The Planning Inspectorate- Wales

The Planning Inspectorate Annual Report and Accounts 2005/06

Section 8 - Quality, Innovation and Efficiency

Quality and customer response

High Court challenges

While the number of high Court challenges was higher in 2005/06 than the previous year, the long-term propensity to challenge appeal decisions is downwards. The propensity fell for the fifth consecutive year and the rate is now less than one challenge for every 250 decisions. The number of enforcement appeals challenged did increase by almost a quarter but is still at a relatively low level. Overall, almost 2/3rd of all challenges were successfully defended in 2005/06.

Quality target

Apos Leaflet produced by PINS Ministers set us the target of satisfying the Advisory Panel on Standards (APOS) that the quality of our work is maintained at a high standard, with 99% of our casework free from justified complaint or successful legal challenge. The Panel, chaired by Corinne Swain OBE, provides Ministers with a yearly report on professional standards in the Inspectorate. Responsibility for the secretariat to APOS is expected to transfer from DCLG to the Inspectorate later this year.

Subject to APOS endorsement, we achieved the quality target for 2005/06. Of well over 26,000 decisions issued, only 213 attracted a justified complaint and a further 30 were successfully challenged in the High Court. The provisional quality outturn of 99.2% is consistent with that recorded every year since 2002/03, despite a continued increase in caseloads and complaints during this period.

Relationships with customers and stakeholders.

Steakholders meeting Over the past twelve months, a programme of meetings has taken place with our stakeholders to enable them to gain a greater understanding of how we are addressing mutual issues of interest and to encourage an exchange of views. The groups of stakeholders with whom we have interacted are wide and have included the development community, special interest groups, regional representatives and public, professional and legal bodies.

Each meeting has considered a practically based agenda, tailored to issues of particular concern to individual organisations. A dialogue has been generated designed to increase mutual understanding and identify areas for improvement. Discussions have focused on topics such as housing need, the new development plan system, late statements and rights of way casework. To underline the importance we place on the views of all our stakeholders the meetings have been chaired by the Chief Executive or the Head of Profession.

Customer survey

The results of our latest, 2005/06 customer survey confirmed that overall satisfaction levels with our performance continue at a high level and have grown slightly since last year. Among local planning authorities, in particular, satisfaction levels increased by 10% between 2004 and 2005. Across all customer groups (agents, appellants, local planning authorities and interested parties), the main reason for the increase in satisfaction has been our better performance in meeting our timeliness targets for the determination of appeals.

The survey’s findings were drawn from a postal and telephone survey of 4,000 customers based on a representative sample selected from our appeal records. The survey was carried out by independent consultants. It covered all the main casework types dealt with by the Inspectorate, at all stages from initial contact via letter, phone or e-mail to the issue of the Inspector’s decision, as well as the handling of post-decision correspondence. Qualitative research included in-depth interviews and focus groups, which proved invaluable both in designing the postal survey and in gaining further insights into customer opinion.

Customer Support meetings The survey has proved itself to be an invaluable tool both in helping us to track opinion and in developing our services in line with customer expectations. It is particularly satisfying to see that so many of our contacts value the Inspectorate so highly, as highlighted by the following extracts from the 2005/06 survey report:

Over 80% of respondents were satisfied with the courtesy of staff and 79% satisfied with the helpfulness of staff.’
Local authority officers, agents and interested parties thought Inspectorate staff were very efficient’.
The Inspector’s performance was rated highly, with over 80% of respondents agreeing with all the aspects mentioned’.

As part of the follow up to the survey, we have now established a customer panel of some 1,000 members, drawn from survey respondents. The purpose of the panel is both to trial and seek comments on proposed new or revised publicity material or procedures, or to take part in focus groups on more general issues. A panel website has been established to facilitate this work.

Copy of the homepage of the newsletter To better inform our stakeholders and customers on topical issues and developments in England and Wales relevant to our work, the Inspectorate launched a quarterly electronic newsletter in January 2006. The newsletter is sent to more than 570 e-mail addresses and is also published on our website. Items relevant to Wales can be read in both English and Welsh. Recent articles have included information about our role in the new LDF system and the outcome of stakeholder meetings.

Innovation, productivity and efficiency savings

Faced with the prospect of rising appeal numbers, other work demands and tight budgets, we are concentrating on a programme of innovation designed to make the best use of our scarce resources whilst providing a quality service for our customers. Much of that effort concentrates on actively seeking to increase productivity in ways that are sustainable. 2006/07 will see the third year of our innovative pay agreement with the Treasury which links rewards to productivity increases and it remains our overriding objective to continue to achieve the 9% per annum productivity gains to which that agreement commits us.

This process is supported by a Productivity Board chaired by one of our Non-Executive Directors, Jonathan Vickers. Membership includes managers from key business areas and the Trades Unions.The widely representative Board therefore plays an important role as a generator and test bed for productivity innovations as well as providing an audit to assure our productivity returns to the Treasury on the pay and productivity deal.

Smarter working

The innovations we are introducing to the manner in which we conduct much of our casework form part of a large programme of substantial changes to working patterns which we have entitled ‘smarter working’. The programme includes improvements both to our internal processing of casework and to the manner in which we relate to our customers, whether they are local planning authorities, appellants or others.

