To report the position on a selection of priority Performance Indicators and provide information about current performance management work and the budget.

The Committee considered a report on current performance and received an update on the budget monitoring position.

The report noted that the performance indicators showed that a number of planned targets would not be reached.  

The Director of Adult and Community Services reported that the Commission for Social Care Inspection had recently published its assessment of Adult Social Care services.  The Council’s assessment had changed from “serving some people well with promising prospects for improvement” to “serving some people well with uncertain prospects for improvement.”

The Commission had not yet issued a revised star rating for the Council pending the outcome of the Joint Area Review of Services the Council provided for Children and Young People and the Council’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment.

He added that budgetary pressures were worsening and making it challenging to meet performance targets.

Areas where performance was not in line with planned targets were set out in an appendix to the report. 

The Performance Improvement Manager commented on the position on targets for adult social care.  The Head of Strategic Housing Services commented on the position on targets for strategic housing.

The Finance Manager commented on the budget, reporting that there was a risk that the predicted overspend for Social Care for the year might rise from £780,000 to £905,000 and explaining the pressures contributing to this position, as set out in the report.  A risk assessment was being undertaken and Service managers were seeking to manage the situation. 

The predicted overspend for Strategic Housing for the year was £815,000 but again, for the reasons set out in the report, there was a risk that this might increase, possibly to £925,000.

Work was continuing to assess demand for services as part of the preparation of the 2006/07 budget.

In the ensuing discussion the following principal points were made:

·          A question was asked about indicator E50 (the percentage of assessments of adults and older people leading to a service and target D55 (the acceptable waiting time for assessments).  It was suggested that the number of assessments which did not result in a service being provided implied an inefficient use of resources and it was asked whether there were any screening measures in place to minimise the number of such assessments.

The Head of Social Care (Adults) replied that the Social Services Inspectorate had said that the Council was undertaking too many assessments and in doing so raising false expectations.  Customer Services Officers were now expected to screen out those who were clearly ineligible to receive services.  It was, however, an important area to keep under review.  She added that further checks needed to be made with other authorities to ensure that the Council was using the same baselines in assessing performance against target D55.

·          It was suggested that it was not credible that the indicator for the number of people sleeping rough showed no people to be doing so.  The Head of Strategic Housing replied that the audit had been conducted correctly in accordance with statutory Government guidance which required a count to be taken on one night.  He acknowledged that the outcome, whilst on the face of it positive, needed to be treated with caution.

·          It was proposed more should be done to draw on local knowledge, in assessing homelessness noting that each of the Market Towns had a Homelessness Group and that  Ward Members had access to a number of local networks.

·          The Cabinet Member (Social Care, Adults and Health) commented on the budgetary pressures and reaffirmed the efforts being made both to manage the current position and to address the position for the future.

RESOLVED:

That    (a)            the report on performance and the budget be noted;

(b)              areas of concern continue to be monitored;

                        and

(c)               consideration be given to the scope for drawing on local knowledge to inform the assessment of and approach to homelessness.