Agenda item

To submit a report by the Head of Corporate Transformation as presented to the Executive on 30^th October, 2017.

The report of the Head of Transformation incorporating the Annual Performance Report (Improvement Plan) for 2016/17 was presented for the Committee’s consideration.  The report looks back at the performance of the Council for 2016/17 and the progress made against the improvement objectives as outlined in the 7 key areas in the 2015/16 Annual Delivery Document. A key part of the finalised Performance Report is an assessment of the Council’s performance against other local authorities in Wales.  The report highlights the achievements and areas of weakness as identified by National Strategic Indicators (NSIs) and Public Accountability Measures (PAMs).

The Portfolio Holder (Corporate Services) said that the Council is required to prepare and publish its annual Performance Report by 31^st October each year.  The statutory document which analyses performance over the previous financial year against those improvements and priorities as outlined in the Annual Delivery Document 2016/17 and the Corporate Plan 2013/17.  He said that it was encouraging to report the improvement in the Council’s performance in 2016/17.  He wished to thank the previous Administration of the Council (prior to the May 2017 local government elections) and the staff of the Council for their hard work in achieving, for the first time ever, as the Isle of Anglesey County Council is within the top four local authorities in Wales as regard to overall PI performance and seventh out of the 22 local authorities as regard to PIs in the top quartile performance.  The Portfolio Holder (Corporate Services) further said that the staff absence rates have decreased to 9.8 days per full time equivalent (FTE) for 2016/17 compared with 12 days per FTE in 2015/16.  This shows that constant monitoring and management actions has achieved improvement in staff absences.  He further referred to the achievement with recycling on the Island with the County Council moving from the lower middle quartile of the 22 local authorities in Wales (13^th position) in 2015/16 to the top quartile and 6^th position in Wales in 2016/17.  This  improvement demonstrates the intention to progress further over the forthcoming years to that 70% of household waste is recycled on Anglesey.

The Portfolio Holder further said that the Corporate Scrutiny Committee at its meeting held on 2 October, 2017 referred to one of the Council’s stated aims which is to ‘drive community regeneration through developing holistic town and community plans for the Island’s main settlements prioritising Holyhead, Llangefni and Amlwch’.  The Committee had noted that there was no mention of the plans for Amlwch as one of the named priority settlements and neither was any reference community regeneration plans for Beaumaris which was believed that it should be included in any renewal programme.  He noted that the Senior Leadership Team are to give attention to this matter.

Councillor Peter Rogers in response to the above statement as regard to the towns of Amlwch and Beaumairs being left out of the regeneration plans; he said that the village of Newborough is in dire need of investment and transformation as the village attracts high volume of tourism to the area. 

Councillor A.M. Jones said that on behalf of the Opposition Group he also wished to thank the staff for their hard work; it also reflects the performance achieved over the last four years.  He referred to the work achieved by the former Councillor Alwyn Rowlands in regard to Transformation and also Councillor J. Arwel Roberts in regard to the increase in waste recycling on the Island.  Councillor Jones further said that at the Corporate Scrutiny Committee held on the 2^nd of October, 2017 raised that the Performance Report covers the period of the previous Administration at the Council prior to the local government election in May 2017 and asked that this be clarified within the report; he reiterated that this should be incorporated within the final version of the report which is to be published on the Council’s website.

Councillor R.Ll. Jones referred to the aspirations of the electorate of the Island as to the services afforded by the Council and especially to the services requirements of the older generation.

The Deputy Leader said that he also wished to thank the Elected Members, Senior Leadership Team, Chief Officers and staff of the County Council on the achievement of the performance of the Council.  He requested that the staff be thanked for their work.

The Leader of the Council reiterated her appreciation to the staff of the Council for their work and especially during difficult austerity issues and cuts to services.  She noted that further work is needed to address matters within the highlighted underperforming services that has seen a percentage decrease in performance.

The Chief Executive said that he appreciated the comments as to the improvements of the services within the Council and he also wished to thank the Senior Leadership Team and staff for their work.  He said that Elected Members have worked successfully with the Officers of the Council to be able to achieve the improvement noted within the Annual Performance Report.

It was RESOLVED to accept and approve the Annual Performance Report 2016/17 for publication by the 31^st October, 2017 statutory deadline.