Agenda item

To submit a report by the Head of Corporate Transformation.

The report of the Head of Corporate Transformation incorporating the Corporate Scorecard for Quarter 2, 2017/18 was presented for the Executive’s consideration.

The Portfolio Member for Corporate Services reported that performance against the agreed indicators in the second quarter of 2017/18 has been generally positive with the majority of indicators performing well against their targets. However, there are three areas which have been highlighted as underperforming details of which are provided in section 2.3.3 along with the proposed mitigation measures aimed at securing improvement in Quarter 3. Section 2.3.7 of the report provides an update on improvements in Children’s Services as they link into the Performance Indicators on the Scorecard. With regard to People Management, the performance in relation to sickness absence rates at the end of Quarter 2 of 4.25 shows a further improvement when compared with the same period in 2016/17. The Senior Leadership Team recommends continuing with the regular service sickness challenge panels with an emphasis on adhering to policy expectations with support to be provided to those specific services who have missed their targets. In relation to Customer Service the underperformance in respect of late responses to complaints is largely attributable to Children’s Services which although they held a discussion with the complainant within timescales in the majority of cases, had failed to send timely written responses. With financial management, the projected overspend has reduced by £0.343m on that reported in the first quarter. Further details are provided in the Quarter 2 Revenue Budget monitoring report.

Councillor Aled Morris Jones, Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee reported from the Committee’s 13 November, 2017 meeting which had scrutinised the Quarter 2 performance. The Committee had noted that notwithstanding the improvement, the revenue budget is still projected to overspend by a significant amount at year end the pressure points being the Children and Families Service and the Learning Service. However, the Committee was encouraged by the sickness absence performance figure as well as the reduction in the number of children on the Child Protection Register.  

The Chair said that she welcomed the input of the Finance Scrutiny Panel which has asked the Heads of both the Children and Families Service and the Learning Service to provide an analysis of service expenditure in order to drill down to the reasons for overspending and to formulate a plan of action to address it. Also important in terms of providing ongoing support to carers and ensuring that their needs are being met is improving performance against PI Ll/18b – the percentage of carers who requested an assessment or review that had an assessment or review in their own right during the year which was presenting as Amber at the end of Quarter 2.

The Portfolio Member for Highways, Property and Waste informed the Executive that the Authority’s 75% recycling performance rate in Quarter 1 has been sustained into Quarter 2 making the Authority the highest performing authority in Wales for recycling at this time.

It was resolved –

•  To note the areas which the Senior Leadership Team are managing to secure improvements into the future as summarised in paragraphs 1.3.1 to 1.3.4 of the report.

•  To accept the mitigation measures as outlined.