Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive

Cabinet Member:     Councillor Alam (in advisory role)

Commissioner:         Myers

Recommendations:

1.    That the overall position and direction of travel in relation to performance be noted

2.    That discussion be given to measures which have not progressed in accordance with the target set and the actions required to improve performance, including future performance clinics

3.    That the future performance reporting timetable for 2016/17 be noted. 

Further to Minute No. 26 of the meeting of Full Council held on 13^th July, 2016, consideration was given to the report detailing Quarter 3 performance for the Corporate Plan.

The Performance Report and Performance Scorecard (Appendices A and B) provided an analysis of the Council’s current performance against 14 key delivery outcomes and 103 measures (the Corporate Plan included 86 measures, however, a number of these included different measurable elements).  This report was based on the position of available data at the end of December, 2016, along with an overview of progress on key projects and activities which also contributed towards the delivery of the Corporate Plan.   

At the end of the third quarter (October – December 2016) 25 measures were progressing above or in line with the target set.  Although this represented 24.3% of the total number of measures, performance data showed that 43.9% of measures which have data available for the first quarter were on target. 28.1% (16) of performance measures measured this quarter have not progressed in accordance with the target set (15.5% overall). 

Cabinet Members provided an update in accordance with current performance for service areas:-

Councillor Lelliott was pleased to report on the good progress with Tata, the allocation of funding for the new H.E. campus, the acquisition of Forge Island, as well as the notification that McLaren were coming to Rotherham, which would only improve investment opportunities.

Councillor Hoddinott reported on the good progress with universal services following the appointment and work of the new Waste Manager with the number of missed bin collections reducing from 62 missed bins per 100,000 in the summer, above the national average of 60, down to 38 per 100,000 in the last quarter.  The Waste Manager and his staff needed to be congratulated on the progress being made.

LGA survey results also showed people were more satisfied with 81% indicating Rotherham as a place to live.  This reflected some of the positive work on that performance.

More negatively domestic violence had seen a 43% increase in reporting since last year, positive in one sense, but assurances would be sought that services could respond to such an increase in the year.  An update was to be provided to the Safer Rotherham Partnership on this issue.

There had been some improvement in anti-social behaviour over the last two months and a performance clinic had been held recently with external challenge from partners in South Yorkshire.  Again recommendations on this clinic were to be considered by the Safer Rotherham Partnership. 

More focus needed to be given to the dip in Fixed Penalty Notices and prosecutions for fly tipping.  However, more positively were the increase of Fixed Penalty Notices from 7 to 164 in the last quarter for littering and dog fouling.

Councillor Yasseen reported on the 6% dip in performance for the borrowing of books and other materials and the challenging target of 25,000 users for the whole year.  Not covered in this measure were the number of users using their library as community hub, which had seen a 56% increase for learning and I.T. skills.

Unfortunately, to mitigate the dip there had to be a reduction for expenditure of books and as a result two bids for library opportunities for new innovation had been submitted help to limit the cuts having to be implemented in Rotherham.

The team were also looking how to evolve this measure more in line with the vision for next year.

On behalf of Councillor Watson, the Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services, reported on the good performance reduction for Children in Need, which was an indicator of managing demand for social care more robustly.  This saw an increasing proportion of children being placed in family based settings and from the recent thirteen applications for care eleven had been family based.

In terms of Families for Change and the Troubled Families response, 68% of families were being engaged.  It was unlikely to hit 100% of families, but every effort would be made to reach 100%.   Some of the stretch targets were challenging especially around attendance in school and progress towards employment.  This was being monitored closed.

There was no impact on Council budget and the next phase of progress for Early Help would be looked at closely.

There had been a good response to CSE with better work with the Police, tracking the ten most vulnerable children and the Evolve team becoming consistently good.

The success was also highlighted around foster carers with twenty-one approvals in the last quarter compared with thirty in the last year.  There had also been thirty expressions of interest in the last month.

Councillor Roche confirmed many of the targets relating to Public Health were reported on annually.  However, he could report on two good news stories and one key area of concern relating to the number of pregnant women who smoked reducing from 19.1% to 12.1% which was just below national average, the 100% target of urgent referrals to Mental Health Services which had been delivered and the area of concern relating to Mental Health non-urgent case target of three weeks, which now had a waiting list.  Resources were being realigned and prioritised for this waiting list to reduce.

In terms of Adult Social Care most measures were on track and in many cases on target or above target.  The areas of concern related to delayed transfer of care from hospital, number of care assessments and the attempts being made to get this target down.

The target for supporting people with learning disability into employment was slightly below at 5.7% for the target of 6% and consideration was being given as to if the  good employment service at Addison Day Care Centre could become borough-wide.

Councillor Beck reported on the good positive progress being made both housing and selective licensing where four out of six targets were being met or on course, which also included both targets on selective licensing.

The two areas of concern were in housing and related to the number of affordable housing units being delivered.  This was balanced against the monies generated from the Government on the delivery of starter homes around the town centre and the new shared ownership.

Whilst the other target of delivering 731 new homes in the Borough had not being met, by the end of Quarter 4 it was likely the amount of homes delivered would be the same as in previous years. 

The national Housing White Paper was also published last Monday.  The contents would be digested and the implications considered on how to deliver affordable homes in Rotherham.

The Chief Executive, as a point of information, clarified that one of the indicators still off track with a red flag rating was 3.A4 (% of license holders that demonstrate adherence to the requirements of the Council’s Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy).  This was to be separated out for the next performance report as three of the measures under this indicator were on target and the one outstanding was the achievement of the BTEC qualification, which was more of a timing issue when the course was to be commenced and completed.

Councillor Hoddinott provided a further update and confirmed 98% of drivers have completed the Council's Safeguarding training and the remaining 2% were currently suspended and, therefore, not eligible to drive a licensed vehicle.   2% of vehicles have not had cameras fitted. The drivers of these vehicles have not been suspended as cameras were not due to be fitted in their vehicles during Quarter three. However, should they not have cameras fitted in their vehicles by the due date they would become automatically suspended from driving their vehicle.

As a further update the Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services referred to CAMHS and the stretch three weeks target being worked to nationally achieving 60.3% against 49.6 days.  Benchmarking material from the Office of the Children’s Commission reported variations of 14 days in the North West and 200 days in the West Midlands.

Commissioner Myers was pleased to observe an established, credible, reliable and accurate set of data which had inspired a really important discussion.  This system would further mature and provide greater understanding for priorities and targets and which were realistic and achievable. This would be helped further with stimuli and deep drives from scrutiny and provide reassurance.  Having an established performance and monitoring system further provided confidence that Rotherham was now in good shape.

Commissioner Myers agreed:-  (1)  That the overall position and direction of travel in relation to performance be noted.

(2)  That discussion be given to measures which have not progressed in accordance with the target set and the actions required to improve performance, including future performance clinics.

(3)  That the future performance reporting timetable for 2016/17 be noted.