SERVICE AREA,INDICATOR,MEASURE DESCRIPTION,Ballarat City,SIMILAR COUNCILS,ALL COUNCILS,TREND,COUNCIL SAYS
"Animal Management","Timeliness","Time taken to action animal management requests",3.94878048780488 days,1.893615 days,1.713146 days,-3860.00%,"The increasing trend for 2018 financial year & 2019 financial year was mainly due to operator error and the requests not being actioned in pathway when completed. This is was reviewed and setup better with additional indicators so we can report with more accuracy in the 2020 financial year, hence the decrease in this indicator. In addition, the Ballarat City Council has had to deal with a few complex matters surrounding dog attacks and staff shortages which has delayed response times in the 2018 and 2019 Financial years."
"Animal Management","Service standard","Animals reclaimed from council",37.33%,41.16%,47.26%,-2022.00%,"Ballarat City Council has seen a decrease in collected and reclaimed animals in the 2020 financial year. However, it's now at levels similar to the 2017 and 2018 financial years. The animal shelter has been running at limited capacity during COVID-19 causing some delays in animals being reclaimed. More cats than dogs have been collected during this time, with cats less likely to be reclaimed than dogs."
"Animal Management","Service standard","Animals rehomed",46.93%,45.93%,31.96%,,"This is the first year this indicator has been used, interestingly the Ballarat City Council has either reclaimed or rehomed 84% of the animals that were collected this financial year. "
"Animal Management","Service cost","Cost of animal management service per population",$18.9191291721839,$14.717059,$12.535750,,"Ballarat City Council had a cost decrease due to COVID-19 restricting rangers and animal shelter operating hours. Some of these staff were redeployed to other areas or stood down during this time."
"Animal Management","Health and Safety","Successful animal management prosecutions",100.00%,50.00%,63.75%,,
"Aquatic Facilities","Service standard","Health inspections of aquatic facilities",1.28571428571429,1.994841,1.524432,-4375.00%,"Ballarat City Council had a focus on pools in the 2016 financial year, including education and improved operator processes in conjunction with our recreation team. This resulted in the early identification and rectification of issues before the following seasonal pool opening. This resulted in significantly improved compliance rates and reduced follow-up inspections over following years. There was also aquatic facility equipment investment which reduced equipment failure issues. In addition, the impact of COVID-19 resulted in no testing later in the year, with outdoor pools shutting down slightly earlier then anticipated and indoor pools being shut for over three months."
"Aquatic Facilities","Utilisation","Number of visits to aquatic facilities per head of municipal population",4.41596274142733 visits,5.814637 visits,3.977699 visits,-2714.00%,"Ballarat City Council had seen an increase of 20,000 visits to indoor pools for the financial year up to and including February 2020 compared to last February. However, the outdoor pools have seen a decrease for the same time of 20,000 visits.  The impact of COVID-19 has resulted in cancelled school swimming carnivals, restricted time limits and facility closures."
"Aquatic Facilities","Service cost","Cost of aquatic facilities per visit",$4.33154070765349,$4.556345,$8.367016,,"Ballarat City Council aquatic facilities were impacted by COVID-19 over the last quarter of the 2020 financial year due to reduced income from closures. A small portion was offset by employee cost reductions as staff were redeployed to other services such as Meals on Wheels and Corporate Services."
"Food Safety","Timeliness","Time taken to action food complaints",3.20618556701031 days,2.303271 days,1.612097 days,3626.00%,"Ballarat City Council had a decrease in complaint numbers in the 2019 calendar year. However staff shortages led to a slightly longer increase in responding to some of these complaints."
