To provide assurance that progress is being made towards achievement of the agreed revenue and service delivery targets, and that the reasons for major variances or potential under-performance are understood and are being addressed to the cabinet’s satisfaction.

The cabinet member for economy and corporate services introduce the report and noted that it was in the usual style. He highlighted the following points from the report:

·         the latest budget projection forecast an overspend of £2.172m, much of which was due to meeting children’s needs

·         the number of internal and external placements for children in care continued to be higher than expected

·         an invest to save project was beginning to increase capacity to support the reduction in numbers of looked after children over the next 18 months

·         39% of performance measures where data was available showed an improvement compared to the same period in the previous year, a drop from the previous performance report

·         directorates were putting in place measures to address the reduced performance in key areas

·         maintaining performance while delivering savings was a measure of improved efficiency

·         the unauthorised capital spend on the Blueschool House project was a cause for concern, in addition to the audit and governance committee overseeing actions that should offer assurance of internal processes the chief executive had approached the LGA to establish a peer review of governance and culture to take place early in 2018

·         the number of people who had attended an NHS healthcheck had increased by 8% in the previous quarter and was the second best for comparable authorities

·         the majority of new social work assessments in children’s wellbeing were completed within statutory timescale, a notable improvement from the same period the previous year

·         provisional exam results showed Herefordshire’s youngest pupils achieved improved outcomes in the full range of assessments

·         the £5m investment from the challenge fund in maintaining three strategic roads in the county was expected to be very beneficial in the long term

·         the council had exceeded the target for the sale of council assets, this released £1m of planned savings which were being delivered a year early

·         road deaths were unacceptably high and were an area of concern

·         the unemployment rate in Herefordshire was down to a record low of 1,135.

The cabinet member for infrastructure noted that the overspend was a projected outturn rather than an actual overspend. He asked whether the children’s wellbeing directorate could continue to keep children safe while addressing the projected overspend.

The cabinet member for young people and children’s wellbeing responded that one of the councils priorities was to keep children safe and give them the best start in life. Decisions were made on individual children rather than having a blanket approach. Work had been done to reduce the number of children subject to child protection plans and the numbers were now appropriate compared with statistical neighbours. Measures had also been put in place to ensure that where children were taken into care this was an appropriate decision. The number of children coming into care was now comparative with statistical neighbours. Plans were being developed to achieve permanency for children currently in care where this was appropriate over the next 2 years. This would reduce costs while also continuing to meet  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63