Performance Assessment: Year end update on implementation of 2021-2022 Improvement Plan

Published on 30 September 2022

Contents

• Overview
• Discharging the general duty to secure continuous improvement in 2021-2022
• Progression, achievement and outcomes from our 2021-2022 improvement objectives
• Improvement objective 1: Support our city to recover
• Improvement activity – We supported 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
• Improvement objective 2:  Adapt and improve our services
• Improvement activity – we continued to invest in and improve the quality of our leisure centres
• Improvement activity – Implemented our Customer Focus Programme
• Improvement activity – Developed new procedures to protect port health and adapt to Brexit Transition
• Improvement objective 3: Support our communities
• Improvement activity – Developed and began the implementation of an £8million neighbourhood regeneration fund
• Improvement activity - Enhanced our parks and open spaces
• Improvement activity - Encouraged participation in sport physical activity
• Improvement activity – Developed enhanced approaches to civic engagement and the involvement of the VCSE sector
• Improvement objective 4: Support people into employment
• Improvement activity – Delivered employment academies, local business start-up and growth programmes and supported social enterprises and co-operatives
• Improvement objective 5: Protect the environment and improve sustainability
• Improvement activity - Managed and developed a council climate adaptation and mitigation plan
• Improvement activity – Developed a Local Biodiversity Action Plan
• Improvement activity – Co-ordinated the Belfast One Million Trees Programme
• Improvement activity – Re-assessed our statutory waste obligations and approach (impact of COVID-19 restrictions on waste)
• Improvement objective 6: Improve digital Inclusion and enhance infrastructure
• Improvement activity – Invested in the city’s wireless and data infrastructure and began the process to implement projects aimed at improving urban innovation and citizen inclusion
• Assessment of progress of improvement objectives
• Assessment of progress of statutory performance indicators
• Quantifying our performance
• Economic development
• Waste to landfill
• Percentage of household waste collected by councils and sent for recycling
• Waste arisings
• Average processing time for major planning applications
• Average processing time for local planning applications
• Enforcement cases concluded
• Prompt payments
• Sickness absence rates
• Footnotes

Overview

Understanding the context

This assessment of the council’s performance in the 2021-2022 period provides an overview of the many improvements that Belfast City Council has progressed over the past year. At the beginning of the year we set ourselves six key improvement objectives and, within these, agreed the main activities that would help drive those objectives forward. This report illustrates exactly what we’ve achieved against these activities. However, these are strategic objectives and as such provide only a snapshot of the vast amount of improvement activity taking place all the time within the council. Individual services and departments refine and improve the way they do things on a continuous basis. For us ‘Improvement’ is about more than just efficiency savings or enhancements to services.  Whilst these are very important to ensure citizens receive the high quality, value for money services that they expect and deserve, our improvement plan has to make a difference also to people’s lives.  It must improve local quality of life and it must help build a sustainable future. We continually look at what has worked well elsewhere, listen to customer feedback and consider more efficient ways of doing things both at a service improvement level and at improving the broader quality of life.

The information provided in this report meets our obligations under the Local Government (NI) Act 2014 to publish details of our arrangements to deliver continuous improvement. We continue to use what we learn to inform our future activity and to use our resources in a way that maximises their impact for the people who live here and for those who visit, study and work in the city.

Since early 2020,COVID-19 has brought new challenges for everyone around the world, for our health, society and economy. In order to allow us to refocus our efforts and reconfigure services to support the pandemic response we published the “Belfast Our Recovery” document in September 2020. This document set out the areas we needed to focus on in the short term during the initial stages of the pandemic and looking forward, what we needed to build on for sustained recovery. Through our 2021-2022 improvement plan, we set out how we would build on this to look ahead to allow our city to recover and resurge even stronger.

Selecting improvement objectives

Previously, we have aligned our improvement objectives to the key priorities within the Belfast Agenda. To ensure that our focus is current and continues to meet the needs of our residents, each year we review and update as part of our annual corporate planning process our improvement objectives. For this reason, and to ensure focus remained on priority areas that is to help the city deal with and recover from the pandemic, in 2021-2022 we aligned the improvement objectives to the Belfast Our Recovery plan published in September 2020. Our recovery plan has six main pillars, each helping to support our communities and economy to recover by building on our strengths and assets as a city and wider city region.

