Agenda item

Context:

We were presented with the Quarter 2 Performance Report: Improvement Objectives and Outcome Agreement.  The purpose was:

1.    to present quarter 2 performance data for the Improvement Objectives and Outcome Agreement objectives which are under the remit of Economy and Development Select Committee:

·         Improvement Objective 3: We want to enable our county to thrive.

·         Improvement Objective 4: Maintaining locally accessible services

·         Outcome agreement Theme 3: Poverty and material deprivation

2.    To present the latest performance against wider key national performance indicators that are under the committee’s remit

Key Issues:

The Outcome Agreement and the Improvement Objectives have a different focus:

Improvement Objectives

·         Improvement Objectives are set annually by the Council to deliver on priorities. Despite objectives being focused on the long term the specific activities that support them are particularly focussed for the year ahead.

·         Activity that contributes to the delivery of some objectives cross cuts Select Committee remits and these have also been reported to the other relevant committee(s). Therefore it is suggested members particularly focus their scrutiny on the activity relevant to the committee with consideration of its contribution to the objective as a whole.

·         This Improvement Objectives will be evaluated at the end of the year (2015/16) based on the council’s self-evaluation framework, as set in the Improvement Plan 2015-17.  Performance against them will be reported to Select Committee and in the Stage 2 Improvement Plan published in October each year.

Outcome Agreement

·         The Outcome Agreement is an agreement with the Welsh Government for a three year period, where the council needs to deliver on performance activity and associated targets that contribute to the Programme for Government. The current agreement covers the period from 2013 to 2016. The council has previously been awarded full payment each year.

·         In the summer of 2015 the Welsh Government announced the final year of funding for performance in 2015-16 would no longer be attached to performance in the Outcome Agreement and would be rolled directly into the Revenue Support Grant for 2016-17.  This means that payment for performance against the targets in the agreement for 2015-16, being discussed by members today, is assured. However given the importance placed on the agreement as part of the council’s performance framework to contribute to delivering the outcomes set it is important to continue to monitor performance against the agreement for its final year.

Member scrutiny:

• The committee expressed concern that Chief Officers were not in attendance and the Chair highlighted the importance of senior officers being present, this would be raised with Senior Leadership Team.
• Members requested reassurance from Chief Officers regarding underperformance of leisure centres and whether this was expected to improve.
• We recognised the need for an update on business support strategy.
• Members questioned the targets associated with the ‘supper connected voucher scheme’.  Members noted that this would be considered within the ICounty strategy and broadband update at the next meeting.

Recommendations:

We resolved to agree recommendations within the report:

1.         That members scrutinise the performance achieved and impact made, particularly in areas that fall under the committee’s remit, to assess progress and performance against the objectives.

2.         That members identify and explore any areas of underperformance or concerns, and to seek assurance from those responsible for future activity where they conclude that performance needs to improve.