To invite Cabinet Members to review performance for the period to end December 2012.

The Cabinet Member, Corporate Services presented the report of the Assistant Director People, Policy and Partnerships.  The Cabinet Member made the following introductory comments:

·         There will be one further outturn report for the Joint Corporate Plan in May.

·         The March Cabinet meeting will consider the Delivery Plan for the new Corporate Plan effective from April 2013.

·         The majority of projects in the Corporate Delivery Plan are being delivered to schedule and where data is available it indicates a positive direction of travel.

In discussion the following comments were made about specific areas of performance:

·         The digital channels programme has been stabilised and there is a clear understanding of what needs to be delivered for the end of the financial year.

·         The internal auditors report for treasury management has given the authority the highest rating of ‘substantial’ assurance.

·         Call centre abandonment rates were slightly worse than last year, however, call volume is up 31%.  This mainly related to calls about bad weather and flooding issues.

·         There has been an increase in agency staff covering permanent posts due to absence or vacancy.  Directors would continue to assess the business requirements for agency staff.

·         The Cabinet Member Education and Infrastructure informed Cabinet that all Members would be invited to the launch of Broadband.  In response to a comment on digital broadband the Cabinet Member advised that it was good as long as you had access, which not everyone had.

·         Cabinet was advised that the application to government for funding for the link road had been submitted.

·         In referring to page 10 of the report on free schools the Cabinet Member Education and Infrastructure stated he felt there was a conflict of interest for the Department of Education and the authority.  He added the authority had good relations with all schools in the county, however, Herefordshire was not an area in the country where there was a demand for new schools, and it was questioned whether the free school was financially sustainable.  Cabinet felt there should be a demonstrable demand for the free school.  It was added that the point had not yet been reached when consultation needed to be carried out, however, it should be noted there was still 1,000 spare school places in the county.

·         In referring to the Public Health Care Transition the Cabinet Member Health and Wellbeing advised that some further work was needed on the transfer of contracts from the PCT to the Council which had been identified as a risk in the transition report.  Work would continue on the transfer and robust action would be taken to address concerns.

RESOLVED:   That performance for the period to end of December 2012 be noted.