Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey 2012 A Review & Snapshots of Good Practice Peter Radford Somerset CC Chair NHT Survey Committee

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Quick Summary: • Overview of the development of the NHT Survey • Meeting the DCLG challenge – Being Responsive, Accountable and Transparent • The Highway Maintenance and Efficiency Programme • Hot off the Press – the Results of the 2012 NHT Survey • Mini case studies and snapshots of good practice from the 2012 NHT Results

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey So What is the NHT Network? • A public service improvement organisation comprising Local Authorities, Contractors and Consultants. Over 100 authorities are NHT Survey participants

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The Birth of the NHT Survey In England… up until 2007 151 Highway Authorities sought feedback from the public on their H&T services in 151 different ways

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The Birth of the NHT Survey Late 2006 The NHT Benchmarking club polled its members (mostly Local Authorities) to find out what benchmarking assistance was needed Top of the List: Assistance with, and standardisation of, public satisfaction surveys

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The Birth of the NHT Survey April 2007 The NHT Survey Initiative was launched at the NHT (Benchmarking Club) Conference at Aston Villa

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The Birth of the NHT Survey But it is about more than inefficient survey practice Performance is a relative entity to make proper judgements you need robust, consistent, relative measures and benchmarks This is what the NHT Survey provides

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The Birth of the NHT Survey Some Details on the NHT Survey Development:

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The Birth of the NHT Survey Getting Started (2007) • The National Highway Benchmarking Club with the CSS SW Highway Service Improvement Group conducted initial development (May - Nov 2007) • The ‘Taunton’ Conference (Nov 2007)

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The Birth of the NHT Survey The Taunton Conference - 28 th November 2007 • Senior H&T/Performance officers attended from all authorities in the region • A senior officer from the Govt Office • Idea widely endorsed • A jolly good bun-fight! • … But concluded with 90%++ consensus on the survey questions and approach • CONCLUSION - a questionnaire that a full range of authorities wanted to use • Lots of refinement needed after that. . but a RESULT!!

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The Birth of the NHT Survey Main Survey Topics: • • • • Rating Roads and Transport Services Your Use of Transport and Access to Services Pavements and Pedestrian Facilities Cycling Rights of Way Buses Public Transport Taxis, Minicabs and Community Transport Condition of Roads and Pavements Highway Management and Maintenance Roadworks Traffic Management Causes of Congestion (Traffic Queues) Using Your Car About You (age, mobility, employment etc)

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The Birth of the NHT Survey

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey 2011 The Survey - Initiated, devised and led by local authorities. - 100+ authorities so far - The largest, most robust and comprehensive survey on public views on H&T services - Pioneering analysis enabling benchmarking, trending, cutting, slicing, mapping and overlaying of data from national down to local ward level - Results open to everyone nhtsurvey. org

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Contribution to the HMEP The NHT’s work and outputs are also designed to enable compliance with DCLG Requirements: i. e. Public Services that are: Accountable Responsive Transparent

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Contribution to the HMEP and 1. Review of the NHT Survey (HM elements) to assist emerging HMEP data requirements 2. Developing the existing CQC Analysis 3. Developing more systematic ways of identifying, gathering, validating & disseminating good practice 4. Further developing its regional improvement networks specially to deliver HMEP ends 5. Assisting in longer term appraisal (based on CQC work) to assist ‘healthchecking’ and corporate reviews

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Details NHT Survey – The Breakdown Over 180 questions on all strands of local highway and transport provision Results provided under 6 themes comprising 26 High level Key Benchmarking Indicators (KBIs) 107 Detailed level Benchmarking Indicators (BIs)

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey Challenge 1 You can either use your intellectual effort to think up excuses why the public got it wrong, or why you should ignore what they said OR You can try and understand the issues behind the views and, where possible, do something about them!

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey Challenge 2 You can also spend time celebrating the successes and sweeping the challenges under carpet OR You can learn from both the successes and failures to help improve services for the future!

