Communities and Local Government

• Local government
• Clarification notes on Best Value Performance Indicators 2002/03

Local government

Clarification notes on Best Value Performance Indicators 2002/03

Chapter 5: Corporate Health

BV9 - This section should read:

The percentage of council taxes due for the financial year which were received in year by the authority (2002/2003).

England: currently as DTLR QRC 4 Line 4 as a percentage of line 1 - but the data collected will be for 2002/2003.

Line 4 Estimated total receipts of 2001/2002 council taxes; net of refunds granted in respect of 2001/2002 only.

Line 1 Estimated net collectable debit in respect of 2001/2002 council taxes net of benefit.

Receipts should be attributed to the oldest year in which debts are outstanding, and not to the current year unless the payment is specifically for the current year.

BV10 - This section should read:

The percentage of non-domestic rates due for the financial year which were received in year by the authority (2002/2003).

England: currently as DLTR QRC4 (2001/2002), line 18 as a percentage of Line 15 - but the data collected will be for 2002/2003.

Line 18 Estimated total receipts of 2001/2002 non-domestic rates, net of refunds granted in respect of 2001/2002 only.

Line 15 Estimated net collectable debit in respect of 2001/2002 non-domestic rates only.

Receipts should be attributed to the oldest year in which debts are outstanding, and not to the current year unless the payment is specifically for the current year.

BV11a - For consistency purposes, this figure is taken as a snapshot figure at the end of the financial year.

BV11b - For consistency purposes, this figure is taken as a snapshot figure at the end of the financial year.

BV180 - Authorities will be given guidance on how to calculate their performance against this indicator. It is being developed by the Energy and Environment Best Practice programme at the moment and will be available before authorities have to make their assessment and set their targets. Guidance should be available by mid-August.

Chapter 6: Education

BV45 & 46 should be shown as 'amended'

BV 159 - Note the changes to the wording of this indicator which reflects the percentage of pupils provided with alternative tuition rather then those who attended. This is an important change to reflect the budgetary commitments to alternatives provided.

Chapter 8: Housing and Related Services

BV66a - The formula for this indicator is as follows:

The numerator for the calculation is made up of the total rent collected from current tenants for the current and past years. This is the gross rent collected.

The denominator is the total rent available. This is made up of the rent available to be collected on all occupied dwellings plus the rent arrears from current tenants at the start of the year (not minus the rent arrears).

The calculation is therefore as follows:

Proportion of rent collected = rent collected /Total rent available

Arrears and their collection on former tenancies should only be counted if they are part of the 'current cycle of tenancies' such as where a tenant transfers to his current property bringing arrears on the tenancy he is transferring from. If a tenant owed money on a former tenancy and there had been an interval where he was not a tenant of the authority then those arrears would not come into the indicator.

BV 164 - This refers to guidance on tackling racial harassment. This is actually a Housing Research Summary (Number 148, 2001) and the correct title for this is 'Tackling Racial Harassment: Code of Practice for Social Landlords'. Product Code: 0022/06. This can be found on the ODPM web site.

BV183 - This indicator aims to measure the total time that a household has been in B&B/hostel accommodation during the duration of a whole homelessness duty flowing from one application rather than just time spent in B&B/hostel during 2002/03. Only the time spent in B&B/hostel accommodation is being measured. For example: if a duty lasts for 17 months, a household could have spent 5 months in B&B at the start of the duty and then moved into another form of temporary accommodation. The total for this household would be 5 months, even though they would not actually have spent any time in B&B or hostel accommodation during 2002/03.

Point 2 - Only households fitting both criteria, i.e. those for whom BOTH the duty and has come to an during the year in question AND have at some point spent time in either (a) B&B or (b) hostel accommodation during the period when that homelessness duty was owed to them.

For definition of B&B - refer to the definition on the Jan-March 2002 P1E under section E6, subsections (a) [Bed and breakfast hotels (e.g. privately managed, meal(s) provided, shared facilities)] AND (b) Shared facilities. Guidance will be given on this form.

For the definitions of hostels, use Section E6, subsection (d) [Hostels including reception centres and emergency units)]. DO NOT include subsection (E) [Women's refuges].

Q. What happens about people who leave temporary accommodation at the end of the relevant quarter or go in and come out within one quarter?

A. These should all be included in the BVPI calculation. It should include all cases meeting the criteria of Points 1 AND 2 in the definition.

Q. Is there any limit on the gaps between B&B and Hostel residency?

A. No. As long as it is all under the s.193 duty arising from the SAME homelessness application.

Q. What if a person makes more than one homeless application? Do we only count the most recent one?

A. It is unlikely that someone will apply again before the duty owed to them is discharged (i.e. whilst they are still in temporary accommodation) - but if they do, count the one that has been accepted. However, if the situation arises in which a duty is discharged at some point in the year (for example mid-April 2002) and then the household becomes unintentionally homeless again (e.g. for reasons of domestic violence), during that year (e.g. September 2002), and this second duty is also charged within that year (e.g. Jan 2003), you should count this as two separate cases and include them both in your indicator calculation.

