Performance Improvement Plan 2024 - 2025

In addition to the specific improvement activities set out below, we will implement our regular programme of service redesign and adjustments to ways of working through the implementation of risk and audit actions to continually adapt and improve our services.

Improvement objective 1

We will continue to adapt and improve our services to better meet the needs of our residents and stakeholders.

Why is this an improvement objective? 

• Residents told us to focus on improving the services we deliver.
• Members identified the service areas as key priorities during a party group leader (PGL) corporate planning session.
• Delivering effective and efficient services is identified as a key priority within our draft corporate plan.
• Improving customer care and providing best value for money are ongoing commitments.  

Relevant strategies, plans and evidence at regional and local level 

Regional: Waste Legislation NI (various), Waste Management Plan NI, Local Government Finance Act 2011, Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, Strategic Planning Policy Statement (SPPS).

Local: Belfast City Council Resilience Strategy, Local Development Plan (LDP) 2035, Belfast Open Spaces Strategy (BOSS), Belfast City Council Financial Regulations 2015, Putting You First: Transforming Customer Experience, Belfast City Council Complaints, Comments and Compliments Policy. 

Belfast Agenda outcome(s) and corporate plan theme 

Belfast Agenda outcome: Belfast is a vibrant, attractive, connected and environmentally sustainable city.

Corporate plan theme: Our services – Delivering effective and efficient services.

Statutory aspect of improvement 

• Strategic effectiveness
• Service quality, availability, and fairness
• Sustainability
• Efficiency
• Innovation

We will: 

• Develop phase 3 of our Customer Focus Programme to enhance our services and customer experience.
• Enhance street cleanliness by delivering a dedicated street cleansing programme for 17,065 streets across the city. 
• Deliver the Planning Service’s Improvement Plan to include a review of planning processes and charges.
• Complete an improvement plan for a range of parks and open spaces to create a standardised approach to monitor quality and operational standards.
• Pilot the introduction of smaller refuse collection vehicles to improve collection services to narrow and congested streets.

Our measures of success for 2025 include:

• Achieving at least 80% customer satisfaction levels (with customer hub contacts¹).
• Achieving 80% customer contact service level (people answered within 120 secs).
• Resolving 75% of corporate complaints within timeframe.
• Introducing improvement actions for 90% of corporate complaints.
• Achieving 65% cleanliness index score.
• Facilitating at least 120 community clean ups with volunteers.
• Achieving the 30-week target for average processing time for major planning applications (statutory indicator).
• Achieving the 15-week target for average processing time for local planning applications (statutory indicator).
• Processing 70% of enforcement cases within 39 weeks (statutory indicator).
• Completing 85% of service requests for missed bins within 5 working days.

¹The Customer Hub handles approximately 70% of all calls to the council and approximately 60% of all customer contacts including email and web forms. It’s the main point of contact for the following services: Resources and Fleet Waste Collections, Resources and Fleet Waste Management, Open Spaces and Street Scene, Complaints, General Enquiries, Switchboard.