"Food Safety","Service standard","Percentage of required food safety assessments undertaken",101.86%,86.54%,95.00%,-117.00%,
"Food Safety","Service cost","Cost of food safety service per premises",$497.501845238095,$474.564862,$502.095791,726.00%,
"Food Safety","Health and Safety","Percentage of critical and major non-compliance outcome notifications followed up by council",94.25%,86.97%,91.91%,-238.00%,"Separate follow-up inspections are not always practical, with event or market non-compliances accounting for the majority of major non-compliances without a separate follow-up inspection. These are commonly followed up with education and/or immediate corrective action. The food business operator is also recorded as non-compliant with their registering authority to aid further monitoring through the StreaTrader system.  Some variances may be due to some businesses closing before outstanding non-compliances are corrected. "
"Governance","Transparency","Council decisions made at meetings closed to the public",16.62%,12.98%,9.84%,-2594.00%,"Since mid-2016 financial year, an increase in Council resolutions made at meetings closed to the public is due to more contracts requiring approval by Council. At the start of 2019 a contracts committee was put in place so less contracts needed to go to council. In November 2018, the meeting procedures changed to allow Councillors to pass multiple reports in one ""block"" therefore only using one resolution, leading to an increase in this indicator. Ballarat City Council has had less resolutions made in camera in the 2020 financial year (59) compared to the prior years (2019 financial year - 68 and 2018 financial year - 76)."
"Governance","Consultation and Engagement","Community satisfaction with community consultation and engagement",63 /100,53.000000 /100,56.310127 /100,606.00%,
"Governance","Attendance","Councillor attendance at council meetings",95.24%,93.23%,92.01%,373.00%,
"Governance","Service cost","Cost of elected representation",$47305.3544444444,$43971.143208,$49089.267619,137.00%,
"Governance","Satisfaction","Community satisfaction with council decisions",61.1 /100,51.310000 /100,55.135443 /100,969.00%,"The conducted survey has noted a significant improvement in Council decisions from 2019 to 2020"
"Libraries","Utilisation","Physical library collection usage",4.0000892450759 items,3.263746 items,3.563301 items,-2745.00%,"Due to COVID-19, Ballarat City Council libraries were closed to the public from March to May and returned in limited capacity in June. There was an increased demand for borrowings before shutdown."
"Libraries","Resource currency","Proportion of library resources less than 5 years old",65.97%,61.37%,65.34%,288.00%,"Ballarat Central Library has 18,000+ items in its local history collection. Its significant size and age distort the percentage proportion of items purchased in the past five years. Collection management practices are leading to an ongoing improvement in the resource standard."
"Libraries","Participation","Active library borrowers in municipality",12.19%,12.22%,14.88%,-435.00%,"Due to COVID-19, Ballarat City Council libraries were closed to the public from March to May and returned in limited capacity in June. There was an increased demand for borrowings before shutdown and continued e-book services throughout the shutdown, resulting in a small decrease in active library borrowers in this financial year."
"Libraries","Service cost","Cost of library service per population",$30.9614770101822,$26.961312,$32.095855,,
"Maternal and Child Health","Service standard","Infant enrolments in the MCH service",102.80%,101.21%,100.81%,-65.00%,
"Maternal and Child Health","Service cost","Cost of the MCH service",$65.3503632842545,$70.923421,$81.814586,-2206.00%,"Ballarat City Council had a significant increase in EFT in the 2020 financial year due to more funding being received for the MCH program. The effects of COVID-19 had limited impact with a transition to telehealth and alternative service modes. Some new funded initiatives were put on hold due to the  COVID-19."
"Maternal and Child Health","Participation","Participation in the MCH service",71.63%,76.98%,78.05%,-117.00%,
"Maternal and Child Health","Participation","Participation in the MCH service by Aboriginal children",71.56%,79.32%,82.00%,1092.00%,"The lower percentage in Aboriginal children participation in the funded MCH service is due to the local Aboriginal co-operative running a similar service. Client can access both services or choose either one of these services. We have a lower intake of indigenous newborns to the MCH program due to some families choosing the Aboriginal co-operative child health program. Ballarat City Council has seen an increase in participation over the last four years due to a focus on indigenous partnership work, cultural safety of facilities and health service provisions, professional development with nurse teams, support from Council's Aboriginal Liaison Officer and MCH representation within indigenous networks."
