Agenda item

Context:

The Committee received a report to present quarter 2 performance data for the Improvement Objectives which are under the remit of Strong Communities Select Committee.

Recommendations

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 concern, and to seek assurance from those responsible for future activity where they conclude that Performance needs to improve.

Key Issues:

Improvement Objectives are set annually by the Council to deliver on priorities, these are set in the Council’s Improvement Plan 2016/17. Despite objectives being focussed 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 will also be 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.

The Improvement Objectives will be evaluated at the end of the year (2016/17) based on the council’s self-evaluation framework, as set in the Improvement Plan 2016-17. Performance against them will be reported to Select Committee and in the Stage 2 Improvement Plan published in October each year.

This is likely to be the final annual cycle of Improvement Planning in this format. The council is currently undertaking two substantial assessments of need and wellbeing within the county as a consequence of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act and the Social Services and Wellbeing Act. This information will provide a much deeper evidence base of well-being in the County and will be used to review the council’s current improvement objectives in preparation for the publication of the council’s wellbeing objectives by 31st March 2017.

Appendix C sets out further Key Performance Indicators from the National

Performance indicator set that are under the committee’s remit. The primary purpose is to highlight the performance achieved so far in 2016/17. In some cases this may result in duplication of indicators already included in other sections of the report.

Where indicators relate to the performance of services that are under the remit of more than one committee these will also be reported to the other relevant committee(s).

Member Scrutiny:

In respect of objective 4 ‘maintaining locally accessible services’ it was asked if public transport should be included in this due to the ongoing issues with services.

In regard to waste the Chair asked how the increase had been achieved, we were told that continued cooperation of residents was essential, the energy recovery of residual waste and the compostable waste figures going down.

A Member expressed hope that the recycling pilot was successful.

In regard to sickness days per employee we were told that we were told that last year the sickness rate had risen to 11.6 days a year per employee which was quite high compared to other councils in Wales, this has dropped to 10.06, however this may rise through the winter months.

It was asked what percentage of sickness was down to stress and we were told that from the 2015/16 figures 21% of absence was due to physiological reasons.

It was asked if the report could go back to being colour coded.