Agenda item

Report from the Assistant Chief Executive.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet:

1.    Note the overall position in relation to the Year Ahead Delivery Plan activities.

2.    Note the Quarter 2 data for the Council Plan performance measures.
 

3.    Note that a progress report covering the remainder of the year will be presented to Cabinet in July 2025. 

Councillors Pitchley, Tarmey and Yasseen, left the meeting during the discussions on this item.

The Chair invited the Leader and Chief Executive to introduce the report. The Leader explained this report was the regular update on the Council Plan performance, indicating where the Council was on its activities and the impact of some of those on the wider borough.

The Year Ahead Delivery Plan provided an updated position up to December 2024. In terms of the ‘Every neighbourhood thriving’ theme, ward plans had been agreed. The pavement parking hotspot activities were underway, and a register of locations was being compiled. The new pedestrian crossing at Upper Wortley Road had been opened. Most of the Towns and Villages fund works had been completed but there were a small number left outstanding. A scheme at Brinsworth had been delay due to the complex legalities however work was due to begin in a number of weeks.

Moving on to the ‘People are safe, healthy, and live well’ theme, it was noted that the new Learning disability Strategy and the all-age Autism Strategy were in place. Construction had begun at Canklow where the new Castle View facility on Warden Street would be supporting people with complex support needs, and acting as a hub for wider community activity, learning and skill development. More than 1.5 million pounds worth of food vouchers were issued to children from low-income households through the school holidays.

It was noted that the Housing event focussed on securing a pipeline of future investment in new affordable homes was delayed until Quarter 4, as the South Yorkshire Development Partnership Forum was brought forward from Quarter 4 to Quarter 2. Regarding the new homes at Eastwood, which were part of the Housing Growth Programme, these were delayed.

In terms of the ‘Every child able to fulfil their potential’ theme it was noted that the complete refurbishment of a second two-bedroom residential children’s home to make sure Children in Care and young people can stay in the borough had taken place, with three further homes being on track for completion. During the summer period, consultation was undertaken on the new Water Splash facility at Clifton Park with children, parents and carers. The baby pack scheme was going live, where mothers to be reaching the 26 weeks check with their midwives would be offered the opportunity to sign up to receive a baby pack. The Children’s Capital of Culture programme was underway, and it was worth nothing that no actions were off track in this theme.

Within the ‘Expanding economic opportunity’ theme the hotel and cinema at Forge Island opened in Quarter 2 2024-25. However, new eateries on the site had been delayed, but negotiations had taken place with alternative operators and were in advanced stages. The demolition of 3-7 Corporation Street had taken place. The redevelopment plans for Wath Library and Dinnington High Street were on track. The Levelling Up Fund schemes at Wentworth Woodhouse and Gulliver’s Skills Academy were slightly delayed but expected to be completed within the next six months.

As part of the ‘A cleaner, greener local environment’ theme, it was highlighted that the Green Flag award had been achieved for Clifton Park; Greasbrough Park; Rother Valley Country Park; and Thrybergh Country Park. Copies of the Storm Babet report was distributed to residents and businesses affected by the flooding. The structural repair of Centenary Way Viaduct remedial works was completed nine weeks ahead of schedule. The submission of finalised Outline Business Case for Rotherham Mainline Station was now anticipated by February 2025 to South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and May 2025 to the Department for Transport. A review was being undertaken to fully incorporate the wider economic benefits.

There were delays to the heat decarbonisation plan due to delays in the construction of the Rotherham heat network. This was a technical piece of work which hinged on a private sector partner running it. It was noted that there was a back up plan in place around air source heat pumps but that would require a separate piece of work to be undertaken. No suitable Council site had yet been identified for low carbon energy generation. A wider assessment of suitable land across the borough was being undertaken, but completion of timelines remained uncertain.

Under the ‘One Council’ theme it was indicated that the Council’s Values had been refreshed and were relaunched following an internal staff engagement exercise.

At the Chair’s invitation the Chief Executive highlighted some of the performance measures, noting that thirty-three performance measures had hit their targets in quarter two. The Council was outperforming on it’s new volunteering opportunities. The number of people who thought antisocial behaviour in their area was a big problem showed a decrease of about 10% compared to quarter one. The local principal road networks and local unclassified road networks were classed as green status, which meant they were working well and above their end of year target.

The Council had a steady trajectory for reducing the number of children in in care because they were being supported in other ways. The Council was outperforming on the number of engagements with library services where people were getting held with skills or access to jobs. Good progress was being made on digital transactions, meaning the Council was making it easier for people to contact it in ways that helped them.

The Council had thirty-four effective enforcement actions against fly-tipping and over two thousand, four hundred and forty-five effective enforcement actions for other environmental crimes.

It was noted that twenty-four performance measures had missed the target in quarter two however work was being undertaken to ensure these were met by year end. The Council had eighty-one antisocial behaviour and community protection notices issued in quarters one and two with a target of two hundred at the end of year. The Council was noting an increase in the number of people entering long-term residential care and whilst every individual was treated as they needed to be treated, the Council would want to see less people entering care either because they did not need to, or alternative settings were available. The Council’s target for two-year-olds accessing early education places was eighty-five percent.  The Council was currently at eighty-three percent however the national average was seventy-four percent so whilst above the national average the Council was not quite at the level it wanted so further work was being undertaken.

The Chair thanked the Leader and Chief Executive for their presentation and invited questions. 