Meeting for the LPAs To help appellants and local planning authorities choose the most appropriate method for determining a planning appeal, last year we produced new indicative criteria showing whether an appeal was likely to be better determined by written representations, hearing or inquiry. Where an appellant requests a hearing we review the case in accordance with the criteria. If the appeal appears to us to be suitable for written representations, we write to the appellant to say that, unless they respond to the contrary, the appeal will proceed by that method.This has had the effect of transferring about 550 potential hearings to written representations thereby releasing significant Inspector resources to deal with other priorities.

Last year, we set up a pilot scheme to improve efficiency and productivity in the deployment of Inspectors.The purpose was to bring together short hearings to allow an Inspector to work in a single local planning authority area for a week. 10 areas were involved and 20 Inspectors took part, some conducting a single week’s programme, others more. The conclusions from the pilot have been promising and we intend to roll out the initiative more generally in 2006/07.

A key area for innovation is the management of planning inquiry casework.We currently conduct some 1,200 inquiries per year. Inquiry casework is often high profile, demanding and costly for all parties involved. It requires careful project management if it is to be conducted effectively and efficiently. One of our major priorities in 2006/07 will be to work with stakeholders to improve the manner in which we arrange and manage inquiries.

A major element in the smarter working programme is to improve the efficiency with which we prepare the programmes of work which Inspectors undertake. During 2005/06, we developed substantially revised matrices which should ensure that the allocation of cases is better aligned with Inspector’s competences and specialisms. We also experimented with new patterns of charting designed to minimise Inspector travelling and to maximise the productivity of our key resource – Inspectors. The structure and roles of the chartroom administration team were reviewed at the end of 2005/06 to ensure that they could better meet changing business priorities. Further improvements in the charting process will be critical to achieving productivity gains in 2006/07.

We expect the roll out of these areas of innovation to be complemented by a new Inspector competence framework designed to provide a more explicit link between Inspector productivity, pay and competence development.

A baselining study of the manner in which Inspectors work was carried out for us by consultants in the spring of 2006 and we expect to use this as the foundation for a number of smallscale changes in working practices, which cumulatively should have a significant impact on productivity.

In addition to the changes in the way in which Inspectors work, we are introducing a range of improvements both to the administrative processing of our casework and to the range of support services which are essential to the efficient working of the Inspectorate.

Planning Casework Service

A major achievement of 2005/06 was our rolling out of the main features of the planning Casework Service (PCS) for planning appeals in England. PCS had been live since July 2004 for access restriction appeals, and since November 2004 for enforcement appeals. However, the extension to planning appeals in December 2005 meant that by the end of 2005/06, the vast majority of our new cases were being electronically managed and monitored through the new system.

Picture of a Case Officer working 2006/07 will see a programme of enhancements to PCS, both in respect of the customer facing service it offers and our internal systems. The service will be extended during 2006/07 to cover all other major case types as well as to casework in Wales. A facility for use by Inspectors will also be introduced. We have already seen PCS produce a major impact on our communications with local planning authorities and others. 30% of local authorities have so far agreed to work electronically with the Inspectorate and they are already submitting over 25% of their questionnaires online. Over 5% of appeals are now being made online.

Infrastructure developments

Picture of Network Cables The development of PCS has required us to look at the infrastructure which supports these new ways of working, and especially the scale, efficiency and robustness of those information systems, on which we are now so reliant. 2005/06 therefore saw important steps forward in these areas.

Infrastructure upgrade

We recently completed an upgrade of our information technology network. We introduced a Storage Area Network and replaced and upgraded servers, communications devices and critical software. Bringing our systems up to date has delivered performance benefits, increased resilience and has provided the extra capacity necessary to support anticipated growth in demand for our core strategic systems, such as PCS. It will also enable us to meet our customers’ growing demand for electronic service delivery.

Inspector home links upgrade

Electronic links to Inspectors’ homes are a particular priority and, during 2005/06, we rolled out a new high capacity, secure network, based on ADSL broadband technology, to link our home based Inspectors. The network will provide a scaleable, managed infrastructure over which new services, such as PCS, and new ways of working can be delivered. Over 98% of salaried Inspectors are connected and with ADSL coverage growing it is anticipated the network will shortly service all Inspectors.We are also looking to use the same developments as the basis to allow Inspectors to work electronically when away from home; for example when conducting inquiries.

Information security

During 2005/06, we made further progress towards formal accreditation of our information security procedures to the ISO 27001 standard (the updated successor to BS7799). We have aligned our operations to follow the good practice approach which the standard promotes and will be seeking formal accreditation during 2006/07.

Accommodation

We run our operations in England from Temple Quay House, Bristol, a purpose built building which we took over in April 2001. As the major occupier, the Inspectorate manages an Environmental Management System (EMS) for all of Temple Quay House, which we share with other Government Departments and agencies. The EMS is externally accredited and audited to the international standard ISO 14001 and is designed both to minimise the building’s negative environmental impacts and to support the Government’s sustainable development agenda.

Achievements to date include:

100% of our electricity is produced from sustainable sources which has facilitated a significant reduction in the building’s CO2 emissions; and
75% of the waste that we
produce is re-cycled.

Picture of a bus We remain conscious of our environmental responsibilities in other areas and we encourage the use of car sharing by charging staff for car parking spaces.The monies received from this are used to subsidise public transport season tickets.