Performance and Resources report quarter 2 2022/23: Local Authority Performance

Key successes in the quarter

• the level of officer resource in the system has returned to close to pre-pandemic levels (but should not be confused with a system being fully resourced).
• most Local Authorities (LAs) are in compliance with the Recovery Plan.
• the number of businesses currently awaiting a rating has dropped by 18% since 1 April 2022 to 42,023 reported on 1 October 2022. 

Concerns/risks

The number of new businesses triaged as potentially higher risk and awaiting inspection, since April 2022, is increasing as food systems normalise and the total volume of work required by the Recovery Plan means LAs have increasingly large workloads to manage. 

Next steps

Continue to engage and monitor LAs whop have yet to give an assurance of being able to deliver the requirements of the Recovery Plan. 

FSA Recovery Plan - current RAG status

Date	Milestone	RAG rating
By 30 September 2022	Prioritisation of new businesses for intervention based on risk.	Green
From 30 September 2021 onwards	Completion of inspection of new registrations prioritised as higher risk.	Amber
By 31 March 2022 and ongoing	Completion of onsite hygiene inspections at Category A establishments.	Green
By 30 June 2022 and ongoing	Completion of onsite hygiene inspections at Category B establishments.	Green
By 30 September 2022 and ongoing	Completion of onsite hygiene inspections at Category C establishments less than broadly compliant.	Amber

Phase 1 and 2:

Ongoing specific legal requirements, surveillance, enforcement and urgent reactive work.

New and refreshed food hygiene ratings given following appropriate information.

Phase 1

By 30 September 2021

• prioritisation of new businesses for intervention based on risk
• planning of intervention programme from September 2021 onwards

Phase 2

FHRS re-visits requested by businesses - in line with timescales in Brand Standards/relevant statutory guidance

By 31 March 2021

• all establishments rated category A for hygiene to have received an onsite intervention

By 30 June 2022

• all establishments rated category B for hygiene or A for standards to have received an onsite intervention

By 30 September 2022

• all establishments rated category C for hygiene and less than broadly compliant to have received an onsite intervention

By 31 December 2022

• all establishments rated category D for hygiene and less than broadly compliant to have received an onsite intervention

By 31 March 2023

• all establishments rated category C for hygiene and broadly compliant or better to have received an onsite intervention
• new delivery models ready for implementation in 2023/24

Planned interventions achieved at A-rated, B-rated and C less than broadly compliant establishments

Is the system as a whole targeting the risks?

There has been a small fall in the percentage of interventions achieved at A-rated establishments since April 2022 but an increase in the percentage of interventions at B-rated establishments. 

LAs have also made good progress on interventions at C-rated establishments less than broadly compliant and have achieved 84.2%.

In addition, LAs have started to tackle lower risk establishments and reported 26,542 interventions at C-rated establishments in total (of which 3,293 were at establishments less than broadly compliant) and 29,563 and 17,543 interventions at D- and E-rated establishments.

The risk rating of establishments refers to the rating before the intervention was caried out.

All interventions achieved at retailers, restaurants and caterers

 

How are LAs delivering when we look at a sub-set of establishment types?

The analysis of FHRS data for ‘retailers' and ‘restaurants and caterers' allows us to look at LA delivery using close to live data. 

Reassuringly, within this subset of establishments, we are seeing LA service delivery coming in line with pre-pandemic levels.

Professional FTEs for food hygiene controls work

 

Are occupied resources returning to food hygiene control delivery work?

Slight variations in FTE data should be treated with caution as they are LAs’ estimates and only provide an indicator of resource. 

Some LAs reported additional professional resource was allocated to deal with backlogs of food controls work between April 2021 and April 2022. Where this resource was funded for a short time on top of the normal allocated resource, this is included in the FTE posts on a pro-rata basis. 

Data for 2018/19 and 2019/20 are estimates for the whole year and other datasets are estimates of FTEs at the end of the reporting period.

The slight reduction in FTEs in October 2022 may have an impact on the delivery of food control work.

Some LAs have continued to report recruitment issues. But 90.6% LAs reported they anticipated having sufficient resource to deliver the Recovery Plan by 31 March 2023. 

Local authority performance and FSA oversight

How are LAs managing new businesses and is there an increase in the level of unknown risk entering the system?

• “New registrations that need to be prioritised” for inspection are decreasing, suggesting an improvement in the management of unknown risk in the system.
• the large increase in “New registrations prioritised as higher risk awaiting inspection” since April is a concern, possibly due to LAs dealing with other higher risk businesses now due inspections.
• however, a change in wording to the queue about ‘higher risk’ new registrations awaiting inspection may have also resulted in some errors in responses in October 22, which will be investigated.
• the number of new registrations (new businesses or change of business ownership) changes over time as new registrations come in and interventions of previously unrated businesses take place.

Unrated businesses reported in each return*

*Data available only during April end of year annual returns. Since April 2022, data was collected quarterly.

Prioritisation of new registrations at each quarter

Status of LA engagement as at 1 October 2022

Escalations: 0 LAs escalated through the escalation process. 

Status of LA Engagement

• one LA had been escalated from the April 2022 return, but following Performance Manager engagement and LA delivery of an agreed action plan, they have been de-escalated with ongoing monitoring to ensure improvements are maintained.
• LAs are selected for engagement based on risk. Food hygiene and food standards survey responses are analysed to identify the authorities that present the highest risk. 
• when sufficient assurance is received that the delivery issues have been/are being addressed, the engagement is closed. 
• differing staff capacity in Wales and NI may allow teams to make contact with authorities that present a lower risk in the risk matrix.