Agenda item

Context:

To scrutinise the 2017/18 performance information under the remit of Adults Select Committee, this includes:

·                Reporting back on how well the Authority did against the well-being objectives which the previous Council set for 2017/18.

·                2017/18 performance information on how the Authority performed against a range of nationally set measures used by all councils in Wales.

Key Issues:

·         In March 2017 full Council set Monmouthshire County Council’s well-being objectives for 2017/18. These objectives were set just prior to local government elections in May 2017, in order to meet the legislative requirement of approving and publishing Wellbeing Objectives by 31st March 2017. Given the timing of the publication, the latest available evidence from the Monmouthshire well-being assessment, as well as policy and legislation was used to set the Objectives.

·         The approval of the Corporate Plan ‘A Monmouthshire that works for everyone’ which sets five priority goals the Council will be working towards by 2022 supersedes the Council’s well-being objectives set in March 2017. Despite these objectives being superseded by the Corporate Plan it is important, and we have a duty, to report back on the progress made in 2017/18 against the well-being objective set in March 2017. This includes progress against areas of work related to the objective, an understanding of key performance information and future activity the Council has agreed as part of the Corporate Plan.  As well as being presented to select committees the objectives will be included alongside a fuller evaluation of the Council’s performance in 2017/18 that will be reported to Council in September 2018 and published by October 2018.

·         Performance data and information is essential to the performance framework to track and evaluate the progress being made. One important nationally set framework used to measure local authority performance is ‘Public Accountability Measures’ set by Data Cymru. Benchmarking data compared to other Councils in Wales will be published in August 2018.

·         Performance information for Adults Social Services from 2017/18 comprises of performance indicators from the new measurement framework introduced in 2016/17 as part of the Social Services and Well-being Act. The performance measures are a combination of quantitative data and qualitative data which includes asking people about their experience of social services and whether this has contributed to improving their well-being. This is provided for the information of the committee and has already been scrutinised by the committee as part of the Improving Outcomes, Improving Lives Corporate Director of Social Services Annual Report which was reported to a Joint Adults & Children and Young People Select Committee meeting in June 2018.

·         Future performance reporting will be based around monitoring and evaluating progress against the actions set in the Corporate Plan.

Member Scrutiny:

·         A succinct summary sheet at the beginning of future performance reports was required identifying where the authority is doing well, where it is not doing well and identifying areas that require further scrutiny.

·         For future performance reports percentage figures need also to have the cohort figure alongside it to provide context.

·         Appendix 3 provides technical information.  As the document is open to view by the public, it might not be easily understood in its current form.  It was noted that this information was provided to the Select Committee for scrutiny so all data is provided.  However, this information will be summarised and communicated to the public in due course in a way that is engaging and easily understandable.

·         The Public Service Board has developed wellbeing objectives and is looking at actions it wants to take to deliver those steps.  There will be a performance framework that will bring together a range of performance information to judge effectiveness.

·         Transfer of care - there has been an increase in the number of delays this year, particularly in community hospitals where people have complex needs.  The majority of the delays are waiting for care at home packages.  This year there have been some issues whereby, some of the providers have left gaps in the markets. Given the aging population and more complex needs of the population there is potential for this to increase.

·         Appendix 4, 22: Average age of adults entering residential care homes – It would be helpful if figures identified have in brackets what the mean. 

·         The average age in Wales is 82.83. This is marked in red as being in the bottom quartile.  The bottom quartile relates to 2016/17 performance where we were lower than the Welsh average.  This had included some younger adults who had been placed in temporary rehabilitation placements.  However, these should not have been included in the report.  This has now been rectified for this year.

·         Targets against performance measures were not set as these were new indicators for 2016/17.  At the time for setting targets for 2017/18, officers had not received any benchmarking data from Welsh Government at that point.  For the year ahead, more realistic targets can be set for indicators where targets are relevant.

·         The benchmarking information is not published until later in the year, around October. Data will then be refreshed and compared to 2017/18 data across Wales.