Agenda item

Cabinet Portfolio:-                All (Lead Portfolio – Corporate Services and Finance)

Strategic Directorate:           All (Lead Directorate – Assistant Chief Executive)

Consideration was given to a report which detailed performance data in respect of progress made against the key measures detailed in the Council Plan for the period from October to December 2018 (Quarter 3).

Members highlighted the measures in respect of economic activity in the town centre and sought assurances from the Strategic Director of Regeneration who indicated that Rotherham was no different to any other town centre in the country due to change in the retail environment, competition from other places and the surge in online shopping. The Rotherham Town Centre Masterplan and other policies recognised that there needed to be a greater mix of leisure, residential and public open spaces in the town centre, however that would take time to be delivered. The Strategic Director anticipated that demand for floor space and retail would continue to be challenging and expected to see a shrinking footprint for retail within town centres.

Following on, Members sought assurances in respect of the steps that the Council was taking to encourage landlords to look at alternative usage for empty retail units. In response, the Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment explained that this work was underway and the authority was engaging with numerous landlords and cited the example of space at the Old Town Hall.

Reference was made to the delivery of new homes and that the authority had fallen behind target and sought assurances in respect of when Members could expect to see that measure back on target. In response, it was explained that a lot of work had been undertaken recently and planning permission had been granted for 500 residential properties, with another 500 in delivery. The Planning Service was working closely with colleagues in Housing Services to put together a programme for sites recently granted or stalled to establish what could be done to get some momentum into building on site.

Members sought assurances that the authority’s duties in respect of the housing repairs and maintenance contract would be met. In response, the Strategic Director for Adult Care, Housing and Public Health confirmed that robust contract arrangements were in place with partners. Furthermore, the process had begun to identify interested bidders for the new contract. Lessons continued to be learned with current partners and this would be used to influence the future approach to the management of the contract

Referring to the parliamentary impasse in respect of exiting the European Union, Members sought clarity in respect of alternative plans to continue the recent successes in business growth. In response, the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment explained that the authority had a good record for backing start-up businesses and was skilled in drawing down external funding to support economic growth. The position in respect of EU funding remained unclear in view of the parliamentary impasse, but the Strategic Director was confident that there was a strong platform to continue to leverage funding for economic development in future.

Members referred some recent scrutiny activity in respect of managing the transitions from Children’s Social Care to Adult Social Care and indicated that they had confidence that the services had gripped the issue. Assurances were sought in respect of the level of confidence in reducing the numbers of looked after children. In response, the Leader of the Council indicated that the model adopted was robust, but numbers may go up or down depending on individual circumstances. At the time of the meeting, there were 640 looked after children and the hope was that this would have reduced to 600 by March 2020.

Reference was made to the difficulties faced in delivering care assessments and assurances were sought in respect of how budgets were monitored. In response, the Strategic Director of Adult Care, Housing and Public Health agreed that this was an issue, but provided assurances that the investments made in carers assessments were leading to improvements and a dedicated carers offer was being developed to give it the necessary drive.

Members referred to the increase in percentage outcomes for reported hate crime cases and noted that low level incidents with no lines of enquiry were reported. Clarification was sought as to whether this was a realistic or impossible target. In response, it was confirmed that there was a degree of under reporting of hate crime, but South Yorkshire Police were positive about the targets that had been set, which had been agreed in partnership with the police. Following on, Members sought to understand whether there was any way in preventative work could be measured. In response, it was explained that this was a high level measure in the Council Plan, which was supported by a whole host of other measures which included monitoring the delivery of community resolutions by the police. Improving confidence in outcomes and resolutions would lead to increased levels of reporting of hate crime, but the preventative angle would focus around community and educational interventions to assist in changing attitudes.

In noting performance in respect of flytipping, Members made the observation that there had been fewer prosecutions, but higher profile prosecutions and suggested whether it would be appropriate to adjust the measure to look at the scale of prosecutions. In response, officers indicated that this was a good suggestion and would reflect on some of the recent successful prosecutions, but cautioned that the complexity of cases mean that it would take time to finish prosecutions.

Reference was made to the enforcement contract with Kingdom and the possibility of not meeting the target. Members sought to understand what the financial implications of not meeting the target would be for the authority. In response, officers explained that the contract was being robustly managed via Doncaster Council and the authority was pushing the contractor to get to where they needed to be. Overall, in respect of the financial position, the directorate was balanced, but there would continue to be a risk into the next financial year. The authority was not losing any money and the risk was carried by the contractor, but as targets were not being met there was clearly scope for improvements to be made and the Council was working hard with the contractor to secure improvements.

Members noted that there had been delays in recruiting to key posts with the Culture, Sport and Tourism service and that this had delayed consultation on the emerging Cultural Strategy. In response, the Cabinet Member for Cleaner Greener Communities indicated that interviews would take place for key posts in the first week of April 2019, with a view to the successful candidate being in post by June 2019. The Cultural Strategy would be presented for approval by Cabinet in due course, having been subject to widespread consultation, including with Members of the Improving Places Select Commission.

Reference was made to performance in respect of sickness absence and Members sought to understand how the authority compared to the national average. In response, the Assistant Chief Executive explained that the national average was 10.5 days per full time equivalent and the authority’s performance was worse than that. Data is compared on a regional basis across Yorkshire and Humberside and year-end figures would soon be available to better understand comparative performance. Further assurances were provided to the Board that sickness absence was being effectively managed on a directorate by directorate basis, with muscular skeletal, stress, infections and viruses continuing to be the biggest causes of sickness absence across the authority. Strategic Directors were reviewing figures regularly and the detail behind the data to understand where those absence were and how they could be effectively managed to enable staff to return to work.

The level of council tax collection was referred to by Members, who queried whether the introduction of Universal Credit was responsible for the impact of the level of collection. In response, officers explained that they believed there to be a number of factors, rather than any exclusivity arising from Universal Credit.

Reflecting on the broader performance framework, Members felt that the overall figures and data did not seem to move very much which could be interpreted as the authority not making major strides from one report to the next, which could be seen as a concern. The Leader of the Council was asked what he and the Chief Executive were doing to look at the overall performance of the authority. In response, the Leader of the Council reminded Members that performance monitoring was an honest reflection of where the Council and he did not expect to see a significant shift from one quarter to another quarter. A year earlier, indicators from Children and Young People’s Services would have stood out with a number of missed targets because there was more demand, but the service was now dealing with it better. He confirmed that a rigorous challenge was applied to the setting of targets for measures in the Council Plan, but it was a complicated picture.

Reflecting on the discussions on this agenda item, the Chair indicated that further consideration would be given to the issues around hate crime when the Safer Rotherham Partnership Annual Report was presented in the summer. Furthermore, close monitoring would be required of performance in respect of sickness absence.

Resolved:-

1.    That the performance data within the Council Plan 2018-19 Quarter 3 Performance Report be noted.