In March 2021 we issued six draft improvement objectives for public consultation which were aligned to the recovery plan. Given the high levels of support, evidenced by the consultation, the proposed improvement objectives were formally approved by SP&R Committee in June 2021. Belfast City Council agreed that as a council we would:

• 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
• Take steps to ensure our services adapt and improve in the short and longer term
• Work with and support our communities, helping them to become stronger, healthier and more resilient
• Work in collaboration with others to protect and create jobs and support people into employment
• Take action to protect the environment and improve sustainability of Belfast
• Improve digital inclusion and enhance our digital infrastructure to support jobs, our economy, sustainability and wellbeing

Delivering improvements

Lots of the work we do helps us to achieve these improvements. For example, attracting inward investment and regeneration opportunities depends not only on large-scale projects to stimulate growth; it also requires a clean, attractive city with space, good health and leisure opportunities and a strong sense of safety and community. Their success depends on making sure that we deliver high quality effective services on the ground.

However to make it easier to monitor our performance, we also identified a total of 14 activities that we would use to demonstrate progress against each objective. Updates on the progress of these activities are reported to our committees on a regular basis. In addition, updates on the Improvement Plan, as a whole, are reported to our Audit and Risk Panel and Strategic Policy and Resources (SP&R) Committee at mid-year and year-end.

Discharging the general duty to secure continuous improvement in 2021-2022

Arrangements in place to secure continuous improvement

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 is monitored on an ongoing basis. These arrangements include:

• An aligned planning process – where activity is ‘planned’ in at the relevant level (committee, departmental, service, area)
• Formal regular monitoring of plans and reporting of activities within plans to relevant committees
• Quarterly reports of our programme of activity to CMT
• Mid-year and year-end reports of our overall programme of activity to SP&R
• Reporting on the performance management process to the Audit and Risk Panel as a standing item
• Consideration of the full costs included in our estimates process
• Appropriate risk management arrangements for all programmes of work
• Aligned monitoring, reporting and performance management arrangements underpinning all of the above including reporting cycles for finance and other cross cutting performance information at a corporate management team level

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 2020-2021 and what we included in our Improvement Plan for 2021-2022. Belfast City Council has well established governance arrangements in place to ensure delivery of all of our plans and these arrangements ensured that all of the activity underpinning our improvement objectives for 2021-2022 were monitored on an ongoing basis.

Continually meeting resident expectations and ensuring that our services are efficient and fit for purpose is a key priority for council. Therefore in 2021-2022 we took steps to ensure our services adapted and improved in the short and longer term focusing on:

• Continuing to invest in and improve the quality of our leisure centre
• Implementing our Customer Focus Programme
• Developing new procedure to protect port health and adapt to Brexit transition

In keeping with the spirit of our improvement duty, we do not just ‘plan in’ improvement at one point in the year.  We work hard to improve the experience of citizens throughout the year. 

As a responsive, proactive organisation, we recognise that there will be occasions when we need to adapt what we do, perhaps even to divert from planned activity and realign resources to cope with an emerging need. 

Progression, achievement and outcomes from our 2021-2022 improvement objectives

Improvement objective 1: Support our city to recover

COVID-19 changed how public spaces were used, particularly in the city centre, which seen significant reductions in footfall during the pandemic. This improvement objective focused on how we as a council could work towards ensuring our public spaces were as safe as possible, to support health and wellbeing, connectivity, social and cultural vibrancy and economic recovery.  We worked in collaboration with a range of public bodies and other partners to ensure that a joined up approach was taken to bringing forward all possible measures to ensure the safety of residents, staff and visitors to the city. We also worked alongside the Public Health Agency to support them in implementing safety guidelines across the city to support the managed and phased approach to reopening.

In our Improvement Plan for 2021-2022, we said we would 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 by:

• Implementing a Revitalisation Fund for Local business interventions and public realm

What are the expected outcomes?

