Schedule 1 GENERAL CORPORATE HEALTH PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

The levels of the Commission for Racial Equality’s standards for local government are defined in the chapter entitled “Measurements” in the Commission for Racial Equality’s document entitled “Auditing for Equality”^f2 and in the document called “Racial Equality means Quality”^f3.

The levels are:

1. (a)

   Level 1: the authority has written a racial policy statement.

2. (b)

   Level 2: the authority has an action plan for monitoring and achieving its racial equality policy.

3. (c)

   Level 3: results of ethnic monitoring against the equality policy and level of consultations with local communities are used to review the overall authority’s policy.

4. (d)

   Level 4: the authority’s workforce can demonstrate clear improvements in its services resulting from monitoring, consulting with local communities, and acting on its equal opportunities policy.

5. (e)

   Level 5: the authority is an example of best practice in the way that it monitors and provides services to ethnic minorities, and is helping other authorities workforces to achieve high standards. Confirmation that the authority has reached this level must have been provided by the Commission for Racial Equality.

Where the authority has not adopted that standard, the level is “standard not adopted”.

Form “A” means the form referred to in Regulation 29(2) of the Representation of the People Regulations 1986^f7 and set out in Schedule 1 to those Regulations.

This percentage is to be obtained by dividing the number of electoral registration forms “A” that were returned at the end of the last canvass by the number sent out at that canvass and multiplying the result by 100.

The indicator is the number of all the undisputed invoices for commercial goods and services paid to external contractors and suppliers within 30 days of receipt during the financial year, as a percentage of the total of all invoices paid by the authority in that year.

In the calculation of this indicator invoices sent to schools and paid from delegated school budgets may be excluded.

For the purposes of ascertaining whether the authority has paid the invoice within the 30 days period, that period shall commence with the day of receipt of the invoice by the authority.

Payment includes—

1. (a)

   dispatch of a cheque or other instrument of payment;

2. (b)

   notification to bank for Bankers Automated Clearing Service payments; or

3. (c)

   bank processing of the payment if the authority specifies a period after which the bank is to make the payments once it has received the Bankers Automated Clearing Service tape.

If an invoice is received before the services have been provided or the goods received, the 30 day period starts from the receipt of goods in good condition or the satisfactory completion of the services. Where the authority does not record the date it receives the invoice the date of receipt shall be taken as being two days after to the date of the invoice unless a more accurate date is available from sampling of invoices.

This is the total of estimated receipts of council tax for any year, minus that year’s refunds, as a percentage of the estimated net collectable debit in respect of that year’s council taxes, net of benefit.

The information used is that contained in the financial return made to the Secretary of State under section 168(1) of the Local Government Act 1972^f8 on the form “Quarterly Return of Council Taxes and Rates 4” (QRC4).

This indicator is to reflect the position as at 31st March in the financial year.

The percentage is the number of women in post at senior management level as a percentage of all staff in post at senior management level. “Senior management” means the top three tiers of management in the authority.

This proportion is to be determined by calculating the numerator and denominator as defined below.

1. (a)

   The numerator is the aggregate of working days lost due to sickness absence irrespective of whether this is self certified, certified by a general medical practitioner or long term. This will include the days lost due to sickness of all permanent employees of the authority, teachers, staff employed in schools and staff employed in Direct Labour Organisations and Direct Service Organisations. For the purposes of this calculation, the days lost by staff on maternity or paternity leave should be disregarded.

2. (b)

   The denominator is the average number of full time equivalent staff employed by the authority within a financial year. For staff who work part time, the full time equivalent for both the numerator and denominator shall be calculated following the recommendations in the 1998 Cabinet Office Report entitled “Working well together—Managing attendance in the public sector”^f9.

For fire authorities constituted by a combination scheme, metropolitan county fire and civil defence authorities and the London Fire Emergency Planning Authority, the calculation of this indicator shall be done separately for—

1. (a)

   wholetime uniformed staff; and

2. (b)

   all staff.

For county councils acting as the fire authority for their area and the Council of the Isles of Scilly in its capacity as a fire authority, the calculation of this indicator shall be done separately in respect of wholetime uniformed staff.

Where shift working applies to an authority, this indicator shall be measured by reference to the number of working shifts rather than working days.

This indicator is to be calculated by dividing the number of voluntary leavers per financial year by the average number of staff in post during that year and multiplying the result by 100.

In this indicator—

• “average number of employees in post during the year” means half the total of—

  1. (a)

     the number of employees at the start of the financial year; plus

  2. (b)

     the number of employees at the end of that year.

“Retiring early” means retiring when aged 50 or over but before the normal retirement age at which retirement benefits become payable (which is usually 65 but can be different if a person has protected rights or permission is granted), on grounds of:

1. (a)

   redundancy, where an employee is in a job which the employer certifies as no longer needed; or

2. (b)

   efficiency, that is to say where the employer certifies that the termination of employment is in the interests of the efficient exercise of the authority’s functions.

For the purposes of calculating the percentage, all employees of the authority who work in schools shall be included.

“Retiring on grounds of ill health” means retiring at any age where an independent registered medical practitioner qualified in occupational health medicine has certified that the employee is permanently incapable of performing the duties of that employment or a broadly comparable employment with his employing authority because of ill-health or infirmity of mind or body.

For employees of fire authorities, the indicator is applied separately to those employees who are eligible for membership of—

1. (a)

   the Firefighters' Pension Scheme; or

2. (b)

   the Local Government Pension Scheme.

For the purposes of calculating the percentage, all employees of the authority who work in schools shall be included.

For the definition of “disability” see section 1 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

This indicator is to be estimated by dividing the number of disabled employees in that authority by the total number of the authority’s employees and multiplying the result by 100.

For county councils acting as the fire authority for their area and the Council of the Isles of Scilly in its capacity as a fire authority, this indicator shall exclude employees whose conditions of service involve a liability to engage in fire-fighting within the meaning of section 38(1) of the Fire Services Act 1947^f11.

For the purposes of calculating this percentage, all employees of the authority who work in schools shall be included.

This indicator is the result of dividing the number of minority ethnic community employees by the total number of employees in the best value authority and multiplying the result by 100.

For fire authorities the indicator should show the number of ethnic minority uniformed staff employed by the fire authority as a percentage of the authority’s total number of uniformed staff compared with the total number of ethnic minority persons of working age in the fire authority area as a percentage of the total population of working age in that area.

For the purposes of calculating this percentage, all employees of the authority who work in schools shall be included.