National Outcome 15

NO15 - Our public services are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsive to local people’s needs

As with all public sector organisations, those in Aberdeen are facing up to an increased need to deliver improved services to customers, whilst continually increasing the efficiency of those services. The measures in this National Outcome show that Aberdeen City Council achieved almost double the national target for efficiencies in 2008/09 whilst at the same time improving its performance in 45 Statutory Performance Indicators.  We recognise, however, that we need to build on this with our partners in the City.  The financial pressures faced will not decrease in the medium term and all services must continue to strive for consistent improvement.

Aberdeen City Council now provides on-line service for customers across a broad range of our functions.  All targets for the 4 stages of Electronic Service Delivery were met in 2008/09 meaning that users can access information about council services, make an enquiry, apply for or book a service and make payments.  This not only increases flexibility in how services can be accessed, but also opens up further possible efficiencies, which can be reinvested in front line service delivery.

LO15A To be widely recognised as a leading council in Northern Europe by 2010.  Continue to develop neighbourhood planning to deliver quality of life improvements at the local level

Measure

Performance

Note

Value of efficiencies in Council Annual Efficiency Statement

£16.3m of efficiencies were achieved through cash releasing and time releasing savings. The reported figure excludes the recurring efficiencies achieved in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 years.

Measure

Performance

Note

Proportion of Statutory Performance Indicators (SPIs) in upper quartile

2008/09 rankings will not be available from Audit Scotland until December 2009. In 2007/08 Aberdeen was ranked for 70 SPIs. 14 were in the upper quartile, 24 in the second quartile. 26 SPIs showed an improved ranking with another 26 moving down compared to other Scottish councils. In terms of absolute performance, 45 of the ranked indicators improved from the previous year. This was due to an increased focus on these measures in the Council. This performance represents the greatest improvement by Aberdeen City Council in a single year since the establishment of Statutory Indicators.

Measure

Performance

Note

% of national electronic service delivery priorities implemented - Stage 1

All services which fall under the 46 core areas were implemented to Stage 1 (provision of information online) in full in 2007-08.

Measure

Performance

Note

% of national electronic service delivery priorities implemented - Stage 2

At the end of 2008-09, the position was follows.

Of the 46 services covered, all had Frequently Asked Questions published on the website.

Of these, in addition, 36 services had either downloadable forms published on the website, or this was deemed to be not feasible (for example if no form was associated with the service).

Downloadable forms were being pursued for the remaining 10 services.

Measure

Performance

Note

% of national electronic service delivery priorities implemented - Stage 3

At the end of 2008-09, the position was follows.

Of the 46 services covered, 17 services had been made available electronically online or had been deemed to be not feasible (for example for online registration of births deaths and marriages which demands a physical presence for registration).

Of the remaining 29 services, further opportunities are being identified and we are prioritising the implementation of these, under the Electronic Service Delivery project - with links to the efficiencies programme. The procurement of a software package to facilitate this was underway.

Measure

Performance

Note

% of national electronic service delivery priorities implemented - Stage 4

At the end of 2008-09, the position was as follows.

Of the 46 services covered by this SOA commitment, 8 services had been made available in a fully transactional fashion via the council website, or had been deemed to be not feasible (for example for online registration of births, deaths and marriages which demands a physical presence for registration).

Further opportunities for Stage 4 implementation are being identified, although delivery of this is outside the scope of the present Electronic Service Delivery programme. There will be a further project to deliver to Stage 4.