Our work to achieve this objective contributes to:

• Belfast is a vibrant, attractive, connected and environmentally sustainable city
• Everyone in Belfast benefits from a thriving and prosperous city 

How we measured our performance and impact 

Improvement activity: We supported 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

In our Improvement Plan for 2021-2022 we said we would:

• Implement a Revitalisation Fund that will:
  • deliver direct local business interventions
  • deliver public realm improvements and streetscaping
  • improve and enhance city dressing and signage

Specific achievements included:

• Finalised the COVID-19 Recovery Grant with 454 businesses having claimed their funding allocations
• Provided Brexit support sessions for 26 businesses including retail, construction, ICT and manufacturing and EU exit support sessions for 40 businesses in those sectors
• Launched the Digital Transformation scheme supporting over 1,000 businesses to a significant shift in their business operations. 
• Successfully completed the capital grant scheme with 33 applications obtaining grant funding from the DfC COVID-19 Revitalisation Programme
• Progressed the public realm enhancements including Adelaide Street, Castle Place and the Entries
• Enhanced lighting across the Business Improvement Districts

Understanding project status in milestones tables

In each milestones table, we describe project status as Red, Amber or Green:

Red means 'project delayed'
Amber means 'project progressing with delays'
Green means 'project is on target'

Responsible chief officer: Strategic Director of Neighbourhood Services
Reporting Committee: Strategic Policy and Resources Committee

Improvement objective 2:  Adapt and improve our services

In our Improvement Plan for 2021-2022, we said we would take steps to ensure our services adapt and improve in the short term and longer term by:

• Implementing our Customer Focus Programme
• Continuing to invest in and improve the quality of leisure centres
• Developing new procedures to protect port health and to adapt to new Brexit transition arrangements

What are the expected outcomes?

Our work to achieve this objective contributes to:

• Creating a fit for purpose organisation

How we measure our performance and impact percentage of residents satisfied with Belfast City Council 

Improvement activity: We continued to invest in and improve the quality of our leisure centres

Specific achievements included:

• Shortlisted for an international award for ‘Social Project of the year’ by the Association of Project Management
• Completed the construction of the new Avoniel Leisure facility which was formally launched in November 2021
• Continued construction work at Templemore Baths which is on schedule to open in 2022

Responsible Chief Officer: Director of Physical Programmes
Reporting Committee: Strategic Policy and Resources Committee

Improvement activity: Implemented our Customer Focus Programme

Specific achievements included:            

• Initiated Phase 2 to identify which services will be onboarded
• Established protocols for telephone and email communications to ensure we maintain our standards for customer service.  
• Continued to develop Customer Hub analytics to produce management information dashboards
• Continued to oversee the programme’s change management and quality assurance processes
• Drafted new product descriptions and quality criteria for products due to be delivered in Phase 2
• Continued to review programme and project registers

Responsible Chief Officer: Programme Director
Reporting Committee: Strategic Policy and Resources Committee

Improvement activity – Developed new procedures to protect port health and adapt to Brexit Transition

Specific achievements included:

• Completed a range of facilities upgrade work on Health and Safety issues with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs(DAERA)
• Completed a range of security enhancements installed by DAERA
• Undertook a resource analysis of the current operational model to update planning assumptions on task durations and staff time allocation on SPS checks. This cannot be fully completed until the UK Government advises on the new planning assumptions for future arrangements
• New staff cannot be recruited until confirmation of funding from HM Treasury to operate the service has been agreed
• Commenced a review of the temporary staffing model for Port Health to help reduce reliance on Environmental Health Officers for document or administrative duties
• Extended existing staff contracts until March 2024 to help with the retention of staff
• Participated in regular joint planning and operational engagements to support delivery, working jointly with various government departments across key programme strands

Responsible Chief Officer: Strategic Director of City and Neighbourhood Services
Reporting Committee: People and Communities Committee

Improvement objective 3: Support our communities  

In our Improvement Plan for 2021-2022, we said we would work with and support our communities, helping them to become stronger, healthier and more resilient by:

• Developing and implementing an £8million Neighbourhood Regeneration Fund
• Enhancing our parks and open spaces
• Encouraging participation in sport and physical activity
• Developing enhanced approaches to civic engagement and the involvement of the VCSE sector

What are the expected outcomes?