Q. What if someone becomes pregnant during their stay in temporary accommodation? Do we start counting from the date they informed us of their pregnancy or do we count the whole time they were in temporary accommodation?

A. Count only from the time they informed you they were pregnant.

BV185 - There should be a 'note' at the end of this indicator which states 'Authorities owning less than 200 council dwellings at 31 March 2003 need not report on this BVPI.'

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit

BV76 - refers to 'Benefits Agency', this should be 'Department of Works and Pensions'

Chapter 9: Environment

DEFRA has supplied the following clarification on how to treat waste sent for recycling:

Best Value Performance Indicator 82a - Percentage of the total tonnage of household waste arisings which have been sent for recycling

With regard to Best Value Performance Indicator 82a the term 'sent for recycling' means the waste delivered to, and accepted by, a company, individual or organisation who will reprocess, or deliver to a reprocessor, waste that is in an acceptable form (be that in terms of contamination, for example caused by the presence of other waste streams, or in terms of quality of the material delivered, for example its physical state) for inclusion in a reprocessing process. Local authorities will be responsible for reporting on the amounts of waste sent for recycling which meets these criteria.

For clarification, 'sent for recycling' does not refer to waste sent to sorting facilities, such as Materials Reclamation Facilities. This is viewed as waste, which has been sent for sorting, not for recycling which BV 82a expressly refers to.

Best Value Performance Indicator 82b - Percentage of the total tonnage of household waste arisings which have been sent for composting

The term 'sent for composting' in Best Value Performance Indicator 82b, percentage of the total tonnage of household waste arisings, which has been sent for composting, is also to be considered in this context. Here the reprocessor would be the individual, organisation or business which undertakes the composting process. If the material delivered to this reprocessor needs to be sorted then - it is only the material sent into the composting process that is to be reported against this indicator.

Where relevant waste is collected in one year and recycled/composted in the next because there is a delay due to the need for further processing e.g. refrigerators and freezers, count the collection and recycling when they occur even if in different years.

Where a collection authority provides separated recyclables to the disposal authority, which then treats or processes those materials, both the collection and disposal authorities will count the material towards their recycling or composting figures. However, materials collected at civic amenity sites are only to be counted by disposal authorities.

Please note that WDAs must only count the WCA contribution to the WDA total once. In cases where the WCA gives the WDA materials to be sent for recycling, the WDA can count these materials in its recycling total, as does the WCA. But the WDA should not "add on again" the contribution from the WCA when it produces its end of year totals.

Materials collected at civic amenity sites are only to be counted by disposal authorities except in the case of London Boroughs and Metropolitan Districts which are not disposal authorities but which provide civic amenity sites under their own powers.

BV 82d: Waste to landfill: 'Landfill' includes land-raising.

BV 84 - Household waste collected: In practice this covers the same household waste as BV 82 for 2001/02 and the same exclusions apply.

Transport

BV 97 - Condition of non-principal roads

The guidance mentioned in this indicator has been delayed and will not now be available until mid-June.

BV99 - This target (under target setting) should read as follows:

In setting local targets, best value authorities should have regard to the PSA target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in Great Britain in road accidents by 40%, and the number of children killed or seriously injured by 50% by 2010, compared with the average for 1994-98".

BV102 - Local Bus services (passenger journeys per year)

Metropolitan Councils do not have to collect this as the PTA's now have this responsibility.

Chapter 10: Culture and Related Services

BV170 (C) - 'School visits' for this indicator, includes those by secondary school sixth form classes but not those by sixth form colleges or adult education institutions.

Chapter 11: Community Safety

The third paragraph of the introduction should read: 'The Indicator on "corporate Strategy to reduce crime [Community Safety - BV 173]" has been deleted. The Government views this indicator as process driven rather than outcome related.'

BV176 - The second paragraph should read 'as at 31 March 2003' not 2002.

2001/02 changes to ro & rs references

Please note that capital charges are included and so many references have changed from column 7 to column 9.

BVs 32, 33, 36a-d and 51,52 & 61 are no longer defined by the RO forms.

Indicator	Description	RO/RS References
77	Benefits	RO4 Lines 15 + 17 Columns 3 + 8
85	Street & litter cleansing	RO6 Line 5 Column 9
86	Waste collection	RO6 Line 1 + for non-disposal authorities Line 2 Column 9
87	Waste disposal	RO6 Line 2 Column 9 plus RS Line 29 (except for WDAs)
93	Highway maintenance	RO2 Lines 3 & 5 Column 9 + COR1 Memorandum item M2
94	Bus services	RO2 Line 14 Column 9
95	Public lighting	RO2 Line 7 Column 9
107	Planning	RO4 Line 55 + RO6 Line 15 Columns 3 + 8
115	Libraries	RO4 Line 51 Columns 3 + 8
116	Culture & recreation	RO4 Lines 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59 Column 9