Agenda item

Purpose: To report year end results against the key accountable measures and activities for West Berkshire Council for 2011/12.

The Commission considered a report that set out the year end outturn against the key accountable measures and activities for the year 2011/12.

The Chairman highlighted to the Commission three areas where the Council had achieved notable success within Adult Social Care, Children in Care and Customer Focus.

Councillor Rendel commented that the report presented to the Commission contained the same mistakes that had been noted when it had been seen by the Executive and asked that in future mistakes were corrected.

Councillor Brooks believed that the current system for monitoring performance did not enable issues to be highlighted at an early stage, and that this resulted in the Commission not being able to recommend corrective action in a timely way. An example of this was that resource issues within the Planning department were not flagged to the Commission early. The Chairman informed the Commission of information that he had been shown illustrating the improvement in performance that had been achieved in Planning due to recent recruitment. Nick Carter explained that the quarterly indicators did provide an early warning that the year end target might not be achieved. Councillor Emma Webster raised the point that whilst the quarterly indicators could be useful, the Commission were unable to act on them until two quarters later when it would be too late to put remedial action in place.

Councillor Brooks was concerned that performance against the target to achieve 50% of service users and carers in receipt of Self Directed Support (including personal budgets) was far below the expected level. Margaret Goldie responded with the following points:

·        The service had reported from quarter two that they would not reach the year end target providing sufficient time for scrutiny and remedial recommendations to be made;

·        The target had been set according to the previous government’s priorities, but that there was less pressure to meet this target under the current government;

·        The priority over the year had been to reduce the Service’s overspend.  As a result, limited resources were being used to assess and place clients, and personal budgets were not being promoted. This was taking place at a time when day services were being closed resulting in a greater number of assessments being required;

·        Approximately 1500 clients were older people who were more resistant to adopting personal budgets.  Of the remaining client base, approximately 75% had personal budgets, representing good performance;

·        In order to achieve the target of 50% for all clients, the Council would need to set a default position that placed everyone on personal budgets unless they expressly opted out and this would not be sensible;

·        The overall number of clients had reduced over the year as a result of efforts to reduce the overspend.

Councillor Vickers expressed concern that the Commission had not been involved in the target setting process as had been agreed the previous year.  Councillor Webster advised the Commission that a Task Group had been established and at its first meeting had reviewed both local and national targets.  Nick Carter advised that a second meeting was to be convened once the year end outturn figures were available. 

The Chairman suggested that the Task Group consider the issues that had been raised around timing of reports and target setting, and report to the Commission with suggested solutions.

Councillor Webster asked what had been implemented to recruit more Mathematics teachers.  Councillor Webster voiced a particular concern as young people who did not achieve a Mathematics grade C or higher were often ruled out of employment opportunities automatically, and requested an update on the position after the term started in September. Margaret Goldie responded that whilst schools undertook their own recruitment, the Council had put in place a number of activities including supporting local leadership, coaching and mentoring activities between primary and secondary schools and developing a clear career structure.  These were set out in the exception report within the overall year end report. Margaret Goldie advised the Commission that the national plans to ensure all young people remained in education, or employment with training, until the age of 18, would have the effect of ensuring that students not achieving grade C or higher in both Mathematics and English by the age of 16 would be required to continue to study these subjects until they were 18.

Councillor Rendel expressed disappointment that the number of children who received free school meals who achieved 5 A*-C grades at GCSE had not been maintained at the previous years level of almost 29%.

The Chairman suggested that the Head of Education be invited to the next meeting of the Commission to discuss these issues.

The Chairman highlighted the improvement in the number of primary schools below the national floor standards. Councillor Brooks asked what intervention possibilities were available to the Council.  Margaret Goldie informed the Commission that, although reduced in size, there remained a School Improvement Advisory Service targeting advice to schools most in need.  Once the moderated results were available they were expected to show that most of the six remaining schools would be above the floor target.  Councillor Franks asked whether the School Improvement Advisory Service was chargeable to schools, to which Margaret Goldie confirmed it was and that many schools and Academies bought this service from the Council.

Councillor Franks requested clarification regarding the removal of the target for young people not in education, employment or training (NEETS).  Margaret Goldie advised that once the participation age reached 18 there would no longer be a measure for NEET young people aged 17 and 18. She also advised that young people with disabilities generally remained in education until the age of 19 and subsequently in further education until the age of 21 or 22.

The Chairman noted that the core strategy had now been to full Council and had been published.

In relation to Customer Service call handling Councillor Brooks believed that the quality of the response received was of equal or greater importance than receiving a quick response.  The Commission agreed and were pleased that quality was a priority for the Service.

RESOLVED that:

·        The Performance Task Group report to the Commission suggested solutions to address the timing of target setting and receipt of performance reports;

·        The Head of Education be invited to the next meeting of the Commission to discuss performance results relating to education.