Our work to achieve this objective contributes to:

• Everyone in Belfast experiences good health and wellbeing
• Everyone in Belfast benefits from a thriving and prosperous city

How we measure our performance and impact 

Improvement activity: Developed and began the implementation of an £8million neighbourhood regeneration fund

Specific achievements included:

• Agreed the principles, allocation model and thematic areas for the fund
• Continued work on the programme level outcomes framework working in collaboration with colleagues across the departments
• Agreed the introduction of an Outcomes Based Accountability approach to monitoring the outcomes for NRF
• Held an information webinar in March 2022
• Developed an assessment and scoring process; collation and assessment of Stage 1 applications will begin in summer 2022.

Responsible Chief Officer: Director of Physical Programmes
Reporting Committee: Strategic Policy and Resources Committee

Improvement activity: Enhanced our parks and open spaces

Specific achievements included:

• Achieved the Green Flag status for BCC parks and heritage site.
• Agreed the final Belfast Open Spaces Strategy (BOSS) whereby members were informed of the localised delivery plans
• Opened Vere Foster playground in July
• Completed the refurbishment works at Ormeau Park Playground (Park Road)
• Completed the pedestrian and cycle bridge over the River Lagan and the navigation lock
• Commenced construction of the Forth Meadow Community Greenway
• Secured over £7million in external funding from central government for the enhancement of both Marrowbone Millennium Park and Ballysillan Playing Fields.

Responsible Chief Officer: Strategic Director of City and Neighbourhood Services and Director of Physical Programmes Reporting Committee: People and Communities Committee

Improvement activity: Encouraged participation in sport physical activity

Specific achievements included:

• Delayed procurement of external support to commence the development programme for a sport and physical activity strategy due to staff secondments and departmental re-organisation, however a new timeline has been drawn up with a completion date of May 2023
• Continued to work with partners to review and enhance physical activity referral pathways across the city.
• Continued delivery of the Level 3 and 4 PARS programmes with some adaptions as a result of COVID-19.
• Launched a new jointly funded partnership with Macmillan Cancer to deliver the ‘Macmillian Move More’ programme
• Continued delivery of the Physical Activity Referral programmes with a blended model of face to face and virtual classes
• Worked in partnership with BHSCT Physiotherapy Specialist Services on the Post COVID-19 Rehab Pilot Programme
• Secured a funding application of £5,000 to support people living with MSK conditions across the city.
• Established ‘active ageing or step down programmes for members of the public which will be delivered across the city

Responsible Chief Officer: Strategic Director of City and Neighbourhood Services
Reporting Committee: People and Communities Committee

Improvement activity: Developed enhanced approaches to civic engagement and the involvement of the VCSE sector

Specific achievements included:

• Launched a new engagement platform in December with over 100 officers now trained.
• Registered 2,453 active participants on the platform which were achieved through a combination of proactive outreach to existing community planning contacts
• Launched a programme of engagement in collaboration with the Belfast Community Planning Partnership that focused on the review of the Belfast Agenda.
• Created a dedicated engagement hub for the Belfast Agenda and offered residents the opportunity to participate in online engagement workshops
• Commenced the Belfast Agenda refresh and the engagement and development process will continue into 2022-2023
• Continued to develop and grow the VCSE Citywide Network in collaboration with the VCSE Sectoral Advisory Panel.
• Registered 217 third sector participants on Your Say Belfast
• Held the second annual VCSE Community Conference ‘ Enabling Change: People and Communities at the heart of Community Planning’ with 90 attendees

Responsible Chief Officer: Director of Economic Development
Reporting Committee City Growth and Regeneration Committee

Improvement objective 4: Support People into Employment   

In our Improvement Plan for 2021-2022, we said we would build and adapt to the economic challenges brought about by the pandemic, working in collaboration with others to protect and create jobs and help support people into employment by:

• Delivering employment academies
• Delivering local business start-up and growth programmes
• Supporting social enterprises and co-operatives

What are the expected outcomes?

