Agenda item

To consider a report by Councillor Gwyneth Ellis, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets (copy enclosed) presenting the Council’s Performance Self-Assessment for 2022 to 2023 for Cabinet’s consideration and confirmation prior to its submission to Council.

RESOLVED that Cabinet confirms the content of the Council’s Performance Self-Assessment 2022 – 2023 for submission to Council in July 2023 for approval.

Councillor Gwyneth Ellis presented the report and the Council’s Performance Self-Assessment for 2022 to 2023 for Cabinet’s consideration ahead of its submission to Council for approval in July 2023.

The Performance Self-Assessment provided a year end analysis of progress and challenges against key performance objectives (i.e. Corporate Plan themes) and data against the new Corporate Plan’s performance management framework.

The Interim Head of Service Corporate Support Service: Performance, Digital and Assets and Planning and Performance Officer guided members through the report which consisted of two appendices.  It presented an Executive Summary (Appendix I) highlighting performance against objectives and the seven governance areas, and the regular quarterly Performance Update Report (Appendix II) covering January to March 2023 of the new Corporate Plan performance management framework.  Those two documents, when combined with the three preceding update reports, made up the Self-Assessment for 2022 to 2023.  Regular reporting was highlighted as an essential monitoring requirement of the performance management framework and the Local Government and Elections (Wales) act 2021.  The report had been tabled at Performance Scrutiny Committee and Governance and Audit Committee and an overview of the issues raised at those meetings was also provided.

Cabinet acknowledged the comprehensive documents which aimed to provide a clear and transparent reflection of the Council’s performance in key areas, and thanked officers for the hard work in that regard.  During the ensuing debate Cabinet members took the opportunity to draw attention to particular performance measures and projects within their individual portfolio areas, to provide assurances and reasoning behind specific areas identified for improvement and future performance.  The themes were cross cutting and complemented each other, and flexibility in the governance arrangements were highlighted with mechanisms to effectively monitor delivery against the Corporate Plan and identify corrective action at an early stage.  A report on the governance arrangements and member input and scrutiny would be submitted to Council in July.

Main points of debate focused on the following –

·         both members and officers highlighted the importance of equality and diversity and ensuring a culture of treating people with dignity and respect in all aspects of the Council and its work, with individuals being encouraged to speak out, report concerns and whistleblowing so that action could be taken.  For members there was a Code of Conduct and Ethical Framework with processes and procedures in place to ensure adequate training and support was provided to meet the relevant standards and there were also national and local processes to enact where standards had not been met.  The role of the Strategic Equality and Diversity Group was also explained.  Work had been planned to produce a councillor’s guide for dealing with harassment, abuse and intimidation with a further update on progress expected in the next quarterly report.  Officers also agreed to review the use of any subjective phrases in the document

·         the methodology for benchmarking performance data was explained and it was noted that a higher number of red indicators was to be expected at this early stage with improvements demonstrated as progress was made over the lifetime of the Corporate Plan.  The Red/Yellow/Amber/Green performance status provided a clear picture of performance and areas which required more focus.  The measures reflected what was happening within communities and the projects were designed to have a positive impact on those measures.  The Council had a good track record of managing projects and there were usually only a small number of ‘at risk’ projects of which officers were acutely aware and corrective action quickly taken

·         in response to questions raised by Councillor Brian Jones regarding the status of Rhyl specific projects, including developing funding bids, public realm issues and connecting the High Street with the beach, the Corporate Director: Environment and Economy agreed to provide an update outside of the meeting to be shared with Rhyl Member Area Group.  It was noted that many of those projects had been part of the unsuccessful bid for round 2 Levelling Up Funding (LUF 2).  Assurances were provided that the Council remained committed to the projects which had been reviewed taking into account feedback received following LUF 2 in readiness for potential LUF 3 or alternative funding streams.  The projects would need to be reviewed again once the detail for LUF 3 had been provided

·         recruitment and retention was an issue which affected some services and job roles more than others and HR had been doing work with a view to making the digital application process easier for different job types; introducing career grades in hard to recruit to services and professional areas, and attending Job Fairs.

RESOLVED that Cabinet confirms the content of the Council’s Performance Self-Assessment 2022 – 2023 for submission to Council in July 2023 for approval.

At this point (11.30 am) the meeting adjourned for a refreshment break.