Performance Improvement Self-Assessment Report - Corporate performance 2023-24

Corporate performance 2023-24

The year 2023-24 saw the conclusion of our 2020-24 Corporate Plan. Our Corporate Plan helps shape our services and drives our annual Corporate Delivery Plan and business planning processes. During 2023-24, we undertook significant engagement to refresh and launch our Community Plan (the Belfast Agenda) and develop our draft 2024-28 Corporate Plan. This provided us with the opportunity to take stock of our corporate performance and reassess our priorities as we move into a much different socio-economic operating context than the previous corporate plan.

This section of the report provides a high-level performance summary of the council’s annual Corporate Delivery Plan 2023-24:

key deliverables and improvements, as set out within the Corporate Delivery Plan 2023-24;
service performance achieved across statutory and core services, facilities, and amenities; and
continuous improvement awards and accreditations achieved.

This is in addition to the statutory and self-imposed performance indicators and delivery already outlined in section five of this report and is thematically structured as per below.

Corporate Delivery Plan 2023-24 – key deliverables and improvements

The priorities contained within our Corporate Plan 2020-24 are:

Our Services
Inclusive economic recovery
Community recovery
Environmental recovery
Strategic planning frameworks
Organisational foundations.

We made the following progress against these priorities during 2023-24:

1. Our services

Planning service

Agreed an updated Planning Improvement Plan at the Planning Committee in December 2023.
Continued to work with the DfI to implement new modules and improve the regional planning IT system.
Approved 1,600 new homes.
Determined 30 major and 1,300 local planning applications.
Granted over 700 planning permissions.

Regulatory and enforcement services

Continued to carry out a wide range of inspection and enforcement activity including:
- 703 health and safety
- 3,483 housing
- 2,336 food safety
- 1,530 daytime and 3,767 nighttime noise requests
- Issued 884 fixed penalty notices for littering.
Commenced implementation of the Windsor Framework arrangements at Belfast Port.
Undertook a review of Port Health IT system requirements to determine a ‘one system approach’ being developed where feasible with partners.

Building control

Launched the permanent Pavement café licensing policy in February 2024.
Continued to implement the revised Dual Language Street Sign policy with 158 applications processed for 86 individual streets by April 2024.
Processed 434 entertainment licenses.
Carried out 829 inspections of entertainment premises.
Processed 192 applications relating to street trading, petroleum, cinemas, and road closures.
Dealt with 179 dangerous structures.

The circular economy and urban waste

Emptied 10.5 million bins (including Bryson collections).
Collected 70,000+ bulky waste items.
Completed Phase 1 of the Paint Reuse Scheme.

Other

Registered 3,987 births, 3,294 deaths, 1,500 marriages and 20 civil partnerships

2. Inclusive economic recovery

Belfast Region City Deal

Delivered a successful Business Engagement Event with the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
Supported the Digital Transformation Flexible Fund to move into full operation.
Approved 15 Outline Business Cases and 2 Full Business Cases.
Signed 9 contracts for funding – with a value of approximately £500m.

Culture and tourism

Welcomed 213,000 visitors to Belfast Zoo.
Welcomed 1m+ visitors to St George’s Market, 1m+ visitors to the Christmas Market and attracted over 25,000 visitors to the Twilight Market.
Welcomed 310,500 visitors to the City Hall for our exhibition and guided tours.
Successfully launched the Belfast 2024 programme which will deliver an ambitious cultural celebration for our city.

Inclusive growth

Commenced a pilot phase for the Inclusive Growth Toolkit with six diverse projects across council.
Successfully launched the Belfast Business Promise.
Commenced the development of a proposition to maximise corporate social responsibility.
Implemented our new Social Value Procurement Policy to help drive inclusive economic growth.

City centre

Refreshed and delivered the Future City Centre Programme.
Completed work on The City Centre Living Vision.
Progressed several priorities and projects identified within Belfast City Centre Regeneration and Investment Strategy.
Completed Phase 2 of Belfast Entries Project.

City development and investment

Launched the process to secure a long-term partner for the delivery of £630m GDV housing led placemaking regeneration.
Continued to engage on major private sector led regeneration schemes to ensure alignment with council’s strategic corporate priorities.

Access, connectivity, active and sustainable travel

Progressed A Bolder Vision through projects including Cathedral Gardens Active Travel Hub.
Commenced The Horizon Europe Urban Planning 2030 project.
Progressed work to enhance four greenways across the city.

