Agenda item

To submit a report by the Head of Profession – HR and Transformation.

The report of the Head of Profession (HR) and Transformation incorporating the Corporate Scorecard for Quarter 1 2024/25 was presented for the Executive’s consideration. The scorecard report is used to monitor the performance of the Council’s key performance indictors in delivering its day-to-day activities that underpin the delivery of the Council Plan.

Councillor Carwyn Jones, Portfolio Member for Corporate Business and Customer Experience provided an overview of the scorecard monitoring report in its new format which brought the contents into closer alignment with the Council Plan and strategic objectives. He reported that the majority (94%) of indicators with targets monitored during the quarter performed well against their targets with there being some examples of strong performances in Adults’ Services, Children and Families’ Services, Housing Services, the Planning Service, the Waste Management Service and Leisure Service which all reflect a positive start to the year. Other areas in which the performance met or exceeded the target include street cleaning, clearance of fly-tipping incidents, complaint handling and staff absences. Two indicators that underperformed in the first quarter were in relation to inspections of high-risk businesses to ensure compliance with food hygiene legislation and responses to FOI requests within timescale. The report refers to the reasons for the missed targets as well as the planned remedial actions and confirms that these areas will be subject to monitoring and oversight by the Leadership Team to ensure improvements in performance going forward. As a number of the performance indicators are new to the scorecard, many currently do not have targets and are there to set a baseline with some data not available until the end of the year. As the year progresses the scorecard will become more fully populated and trends will be monitored from the second quarter with the aim of setting targets in in 2025/26.

Councillor Carwyn Jones expressed the Executive’s appreciation of the work put in by the Council’s staff to produce such encouraging results in the first quarter of 2024/25 which provide a firm foundation on which to build for the remainder of the year.

Councillor Douglas Fowlie, Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee reported from the committee’s 17 September meeting which had considered the 2024/25 Q1 scorecard. In recommending the scorecard report to the Executive, Scrutiny members had noted the positive performance of the majority of the Council’s key indicators at the end of the period and had sought assurance that the two under-performing indicators would improve and that work with services would commence to ensure that those KPIs for which there is no data for the first quarter can be reported upon in the second quarter onwards to enable a better understanding of performance trends.

The Chair thanked Scrutiny for the feedback and also added his own thanks to the Council’s staff for their work in delivering commendable first quarter results. He referred specifically to his own portfolio responsibilities including Children and Families Services and Housing Services and was pleased to note the excellent performance of the indicators for those services. Although there is no target for them in Q1 the data for homelessness applications and households placed in emergency and temporary accommodation is an indication of the challenges currently facing both the Council and society.  He also welcomed the scorecard’s revised format as easy to understand and to keep track of the Council’s performance.  Councillors Neville Evans and Alun Roberts also acknowledged the staff efforts in their portfolio areas and the latter referred to the newly published CIW improvement Check Letter in relation to the Council’s Adults’ Services which has identified a number of strengths and positive practices within the services and provides independent assurance of the Council’s performance in those areas.

Councillor Robin Williams, Deputy Leader in referring to the two underperforming indicators highlighted that only two additional inspections of businesses were required to bring the performance to target in the case of indicator - Economy 07, and in respect of indicator - Whole Council Health -12, that 205 of the 247 FOI requests received in the quarter, which is a significant amount, have been responded to within the time limits. 

It was resolved to accept the Scorecard Monitoring report for Quarter 1 2024/25 and to note the areas which the Leadership Team is exploring and investigating to manage and secure further improvements into the future. These are in relation to Freedom of Information requests responded to within timescale; the percentage of high-risk businesses that have been inspected in accordance with the food hygiene standards and working with services to ensure new KPIs are reported on from Q2 onwards to enable better understanding of performance trends.