So how IS Government and Council Tax money spent to improve YOUR life

How well is YOUR Council delivering the services that matter to YOU?

Each year the Council receives £ 1.2 billion from the Government and from Council Tax payers to provide services on your behalf.

To keep improving services and giving you good value for money, we measure our performance frequently using national indicators. This means that we can see how we are doing compared to other councils.

We also set ourselves targets against local indicators that are of particular importance in Edinburgh.

This article looks back over the year 2005/6 to see how we did.

Clark family:
We want to live in a pleasant neighbourhood

To improve how we provide the services you need in your area we have set up Services for Communities. Neighbourhood teams will organise and deliver a greater range of services locally. This will include how we:

• collect your rubbish
• provide street lighting
• tackle antisocial behaviour
• repair roads and pavements
• manage and improve housing
• keep your neighbourhood clean
• make local parks great places for everyone to enjoy.

Martin (15) school pupil:
I want to save the world’s resources

Recycling waste (household, commercial and industrial) is one of our big success stories. We have:

• increased recycling from less than 8 per cent in 2002/3 to 27 per cent in April – June, the equivalent of 56,500 tonnes
• introduced kerbside collection for cans, glasses, textiles, paper and cardboard to 120,000 households
• provided 450 communal recycling containers to tenements
• made a garden waste collection service available to 94,000 households.

Sheila (43) Shop Owner:
I want clean streets

• for the second year in a row Edinburgh has reached the finals of the Clean Britain Awards run by the British Cleaning Council. Edinburgh is the only Scottish city to reach the top ten in its category and has the opportunity to win the Cleanest City title plus the reputation of ‘Cleanest Place in Britain’
• the city also achieved its best ever rating in a recent quarterly survey of the cleanliness of streets carried out by Keep Scotland Beautiful
• more money has been allocated this year to increase the size of the taskforce that keeps streets clean and free of litter as well as extra teams to treat and remove graffiti. We also have dedicated teams to clean cycle routes and maintain play areas
• our anti-litter campaign, Keep Edinburgh Clean, picked up the top prize in the People and Places Programme of the Year category at the first Keep Scotland Beautiful conference.

Karen (30), mum of Sara (7) and Paul (2):
We want to be healthy

We introduced:

• Snack Attack – five million pieces of fruit munched by 50,000 school children in the past seven years. Every day two free pieces of fruit are given to children entitled to free school meals. All other pupils can buy fruit at a subsidised price of 10p per piece
• FOOD4LIFE safe and healthy eating project sponsored by the Food Standards Agency – two other local authorities now use our model.

Kenny (28) Accountant:
I want a council that uses my money wisely

Edinburgh has:

• the lowest tax of any of the Scottish cities
• increased Council Tax collection in 2005/6 by £2.5m and saved £3m through debt management
• the second lowest tax increases of any Scottish Council over the last ten years
• saved more than £400,000 through a ground-breaking e-auction for agency staff in health and social care – the first in the UK.

Jim (66), retired postman and pedestrian:
I want to walk the streets safely

To help you feel safer we have:

• set up the UK’s first Antisocial Behaviour Division
• funded 36 Police officers within six Safer Communities Units – the first initiative of its kind in Scotland
• partly funded a further 36 Police officers within six Youth Action Teams to tackle youth-related antisocial behaviour.

Liz (37) mum of three and foster carer:
I need better front-line services

We have:

• funded 20 extra social workers in Children and Families and increased senior posts from six to 25 to attract and retain experienced staff
• taken the lead in the provision of direct payments to vulnerable people (providing almost one fifth of the total amount paid in Scotland). The Scottish Executive noted that “Edinburgh added the greatest value overall, at almost £2.5m”
• reduced the percentage of people waiting to leave hospital from 16 per cent (2004) of Scotland’s total to 8 per cent (2006)
• the Council and NHS Lothian exceeded the Scottish Executive’s target of a 20 per cent annual reduction in delayed discharges by April 2006.

Arun (4) at playgroup:
I want somewhere fun and clean to play

We are reversing a 30-year national decline in spending for parks and gardens through an immediate cash injection of £5.6 million over the next three years. This is the greatest investment in the city’s public parks and gardens for more than 40 years. We have also:

• invested £2.9m in play areas
• planted more than 100 hectares of community woodlands
• protected city parks from future development.

Pete (39) Builder:
Good transport links are vital to my work

A recent survey by the Society of Chief Officers for Transportation in Scotland ranked Edinburgh 29th in Scotland for the condition of its roads. So, we have:

• invested £28.4m in 2005/6 in repairs and maintenance
• reduced the number of roads graded as in need of maintenance from 62.3 per cent (2003/4) to 50.24 per cent (2005/6)
• increased the number of people satisfied with their roads and pavements from 37 per cent to 42 per cent in just six months.

Simon (70) wheel chair user:
I want a council that is fair

Treating people fairly and challenging prejudice, discrimination and harassment is a key objective of the Council.

To meet this objective:

• an investment of £4.2m ensures all our major public buildings have fully accessible reception areas and 73 per cent of 250 other Council buildings are Disability Discrimination Act compliant
• racist graffiti will be removed within two days of someone reporting it
• the Council’s burial service can now accommodate any of the major world cultures and faiths. Recent surveys show high satisfaction rates amongst black and minority ethnic groups with these services lwe were the first local authority in Scotland to produce a joint strategy and action plan known as A City of All Ages. The implementation of this plan has received national and international recognition particularly for its involvement of older people throughout the planning process.

Marie (51) council house tenant:
I want a good housing service and the rent to be collected fairly

• Housing Management Services was recently awarded a Government Charter Mark, that recognises organisations that put customers first and who are committed to service improvements
• the percentage of rent arrears has reduced from 13.1 per cent in 2002/03 to 9.3 per cent in 2005/06, meaning more services for tenants can be funded.

Harry (75) Retired:
I want a council that is not bureaucratic

The City of Edinburgh Council has:

• 24 per cent fewer staff per 1,000 population than other Scottish councils
• 20 per cent fewer central support staff.

Ali (42) Businessman:
The council must not waste my time

We have made a:

• 60 per cent improvement in 2006 (a year-on-year improvement from 2004/5) in the time taken to process claims for housing and Council Tax benefits
• 2005/6 showed a further improvement to the speed of processing planning applications over 2004/5
• 1996-2004 showed a 22 per cent increase in the speed of processing planning applications (a year on year improvement from 2004/5) despite a growth in the number of applications within two months despite a 58 per cent growth in the number of applications over the same period.

Full details of how we have performed against government indicators can be found in our Annual Performance Report 2006, available in late October. For a copy, please visit: www.edinburgh.gov.uk/performance
e-mail: performance@edinburgh.gov.uk or call 0131 469 3839.