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey Challenge If you choose the latter in both cases – you are engaging in performance management & continuous improvement …You are also putting the customer first

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey Challenge There are many cases of superb service highlighted in the survey – But lets look at some interesting 2011 to 2012 comparisons

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey Tracking public views over 5 years The public views are expressed as marks out of 100 If you score a mark more than 50 there is overall satisfaction Less than 50 = overall dissatisfaction

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Maintenance hot topics? From 2011 HMBI Summary HMBI 01 Condition of Roads HMBI 06 Speed of repair Change Key Red >-2 Amber <-2 or +2 Green>+2 HMBI 14 Winter services

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey Using the data and analysis options to drill down to the operational issues An example from Somerset

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey 2011 – SW Region

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The NHT Survey That’s the detail behind the overview

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Getting to the Bottom of it Analysis of the epicentre of Sedgemoor ‘redness’ yesterday showed that our customer interface system (Confirm) recorded the following winter service complaints in the last 3 years on one short section of road: 2009 – 0 2010 – 14 2011 - 25 The poor satisfaction seems to have been brewing up

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Improvement Actions 2010 2011 Quick Hits: Our Area Highways Mgt team has met with Sedgemoor DC and Burnham/Highbridge TCs to assist with them procuring a mini gritters to treat more local network. The experience may help prompt other local Big Society / self help initiatives

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Maintenance hot topics? From 2011 HMBI Summary HMBI 01 Condition of Roads HMBI 06 Speed of repair Change Key Red >-2 Amber <-2 or +2 Green>+2 HMBI 14 Winter services

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Change Key Maintenance hot topics? From 2012 HMBI Summary HMBI 01 Condition of Roads HMBI 06 Speed of repair Red >-2 Amber <-2 or +2 Green>+2 HMBI 14 Winter services HMBIs for verge & hedge maintenance HMBI for drainage maintenance HMBI for clearing obstructions

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey The landscape has changed dramatically in 1 year The public view of road condition, whilst still poor nationally, has rallied The public view of routine revenue functions is declining rapidly A capital Vs revenue funding issue?

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey If anyone ever doubted the perceptive powers of the public …and their ability to articulate their views in the NHT Survey. . .

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Those Snapshots of Good Practice

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Roll of Honour

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Results Summary: • Unprecedented overall improvements in Benchmarking Indicator ratings across the board • Total aggregate BI improvement 437. 23 – making an average BI improvement of over 2! • Best condition of roads plus speed and quality of repair • General Comment – helpful & easy to use website • Has sought to try and minimise the impact of the reductions in resources with concerted efforts to make it ‘business as usual’ • Cohesive (if resource challenged) team with a strong focus on delivery and service.

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey • The Council recognises the importance of a speedy quality repair to safety defects: It deploys a multipurpose flyer gang that is equipped to get to problems dealt with quickly and a full permanent repair follows swiftly • Bracknell Forest was the only Council in the survey to see its highway drainage rating improve significantly. The council feels it has some particular expertise in this area enabling cost effective drainage maintenance rather than more disruptive renewals • Ringway, the Council’s contractor, have performed well and always do their best to deliver on undertakings Contact: Anthony. Radford-Foley@bracknell-forest. gov. uk]

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Results Summary Substantial improvement in road condition allied with speed and quality of repair. The additional activity in road maintenance was accompanied with significant improvements in ratings for traffic and roadworks management. Project 30 (Explained at this conference last year) - Investment of £ 30 m into local road network. £ 30 m of improvements over four years (repaid over 25 yrs) Clearing of backlog and arresting the accelerating decline of our network Reducing insurance claims

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Improvement in Road Condition Put in place programmes of planned preventative treatments Scheduled to deliver maintenance reduced costs of £ 100 m over 25 years The reason that this proposal was successful was due to the Members realising that investment into the highway network would help underpin the social and economic aspirations of their town over the long term

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Road Works coordination and information As part of Project 30 a communications Management Plan was established. Project 30 is communicated by a number of ways to the Community (who are seeing the benefits of the improved road condition). The town has been split into 66 geographical areas. This has greatly assisted with planning the works. All utilities know exactly when and where Project 30 works are taking place. Residents and local businesses have full visibility of all scheduled works

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey There already less reactive maintenance works due to project 30 All contractors are working collaboratively Blackpool report that in their view, unlike a PFI, their approach is more flexible and can react to the needs of the community Working with its contractors as one team under the brand of ‘Project 30’, improving social outcomes are at the heart of the project. A vital element is clear and effective communications with local communities and stakeholders.

