Agenda item

To consider a report by Councillor Gwyneth Ellis, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets (copy enclosed) presenting the Performance Update Report for the period April to September 2024 prior to submission to Performance Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED that Cabinet notes the Council’s performance against its functions for the period April to September 2024 and confirms the content of the report for approval.

Councillor Gwyneth Ellis presented the report which provided an update on the Council’s performance against its Corporate Plan during April to September 2024, including Strategic Equality objectives, and the seven key areas of governance.

The current financial context and inevitable impact on the standard of services was highlighted.  However, it was also important to acknowledge the excellent work carried out, despite the exceptional challenges faced, which Councillor Ellis believed reflected the hard work and perseverance of council staff.  She made particular reference to the positive changes in delivering homelessness services which had also generated a substantial saving and positive outcome from the recent Panel Performance Assessment.  The importance of the document as a performance management tool and in monitoring progress was also emphasised.

The Head of Corporate Support Service: Performance, Digital & Assets and the Strategic Planning and Performance Officer attended for this item.  Cabinet approval of the Performance Update Report was sought prior to its submission to Performance Scrutiny Committee.  The report outlined progress against performance objectives and also identified indicators or activities that were Equality Objectives or contributed to Welsh Language and Culture together with case studies to exemplify good work carried out.  The Strategic Planning and Performance Officer provided a general overview of performance and elaborated on some of the highlights which had been set out in the cover report.  Overall, and given the financially challenging times, the report demonstrated that the council was working to its own values and principles, and wellbeing principles, to produce some excellent outcomes across a range of services.  Further detail was provided on the three improvement actions identified.

The Leader thanked the Lead Member and officers for the detailed overview and key messages from the performance report.  Cabinet acknowledged the areas for improvement identified in the report and impact of the financial situation together with the positive outcomes and achievements despite those financial challenges and paid tribute to the hard work of staff in that regard and compilation of the report.

The following issues were raised during the ensuing debate –

·       Councillor Rhys Thomas made particular mention of the positive work carried out in the housing sector, including maintaining good relations with tenants and the response to homelessness, and praised staff for the work carried out

·       each local authority in Wales was required to produce a Corporate Plan (which typically integrated the required wellbeing objectives) but its appearance and over what time period it covered varied across the different authorities

·       officers provided an explanation of the performance management methodology used with performance either benchmarked nationally or locally.  Where benchmarked nationally performance was measured against many or all local authorities in Wales with the upper quartile of performance as the best performing; where national comparable data was unavailable work was carried out with experts and services to determine the performance thresholds

·       data trends could be measured via the Data Cymru platform with local authorities placed within a family group of other local authorities with similar demographics, etc. which allowed access to comparative data on a range of various functions.  Access to Data Cymru was available to all and officers would share further details with Cabinet members in that regard outside of the meeting

·       Councillor Emrys Wynne referred to the recent appointment of a Welsh Language Officer and the excellent work being carried out by that officer and also the Welsh Champions across the council in terms of raising awareness amongst staff and providing opportunities to practice and improve Welsh language skills

·       once Cabinet approved the content of the report it would go forward to Performance Scrutiny Committee.  The year-end Performance Self-Assessment 2024 to 2025 had been programmed into the committee cycle with reports to Performance Scrutiny Committee, Cabinet and finally Council in June/July 2025.

RESOLVED that Cabinet notes the Council’s performance against its functions for the period April to September 2024 and confirms the content of the report for approval.