives a chance to find out the real costs of what we do in planning • We find out costs for the different types of work that we get in the council • We need to know more about what customers think of our service and relate this to costs • We can benchmark and learn for others

7. Use only if you did benchmarking last year What are we doing ? • Like last year, we are collecting data in line with the PAS benchmark • No fees this year – but a focus on more quality and performance data • Time sheeting includes new activities such as neighbourhood planning and CIL • Time sheets for the DM activities also record the type of development we are working on • No a and b options for heritage apps • The benchmark has a new big section on performance – not just the 8 – 13 weeks but better quality indicators that explain our work

8. Why ? • We want to avoid being labelled as a “poor” planning service • We want to know where we need to improve our performance by comparing ourselves to others • A local focus on understanding our service costs “cost” gives us the chance to respond to resource problems in a way that’s sensitive to service needs • We want to know how much new tasks are costing us • Last years benchmark gave us the info to…( add as appropriate)

9. How the Benchmark works • Staff costs (time recording / salary) + overheads = actual cost of each person’s time • Cost per Activity = actual cost of each person contributing to the activity plus on costs e.g. recharges • Annualised to an yearly cost • Then used to calculate costs e.g. • Cost break down per Development Type • Proportionate cost per activity for each development type • Also ‘feeds’ performance data

10. Staff Costs and Time Recording

11. One of the biggest components of the work is … timesheets • We need your cooperation: • To record each day • To record all the hours • To code the work as accurately as you can ( not every minute but in 10/15/30 minute blocks ****each LPA decide what your guidance will be)

12. Why record your time? • We timesheet against planning activities for 4 weeks to establish how we use our time • Other costs and overheads are recorded against the same activity codes with the help of our accountants. • For DM activities we record the kind of application we are dealing with and record a (new) code for this

13. Whole service If I am a strategic planner / only do enforcement do I need to take part? Yes – for several reasons: • the pressures on planning are not just on DM • this is about knowing where the planning resources are spent across • this is about knowing the costs of the new duties • this is about benchmarking and improving the whole service

14. Time Recording This is an overview of the sheets you use Development type Activities Time Recording

15. Activity categories Other (non planning work) Generic (keeps the show on the road) Strategic planning (plan making/day to day) Applications (end to end processing, appeals)) • Balance: • relevance • complexity • usability Enforcement & Compliance (enforcement, appeals)

16. Look for the drop down menu of activities

17. Use only if you did benchmarking last year Some new activities • Neighbourhood planning (210, 212, 214) • CIL (260, 481 – 485) • Pre – app (310, 312) • Permitted development (313) • Promoting development (314) • Delivery of approved schemes ( 410) • And a bit more differentiation on customer care/ general enquiries ( 110, 205, 305,405)

18. ‘Other’ activities • Away from work e.g. leave, sick, maternity - codes 10 or 15 • Non planning (e.g. secondments or work on BC or naming and numbering)- code 20 • Training – choose the code for the activity you are being trained for or one of the 99 codes • Doing your time sheet – do it regularly and the time taken will be too small to bother recording • Travel time – travel time for site visits – code according to the reason you are going on site

19. Generic activities • Support the day-to-day running of the service • These activities keep the show on the road, but aren’t specific to any individual job e.g. • Performance management • Routine communications • Budget management • Not “planning” as such

20. Strategic planning activities • Making planning policy, interpreting it for others and all the many other contributions that planners make towards other organisational plans • Includes things like • Local plan, AAPs, evidence base, SA, monitoring • Conservation, urban design, out-reach • Neighbourhood planning

21. Planning applications activities • Handling applications, from pre-application to issuing decision notices • Includes trees and discharge of conditions • Internal consultees • Includes negotiation of s106, but not subsequent monitoring / management • Includes FOIs and complaints • Includes some ‘non-application’ transactions e.g. hazardous materials, high hedges etc.

22. Enforcement & compliance activities • Includes planning enforcement and enforcement appeals • CIL monitoring, collection and enforcement • Also includes post-decision monitoring • Post decision activities e.g. time spent on unblocking sites that already have permission

23. ’99’ Code • ‘Last resort’ – keep activity coded within the main codes • Not to be used unless agreed with (line manager/ benchmarking project manager)

24. The development codes (Rcodes) • Comparing apples to apples • Need to understand more about the profile of your workload • Therefore for DM activities, you will record the type of application as well as the activity • These will be listed on a drop down menu • The R codes are generally clusters of the Q codes used for the PS1 and 2 returns for years

25. Look for the drop down menu of development codes

26. Time Recording This is an overview of the sheets you use Salary, on-costs Activities Time Recording

27. Check your hours…..

28. Key principles • Think about purpose behind activity • No code for “doing emails”- code to the activity • No “specialist” codes • Complete timesheets daily. • It’s new and questions / problems are expected. Ask - Don’t hold back !

29. Other Costs

30. What to watch for • Other staff costs • Many costs ‘lumped’ into generic/management – split out • Support services • What services are being bought - transparency • Income

31. Performance & Activity Data

32. Overview • Had a stab at something new / more useful • Based on feedback and guesswork (e.g. new ‘standards’ 26 weeks?) • Asking: • If pre-app is worth paying for • Time and cost wasted on invalids / re-subs • Average processing – receipt to decision (not NI157) • Where do we usually trip up - refusals. • Global PIs obscure significant differences between development types • Comparisons difficult if unless comparing similar work mix

33. Collecting Data • ‘Back office’ data extract • Standardise for comparison • Submit

34. Policy questionnaire

35. Policy questionnaire • Last time • stood alone • based on DPD production methods and costs; difficult to complete, difficult to navigate • This time; • Integrated • About the work programme; what can we share and learn from how others are responding to localism, the NPPF, and the growth agenda?

36. Topics • Work programme – NPPF • CIL • Neighbourhood planning • Duty to cooperate • Appeals • Annual monitoring • Pre-app • Section 106

37. Customer Feedback

38. Customer Feedback • Postcards • Every decision for 8 weeks starting 5th November • Hard copy or HTML • Customers send the cards back to PAS

39. Time recording process • Staff Time Recording, 1 (test) + 4 (‘real’) weeks • 19th November to the 14th December 2012 • Staff record hours against planning activities • Hours aggregated by activity, totalled and averaged • Time converted to cost based on annual salary costs, NI, pension

40. Toolkit Time recording master sheet and timesheets (inc. FAQ) Time recording files Master sheet

41. Benchmarking for improvement • This is not a race to become the cheapest • We are joining PAS / CIPFA Benchmarking club to find out: • What do we spend money on? • How much time do we spend? • How do we compare? • What are there differences and why? • What can we learn?

42. Example: benchmark reports

43. Questions?