Agenda item

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

The report of the Head of Profession (HR) and Transformation incorporating the first Scorecard of the 2019/20 financial year portraying the Council’s position against its operational objectives at the end of Quarter 1 was presented for the Committee’s consideration and scrutiny.

The Leader of the Council highlighted that a lot of work had been done over the summer months to revamp the scorecard to give it a more strategic outlook; this has been achieved by better aligning the corporate monitoring KPIs to the Council’s three strategic objectives (para 2.1 refers) and by removing some KPIs deemed too operational for the scorecard. Since the 2018/19 Q4 scorecard report was discussed in June, 2019, the Public Accountability Measures (PAM) have been published by Data Cymru. Anglesey’s standing nationally has showed a further improvement with the Authority having the most amount of indicators in the upper quartile throughout Wales. The Leader added that at the end of Q1 the majority of PIs are performing well against their targets but with 5 having started the year as underperforming which are designated Red or Amber on the scorecard. It is too early at Q1 however to be drawing conclusions in terms of performance trends from the picture presented by the scorecard at this point in time.

In response to questions by the Committee regarding the reported decline in aspects of performance in housing, planning and children’s services during Quarter 1 and whether any additional mitigation measures are being considered to improve performance, Officers provided clarification and assurance as follows –

•           With regard to improving the situation into Q2 onward in achieving the target timescale for letting lettable units of accommodation (excluding Difficult to Lets - DTLs) (21 days being the target compared to actual average performance of 25.6 days therefore showing Red on the scorecard – Indicator 34) the Head of Housing Services advised that a new streamlined process has been introduced which should result in units being let in a timelier manner. The Housing Service lets about 260 units annually of which around 20% are known as DTLs. The new streamlined process involves the Housing Solutions team contacting both the Housing Support team and the Homelessness team when identified DTLs become available to establish whether any of their registered clients match the requirements and are suitable for the units in question. As progress is made with this indicator, performance against Indicator 35 – Landlord Services: percentage of rent lost to properties being empty will also improve as the more time it takes to let lettable units of accommodation then the higher the rent lost. As an update the Officer said that performance for Indicator 34 as at 9 September had improved to 21.4 days.

•           With regard to the percentage of planning enforcement cases investigated within 84 days - Indicator 43 (Red on the scorecard with a performance of 55% against a target of 80%) the Chief Planning Officer advised that an experienced Senior Manager has recently been appointed to provide the Enforcement Team with robust and focused leadership. Significant work has been undertaken over the summer months to get to grips with the historical backlog and whilst this work is ongoing the team will also be looking to deal with enforcement cases in a more timely way in future. Good progress has therefore been made with the current performance demonstrating a marked increase over every quarter in 2018/19 as new processes are embedded and work on clearing the backlog continues. It is anticipated that this improvement will continue into the year ahead. The Committee noted that it would be helpful, should systems permit, for community councils to be kept informed of planning applications in their area or as a first step, for applications to be designated by ward.

•           With regard to the percentage of child assessments completed in time – Indicator 25 (Amber on the Scorecard with a performance of 85.32% against a target of 90%) the Portfolio Member for Social Services advised that the underperformance was due to the lack of management in one practice group which has since been rectified. A new process has been introduced where the data is collected in a different way that should lead to an improvement in Q2.

•           Councillor Alun Roberts, a member of the Finance Scrutiny Panel highlighted that a digital programme is being developed that will help the Panel delve into financial matters in greater depth particularly in terms of tracking and establishing patterns of expenditure within services. The Committee noted that it would be useful were it to receive a demonstration of the programme’s capabilities once it has been implemented and is fully up and running.

Having considered the report and the assurances provided by Officers on the issues discussed, the Committee resolved to accept the report, to note the areas which the Senior Leadership Team is managing to secure improvements into the future and to recommend the mitigation measures as outlined to the Executive.

ADDITIONAL ACTION - Information about the number of Difficult to Let (DTLs) units to be incorporated in the Quarter 2 report to the Committee.