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 2023 to 2024 for Cabinet’s consideration and confirmation prior to its submission to Council.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)      notes the contents of the report, including the six improvement actions listed in paragraph 4.4 of the report, and

(b)      confirms the content of the Council’s Performance Self-Assessment 2023 – 2024 for submission to Council in July 2024 for approval.

In the absence of Councillor Gwyneth Ellis, the Head of Corporate Support Service: Performance, Digital and Assets presented the report and the Council’s Self-Assessment for 2023 to 2024 for Cabinet’s consideration ahead of its submission to Council.  The Planning and Performance Officer was also in attendance.

The Performance Self-Assessment provided a year end analysis of progress and challenges against key performance objectives (i.e., Corporate Plan themes).

Officers guided members through the report which consisted of an Executive Summary (Appendix I) highlighting performance against the Corporate Plan and the seven governance areas; the Performance Update Report (Appendix II) covering October to March 2024; actions from the Service Performance Challenges (Appendix III) and draft scope of the Panel Performance Assessment (Appendix IV).  Feedback had already been provided from the Governance and Audit Committee and Performance Scrutiny Committee following their consideration of the report.  An overview of the progress made was given together with challenges that lay ahead.  It was noted that performance must be considered in the context of budgetary constraints and a possible reduction in the pace of delivery was expected as a result.  Specific attention was also drawn to the six improvement activities identified.

Cabinet thanked officers for the comprehensive report and hard work carried out.

Main areas of debate focused on the following –

·       a detailed account of the purpose of Panel Performance Assessment (PPA) and expectations were provided. The draft scope for the PPA was discussed and welcomed as a further opportunity to assess performance from a different perspective to drive greater improvement and performance in future. The draft areas of focus included Leadership, Budget Proposals/Transformation and Partnership Working.  A further report would be taken to Cabinet in July to approve the arrangements

·       whilst it was important to maintain the Council’s ambitions and continually strive for improvement it was accepted that many issues, both in terms of budgetary constraints and the wider economy, were outside the Council’s control

·       problems with the new waste service roll out and impact on performance together with other issues highlighted over recent months were raised as a concern and also the impact on the authority’s reputation and theme of being a well-run, high performing council.  The waste project featured in the Greener Denbighshire theme of the Corporate Plan and comment on the rollout would feature in the performance report for quarter 2.  Significant budget challenges were being faced by all local authorities with work focussing on the transformation agenda to deliver services.  The Corporate Plan performance management framework included indicators of financial management

·       the theme well run high performing council was discussed at some length and it was noted that performance was one of seven governance areas the Council was required to assess for good corporate health.  Part of the focus of the well-run, high performing council theme of the Corporate Plan was to foster a “one council” approach to support each other, working together to address issues in an open and transparent manner, being a learning authority, recognising both good performance and making the necessary improvements as quickly as possible in areas that were not performing as well

·       the Leader again acknowledged problems with the waste service roll out and repeated assurances that every effort was being made to resolve them

·       there was no reference to planning breaches/enforcement in the performance report and officers agreed to raise the issue with the relevant service as a potential measure to consider for inclusion in future reports and report back the outcome at the next Governance and Audit Committee

·       the report aimed to take an objective and level-headed view of the Council in terms of its performance and Cabinet agreed it was an honest report which provided both praise and challenge and was a vital tool to secure improvement.

Councillor Delyth Jones welcomed the report as a valuable means of evaluating performance together with constraints and challenges in order to move forward.  She believed that a well-run, high performing council came from leadership shown in difficult times and thanked the Leader and Chief Executive for acknowledging the problems with the waste service and taking clear decisive action to address them.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)      notes the contents of the report, including the six improvement actions listed in paragraph 4.4 of the report, and

(b)      confirms the content of the Council’s Performance Self-Assessment 2023 – 2024 for submission to Council in July 2024 for approval.