Agenda item

To consider a report (copy attached) by the Planning and Performance Officer which seeks the Committee to feedback on the contents of the report and appendices prior to the final report being presented to County Council in July 2023.

 

11.10 – 11.50 a.m.

 

The Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets along with the Interim Head of Service Corporate Support Service: Performance, Digital and Assets and Planning and Performance Officer guided members through the report (previously circulated).

 

The Lead Member stressed this self-assessment was based on the new Corporate Plan. A great amount of work had been placed in to the report and the attachments from officers, Cabinet, SLT etc.

The report presented to the committee were statutory reports and provided members the opportunity to assess if the authority was achieving what it set out to in accordance with the Corporate Plan.

 

Officers confirmed appendix 2 was a quarterly performance report based on the Corporate plan and overview of governance areas, which was a statutory document. Which responded to the authorities’ duties under the Well-being of Future Generations Act, the Equalities Act and the Local Government and Elections Act.

This Committee along with Cabinet, received an update of the performance report 4 times a year, quarter 1 and 3 are received virtually via email with quarter 2 and 4 are tabled at a meeting for a discussion.

It was stressed this was the first performance review of the new Corporate Plan and would be used as a baseline for future self-assessments going forward.

Officers were aware within appendix 2 to the report, there was a large number of indicators and measures showing as red – priority for improvement. Members were reminded it was the first year of a five-year plan and suggested the themes and objectives demonstrated challenges faced in the community of which the authority wanted to improve. It was hoped going forward with the plan those red indicators would improve to a more positive position.

 

It was hoped that members felt the report beneficial and helpful in identifying areas for further scrutiny in the future.

 

Officers highlighted the number of key indicators that referred to the Wales Index of Multiple Deprivation. This was collated by Welsh Government and was reported on once a term, an update was expected in the next year or two. It did reflect the levels of deprivation across the county.

 

Appendix 1 was the self-assessment. That document was presented to the Performance Scrutiny Committee annually along with County Council and the Governance and Audit Committee. The report took stock of how the authority was performing against the Corporate Plan and the objectives set in the plan, and the extent to which our performance was resulting in positive outcomes and how well our governance was supporting continuous improvement.

 

It was stressed that at this point in time the documents were both still live documents and would be presented to County Council for approval in July 2023. A greater amount of Nationally benchmarked data was being measured against which officers felt was important. Further work was needed to agree what excellence looked like in some of those measures.

In the opinion of officers, the two reports represented a fair analysis of where the authority stood at this stage of the Corporate Plan. Officers were seeking members feedback, and consider the reports and identify areas where further work may be required to address and performance concerns.  

 

The Chair thanked the officers and Lead Member for the detailed introduction and comprehensive reports.

Responding to members’ questions the Lead Member and officers:

·         Sustainable Travel was a pledge carried over from the previous Corporate Plan. It was officers understanding a policy was currently being taken through the Cabinet process. Updates were expected in terms of indicators that can be used against this initiative by the end of June 2023.

·         In Denbighshire, our default approach to setting performance thresholds is to take the upper-quartile (best performing) from nationally comparable information as the point where performance is considered ‘Excellent’. The ‘Priority for Improvement’ threshold is usually the median. Midway between these two values determines the threshold between ‘Acceptable’ and ‘Good’ performance. If no data is available that we can compare ourselves with (either nationally or by comparable grouping), then we will take a local view on what we feel reasonably determines ‘Excellent’ and ‘Priority for Improvement’ performance. This should represent our ambition.

·         Each Corporate Plan theme was given an overall status of performance for its measures and projects. Performance Officers always reviewed data provided and queried any issues they observed.

·         Members noted the improvement in the energy ratings in Council’s housing.

·         Members suggested one area that they may like to scrutinise was the Early Intervention and Prevention team for homeless prevention. Especially following the change in legislation around notice periods issued for people to leave properties. The Scrutiny Coordinator informed members a report was due to be presented in September 2023 titled ‘Denbighshire’s Housing and Homelessness Strategy Action Plan’. It was suggested to request information on the new legislation and its impact be included in that paper.

·         Performance officers where possible include percentages not numbers for indicators and measures, which provided a stronger indication of  performance, for example the level of service that was being provided.

·         Members made reference to the important across council issue of recruitment and retention. Members noted the issues faced across all areas and departments in the authority.

·         The software package used to collect all performance data was Verto. Officers were happy to offer members further information on the system if they requested.

·         Overall performance statuses for each theme were determined by two aspects that were judged, those being measures and the projects. The measures were the important element that illustrates what was being seen in the community. It demonstrated what residents and communities were experiencing in line with those themes and those areas officers hoped to see an improvement.

·         A report on the Welsh Language Strategy was due to be presented to Cabinet in June.

 

 

The Chair thanked the officers for the detailed report and appendices.

 

Following consideration of the report the Committee:

 

Resolved: - subject to the above observations -

 

(i)           to receive the report and its contents;

(ii)          to encourage all elected members to utilise the report as one of the tools to be used to inform future Scrutiny work programmes;

(iii)        to note the Council’s progress in developing its performance objectives along with its initial performance in delivering its new Corporate Plan; and

(iv)        request that enquiries be made to establish the current position with regards to the development of a Sustainable Transport Plan for Denbighshire, with a view to determining whether Scrutiny could help progress its development and support its future delivery.