"Maternal and Child Health","Satisfaction","Participation in 4-week Key Age and Stage visit",96.57%,97.47%,97.03%,,
"Roads","Satisfaction","Sealed local road requests per 100km of sealed local roads",56.6633261840762 requests,37.343967 requests,53.925778 requests,4174.00%,"The Ballarat City Council has experienced a significant increase in requests during the COVID months. Majority of these requests are coming from property owners living in the area as people are spending more time in there own areas due to COVID."
"Roads","Condition","Sealed local roads maintained to condition standards",99.78%,96.40%,96.43%,0.00%,
"Roads","Service cost","Cost of sealed local road reconstruction per square metre",$135.948225900116,$105.426518,$97.162232,-1925.00%,"Reduction in sealed local road reconstruction is attributed to increased competition among contractors as we are still delivering the same amount of work."
"Roads","Service cost","Cost of sealed local road resealing per square metre",$5.13,$7.598740,$13.451249,-2015.00%,"Reduction in sealed local road resealing is attributed to the increased competition among contractors as we are still delivering the same amount of work."
"Roads","Satisfaction","Community satisfaction with sealed local roads",55.3 /100,55.630000 /100,56.212658 /100,-579.00%,
"Statutory Planning","Timeliness","Time taken to decide planning applications",69 days,52.050000 days,65.411392 days,147.00%,"Complexity of applications and staff shortages continued a trend of longer waiting times through the first half of the period. However, a return to full staff and processing efficiencies established during the last quarter of the period saw processing times return to 2017-2018 figures. "
"Statutory Planning","Service standard","Planning applications decided within required time frames",65.48%,80.16%,73.97%,156.00%,"Complexity of applications and staff shortages continued a trend of longer waiting times through the first half of the period. However, a return to full staff and processing efficiencies established during the last quarter of the period saw processing times return to 2017-2018 figures. "
"Statutory Planning","Service cost","Cost of statutory planning service per planning application",$1935.48370680628,$2586.968021,$2645.653862,-811.00%,"Contractors and VCAT legal representation costs caused higher costs in the second half of this period. A full complement of statutory planning services and productive outcomes has resulted in lower costs than the previous financial year."
"Statutory Planning","Decision making","Council planning decisions upheld at VCAT",75.00%,51.32%,50.61%,500.00%,"In the 2020 financial year, there were three applications overturned by VCAT, two in 2019FY, four in 2018FY and zero in 2017FY. This shows a small change in numbers can have a large effect on this indicator."
"Waste Collection","Satisfaction","Kerbside bin collection requests per 1,000 households",201.291481354772 requests,152.303275 requests,119.914717 requests,436.00%,
"Waste Collection","Service standard","Kerbside collection bins missed per 10,000 households",11.3974656180998 bins,5.770987 bins,5.032448 bins,1207.00%,
"Waste Collection","Service cost","Cost of kerbside garbage bin collection service per bin",$118.567121993237,$99.897227,$112.028338,646.00%,
"Waste Collection","Service cost","Cost of kerbside recyclables collection service per bin",$41.0208828345988,$53.812537,$65.171527,-1735.00%,"Due to recycling issues impacting all councils from the 2019 financial year, Ballarat City Council has seen an increase in recycling costs due to new processes implemented to ensure recyclables don't end up in landfill, including the Pass on Glass campaign which separates glass from both landfill and recycling collections. "
"Waste Collection","Waste diversion","Kerbside collection waste diverted from landfill",43.07%,48.81%,44.13%,-1146.00%,"Due to recycling changes in the 2020 financial year, Ballarat City Council has seen a drop in recyclables as glass is no longer part of kerbside collection recyclables. "
"Financial Performance","Expenditure level","Expenses per property assessment",$3254.8,$3766.029189,$3402.808277,53.00%,
"Financial Performance","Revenue level","Average rate per property assessment",$1877.32727272727,$1904.349609,$1774.715687,,
"Financial Performance","Working capital","Current assets as a percentage of current liabilities",262.21%,224.06%,291.35%,-922.00%,"The change in this indicator for the 2020 financial year is due to an increase of cash and cash equivalents in the current assets and the new treatment of the accounting standards for unearned income and lease liabilities in the current liabilities section. The forecast trend does not take into account the levels of cash and cash equivalents that might be received prior to the end of the financial year such as receiving Grants Commission funding for the following financial year"
"Financial Performance","Unrestricted cash","Unrestricted cash as a percentage of current liabilities",-68.39%,84.40%,88.99%,-5430.00%,"Ballarat City Council can't include cash held in term deposits that are invested for longer than 90 days in the cash and cash equivalent section as per the financial statement's definition. The forecast trends do not take into account what time period the investments will be held for."