Our work to achieve this objective contributes to:

• Everyone in Belfast has the right skills for the future
• Addressing educational inequalities and increasing skills attainment

Improvement activity: Delivered employment academies, local business start-up and growth programmes and supported social enterprises and co-operatives

Specific achievements included:

• Recruited 816 people onto our Employment Academy programmes across a range of sectors including transport and care
• Completed the Belfast Business Survey with over 400 responses received which helps to shape future programmes
• Supported 327 business through growth programmes namely growth strategies, resilience, enhancing digital and online presence
• Engaged 20 Belfast Based businesses on the Way to Scale Bootcamp programme and 10 of these companies were supported to take place at MIT’s Entrepreneurship Development programme in March
• Launched the Digital Transformation initiative in partnership with 10 other councils
• Developed a Fintech Action plan for the region in partnership with Fintech NI
• Helped over 611 individuals to test and develop new business ideas via our Enterprise Awareness activity
• Launched the Social Economy Incentive Fund in October 

Responsible Chief Officer: Director of Economic Development
Reporting Committee: City Growth and Regeneration Committee

Improvement objective 5: Protect the environment and improve sustainability

In our Improvement Plan for 2021-2022 we said we would take action to protect the environment and improve the sustainability of Belfast by:

• Managing and developing a council climate adaptation and mitigation plan
• Developing a local Biodiversity Action Plan
• Co-ordinating the Belfast One Million Trees Programme
• Re-assessing our statutory waste obligations and approach

What are the expected outcomes?

Our work to achieve this objective contributes to:

• Belfast is a vibrant, attractive, connected and environmentally sustainable city

How we will measure our performance and impact

Improvement activity: Managed and developed a council climate adaptation and mitigation plan   

Specific achievements included:

• Continued to manage the Belfast Resilience and Sustainability Board and support QUB in the management of the Belfast Climate Commission
• Produced a carbon baseline and trajectory report for Belfast City Council and energy audits for five council buildings are now underway
• Development of Belfast City Council Climate Risk assessment, Climate Action plan and Climate Investment Plan is underway and the communication work will follow the completion of the Climate Action plan in 2022-2023
• Participated in the TRACE project identifying opportunities to address SCOPE 3 emissions and decarbonisation of the supply chain
• Completed housing and transport readiness workshops on the Belfast Net Zero Carbon Roadmap
• Approved the Belfast Ambitions Document Delivery Plan and ready to move into the delivery phase
• Worked in collaboration with Core Cities to ensure Belfast is central to the new Climate Investment Commission
• Completed a submission to the Carbon Disclosure Project on Belfast’s emission across a range of sectors
• Supported Visit Belfast by submitting to the Global Destination Sustainability Index, which saw Belfast move from second last to seventeenth of 72 cities

Responsible Chief Officer: Belfast Climate Commissioner
Reporting Committee: Strategic Policy and Resources Committee

Improvement activity: Developed a Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP)

Specific achievements included:

• Assessed the LBAP Programme and reviewed the timeline for progression which has been delayed due to a lack of resources. This programme of work will move into 2022-2023 and work is underway to scope options to support its development.

Responsible Chief Officer: Strategic Director of Neighbourhood Services
Reporting Committee:Strategic Policy and Resources Committee

Improvement activity: Co-ordinated the Belfast One Million Trees Programme

Specific achievements included:

• Continued coordinating the Belfast One Million Trees site assessment and planting process
• Continued administering the Woodland Trust SLA and Emergency Tree Funding (ETF)
• Continued ongoing engagement with a broad range of stakeholders including members of the public, community organisations, business academia and city partners from UK and EU
• Established the Yoursay platform and the mapping tool is open regularly
• Delivered tree giveaway events ‘Give a Tree a Home’ in Ormeau and Waterworks parks
• Established a Million Trees Schools Programme with 33 schools signed up
• Funded the development of the Belfast Tree Strategy led by City and Neighbourhood services

Responsible Chief Officer: Belfast Climate Commissioner
Reporting Committee: Strategic Policy and Resources Committee

Improvement activity: Re-assessed our statutory waste obligations and approach (impact of COVID-19 restrictions on waste)

Specific achievements included:

• Responded to a consultation on Extended Producer Responsibility and Deposit Return Schemes which will significantly impact future waste management and collections
• Scheduled a pilot scheme to examine wood or furniture
• Completed an economic appraisal on kerbside recycling schemes to inform the strategic approach to waste collections
• Introduced carpet recycling at the council’s recycling centres
• Commenced work on “The More Circularity, less Carbon” project
• Piloted a laptop re-use scheme which will be expanded in 2022-2023

Responsible Chief Officer: Strategic Director of City and Neighbourhood Services Reporting Committee: People and Communities Committee

Improvement objective 6: Improve digital Inclusion and enhance infrastructure

In our Improvement Plan for 2021-2022 we said we would improve digital inclusion and enhance our digital infrastructure to support jobs, our economy, sustainably and wellbeing by:

• Investing in the city’s wireless and data infrastructure 
• Implementing projects aimed at improving urban innovation and citizen inclusion

What are the expected outcomes?

Our work to achieve this objective contributes to:

How we will measure our performance and impact

Improvement activity: Invested in the city’s wireless and data infrastructure and began the process to implement projects aimed at improving urban innovation and citizen inclusion

Specific achievements included:

• Completed the Feasibility study and strategic case for the Advanced Wireless OBC
• Presented the draft Smart Belfast Framework 2022-2027 to elected members and subsequently carried out a consultation which completed in March
• Progressed work on a Healthy Living Pilot within the Markets area of Belfast working in collaboration with local universities and Connected Places Catapult
• Participation in the Amazing Spaces project allowed local companies to develop innovative apps which have gained international publicity
• Completed phase 1 of the Horizon 2020 Project ‘Hubs of Innovation’ which will create  an Innovation Hub for communities surrounding the Maritime Mile to create opportunities for local entrepreneurship

Responsible Chief Officer: Director of Finance and Resources, Director of City and Organisational Strategy
Reporting Committee: Strategic Policy and Resources Committee

Assessment of progress of improvement objectives

As outlined throughout this report, the vast majority of activities we set ourselves to help deliver our improvement objectives are progressing as intended. By year-end the majority of activities

Based on the evidence provided it is therefore our assessment that the council is delivering on its 2021-2022 commitments and that it is demonstrating strong overall performance.

Assessment of progress of statutory performance indicators

Quantifying our performance

Statutory indicators year-end position and benchmark with other councils

Results of statutory performance standards for 2021-2022

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. Our results are outlined for 

• Economic development,
• Waste to landfill,
• Recycling rates,
• Waste arisings,
• Average processing time for major planning applications,
• Average processing time for local planning applications,
• Enforcement cases concluded,
• Prompt payments and
• Sickness absence rates.

Logos for local councils in Northern Ireland

Economic development

The number of jobs promoted through business start-up in Belfast fell short of its 325 target in 2021-2022. [Footnote 8]  ‘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 [Footnote 9] through business start-up (342 client led business plans completed). 

 In 2021-2022, BCC had 311 new jobs promoted through business start-up (518 client led business plans completed).  Although slightly 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.

Waste to landfill

Amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill Article 5(2) of the EC Landfill Directive sets challenging targets that require member states to reduce the 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 2021-2022, BCC landfilled 35,783 [Footnote 10] tonnes of biodegradable waste, well within the 50,753 tonne target set out in the order.  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.

Percentage of household waste collected by Councils and sent for recycling 

EU Member states have a legal requirement to recycle a minimum of 50 per cent of household waste by 2020. Household waste sent for recycling includes all household waste prepared for reuse, dry recycling and composting. In 2021-2022, the volume of waste sent for ‘recycling’ in Belfast was 41.0 per cent a slight decrease from the previous year (there is no statutory target for this indicator). The trend of significant pressure on the recycling rate remains as we move into recovery and normalisation phase following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Waste arisings

Belfast City Council had the largest volume of arisings out of the 11 councils in 2021-2022 with 168,037 [Footnote 12] 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 the last number of years, despite continuing population growth in the BCC area. The amount of waste collected by the council reduced by 2 per cent on the previous year suggesting a return to pre-COVID-19 levels and reductions in waste previously generated during public health restrictions.

