Agenda item

To inform the Committee of the 2019/20 performance outturn for the Public Protection Partnership.

The Committee considered the 2019/20 performance outturn for the Public Protection Partnership (Agenda Item 10).

Paul Anstey (Head of Public Protection and Culture) commenced his presentation of the report by explaining that fluctuations in demand had been closely analysed during the response to Covid-19 to try to understand whether these changed the basis of the Inter-Authority Agreement. The analysis considered demand across local authority areas and sought to ensure that the budget composition was fair.

The outcome of this work found that trends remained broadly in line with the Inter-Authority Agreement and it therefore did not need to be adjusted. This would aid the budget setting process.

A challenging set of performance indicators had been set for 2019/20. At year end, 24 were reported as Green, 9 as Amber and 11 as Red. It was the view that the Amber indicators would have been reported Green had it not been necessary, based on Government guidance, to make changes to inspection programmes.

Significant achievements included:

·         A growth in social media and communications. Visits to the website and grown from 300 visits a month to 10,500 visits.

·         £155k recovered for the victims of crime.

·         £101k recovered from proceeds of crime.

Progress had also been made with the use of technology and it was the intention to expand this further as part of recovery work. Technological developments had benefitted the operation of this shared service.

The Joint Management Board spent some time challenging the ‘Red’ indicators and looked at ways to improve performance in these areas in future. A contributing factor was the level of staffing absence. Much of this related to the personal circumstances of officers during very challenging times.

Areas identified for improvement included:

·         The production of quarterly absence data for the Management Board with a clear narrative on resulting operational risks.

·         The Management Board would conclude contract matters with Tascomi to deliver the single case management system by April 2021.

·         The Workforce Strategy would be concluded, this would identify the appropriate recruitment options and approaches to staff development to improve resilience and delivery of key targets.

·         The service would produce an effective recovery plan, dealing with the lessons learned from 2019/20 and Covid-19 response work, specifically seeking to address management capacity issues.

Councillor James Cole questioned the time it had taken to agree a contract with Tascomi. Paul Anstey explained that Tascomi had been bought out by a competitor part way through contractual discussions. It had therefore proved necessary to renegotiation terms and conditions.

Councillor James Cole followed this by querying if this remained the correct approach. Paul Anstey confirmed his view that it was. The software in question was the most tried and tested product on the market, and it made sense from a financial viewpoint. If the procurement process was restarted then it would result in further delays which would become a problem operationally.

Damian James (Chair of the Joint Management Board) explained that while a contract had yet to be signed with Tascomi, work was taking place in preparation for the implementation of the new product. A small team of officers was involved in this work which included a transfer of data between systems.

RESOLVED that:

·         The report and associated areas for improvement be noted.