The

Planning Quality FrameworkLeadership essentials Oct 2014

www.qualityframework.net www.pas.gov.uk

Steve Barker

PAS

Today – Planning Quality Framework

Me

• Why do we need it?

• What is it? How does it work?

• What does it do?

You

• Is it useful?

• 2 exercises to help us develop it

• Q&A as we go

Quality?

“top quartile” performer(this is not uncommon)

or is quality…

Leading to:

Time for a change?

why we need a quality framework

the focus will always be on speed until

there is something better to care about

wasted time/effort

validation

conditions

big stuff / small stuff

routine / unusual

how much of what?

permitted development

do customers like us?neighbours feel ignored?

good ideas did we/do we add value?

evidence / guesses

did that work?

focused improvement

measures not targets

VFM

end-to-end

leadership…

… does not manage the status quo;

it challenges it

• planning - passive, reactive to change?

• time to create the change agenda?

• ‘designation’ = ‘how can we get quicker?’

• better questions: how do we measure and

deliver value and quality? and ‘how do we

resource in an unpredictable world’?

councillors: better value from data

• Previous PAS work – officer focused

• Councillors: not just about access to data

• elected members need access to

performance data they can use

demonstrate the value of your work

• performance management

• customer care, customer satisfaction

• pre-app and post app reviews

• annual monitoring reports, design guides

“There’s nothing new under the sun”Ecclesiates 1;9

demonstrate the value of your work

• performance management

• reporting system data (e.g. PS1/2 returns)

• customer care, customer satisfaction

• pre-app and post app reviews, AMR

“There’s nothing new under the sun”Ecclesiates 1;9

PQF: re-frames and enhances what you

already do and applies some standards so

that you can report and compare.

what is the

planning quality framework?

in a nutshell

A collection of tools and

techniques…that use data…to make

reports…that help councils

understand DM service

performance…and/or benchmark

against others.

no single measure of quality

The work Agents

Neighbours

Applicants

Reviewer(s)

Organisational - (ICT, teams, headcounts etc.) C’llrs

Amenity Groups

Staff

Outcomes

Resources “Value”

Process What if ?

Quantitative Qualitative

Design ?build outcomes Q&A TipsPractice

Overview

The work Agents

Neighbours

Applicants

Reviewer(s)

C’llrsAmenity Groups

Staff

TipsQ&A ?

Outcomes

Resources

“Value”

Process What if ?

Qualitative

Opinions

Design, build, outcomesPractice helpful tools

Organisational - (ICT, teams, headcounts etc.)

Quantitative

Facts

quantitative: applications data

The work Outcomes

Resources “Value”

Process What if ?

data standards

qualitative: 8 customer Surveys

Agents

Neighbours

Applicants

Officer

C’llrsStaff Amenity Groups

Organisational - (ICT, teams, headcounts etc.)

practice

Design Pre/post appnegotiation outcomes

• NPPF integrated into policy

• Appeals / refusals based on design

• Focus on design at PreApp

• Design guides / panels

• BREEAM

• Building for Life

• In house design expertise

• Councillor reviews of development

Design Pre/post appnegotiation outcomes

It’s a framework

The work Agents

Neighbours

Applicants

Reviewer(s)

How are you organised ?(ICT, teams, headcounts etc.)

C’llrsAmenity Groups

Staff

Outcomes

Resources “Value”

Process What if ?Quality

1. Quantitative

Quarterly reports: the ‘rounded’ picture:

Q: how many expensive process reviews

focus on speeding things up but fail to notice

that the service says ‘yes’ more often than its

peers, creates less waste and has happier

customers?

…less of this35 pages of histograms ?????!

more of this…Structured ‘story’

Part 1 – The work

Part 2 – The outcomes

Part 3 – Value/non-value

Part 4 – Resources

Part 5 - Process

Part 6 - Surveys

Council Planning Quality Report

Online

Trends over time Database – DIY reports

PART 1 - THE WORK

1a. development categories

Big stuff

PART 1 - THE WORK

1b. Application Counts/ Fee Comparator

Purpose: To understand your work and fee income and

compare with your peers..

For review:

• Are you very different from

your peers?

• Are peers seeing more of a

particular type of development?

• Something to learn?

• Do the applications / fees mix

represent any risk?

• Are you managing this risk

appropriately ?

work profile fee profile

PART 2 - OUTCOMES

2a. Approval Rates

Purpose: What types of development are we saying 'yes' to and

how often?

For review:

• Granting more permissions?

• Messages for stakeholders?

• Is the %age of permissions always

a positive?

• Do your approval rates differ

significantly from your peers?

• What might be happening

elsewhere that you can learn from?

2a. Approval Rates

PART 3 – VALUE/NON VALUE

3a. Withdrawn applications

Purpose: Rate of withdrawal. A 'waste' indicator. Where

possible they should be reduced to near zero.

For review:

• What is the overall trend ?

• Are you doing anything - is it

working?

• What’s the cost? Fees don’t

cover costs. Then the 'free go‘?

• How many occur at the request

of the council?

• What do your developer

community think ?

