Agenda item

(All CPPs and CPTs)

Purpose:  To report quarter 2 progress against the key accountable measures and activities for West Berkshire Council 2011/12 and to report by exception those measures/ activities not achieved/ expected to be achieved and cite remedial action that is being taken.

Resolved that:

(1)       progress against the key accountable measures and activities be noted;

(2)       those areas reporting as either ‘amber’ or ‘red’, and any corrective or remedial action which has been or will be put in place, be noted.

This decision is not subject to call in as the report is to note only.

The Executive considered a report (Agenda Item 13) concerning Quarter Two progress against the key accountable measures and activities for West Berkshire Council for 2011/12. and to report by exception those measures/activities which had not been achieved or were not expected to be achieved and to set out any remedial action that was being taken.

Councillor Anthony Stansfeld stated that in total there were 39 key measures or activities monitored and reported. Of these 8 had been classified as annual measures and 2 of those annual measures (relating to key stage results) were reported in Quarter Two.

Of the 33 reported measures and activities, 23 were reported as green for Quarter 2. Seven key measures had been signposted as amber i.e. behind anticipated performance but which were expected to achieve the target by the year end. Three reds were being reported for Quarter 2, i.e. would not be achieved by year end. These were in respect of:

·        The proportion of adult social care users receiving self directed support;

·        Pupils gaining 5+ high grades at GCSE;

·        The adoption of the Local Development Framework by March 2012.

Exception reports had been provided to explain the “red” measures/activities.

Councillor David Rendel referred to page 193 of the agenda and in particular the measure/activity in respect of the percentage of Contact Centre calls answered within 30 seconds. The Q2 outturn figure was 77% whereas the target was 80%. If that figure of 77% was cumulative then the Quarter 2 outturn would be around 74% which meant to achieve the target of 80% by year end the outturn figure would need to be 86% in Quarter 3 which would be extremely difficult to achieve. The same also applied to the Planning targets. Councillor Anthony Stansfeld noted the comments made in respect of the Contact Centre and felt that it would be necessary to see where the figure ended up at the end of the year. Staff cuts had taken place within the Contact Centre whereas demand and the number of services accommodated had increased. Councillor David Betts confirmed that he had discussed this issue with the Head of Service who had confirmed that this target was expected to come back on track in the second half of the year.

Councillor Alan Law confirmed that there had been an issue in Development Control earlier in the year as the Council had received an increased level of planning applications with a reduced number of staff. An Action Plan had been put in place to address the issues which included overtime, employing temporary staff and moving staff around in-house. Targets had been set in order to get back to normality and Councillor Law felt that this had almost been achieved. Registration had been back on track for the last couple of months. This was the reason that the targets had been graduated and it was hoped that the Service would be back to normal by the end of 2011.

Councillor Roger Hunneman had concerns that the target in respect of increasing the number of service users and carers receiving Self Directed Support (including Personal Budgets) was too high (50%). He queried whether this target was robust and hoped that people would not be forced to have Personal Budgets if they did not want them. Councillor Joe Mooney advised that all clients would have to have a Personal Budget by March 2013. Savings would be achieved as a deflator had been built in. Councillor Mooney confirmed that the target would not be too high in normal times. However, due to the high number of changes as a result of the closure of the Day Centres and high levels of staff sickness the target was currently tracking as red.

Councillor Hunneman also referred to page 189 of the agenda - “People presenting as homeless who are prevented from being homeless” – he had concerns in respect of the commentary and felt that targets would not be achieved as it was not in the Council’s interests to do so. Councillor Alan Law stated that the issue within Housing Services was a national one. People presented themselves as homeless to the Council and the Council then had to assess whether it had a duty to house them. 127 people had presented themselves as homeless so far this year but the Council had only accepted 45 of those people as being statutorily homeless. The process for checking whether a person was statutorily homeless or not was a complex one. However, the service was currently working well above the levels it was expected to work.

RESOLVED that progress against the key accountable measures and activities be noted together with those areas reporting as either ‘amber’ or ‘red’ and any corrective or remedial action which had been or would be put in place.

Reason for the decision: Service Plans set out the purpose and ambition of the individual service units and collectively, they defined the Council’s main focus of activities and the measures of performance against which it would assess itself.

Monitoring and managing performance within each of these main areas of work was key in making sure the Council delivered what it had set out to achieve – and where this had not happened, in ensuring that appropriate action was taken to mitigate the impact of the target not being met.

Other options considered: Not applicable.