Agenda item

Cabinet Portfolio: - Leader

Strategic Directorate: - Assistant Chief Executive

Consideration was given to a report that was submitted for pre-decision scrutiny ahead of the Cabinet meeting scheduled for 14 February 2022 that provided information on the on progress made in delivering the key activities as set out in the Council’s Year Ahead Plan in the plan. The Leader of the Council, the Chief Executive, the Assistant Chief Executive and the Acting Head of Policy, Performance and Intelligence attended the meeting to present the report.

The report noted that the Year Ahead Plan was the Council’s plan for operating in and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and that it had originally set out key activities for the Council for the period September 2020 to May 2021. It was noted that following an extension to the Plan that the plan had been put in place until the new Council Plan for 2022 onwards had been produced and approved.

The report stated that the original plan had set out headline themes and their corresponding outcomes and key actions for the period September 2020 to June 2021. It was further noted that an extension to the plan had been agreed by Cabinet on 21 June 2021 that had enabled the plan to remain in place until a new Council Plan came into effect from the start of 2022. The report noted that following regular progress reports to Cabinet, that this fifth and final progress report detailed Council activity up to the end of the plan in November 2021. The report also provided an overview of the progress made since the plan had commenced in September 2020.

The Leader noted that of all the activities contained in the Year Ahead Plan:

·       70% (52) had been completed for the purposes of the plan, even if activity was continuing

·       15% (11) were on track

·       9% (7) were behind schedule

·       5% (4) were off track.

The Leader also noted that in addition to the activities noted above, that six actions from the original version of the plan had still been in progress and as such and were still being reported on. The Leader noted that the status of these were:

·       50% (3) have been completed for the purposes of the plan, even if activity was continuing

·       17% (1) was on track

·       17% (1) was behind schedule

·       17% (1) was off track.

Members welcomed the report and noted with approval that 85% of the activities that had been detailed the plan had either been completed or were on track to be completed on schedule. Members noted that this achievement was particularly commendable as this had been achieved against the background and challenges of the pandemic. Members expressed their thanks to all of the staff across the Council who had contributed to the achievement of the objectives of the plan.

Members asked whether there was a key performance indicator that related to the number of plan items completed on time. The Chief Executive noted the significant achievement of 85% of activities in the plan having been already completed or being on track. The Chief Executive advised that for the new plan that there would be a target of between 80 and 90% activities being completed on time. The Chief Executive also thanked members for their comments regarding the hard work of staff across the Council on delivering on the plan’s priorities.

Members asked whether a greater involvement of the Parish and Town Councils in the delivery of the tree planning strategy would have enabled the objectives of the strategy to be delivered more quickly. The Leader advised that greater partnership working with the Parish and Town Councils would be looked at by the service in the future delivery of the tree planting strategy.

Members noted the success of the clean-up days that had been delivered by the Streetpride teams across the Borough with local communities and sought assurance that these would continue. Members also noted the benefits of having more than one Streetpride worker allocated to each ward and asked whether there were any plans to make Streetpride teams ward based so that they could be more responsive to local needs as the current areas covered by teams were often quite large. The Leader advised that there were no plans currently to make Streetpride teams ward based. The Leader noted his agreement with members that the current areas covered by the Streetpride teams were too large and that advised that once the recent restructure of the service had settled in that the service’s ways of working needed to be further developed to ensure that ward members could have meaningful and regular contact with their local Streetpride team. 

Members noted the success that the Council had had in accessing various funding streams to enable improvements to be made across the Borough. Members noted that even more funding could be secured locally if the Council was able to offer greater support to local voluntary and community groups in making bids for funding. The Leader noted his agreement that the Council had been very successful in securing funding and expressed his thanks to the teams who had worked so successfully to secure the additional funding that had enabled improvements to be made in communities across the Borough. The Chief Executive noted that as part of the Council’s funding given to Voluntary Action Rotherham that there was a commitment from them to support voluntary and community organisations write and submit funding bids.

Members noted the success of how the Council had worked with local business to drive forward its Social Value Policy and asked how the Council planned to work with the voluntary and community sector in future in this area. The Chief Executive noted that as part of the Council’s work regarding Social Value that it engaged with Voluntary Action Rotherham as well as many public sector organisations in order drive forward the Council’s Social Value aspirations for the Borough.

The Chair thanked the Leader of the Council, the Chief Executive and the Assistant Chief Executive and the Acting Head of Policy, Performance and Intelligence for attending the meeting and answering member questions.

Resolved: -

That Cabinet be advised that the recommendations be supported.