Issue - meetings

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

Having considered the report and the updates provided by Officers at the meeting, 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 PROPOSED: The Housing Service to provide data on managing homelessness to the Committee’s next meeting

The report of the Head of Profession (HR) and Transformation incorporating the Corporate Scorecard for Quarter 3 2020/21 was presented for the Committee’s consideration and scrutiny.

Councillor Dafydd Rhys Thomas, Portfolio Member for Corporate Business introduced the report highlighting that during Quarter 3, Wales was put into a 2 week national firebreak on the 23 October, 2020 and also into a national lockdown (level 4) on the 19 December, 2020; these lockdowns have had, and continue to have an impact on Council services. However, it is encouraging to note that 88% of the Corporate Health Performance indicators monitored are continuing to perform well against target and are ragged Green or Yellow with a standout performance in staff absence management - 4.69 days lost to absence per FTE in the period against a target of 6.91 days lost to absence per FTE.  All indicators under the digital service shift subheading have seen performances that have surpassed previous annual results during the pandemic. The importance of Social Media in communicating messages and positively influencing behaviours during the pandemic cannot be underestimated – the Council’s social media channels have seen an increase of 8,500 followers from the end of Qtr.3 2019/20. There are currently 15 Performance Management indicators (33%) for which the collection of the data has either been cancelled by Welsh Government or are currently not being collected because of the redeployment of resources to deal with the pandemic – details of the areas affected are provided in section 4.2 of the report. For the remaining indicators reported in Q3 (27 indicators), 74% are performing above target or within 5% tolerance of their targets. Eight indicators are underperforming against their targets and are highlighted as Red or Amber on the scorecard; these are in relation to Public Protection, Children and Families’ Services, Housing Service and the Planning Service. Explanatory information is provided in the report along with proposed mitigations. It should be noted however,  that feedback from local planning agents indicates that Anglesey’s Planning Service is the only one in the region that is currently continuing to provide a near to normal service as possible.

The Head of Profession (HR) AND Transformation referred to the key role of the Council’s Communications Service during the pandemic and clarified that a number of factors have contributed to the improved performance with regard to staff absence management e.g.  increased hygiene awareness and observance due to  Covid-19 regulations resulting in the reduction of “bugs and viruses” as seen in the near eradication in 2020/21 of the flu. The Programme, Business Planning and Performance Manager said that the report covers the most unstable period which saw two lockdowns and increased numbers affected by Covid 19.It is especially encouraging therefore to note that the Q3 trend in the majority of the areas ragged Red is one of improvement from Q2.

In discussing the report and acknowledging the contribution made by staff in maintaining performance in very challenging times, the Committee raised the following points to which the Officers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3