Agenda item

Purpose of the item: To invite the Select Committee’s comments and suggestions in respect of the Q4 Performance Report 2018/19, regarding the format and nature of the presentation of the information, as well as any of the indicators and/or measures reported.

Declarations of interest:

None

Witnesses:

Dr Zully Grant-Duff, Cabinet Member for Corporate Support

Mr Mel Few, Cabinet Member for Finance

Leigh Whitehouse, Executive Director of Resources

Nicola Kilvington, Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight

Una McCarthy, Interim Assistant Director for Intelligence, Data, Analytics & Insight

Key points raised during the discussion:

1. The item was introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance who stated that the report was a great start for performance reporting as the council had not previously had this type of detailed information. He stated that there were a few issues around no trends being displayed in the report and would be asking each Cabinet Member to look through the report focusing on five key drivers and then trying to understand how the report contributes to the delivery of the £82m saving required. The Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight explained that this was a new approach to corporate performance reporting which is complimentary to existing performance reporting taking place across the council. An eight lenses approach had been taken with the aim of keeping the report brief to highlight interdependencies. This is a work in progress and will be tailored to comments from members.

Graham Knight, Vice-Chairman arrived at 10:45 

2. The Vice-Chairman queried with the Cabinet Member for Finance the items marked red in the current year budget. It was explained that the council was forecasting a £10.3m shortfall for the year which was driven by SEND.
3. A Member expressed their support for the scorecard approach to performance reporting asking how this performance report would interlink with various other performance reporting taking place across the organisation. The Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight explained that directorate reporting was robust but not standardised across the council and explained that indicators with the Q4 report are taken from directorate based reports.
4. It was queried how targets for service delivery measures were agreed and how this translated to a RAG status. The Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight said that she would need to go back to services to discuss individual indicators. As some indicators were new, targets had not been set but the service did want to get into a position where targets were set for all indicators. The Member was of the view that a RAG status should not be set if there was no target in place.
5. Another Member expressed their support for the report and the direction performance reporting was moving in.
6. On the Strategic Risks (April 2019) contained within the Q4 report a Member queried which of the risks numbered between 3-8 would have the biggest payback for the council. The Executive Director of Resources stated that he believed the biggest risk area which would have an adverse impact on the council was SEND. The Member commented that he had knowledge of SEND and that transport in this area was very costly for the council.
7. Concern was raised around people and customer measures included within the Q4 report. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support explained that indicators were being worked on. With regards to filled establishment, there are around 400 staff in the process of going through a restructure with children’s services being the priority. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support was working with the HR Director to review the measures in the report. The turnover rate was linked to restructuring and therefore constantly changing. Going forward, the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support would ensure there was more detail around the financial links between people and customer measures.  
8. Concerns were raised around only 5% of staff being under 25 and the need to address this. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support stated that this was being addressed through increasing the number of apprenticeships the council offers.
9. It was queried why the sickness absence indicator within the report had no target but was RAG rated as green. It was added that the office of national statistics confirmed that the national average for sickness in 2017 was 4.1 days which is below the councils current 6.36 days per FTE. The Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight confirmed that the council’s sickness absence was compared with data from other councils whereas the office of national statistics sickness data was the average sickness for all industry. The Executive Director of Resources added that sickness needed to be reviewed with regards to the type of work being undertaken by employees and that this was low when benchmarked with other local authorities. The Chairman agreed that it would be useful to view peer comparisons with regards to staff sickness.
10. The Vice-Chairman queried how service delivery measures were agreed for inclusion in the report and how the eight performance lenses were agreed. The Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight explained that the eight performance lenses had been modelled on a balanced scorecard approach which included service delivery, our people, our customers, risk, finance, transformation, the Target Operating Model and areas where rapid service improvement was required. The service delivery measures included within the report were agreed by the Corporate Leadership Team but would be forwarded to Cabinet for review. The data sources used to develop the report include data reporting systems already used by services in the council. Going forward work would be undertaken to audit the reporting figures and sources.    
11. A Member of the Committee congratulated the team on the work being undertaken with performance monitoring.
12. The Chairman queried if the progress of key projects being undertaken by the council such as the development of the Eco-park could be included in the performance report.
13. Concern was raised as to why the Committee had not been provided with the strategic risk register prior to the meeting. The Executive Director explained that the most recent risk register was considered by Cabinet in May 2019 and it was agreed that it would be reported back to Cabinet on an exception basis.
14. The item was concluded and it was agreed for the Committee to consider the Cabinet Member for Corporate Supports priorities and objectives for the year ahead as part of Item 4.

Resolved:

1. For future performance reports to include trends from previous performance reports.

2. For the Children and Education Select Committee to review strategic risks within the SEND department as referenced in the Q4 performance report.

3. For the Resources and PerformanceSelect Committee to be sent the most recent risk register and to review a copy of the strategic risk register alongside future performance reports.

4. For each Select Committee to scrutinise service specific measures relevant to their committee remits within the quarterly performance reports.

Actions:

1. For the Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight to provide the Select Committee with details of how targets for service delivery measures had been agreed with services.

2. For the Select Committee to be provided with peer comparison data for workforce sickness absences.