Agenda item

To consider an update report on the Council’s performance against its functions, including Corporate Plan and Strategic Equality objectives from the Planning and Performance Officer (copy enclosed).

11.15am – 12pm

The Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assetes and the Head of Corporate Support Service: Performance, Digital & Assets introduced the report (previously circulated) that provided an update on the Council’s performance against the Corporate Plan up to the end of quarter 2, September 2023.

 

There were changes in the presentation of the Performance Update Report compared to that in quarter 1, the changes were highlighted under section 4.4 of the report to more easily identify corporate successes and areas of improvement.

 

Cabinet had considered the Performance Update Report the previous week and identified two performance areas for improvement which had been added to the Q2 report:

 

·       Housing and Environmental Services – to provide an update on the performance against the indicator relating to the percentage of damage to roads and pavements made safe in target times.

·       For the Organisation to provide an overview of the cultural offer provided across Council services as part of the plan to develop setting out the Cultural Strategy and how that would connect with personal and economic wellbeing.

 

It was anticipated that sustaining performance was likely to be challenging going forward given the financial pressures and subsequent unavoidable service reductions.

 

The Planning and Performance Officer gave an overview of the report explaining that the objective was to identify where the performance measures were at within each of the nine Corporate Plan Themes, projects and activities.

 

Overall the performance ratings were for:

·       Measures – orange (acceptable) and

·       Projects – yellow (experiencing obstacles) apart from the theme of A Fairer, Safer Denbighshire where the rating was red (priority for improvement) due to the ongoing problems relating to poverty and worklessness.

 

Summarising the position on the various Corporate Themes the Planning and Performance Officer advised:

 

A Denbighshire of quality housing that meets people's needs -

·       The new ‘My Home Denbighshire’ intervention had resulted in fewer individuals as presenting as homeless. There were fewer numbers on the Single Access Route to Housing (SARTH) waiting list, but the numbers were still higher than the Authority wished to see on the list.

·       Financial pressures and lack of capacity had proved challenging in the energy efficiency projects for council homes in preparation for the new Welsh Housing Quality Standards (WHQS).

 

A prosperous Denbighshire -

·       Still some challenges around the larger projects in Denbigh and Rhyl due to delays and funding shortages. It was anticipated that the recent announcement of Levelling Up 3 award would address those problems.

·       Tourism and associated spending had increased.

·       Incomes and employment remained a priority for improvement. An economic strategy had been developed, utilising external expertise and capacity from the Wellbeing and Future Generations Commissioner’s Office.

 

A healthier and happier, caring Denbighshire -

·       Some challenges around embedding the whole school approach to mental health.

 

A learning and growing Denbighshire –

·       Still waiting for attainment measures from Welsh Government to be able to understand the performance of schools within the given context.

·       The Modernising Education Programme was still experiencing delays – specific updates were included within the content of the report.

·       Early Years support, Llwybrau and Working Denbighshire were achieving some positive outcomes.

 

A better connected Denbighshire –

·       Repair of damage to roads and pavements remain a cause for concern.

·       The 20mph speed limit had now been implemented.

 

 

A greener Denbighshire –

·       Still looking at methodology around measuring the carbon tonnage reduction from supply chains.

·       Preparation was underway for reviewing the strategy.

 

A fairer, safe, and more equal Denbighshire –

·       The free school meals programme was expanding.

·       There had been an increase in figures received from North Wales Police (NWP) around domestic violence and repeat offending. It was understood that the rise was due to a change in reporting methods.

·       Concern regarding employees’ completion of equality modules had been flagged and was being addressed.

 

A Denbighshire of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language –

·       As a result of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns there had been a decrease in children continuing their education through the medium of Welsh, plans were ongoing to encourage more children into nurseries through the medium of Welsh.

·       Work around the cultural strategy had been paused for a while but there were many projects ongoing to support the Welsh language and culture through heritage venues, tourism, libraries and national park and levelling up projects etc.

 

A well-run, high performing Council –

Being open and transparent was part of the Council’s core values. The new Well-Run, High Performance Council Board had been established to embed the organisational culture more deeply. An all member workshop was planned for January 2024 to establish how they wish to be involved.

 

Responding to the Committee’s questions officers advised:

 

·       Performance was reported in arrears (3 months) therefore issues around employee capacity might be recorded in December – given the restriction on staff vacancies implemented in September. The impact of future changes would be reported similarly.

·       Thresholds / measurements may need to be reconsidered depending impact of proposed changes.

·       Discussions would need to be held with Cabinet for the potential reduction of Corporate Themes in light of the budget cuts.

·       The Verto performance management system was limited to the functions that the Council paid for – generally used as a reporting tool rather than performance management.

·       The Well-Run, High Performance Council Board would be looking at the culture of the Council and how Performance Information data was used would be under consideration.

·       There was a statutory duty to report on the seven key governance areas, detailed in the report. They referred to matters such as the Corporate planning processes, performance management, financial management, procurement processes etc. the governance of the Council rather than functions and services delivered.

·       An update to the Welsh Index for areas of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) were expected late 2025 or early 2026.

·       Whilst developing the theme around a Fair and Equal Denbighshire information was drawn from a number of available national data around poverty, including Data Cymru.

·       Sources for the content of the Performance Framework could come from various directions, such as:

o   National publications

o   Welsh Government

o   Service plans

o   Strategic Boards

·       There may well be productivity gains to be made by the Council via the likes of Artificial Intelligence (AI) / ChatGBT. Its use would need to have regard to ethical principles and data protection (GDPR) legislation.

 

The Committee raised concern around the percentage of Year 11 school leavers not known to be in Education, Employment or Training. The Scrutiny Coordinator advised that there was a report due to be presented to Performance Scrutiny Committee in the new year on Ensuring Engagement in Education.

 

Following the discussion

 

The Committee:

 

Resolved:  subject to the above observations, and consideration being given to issues raised during the discussion in relation to the Council’s ability to deliver the full suite of corporate priorities during a prolonged period of financial constraints, to receive and acknowledge the progress made to date in delivering the Council’s Corporate Plan during Quarter 2 2023/24.