Agenda item

Purpose: To consider the latest quarterly performance report.

Catalin Bogos introduced the report and explained that it provided assurance that the Council’s core business and priorities for improvement were being managed effectively. He noted that the context remained challenging in Quarter 2, with the Council responding to the pandemic by protecting residents and supporting local businesses. He stated that in West Berkshire, many key economic indicators had maintained pre-Covid strong levels. However, there had been an increase in benefit claimants, and the Council was supporting young people with work placements though the Kickstart scheme. He noted that a key focus for the Council had been on distribution of grants to local businesses.

He indicated that most performance indicators relating to the Council’s core business were on track to achieve end-of-year targets, with strong performance for financial assessments, timeliness of decisions on benefit claims, recycling levels, and timeliness of responses to planning applications. He highlighted some exceptions, such as Council tax and non-domestic rates collections, but noted that these were as a result of the Council’s actions to support residents and businesses, and the deficit should be recovered from Central Government funding. He also highlighted a number of performance indicators where activity had paused or could not be reported due to the pandemic (e.g. care home inspections and education attainment).

In terms of priorities for improvement, the majority of measures were reported as being on target. He noted that where milestones had been achieved, new measures had been identified.

Councillor James Cole suggested that performance was good and sensible decisions had been taken in response to the pandemic.

Councillor Dillon noted that the KPIs were being achieved and that where the Council was not achieving target (e.g. rates), the reasons were understood and the opposition was supportive of the approach. He asked about the percentage of children in care who had received a visit within 6 weeks and noted that the Council was below target for statutory visits. He asked if the Council had a plan for targeting high-risk families during the pandemic. Catalin Bogos noted that Government allowed for visits to be made in different ways, but the Council was continuing to report against the normal methodology. The exceptions report mentioned that some visits were being made virtually and mitigations were being put in place to address the shortcomings of this format and some face-to-face visits were still being made.

Councillor Dillon noted that circumstances had changed as the UK had gone into lockdown in Quarter 3.

Councillor Vickers suggested the statement that ‘independent shops have been better able to survive during the lockdown’ was counter-intuitive. He asked if any work had been done locally to confirm whether that was the case for West Berkshire. Catalin Bogos confirmed that support grants had been allocated to local businesses. He offered to try and get a response to the question.

Action: Catalin Bogos to find out if there is any research about how local independent businesses have fared during lockdown.

Councillor Brooks asked for more detail in relation to activity around ensuring the wellbeing of older people and vulnerable adults. He highlighted the fact that only 66.7% of care homes had been inspected by the CQC. The Chairman highlighted the section in the report that confirmed the CQC had been unable to carry out the usual inspections during Covid.

The Chairman highlighted the lack of benchmarking data for 2019 and 2020. Catalin Bogos indicated that there was a significant time lag and the report would be updated as data became available.

The Chairman concluded by praising the Council’s performance during unprecedented times. However, he asked for more detail on the top 10 local employers within the next quarterly report and plans for senior Members and Officers to meet with them. Catalin Bogos confirmed that this was linked with the Economic Development Strategy and undertook to discuss this with the service and executive portfolio holder.

Action: Catalin Bogos to review the performance indicator relating to visiting the top-10 employers in West Berkshire.

Resolved that the report be noted.