Average processing time for major planning applications

Major planning applications relate to developments with important economic, social and environmental implications; most are multiple housing, commercial and government and civic developments. 

Belfast has a figure of 31 weeks average processing times for major applications. This is a decrease of 13.2 weeks from the previous year. During 2021-2022, the average processing time across all councils to bring major applications to a decision or withdrawal was 49.8 weeks across all councils; representing a decrease of 11.6 weeks compared with the previous year. It is worth noting that planning activity and processing performance during 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 were impacted by restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic. Also, during January and February of 2022 the Northern Ireland Planning Portal was inaccessible for a period of time. [Footnote 14]

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. [Footnote 15] The average processing time for local planning applications brought to a decision or withdrawal during 2021-2022 was 17.2 across all councils exceeding the 15-week target. In 2021-2022 the average processing time for Belfast was 17 weeks slightly over target but a decrease of 2.2 weeks on the previous year.

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 2021-2022, 83.0 per cent of all enforcement cases opened were concluded within the 39 week target, this is well beyond the 70 per cent target. 

Enforcement Cases processed within 39 weeks

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 2017-18 in this regard. The figure for 2021-2022 was 93 per cent again 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 increased to 16.33 days on last year’s rate of 10.86 days due to the impact of COVID-19 which accounts for 3.34 days of this total (20 per cent of the total figure). At the end of March 2022, the average number of days' sickness absence per full time employee was 12.99 days excluding COVID-19 absence which in an increase of 2.13 days on previous year. BCC continues to provide a series of health and wellbeing initiatives to assist with absence management, these include mental health, first aid training and webinars to raise awareness and provide support and signposting for staff. In addition, an Active Travel Working Group has been set up to encourage more staff to walk, cycle or use public transport when they can. We will continue to monitor and review to ensure adequate resources are in place.

2021-2022 Self-imposed indicators - year end position and comparison with previous period insert table

Median Annual Gross Pay (Belfast residents)

Footnotes

[Footnote 1] New performance indicators for 2021-2022 these were not reported previously 
[Footnote 2] Figures are for 2020-2021 year as platform was not launched until December 2020. 
[Footnote 3] DAERA provisional figures. Fully verified figures available later in 2022
[Footnote 4] Note that overall percentage is calculated by averaging the total ‘count’, it is not an average of the averages above it
[Footnote 5] Whilst direction of travel has markedly improved however it remains slightly below target.
[Footnote 6] In 2021-2022, the volume of waste sent for ‘recycling’ in Belfast decreased slightly from the previous year
[Footnote 7] The absence rate for 2021-2022 is 12.99 days (excluding COVID-19) which is an increase of 2.13 days from the previous year. The COVID-19 absence accounts for 3.34 days of the total absence rate of 16.33 days for 2021-2022. The increase in absence is likely linked to the secondary effects of COVID-19 related infections.
[Footnote 8] BCC 'Go For it' programme target is 344
[Footnote 9] 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. 
[Footnote 10] DAERA validated figures - December 2022
[Footnote 11] DAERA validated figures - December 2022
[Footnote 12] DAERA validated figures - December 2022
[Footnote 13] DAERA validated figures - December 2022
[Footnote 14] Source: Northern Ireland Planning Statistics April 2021 to March 2022
[Footnote 15] Source: Northern Ireland Planning Statistics 2021-2022 Statistical Bulletin 
[Footnote 16] Absence figures have been rounded up to the nearest decimal place
[Footnote 17] This figure is based on Small Area population estimates for 2020
[Footnote 18] This index is based on one survey per month April 2021 until July 2021. From August 2021 until March 2022 two random sample surveys per month were scheduled for each area
[Footnote 19] This is for surveys carried out from November 2020 until March 2021 only. No surveys were carried out from April 2020 until October 2020 due to the pandemic and lockdowns
[Footnote 20] DAERA validated figures - December 2022
[Footnote 21] Question not asked in 2017-2018 Northern Ireland health Survey
[Footnote 22] Source: Annual personal well-being estimates - Office for National Statistics (link opens in new window)