Agenda item

To present the report of the Head of Profession (HR and Transformation).

The report of the Head of Profession (HR) and Transformation incorporating the Corporate Scorecard for Quarter 3 2018/19 was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report portrayed the position of the Council against its operational objectives as outlined and agreed at the beginning of the year at the end of the third quarter.

The Portfolio Member for Corporate Business reported that overall the Scorecard reflects the very good performance of services, and the best performance against the Performance Indicators at the end of Quarter 3 since the Council began monitoring and tracking performance in this format. The report highlights three areas where performance is below target, two of which are in Adults’ Services – PM20a: the percentage of adults who completed a period of re-ablement and have a reduced package of care and support 6 months later and PAM/025 (PM19): the rate of people kept in hospital while waiting for social care per 1,000 population aged 75+; the third underperforming area (PAM018) is in the Regulation and Economic Development Service and relates to the percentage of all planning applications determined in time. The report refers to factors which have contributed to the below target performance in those areas and outlines the mitigating actions that will be taken to improve performance by Quarter 4.

The Portfolio Member referred to People Management and confirmed that sickness absence levels are on a par with the figure for the same quarter in 2017/18 namely 2.69 working days lost per FTE days. There continues to be assurance that Services are following procedure in accordance with the managing absence policy.

In relation to Customer Service the number of registered users of both AppMôn and the Council’s website continues to grow which is a positive result in light of the delayed release of the new Council website because of technical issues. It is expected that once the new website is up and running it will lead to increased use of online forms and online contact as well as online payments. Due to a long-term sickness absence within the team responsible for collating data, it is not possible to report on Customer Complaints or FOI requests for the quarter. In Social Services, the rate of written responses to complaints within timescale in Children and Families’ Services continues to fall short of target with no written response having been provided within timescale for 13 of the 27 Stage 1 complaints - although for 22 of those complaints a discussion with the complainant was held within timescale. The written response rate to complaints within Children and Families’ Services has been highlighted as an area for improvement by the SLT. The Portfolio Member said that Appendix B to the report provides an overview of the performance to date of the Council’s current service transformation projects.

In the subsequent Committee discussion of the report, the following issues were raised –

•           That the report conveys an improving picture of Council Service performance with some pockets of underperformance. The challenge is to maintain and consolidate this level of performance into Quarter 4 and beyond whilst addressing the specific areas where performance is lagging.

•           That timely response to complaints by Children and Families’ Services is highlighted in the report as an issue and has been a source of underperformance in previous quarters. Is there an additional role for the Children’s Services Improvement Panel in supporting and monitoring improvement?

•           That the Scorecard indicates a downward trend in performance for processing and determining planning applications on time due partly to a staff absence and heavy workload in shaping the new planning system. What actions are being taken to overcome these difficulties?

•           That there has been a year on year decline since 2016/17 in performance with regard to the percentage of adults who completed a period of re-ablement and have a reduced package of care and support 6 months later; performance remains below target in Quarter 3 2018/19. What is being done to reverse the decline and raise performance to target level?

•           That attendance at work in the primary schools sector is an area ragged as RED whilst for the secondary sector it is ragged GREEN. What accounts for the disparity in performance and what plans does the Learning Service have to support primary schools to improve attendance at work?

•           That performance in relation to the percentage of Year 11 leavers not in Education, Training or Employment (NEET) is shown as being in the lower quartile (RED). There is no performance or target information to provide context.

•           Whether there are any risks to the Council because of the high rate of Delayed Transfer of Care?

•           Whether there are any specific obstacles to raising performance in relation to RTWs to target level/GREEN RAG rating?

Clarifications/explanations were provided by Officers and Portfolio Members as follows -

•           That the performance of Children’s Services in terms of holding a conversation with complainants is good but the Service has not been as effectual in providing a written response within time. The situation is improving. In Quarter 1, out of 5 complaints 2 received written responses within time; for Quarter 2, 7 out of 14 complaints had a written response within time and for Quarter 3 a written response was provided within time to 5 out of 8 complaints. In the 3 cases where a written reply was not issued within time – one was due to the Social Worker being on leave, the second required a multiple response where the complainant was asked to agree to a time extension and the third was delayed due to the workload of the Service Manager at the time. The response process has now been amended to provide informal resolution of a complaint within 48 hours; a countdown process has been put in place so that service managers are reminded of how many days they have remaining in which to issue a written response and, in the event that a Service Manager has to deal with several complaints, the work is distributed among staff so that the complainant is not kept waiting for a reply. The Children’s Services Improvement Panel currently has a full work programme and it is not deemed appropriate to ask it to undertake additional work in relation to monitoring complaints.

•           That workloads in the Planning Service have increased both in terms of volume and complexity; this has been compounded by vacant posts and sickness absence at the level of professional planning officer who assess planning applications. Re-structuring has taken place and appointments have been made. The staff structure will be looked at again to establish whether any areas need to be strengthened further.

•           That with regard to performance in relation to the percentage of adults who completed a period of re-ablement and have a reduced package of care 6 months later, although the Service’s approach to re-ablement has remained consistent some of the cases presenting recently have involved complex needs with the result that the scope to improve the situation of the individuals concerned is reduced in comparison with what the Service has been able to achieve historically. Performance against the indicator is also influenced by the small number of cases involved. It is therefore considered that the recent decline in performance is due to these specific factors and does not signify an ongoing trend.

•           That with regard to improving attendance at work in schools, considerable work has been undertaken in the secondary sector to support schools to improve their sickness absence rate and this is reflected in the improved performance. In the primary sector, 10 schools with higher rates of sickness absence have been identified and have been targeted for support to ensure they are implementing the appropriate sickness absence management processes. Early indications suggest that this intervention is yielding results in most of the targeted schools. The Authority is committed to working with primary schools to address sickness absence rates and to ensure that they adhere to agreed procedures for managing sickness absence knowing also that there are pressures on teaching staff.

•           That with regard to NEETs, the Learning Service is aware of the circumstances of the 27 individuals who come within this category. Some of the 27 individuals are not in employment, education or training due to mental health issues, due to homelessness, and due to parenthood or in one case because of a refusal to engage. The ADTRAC project which seeks to support young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are classified as NEETs to get a job or apply for training is now up and running in Ynys Môn and is beginning to have an impact.

•           That with regard to Delayed Transfer of Care, the newly commissioned  patch based Domiciliary Care contract is beginning to have a positive impact on the figures, and  performance in Q3 (1.53) has improved on both the performance  in Q2 (1.79) and more significantly on that in Q1 (2.30).The focus of work currently is on ensuring sufficient capacity to meet increasing demand in order to be able to address any concern with regard to performance in Q4 and collaboratively with the Health Board, to ensure that the data coding process is robust and that no clients are incorrectly coded.

•           That with regard to Return to Work Interviews (RTWs), part of the challenge lies in being able to meet the timescales for conducting the interviews in circumstances where the Line Manager may be away from work or where staff are based off-site e.g. cleaners, home carers etc.  Conducting RTWs online would mean losing the personal contact which a face to face interview provides and not every member of staff has access to the internet.

Having considered all the information presented as well as the clarifications provided by the Officers/Portfolio Members on the points raised, it was resolved that the Corporate Scrutiny Committee –

•           Notes the areas which the Senior Leadership Team is managing to secure improvements into the future as outlined in the report in relation to Adults’ Services, the Planning Service, Attendance at Work and Complaints’ Management arrangements in Children’s Services, and that it

•           Recommends the mitigation measures for those areas as set out in the report.

NO ADDITIONAL ACTION WAS PROPOSED