Education, skills and employment

Supported and upskilled 867 residents (120 with a disability) through the Gateway to Choices Services, 88 progressed into employment and 170 moved into further education or training.
Held a Jobs Fair, which attracted 850 participants and 64 employers.
Delivered the GCSE Maths and English Support Programme with 238 GCSE English and Maths places allocated.

3. Community recovery

Good relations

Completed the delivery of the PEACE IV Local Action Plan, with 4,500 participants engaging in project activity.
Completed construction of the 12km Forth Meadow Community Greenway.
Supported 33,436 participants to take part in Good Relations projects across the 9 themes of the Good Relations Action Plan.
Developed and submitted an exciting and ambitious £15.1 Million PEACEPLUS Local Action Plan for 2024-27.

Neighbourhood regeneration

Implemented Phase 5 of council’s Alleygate Programme.
Continued implementation of the Local Investment Fund and Belfast Investment Fund projects.
Completed the Loughside playground refurbishment with works ongoing at North Link playground and New Lodge playground.
Continued the development of Urban Villages projects with the completion of Marrowbone Millennium Park, Healthy Living Centre and ABC Trust Health and Leisure Hub Phase 1 and with Pitt Park nearing completion.

Community capacity

Provided funding to 43 organisations through Capacity funding at a value of £1.845m and 87 organisations through Revenue funding at a value of £1.342m.
Provided £1.4m of funding to provide a range of advice services including generalist advice, Citywide Tribunal services and Welfare Reform Mitigations (face to face advice).
Delivered Year 1 targets in the 2023-27 Age Friendly Plan including co-ordination of Healthy Ageing Strategic Partnership.
Launch of Older People’s Connection Hub in which will provide fortnightly access to signposting and information.

Leisure and sports development

Completed and opened the new Templemore Baths leisure facility.
Continued developmental work to progress plans for Phase 4 of the Leisure Transformation Programme.
Delivered the Boxing Strategy Action Plan which engaged over 6,700 participants.
Progressed the development of the Belfast Physical Activity and Sport Development Strategy and commenced the development of a new Pitches Strategy.

Housing and regeneration

Worked with city partners to overcome obstacles to increasing residential development.
Commenced feasibility assessments including planning appraisals in respect of the Citywide Strategic Site Assessments.
Re-issued the reframed the Inner North-West Development Brief.

Physical programme

Managed an investment programme of 70 projects with investment of £90 million, including £55 million of partnership projects.
Completed 20 major capital projects through our physical programme including sport and leisure facilities, active travel infrastructure and community facilities.

4. Environmental recovery

Climate adaption and mitigation

Developed and completed a Climate Risk Assessment for the council estate and operations.
Commenced development of our new draft Climate Action Plan.
Developed a draft LEV strategy with focus on maximising our assets with commercial opportunities to install charging points and the transition of our entire fleet to low emission vehicles.
Funded 19 projects via the Climate fund with a further 10 applications under review by the Climate Programme Board, some examples include: Pilot to improve recycling rates, period waste product and paint re-use.
Commenced Climate Data analytics scoping which will support a proof of concept for future data and analytics projects.

City wide climate adaption and mitigation

Completed a Tree Canopy Mapping/Tree Establishment Strategy for soft and hard landscapes to share with our One Million Tree partners.
Developed a Belfast Tree Strategy with a 10-year lifespan and commenced delivery of the Year 1 Action Plan.
Completed and launched the Circular Economy Strategic Assessment/ business case completed with follow up development and feasibility being scoped.
Delivered climate city risks and opportunities roundtable discussion in 2024 with funding being sought to deliver full city climate adaptation programme development.
Implemented UPSURGE nature-based solutions.

Improve urban air quality

Continued delivery of the Air Quality Action Plan which remains on track. The 2023 Progress Report has been accepted and published by DAERA.
Secured funding from DAERA via the LAQM grant and purchased air monitoring equipment and a monitoring regime for the assessment of air quality outside four schools.
Continued regulation and enforcement of the Industrial Pollution, Prevention and Control regime for the Belfast area with currently 120 Permits issued.
Responded to 70 planning consultations (via The Air Quality Team) on matters relating to air quality management.
Continued engagement with DAERA on the Clean Air Strategy.