"Financial Performance","Loans and borrowings","Loans and borrowings as a percentage of rates",36.96%,29.14%,15.03%,893.00%,
"Financial Performance","Loans and borrowings","Loans and borrowings repayments as a percentage of rates",4.93%,4.87%,4.73%,-522.00%,
"Financial Performance","Indebtedness","Non-current liabilities as a percentage of own source revenue",34.30%,38.18%,21.38%,1393.00%,"Ballarat City Council had an increase in interest bearing loans and borrowings this financial year which has increased the non-current liabilities. The treatment of the new lease accounting standards has increased the non-current liabilities as well compared to prior years."
"Financial Performance","Asset renewal and upgrade","Asset renewal and asset upgrade as a percentage of depreciation",78.40%,100.59%,115.25%,,
"Financial Performance","Adjusted underlying result","Adjusted underlying surplus (or deficit) as a percentage of underlying revenue",2.74%,-1.56%,-0.05%,-7174.00%,"The impact of COVID19 on business units that closed, and the restrictions imposed on staffing operations, has decreased income and increased expenditure where additional leave payments or redeployment of resources were required."
"Financial Performance","Rates concentration","Rates as a percentage of adjusted underlying revenue",66.78%,60.88%,61.87%,1067.00%,"The impact of COVID19 on business units that closed, and the restrictions imposed on staffing operations, has significantly decreased our income, resulting in other income sources being reduced compared to rates."
"Financial Performance","Rates effort","Rates as a percentage of property values in municipality",0.56%,0.60%,0.41%,-464.00%,
"Sustainable Capacity","Population","Expenses per head of municipal population",$1634.75640381718,$1938.223154,$2047.982523,36.00%,"The trend is tracking as expected at a slight increase. The larger spike in the 2017 financial year is due to a targeted analysis on unit rates on sport and recreation facilities which resulted in a  write-down of values in these asset categories."
"Sustainable Capacity","Population","Infrastructure per head of municipal population",$16935.3545500205,$14421.701487,$15070.916861,717.00%,"The trend is tracking as expected at a slight increase. The reason for the larger spike in the 2019 financial year result reflects an increased level of infrastructure investment."
"Sustainable Capacity","Population","Population density per length of road",75.2115442731943 people,51.924413 people,111.870511 people,60.00%,
"Sustainable Capacity","Own source revenue","Own-source revenue per head of municipal population",$1425.37783662846,$1494.572028,$1488.383509,48.00%,
"Sustainable Capacity","Recurrent grants","Recurrent grants per head of municipal population",$253.787498287749,$363.180588,$453.447757,741.00%,"During the 2017 and 2018 financial years, more funding was received for federal blackspot funding and the Federal Roads to Recovery program. The 2020 financial year has been impacted by the new AASB15 where there has been some adjustments to recurrent grants which means income will be recognised in future financial years as obligations are met not when we received them."
"Sustainable Capacity","Disadvantage","Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage of the municipality",4 decile,3.500000 decile,5.531646 decile,0.00%,
"Sustainable Capacity","Staff turnover","Percentage of workforce turnover",11.69%,10.46%,12.52%,,