Issue - meetings

To submit a report by the Head of Corporate Transformation.

It was resolved:

·        To note the areas which the Senior Leadership Team is managing to secure improvements into the future as set out in paragraphs 1.3.1 to 1.3.5 of the report.

·        To note the mitigation measures as outlined in the said paragraphs.

The report of the Head of Corporate Transformation incorporating the Corporate Scorecard for the Quarter 1 2016/17 reporting period was presented for the Executive’s consideration.

The Portfolio Member reported that the first scorecard of the 2016/17 financial year shows the Council’s performance against agreed targets.This year the emphasis will be more on performance as improving performance influences many other areas and particular attention will be given to performance relative to that of other local authorities. To that end there will be renewed scrutiny of national indicators issued by the Welsh Government and further work will be undertaken on areas presenting Amber or Red against their targets for the year. Notwithstanding a partial improvement in sickness absence figures, the management and reduction of sickness absence rates will continue to be monitored as part of the ongoing endeavour to further improve the sickness absence figures to meet the corporate target of 10 days per FTE and to address specific long term sickness cases.

The Corporate Transformation and Programme Manager said that the Corporate Scrutiny Committee in scrutinising the Quarter 1 Scorecard at its meeting on 12th September, 2016 had noted with regard to recommendation 1.3.1 that indicators against which performance has slipped as well as those where the performance needs to be improved should be highlighted; that it was of the opinion that recommendation 1.3.2 (achievable sickness targets for all services are accepted based on historical data), should not be actioned pending the completion and presentation to the Scrutiny Committee of

the Wales Audit Office work relating to sickness; and that in accepting the mitigation measures outlined, the Committee decided that Heads of Service were not required to attend the meeting to give account for performance as it was deemed too soon in the financial year for any discernible patterns to emerge. However, the Committee determined that the Head of Children’s Services would be asked to attend at the end of the second quarter reporting period to scrutinise performance in this area.

Councillor R. Meirion Jones, Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee elaborated on the points raised by the Committee at its meeting on 12 September and he requested that the WAO report on sickness be presented to the Corporate Scrutiny Committee prior to its being reported through the

Executive and that the Corporate Scrutiny Committee’s recommendations from its 12th September meeting be presented to the Executive in full.

The Chair said that the reporting timeline is to be looked at to allow the Scrutiny Committees’ feedback to be presented to the Executive in writing in future. In the meantime, the Executive took full note of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee’s comments following its 12 September meeting.

It was resolved –

•  To note the areas which the Senior Leadership Team is managing to secure improvements into the future as set out in paragraphs 1.3.1 to 1.3.5 of the report.

•  To note the mitigation measures as outlined in the said paragraphs.