5. Strategic planning frameworks

Local Development Plan

Formally adopted the LDP strategy (Adoption of LDP Plan Strategy | Belfast Local Development Plan). The associated suite of Supplementary Planning Guidance documents were also adopted at the same time.
Commenced the production of The Local Policies Plan with a timetable and project plan.

Belfast Agenda

Successfully refreshed and relaunched the Belfast Agenda and associated action plans with new governance arrangements in place.
Undertook a review of the VCSE Panel with recommendations to be brought forward for the nomination of new panel.
Developed a co-design framework with pilot projects to commence in 2024-25.
Worked with our Community Planning Partnership and Boards to focus on the implementation of new performance dashboard style reporting arrangements.

6. Organisational foundations

People

Successfully launched our new People Strategy and 3-year action plan.
Approved our Health and Wellbeing Strategy and 3-year action plan.
Implemented improved family friendly policies.
Delivered training and developmental opportunities such as LGBT+ awareness raising, JAM Card training, cultural competence and race discrimination awareness training and one-to-one coaching for senior managers.
Implemented the new Elected Member Induction and Development Programme and revised the Elected Member Personal Development Planning process.

Customer focus

Developed a suite of customer performance and satisfaction measurements.
Increased automated digital channels by introducing a webform for Bulky Waste collections, achieving 40 per cent shift from phones.
Onboarded Phase 3 services to the Customer Hub – Open Spaces and Street Scene, City Protection, Community Safety and Park Wardens.
Developed a new complaints handling procedure across Local Authorities in NI
Delivered process improvements to enhance the customer experience – call resolution time, quality of service.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Published our Language Action Plan 2023-26.
Completed the pre-consultation engagement on a draft Irish Language Policy.
Continued implementation of the current Equality Scheme, focusing on high-risk areas, including training and screening development.
Commenced the review of five-year Equality Scheme.
Implemented Year 2 of Disability Action Plan.

Asset management

Continued to develop the Asset Management Strategy and Plan.
Commenced Asset Management System Phase 2 implementation focusing on Property Maintenance functionality.
Conducted management of over 275 leases with investment rental income of £6m+.
Progressed projects which will progress housing development in the city including Gasworks and Upper Whiterock.

Planning and performance

Worked to develop and agree a new Corporate Plan 2024-28 and Medium-Term Financial Plan 2024-28.
Commenced the review of planning and performance management framework with work currently ongoing.

Continuous improvement

Focused on the AGRS audit actions with 3 completed in full and 7 partially completed.
Implemented a ‘one front door’ approach for all work requests to CI.
Commissioned the external review of Continuous Improvement which has provided a number of recommendations for implementation.

Continuous improvement - awards and accreditations

During 2023-24 the council achieved or retained a number of awards and accreditations, demonstrating community achievements, our continuous improvement journey and excellence in customer and service quality standards, including:

Marketing and communications

Our Marketing and Communications won Best integrated Campaign and House PR team of the year at the PRide Awards.
The Belfast Zoo marketing team won a BIAZA award which recognises success within the zoo and aquarium community.

Environment

Maintained ISO45001 (Health and Safety), ISO14001 (Environment) and ISO9001 (Quality) standards across Waste Management services.

Economic development

St George’s Market was awarded the Best Large Indoor Market in the UK at the Great British Market Awards, beating 20 other UK markets.
Awarded ‘Council of the Year’ at the Social Enterprise Northern Ireland Awards in October 2023 for the second consecutive year.

Capital development

The restoration of St. Comgall’s was one of the projects shortlisted for the Royal Society of Ulster Architects’ (RSUA) best works of architecture in Northern Ireland in 2024.
Templemore Baths, St Comgalls’ and Patrick Street development were shortlisted for RICS Awards in heritage and refurbishment and revitalisation categories, with Templemore Baths securing the Heritage Project Award and St Comgall’s the Refurbishment Award.
St Joseph’s Church in Sailortown was also nominated for a RICS award in the best maintenance of a historic building category.
Templemore Baths was shortlisted for Best New Build or Design of the Year - at UK Active Awards.
The Belfast City Cemetery Heritage Project was shortlisted in the APSE Service Awards.

Equality and inclusion

Awarded Autism NI Impact Award Champion.
Obtained AAA* status as a Disability Positive accredited organisation which recognises our commitment to the employment of disabled people.
Awarded Onus Safe City and Onus Safeplace platinum level.

Objective 5: Our city

Financial performance 2023-24

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