3b. Follow-up applications

Purpose: Permission to start? 'follow-ups‘ – series’ of apps for

same development. Often the market (EoTs, some NMA),

sometimes required by us (vary/remove conditions).

For review:

• These don’t cover the costs

• Is there anything to be done?

• Complex Vs simple

• What do developers think?

• Is there a positive/negative

story here?

3b. Follow-up applications

3d. Non-heritage applications zero fee

PART 4 – RESOURCES

4b. Headcount estimate

Purpose: how well matched are resources (FTEs) to the

volumes of work?

For review:

• How does the FTE

estimate compare to

reality?

• Caseloads?

• Does the trend

correspond with volumes?

• Are there opportunities to

re-focus resources?

4c. Development investment

Purpose: What is the investment value that development

proposals represent? For review:

• significant inward

investment £sum Vs cost

of planning

• What do the trends

(rising/falling) mean for

your place?

• Significance between this

and fee income (e.g.

future resources

available)?

• FTE estimate (e.g. can

you handle a growing

upward trend, or re-focus

resources for a downward

trend)?

PART 5 – PROCESS

5a. Valid on day 1

Purpose: Shows the proportion of applications received

that can be worked on straight away.

For review:

• This is avoidable time and

cost

• Causes. Don't assume are

the sole fault of the

applicant/agent.

• Are your procedures,

processes, consistency

and guidance as good as

it could be?

• What are your customers

saying?

• Are some application more

vulnerable than others?

Why do we use boxplots?

• Shows variation in a set of data –

something an ‘average’ doesn’t.

• e.g. average decision 48 days. Hides

fact that most are issued between

35 and 54 days.

Knowing this you can:

• be clearer to customers

• improve the process – what is

stopping us making 35 days?

Quick guide to box plots

Average

Improvement

opportunity

5c. end-to-end decision times

Purpose: Shows the number of days between applications

being received and a decision notice being issued.

avoid this

WHAT IF…?

• compare me to my peers (you’d expect that)

• compare me to “best of breed” (interesting)

• make me look like the best (very interesting)

Exercise 1

Task:

Design a ‘dashboard’ of key planning

measures for councillors

Hints/tips:

• No more than 5 or 6

• What do you need at your finger tips?

• Who’s your audience(s)?

Part 2 - customer surveys

Agents

Neighbours

Applicants

Officer

C’llrsStaff Amenity Groups

Organisational - (ICT, teams, headcounts etc.)

‘customers’ part 1(regular, application - specific)

• applicants (members of the public that

have made a planning application)

• agents (a professional person or company

making a planning application)

• neighbours (a person/organisation that

has commented on an application)

• officer case review (for the council to

assess how well it did)

• web-based, by email

• Each council gets it’s on toolkit

• surveys have common themes:

– how helpful?

– manage time well?

– use information well?

– clarity of decision?

How

survey results

-2

-1.5

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

Helpful

Use of time

Use of information

Clarity of decision

Applicant

Neighbour

Review

Application Ref: HA/FUL/4456/14

Customers – part 2

annual surveys(planning more generally)

• councillors (what’s the community view, avoid the political)

• amenity groups (representative views from organised communities)

• staff (are we helping them to do a good job?)

• Head of service – how the service is set up

Beyond “things are different” to “this appears to be why things are different”

Exercise 2

Task:

Design a ‘councillor survey’

Hints/tips:

• Ward councillors - communities

• 4/ 5 questions

• Avoid politics

• What can councillors tell those running

the service that others can’t?

3. Practice

assessment Notes

a) Quality of planning Did we mediate well ?

b) Quality of

development

Has the development

met its objectives?

quality (of planning)

How do we collect data on quality of planning?

• Policy

• Pre Application work

• Design Guides

• Building for Life

• BREEAM

• not much point in comparison

quality (of development)

How do we collect data on quality of

development?

• short term: go on site visits (with committee)

• longer term goal: link planning data with

completions data. Understand what actually

gets built and outcomes.

Bringing it all together

Annual Report

• The annual report process is a catalyst to bring

everything together and publish it

• We can help collect & collate, but it’s your

report. Your commentary. Your conclusions

about whether you are delivering “quality”

• We want it to become a “badge”. Over time.

• Combine data into a holistic framework.

PQF: better for management

• multi-layered views

• database is yours – climb inside the numbers

• focus on the important; no more expensive ‘blanket’ improvement projects

• improve, defend, protect

• evidence-based change

• culture shift: customer focused service alongsidetimely decision making

• members?

what’s the commitment ?

• No £cost

• 4 days a year of your time

You get:

• quarterly, annual reports

• free customer survey system, free tools

• new focus for cost and vfm, investment and

resources

sign up

• To sign up: email admin@qualityframework.net

• name of main contact and a sub

• a JPEG file of your council’s logo on a white background

• the email address that you’d like the surveys to be emailed from (this might be a person or a generic email e.g. planning@council.gov.uk)

• Portfolio holder (optional)

thank you – QUESTIONS?

email martin.hutchings@local.gov.uk

web www.pas.gov.uk

phone 020 7664 3000

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