Agenda item

Context:

To ensure that members understand the Council’s performance framework.

To present the 2016/17 performance information under the remit of Strong Communities Select Committee, this includes:

·         Reporting back on how well we did against the objectives which the previous Council set for 2016/17; and

·         Information on how we performed against a range of nationally set measures used by all councils in Wales.

Key Issues:

The Council currently has an established performance framework, this is the way in which the Authority translates its vision - building sustainable and resilient communities - into action and ensures that everyone is pulling in the same direction to deliver real and tangible outcomes. 

Over the coming years the shape of public services in Wales is likely to change significantly influenced by two very significant pieces of Welsh legislation, The Well-being of Future Generations Act and The Social Services and Well-being Act, as well as financial pressures, demographic changes, changes in customer needs and expectations and regulatory and policy changes. Services need to continue to think more about the long-term, work better with people and communities, look to prevent problems before they arise and take a more joined-up approach.

The Council has recently completed two substantial assessments of need as a result of this legislation. This information has provided a much deeper evidence base of well-being in the County and, as required by the Future Generations Act, this has been used to produce the Council’s well-being objectives and statement 2017.

The shift in focus in the well-being objectives means that activities will need to be focused on longer term challenges at a community level rather than some of the internal process issues and outputs that could sometimes be found in its predecessor, The Improvement Plan. When dealing with more complex societal challenges it will take longer for measurable change to come about and longer still to be able to evidence those changes in a meaningful way. In the short-term there will continue to be milestones that can be used to track the Authority’s improvement journey. This will be supported by a range of performance reports select committee can request as part of its work programme and the structure of performance reports received by committee will be revised to reflect this emphasis.

Appendix 2 of the report sets out performance achieved in 2016/17 against the actions and performance measures approved by Council in May 2016 as part of its Improvement Plan. As well as being presented to select committees the objectives will be included alongside a further evaluation of performance in 2016/17 that will be reported to Council and published by October 2017. The Welsh Government has recently consulted on plans to repeal the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009 which means this is likely to be the final plan and report in this format. 

Appendix 3 sets out further key performance indicators from the national set that are under the committee’s remit.

Activity that contributes to the delivery of some objectives cross cuts select committee remits and these have also been reported to the other relevant committees. 

Member scrutiny:

It was questioned if every member of staff had an appraisal in 2016/17 to tie in with performance targets and responded that the report provides a snapshot of Check in-Check out (CICO) from December 2016 that records 70% completion within one year.  It was highlighted that there were some issues with recording processes but there was anecdotal evidence from operational managers that CICO is taking place to align with their planning.

A Member questioned the comment that progress was on target for delivering councils services within budget, citing that £916,000 savings weren’t achieved, schools’ budgets are in deficit, the council is at the at top end of its borrowing ability  and using its reserves.  It was explained that the judgement was based on the fact that the overall budget was underspent.  Metrics regarding the net cost of delivering services were circulated with parameters of 0.5%  (+ or -) and resulted in 0.6%.  Given the range of services provided, 0.6% is a reasonable level of performance but it should be noted that the wider judgement may have to reflect the factors highlighted, and suggested that financial colleagues may wish to consider this point.

The Head of Operations advised the committee that, whilst the majority of staff undertake the process, the CICO model is amended to reflect some circumstances and different categories of workforce.  To compensate, team briefings and the opportunity to provide feedback and raise issues are provided to improve communication with staff.

A Member, referring to the Cardiff City Region City Deal and Metro, questioned if the Committee should scrutinise the transport policy to ensure implications are addressed.  The Head of Operations explained that the Strategic Transport Group was established with members and officers (and members of the public by invitation) to scrutinise transport policy, opportunities and initiatives regionally, locally and nationally and that a note will be provided from the Group regarding information from the City Region shadow authority.

Following discussion, it was noted that transport is a key priority of the Economy and Development Committee and that the Strategic Transport Group will feed its findings into the Economy and Development Select Committee.  To avoid duplication, it was noted that Committees members can be involved in the lead up to the review of LDP through Joint Select Committee scrutiny.