To report the Council’s performance for the first four months of 2008/09 against the Corporate Plan 2008/11 and national performance indicators used externally to measure the Council’s performance, taking account of the separate but complementary financial performance report, the updated Council risk register and progress against the action plans produced following the Crookall review.

(Councillors PJ Edwards and PM Morgan declared personal interests.)

The Committee considered a report on the Council’s performance for the first four months of 2008-09 against the Corporate Plan 2008-11 and national performance indicators used externally to measure the Council’s performance, taking account of the separate but complementary financial performance report, the updated Council risk register and progress against the action plans produced following the Crookall review. 

The report considered by Cabinet on 2 October was appended.

The Corporate Policy and Research Manager presented the report.  He said that, taking note of comments by both the Committee and Cabinet, further efforts had been made to simplify the report to make it easier to use.  Although the detailed budget monitoring report was now presented separately, the Integrated Corporate Performance Report (ICPR) continued to take it into account and to highlight significant financial issues, such as the level of overspend and action to mitigate this, so as to make the necessary connections between expenditure and performance.

Whilst early in the financial year, the initial indications were that the overall picture suggested performance was heading in broadly the right direction, although there were important areas in which this was not the case.  He drew attention to the inclusion in the ICPR of commentaries by Directors which showed how performance issues were being addressed. 

He highlighted the following points:

·         Page 19 of the report showed mixed performance in Children’s Services, with a number of indicators marked red (not on target), notably including core assessments for Children’s care; the timeliness of placements of looked after children for adoption and referrals to children’s social care going on to initial assessment.  Steps were being taken aimed at remedying the position.

·         It was too early to judge the position on Health and Social Care.   The Direction of Travel indicators were positive but there were a few red indicators and a projected significant overspend in respect of which a recovery plan was being developed.

·         Affordable housing was – and would remain - a challenging area, brought about by the credit-crunch and economic down-turn. This meant there was a number of red indicators but action was being taken both to improve performance and reduce projected overspending. These had already brought the initially very high projected over-spend down to £300k, with measures being taken to bring that down further.

·         In terms of corporate performance, the Audit Commission’s Annual Governance Letter 2008 had given the Council a clean bill of health.

·         Sickness absence figures were increasing, with measures being taken by Human Resources with managers across the Council.

·         In terms of the revised Council risk register, three risks, all of which related to ICT, were scored as high, even after the mitigating measures had been taken into account. 

In the ensuing discussion the following principal points were made (numbering cross refers to pages in the agenda papers and indicators):

·         (p11) That, in addition to action to prevent homelessness, it was important that further action was taken to provide affordable housing, noting that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34

To report the Council’s performance for the first four months of 2008/09 against the Corporate Plan 2008/11 and national performance indicators used externally to measure the Council’s performance, taking account of the separate but complementary financial performance report, the updated Council risk register and progress against the action plans produced following the Crookall review.

The Cabinet considered a report on the Council’s performance for the first four months of 2008-09 against the Corporate Plan 2008-11 and national performance indicators used externally to measure the Council’s performance, taking account of the separate but complementary financial performance report, the updated Council risk register and progress against the action plans produced following the Crookall review. 

The Cabinet Member for Corporate and Customer Services and Human Resources expressed thanks to the officers for the improved and new style approach of the report. In some cases, Cabinet Members would need to meet relevant Directors to discuss issues identified in the report.

The Corporate Policy and Research Manager stated that the report had been further simplified and improved in response to feedback from Joint Management Team, Cabinet and Strategic Monitoring Committee. In particular, it was now structured to show performance against each of the themes in the new Corporate Plan, with the covering report highlighting performance against the Council’s priorities. In doing so, it took account of the updated risk register, which was appended to the report, and the complementary budget monitoring report, which would be considered in its own right later in the agenda. The report also set out progress against the action plans put in place in the light of the Crookall report. The next report, in November, would give performance up to the end of September.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transportation questioned whether it was appropriate to mark indicators as red where no activity has been reported. He also drew attention to page 45, where the out-turn figure in respect of the number people slightly injured in road accidents was incorrect the figure having been previously been reported at Environment Scrutiny Committee.

The Corporate Policy and Research Manager explained that it was a clearly laid down duty of named postholders to ensure that submitted data were correct and, where there was, for good reason, no performance against target to report, to submit an account of progress with the action being taken that should enable the target to be achieved. Most officers complied fully with these requirements but he would reinforce with officers the crucial importance of data accuracy. Members were assured that information and data are looked at critically when they are submitted so that, if there is an apparent nonsense, this is clarified with the originator. Other Members reinforced the importance of indicators being marked red if officers had failed to submit the required information.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transportation suggested that, where no data or other information was due to be reported, this should be stated, together with the date when it would be due. The Member also questioned why the Young People’s Participation in Positive Activities Indicator on page 22 of the report, in respect of which the latest out-turn was recorded as ‘No data’, was rated green rather than red.

The Corporate Policy and Research Manager informed Members that in that instance, green was correct because the only possible  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50