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 4 2022/23 was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The scorecard report portrayed the Council’s end of year position against matters relating to customer service, people and financial management and performance management.

The report was presented by Councillor Carwyn Jones, Portfolio Member for Corporate Business and Customer Experience who provided a summary of the contents confirming that 91% of indicators were performing to, or within 5% of target. The report highlighted a number of positive performance stories in relation to homelessness prevention, Adults’ Services, timeliness of planning decision-making, improvements in road condition, street cleanliness, the number of empty homes brought back into use and the recovery of visitor numbers to leisure centres to pre- pandemic levels. The contribution made by the Council’s staff to this positive performance over the year is recognised and commended. Where performance remains off target, those areas, specifically the percentage of FOI requests dealt with within timescale, average number of days taken to deliver Disabled Facilities Grant and percentage of planning appeals dismissed are being investigated and monitored by the Leadership Team to secure improvements into the future. To close, Councillor Carwyn Jones said that he hoped the report provided Scrutiny with assurance that performance is important to the Council, that it is being managed robustly and is being given due attention both politically and operationally.

The Committee welcomed the report as reflecting positive progress over the year overall as well as consistency of performance. Members discussed the Scorecard report in detail and challenged the Portfolio Members on several issues including how to raise awareness of  good performance both internally and externally, customer service in relation to telephone call monitoring and quality of responses, the delivery of Disabled Facilities grants and adaptations, and management of children on the Child Protection Register (CPR) – specifically performance against Indicator 23 and how this can be reported to reflect the true situation and whether it should be a matter for the Social Services Scrutiny Panel to look into. Consideration was also given to financial management, specifically the projected underspend on the 2022/23 budget and how that might help the Council in addressing expected additional service pressures in 2023/24. Further questions were asked about the performance management framework in general including how actions to tackle underperforming areas/indicators are monitored to ensure they are meeting performance aims and objectives. The Portfolio Members and Officers responded to the issues raised as follows –

·                Explained that the best way of demonstrating that the Council is performing well and delivering services that improve outcomes for the people of Anglesey is through regulators’ reports many of which have been positive for the Council recently and testify to the progress and improvements made. Recognising, promoting, and celebrating successes is also a matter of informal internal communication and should perhaps be the starting point. It is the intention to incorporate such messages in the publicity process for the Council’s Corporate Plan 2023-28 in the coming weeks highlighting that the Council’s new strategic aims for the period are based not only on sound performance, but also on the commitment and resilience of the workforce who have maintained performance in a difficult and challenging year which has seen the Council facing additional demands due to the cost-of-living crisis. External messaging needs to be proportionate recognising that whilst performance is good across many services there is room for improvement in others. From an elected member perspective, opportunities to raise awareness of good performance are provided by the town and community councils where good practice can be shared and promoted.

·                Confirmed that a customer experience project is ongoing which covers several aspects of customer care including the telephone system. Whilst the number of telephone calls are capable of being recorded, there is currently no means of monitoring quality in terms of how the customer is dealt with and the responses given. Ensuring this capability is a key consideration in upgrading the system. However, the Council does also receive direct feedback from customers through the Complaints and Compliments process which reflects people’s experiences of the service they have received and whether they have been treated well or not so well.

·                Reported that the decline in performance with regard to delivering a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) is attributable to difficulties in gaining access to some properties, increased workload due to a post-Covid increase in applications as well as a lack of contractors to undertake the work. The Head of Housing Services clarified that whilst it is likely that the target days will need to be increased in 2023/24, the DFG Policy and process will be also reviewed in 2023/24 including operational practices along with the agreement with the Care and Repair agency mindful of the fact that numbers have increased but that the service needs to manage resources to meet the demand.

·                The Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer explained that the forecast £1.212m underspend for the 2022/23 financial year includes a number of one-off items such as grants, better than budgeted for income from various sources, staff vacancies and the utilisation of reserves to ease pressures on Social Services as contributing to the projected end of year outcome without which the position would have been different. He referred to the Council’s reserves position which at £13.9m has been bolstered by the underspend but reminded the Committee that £3.8m of reserves has been committed to balancing the 2023/24 budget and that once reserves have been used, they are gone and cannot be used again. He outlined the risks around the 2024/25 budget setting process especially in relation to pay increases, energy costs, general inflation and pressure on specific service budgets and said that the underspend would provide a financial cushion for the Council in facing the challenges ahead.

Further questions were asked about the significant underspends in 2020/21 and 2021/22 and the increases in Council Tax for those years with a point being made that consideration needs to be given to the rate of Council Tax increase going forward in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and when there are people who are struggling but who are not eligible for Council Tax support.  The Director of Function (Resources)/ Section 151 Officer clarified that the underspends for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years were due to the additional funding provided by Welsh Government to cover Covid-19 related expenditure which created significant additional income for the Council. Councillor Robin Williams, Portfolio Member for Finance said that Anglesey has for some years been among the lowest charging councils in Wales for Council Tax and remains so; he reiterated that his position as Portfolio Holder for Finance was to keep Council Tax increases as low as possible for the people of Anglesey while ensuring that the Council’s budget is managed in a prudent and responsible way.

·                The Head of Adults’ Services confirmed that children are only removed from the Child Protection Register (CPR) when it is appropriate and safe to do so and when the risk of harm is considered to no longer apply. Indicator 23 is historic and refers to a time when children remained on the CPR for a length of time without consideration being given to individual cases. The Safeguarding Officer has not expressed any concern about the performance in relation to the indicator which raises the question of whether it adds value with the key consideration being the welfare of children meaning that they should be removed from the CPR for reasons of safety and not to meet a target. He would be happy for the Social Services Scrutiny Panel to look at the indicator and/or suggest an alternative or it could scrutinise the Child Protection Annual report with the most recent report having raised no concerns in this regard. Councillor Robin Williams, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Member for Finance emphasised that setting the data in context and providing a narrative explanation are important in understanding the true situation and that such targets should not be set arbitrarily.

·                That the Performance Management process and approach includes setting and implementing a plan along with monitoring and reporting on progress and achievement. Whilst targets within the Corporate Scorecard are based on historic performance they are also informed by knowledge of current risks and the Council’s own aspirations which taken together ensure that targets are appropriate, that they are challenging but are also achievable. Underperforming areas are investigated by the Leadership Team including how they can be rectified. Measures to improve performance and implementing them are discussed with Heads of Service. The Chief Executive emphasised that measures must be connected and have regard of the local context including forces outside the Council’s control which must be considered when reporting on performance against the KPIs. To ensure that indicators are meaningful, they are challenged by the Executive and Portfolio Members in informal discussions. Currently a new corporate scorecard is being developed which links into the Council’s new Corporate Plan taking account of how external influences feed into the process so that the Council is not looking at areas that are red because of factors beyond its control, and taking account also of trends over time which can highlight events e.g. cost of living crisis, that can explain changes in performance.

Having reviewed the Corporate Scorecard for Q4 2022/23 and having noted the responses of Portfolio Members and Officers to the issues raised it was resolved –

·                To note the Corporate Scorecard report for Q4 2022/23 including the areas of improvement together with the areas which the Leadership Team is exploring and investigating to manage and secure further improvements into the future in relation to FOI requests, DFG grants and planning appeals and,

·                To recommend the scorecard report and mitigating measures outlined therein to the Executive.

Action: Social Services Scrutiny Panel to look in detail at whether Performance Indicator 23 (The average length of time for all children who were on the CPR during the year, and who were de-registered during the year) remains an appropriate and relevant measure of performance.