In response to a question by the Vice-Chair the Leader explained that increasing costs associated with a capital project would not known as slippage.  Slippage was schemes that were not delivered on time, so the funding needed to go back in the program or that something in the scheme required further attention.  The cost projections for a project would not be an indicator of slippage. Where something happened, the initial feeling would be of frustration, but the relevant Cabinet Member and Strategic Director would converse to understand the reasons behind the delay to that capital scheme. Some contingency was built into schemes but sometimes there are unforeseen aspects that need addressing to bring the scheme back on track.  The Council had a process to look at those type of capital schemes across the board to understand the lessons learned to minimise the risk for future projects.

The Vice-Chair noted the findings of an Internal Audit report that had been considered by the Audit Committee and sought clarification on who commissioned the report.  The Leader explained that the capital programme was much larger than it was a number of years ago and though various reasons the Council had lost a lot of capacity amongst its officers. This meant that when funding became available, the Council was not always as prepared, with draft projects, as it would want to be.  The report referred to emerged from the instances previous mentioned to ensure the funding received was well spent. It was also noted that the review mentioned was now out of date as a result of the activity taking place in Finance addressing those issues. 

The Chief Executive noted that part of Internal Audit’s work programme consisted of planned audits that had been requested by chief officers, in conjunction with the Cabinet Members as part of good governance practices. This enabled the Council to identify aspects, learn lessons and through the reports considered by the Audit Committee in a transparent way, show members that actions were being taken. A concern was expressed that if people were critical of audit reports, then officers would not commission them when the purpose was to shine a light on a topic in a transparent manner, to provide learning and improve services. In particular the Council was keen to understand the challenges around the capital programme, one of which was ensuring there were people with the right skills available. The Council would not be able to recruit some of those people, so would look to develop its own staff where possible but be clear where external skills were required.  The report was commissioned by the Strategic Director for Finance and Customer Service following discussions with herself and the Monitoring Officer.

It was noted that there would always be challenges to the capital programme, due to skills, commissioning needs, and increased costs but that did not mean the Council did not want to deliver as much as it could within the available resources.

The Strategic Director for Finance and Customer Service indicated the report was commissioned to increase understanding and improve the service provided.  It was not felt that these issues affected all capital schemes but there were a number which had cost more than originally anticipated and there was a need to understand the reasons for that.

The Vice-Chair raised concerns about the need for documented procedures and guidelines to be available for officers and indicated the importance of the audit report. Concerns around slippage with various projects had been raised previously.  The Chair noted the audit report had been produced as a result of officer’s concerns and that it had been considered through the appropriate channels. The Audit Committee had acted and would monitor the outcomes of the report.

Councillor Blackham sought clarification if the land associated with the Dinnington scheme had now been acquired as this could be quite a time-consuming process. The Leader confirmed that the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) was in progress, and it was hoped that conclusions could be reached quite quickly however a particular time limit could not be guaranteed and the Council was using its best endeavours to being the scheme back on track.

Councillor Yasseen welcomed the creation of the Learning disability Strategy and the all-age Autism Strategy, along with the impact of investment in free-school meals.  Looking at Appendix One, it was acknowledged that two data points could exist at the same time however in terms of the performance measures, it was queried if there was confidence that these would revert, and the decline be addressed in the next quarter?  The Leader explained that there were many things associated with performance measures that were beyond the Council’s control, some that were and other aspects in the middle so it would be wrong to say there was confidence that they would revert, but the report provided a reasonable and factual assessment of the work being undertaken to achieve those performance measures.

Councillor Yasseen welcomed the publication of the ward plans but expressed disappointment that the new starter apprenticeships had not been implemented as it was felt there were two aspects that had not progressed.  The first was the employment of Under 25’s and the second was the recruitment of those with a Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) background. The Leader clarified that a member of staff within the Assistant Chief Executive’s directorate was tasked with that work to understand where the best places were for the Council to be engaging with people to undertake recruitment. One of the issues identified was the need for a specialist position to hold a masters degree, for example, however if a person held a masters degree, they were probably aged 23 or older so the window for recruiting them as an under 25 was quite narrow.

The Assistant Chief Executive explained that work had been undertaken with communities, partner agencies and voluntary and community groups to engage with a large number of residents to understand the barriers faced. The Council was working with Sheffield Hallam University and had undertaken a range of events, which was resulting in more applications coming through.

Councillor Yasseen challenged the Council’s target of eighty-five percent of 2-year-olds taking up early education, querying if it was too ambitious? The Assistant Director, Education & Inclusion clarified the national average was seventy-five percent and the Council wanted to set an aspirational target, which was expected to be met by the end of the year. This showed Rotherham’s commitment to early education.

The Vice-Chair noted the audit report discussed earlier only had scope for three projects and there was no guarantee that those issues did not happen across other projects.  It was also noted there had been a lot of ice and snow on pavements and it was queried how the Council could improve its outcomes to ensure the paths and roads were gritted more effectively.

The Leader took the opportunity to thank staff who had been working twenty-four-seven across shifts for the last week or so.  Once snow was on the pavements and became frozen it was hard to manager.  Grit was put on the roads and then people drove on them which helped keep the highways clear. Staff had been out hand salting the pavements. The borough had a lot of snow wardens in place to help as well.  In response it was noted that a written response would be provided to OSMB regarding how the Council went about insuring its snow wardens.

Upon the vote the following was resolved:

Resolved: That the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board supported the recommendations that Cabinet:

1.    Note the overall position in relation to the Year Ahead Delivery Plan activities.

2. Note the Quarter 2 data for the Council Plan performance measures.

3.    Note that future a progress report covering the remainder of the year will be presented to Cabinet in July 2025. 

Further actions that arose from discussions were that:

·       Information regarding how the Council insured its snow wardens would be provided to OSMB.