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Local residents and businesses are kept informed of what the Project aims to achieve, how it is going to be done and how long it will take. Two-way communication is encouraged, providing people with a clear point of contact. The feedback and comments received help to check that the service is being delivered in the manner it was promised and gives early warning of any tweaks that may be required as the project continues. Other notes: Accessibility ratings strongly up as are cycling ratings Contact: will. britain@blackpool. gov. uk

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Results Summary: 2 nd Highest top ratings (of 75) for Highway Maintenance BIs 1 st for top ratings in TC/managing congestion • Investing £ 6 m extra in 3 years all in the ‘U’ road network • What is happening outside my house? • Yr 1 £ 1. 5 in c. ways and £ 1 m on footways • Yr 2 £ 1. 25 in c. ways and £ 1. 25 m on footways • Yr 3 £ 1 m in c. ways and £ 1. 5 m on footways • LTP funding dedicated to Classified Roads

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey • Asset Managed Approach aiming for a state • 5 yr plan reviewed annually • Programmes and priorities subject to community influence through a local consultation process • Very competitive rates negotiated owing to certainty of workload • Partnership working with Tarmac Contact: ian_mcconville@middlesborough. gov. uk

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Results Summary: Portsmouth have maintained their impressive and top rated performance with an overall satisfaction achieving 60. 91%. This is largely due to the excellent results in the Highways Maintenance area including the top ranking in condition of road surfaces which has shown an improvement of 2. 97 NHT Survey watchers have wondered whether raised expectation may have led to a levelling of satisfaction but this has not been the case!

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey • Portsmouth are in the unique position of having a £ 500 m 25 year PFI contract for highways maintenance. • Portsmouth is constantly seeking best value and this includes through its PFI contract where the Council has been carefully monitoring its investments • Portsmouth’s unique island geography and its extremely densely populated urban areas means its highway network is especially important and the Council takes pride in ensuring its fitness for purpose.

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Despite the PFI Portsmouth reports facing significant challenges in terms of tackling congestion and the perception of congestion particularly in relation to roadworks. With the dense population of the city coupled with it’s island geography (limited to only three roads in and out) the road network is extremely vulnerable to any disruption and the impact can be city wide.

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Utility works are not always easy to manage and Portsmouth have recently invested an increased level of resource into network management and are investigating measures to control and manage works on the network. Operational teams are working closely with the council’s communications teams and those in utility companies to ensure residents and businesses are formed as best possible. Conact: Hayley. Chivers@portsmouthcc. gov. uk]

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Results Summary: Unprecedented overall improvements in public transport ratings. Bournemouth is the top rated authority for public transport in the NHT Survey. It was always good and has consistently got better! Significant improvement in bus patronage and doubling of bus patronage since 2004 Adoption of Voluntary Quality Bus Partnership in 2009 Operators invest in fleet upgrades (including on bus air con, CCTV, high quality vehicles, driver training etc)

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey • Named bus stops, simplified bus maps, easy read timetables, smart phone apps etc • Joint ticketing, simplified fare structures etc • High quality infrastructure, bus lanes, raised kerbs, Real Time Information, Bus Priority Enhanced passenger information

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey • Innovative new approaches, such as “magic bus stops” (Which utilise Smartphone technology to provide real-time information via Near Field Communication and QR code technology) … and increased public satisfaction with traffic control and levels of congestion Contact bob. askew@bournemouth. gov. uk

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Results Summary: Substantial improvement (+7. 76) for the condition of cycle routes and other cycling and walking indicators

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Results Summary: Cycling: High overall ratings in cycling facilities, condition of cycle routes allied with strong improvements The authority continues to promote cycling strongly For the last 2 years the authority has also run an annual cycling promotion event. This does seem to have captured the public’s imagination and the borough is enjoying building on its reputation for being cycle friendly Contact: John Mcvey j. mcvey@poole. gov. uk

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Bling your Bike!!

Snapshots of Good Practice from the 2012 NHT Survey Thank you for Listening nhtsurvey. org