Agenda item

To consider a report on the Corporate Plan Performance Update: April to September 2024 to discuss the council’s performance and the improvement actions (copy enclosed).

11:10am – 12:00pm

The Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets alongside the Head of Corporate Support Service: Performance, Digital and Assets and the Planning and Performance Officer introduced the Corporate Plan Performance Update: April to September 2024 (previously circulated). The report aimed to update the Committee on the Council’s performance against its Corporate Plan from April to September 2024, including Strategic Equality objectives and the seven governance areas (corporate planning, financial planning, performance management, risk management, workforce planning, assets, and procurement). Regular performance reporting was part of the Council’s values and principles. It was an essential monitoring requirement of the Council’s performance management methodology and a statutory duty.  Despite the current challenging financial climate within which local government was operating there was some excellent performance in some service areas, and staff were to be congratulated on these achievements in such challenging circumstances.  Of course, there were other areas requiring improvement.

The report outlined progress against the Authority’s performance objectives. These comprised of the Corporate Plan / Strategic Equality Objectives (which also formed the Council’s Well-being Objectives under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015) and the seven governance areas (as set out in the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021).

The report also identified indicators or activities that related to Equality Objectives or contributed to the Welsh Language and Culture.  The report also contained case studies to exemplify good work. The Strategic Planning Team were continually seeking further opportunities to improve the Performance Management Framework and Performance Update Reports.

Officers emphasised that it was not possible to highlight all significant points of interest included within Appendix 1.  However, some positive highlights and areas which had shown improvement during April to September 2024 included:

• Reducing reliance on Bed and Breakfast accommodation to house homeless families; and
• According to the Welsh Government’s Social Landlords’ Tenant Satisfaction Survey 2024, Denbighshire was the highest-performing stock-holding council in Wales regarding tenants’ overall satisfaction with Denbighshire Housing.

Officers stated that three improvement actions had been identified following discussions with services about current performance.  The first two demonstrated the correlation between resources, performance, and risk.  These were:

• performance relating to the percentage of damaged roads and pavements made safe within the target time (CAT1 - Category 1 defects dealt within timescale), which had fallen short of the 95% target time for some years. The service continued to struggle with meeting the demands of the asset within the limited budgetary and staffing resources available, and a substantive discussion was needed about the prospects of improvement and what continuing poor performance was likely to mean given the expected increased impacts of flooding, landslips and heat risks on road condition and community connectivity.
• Linked to the previous reporting period’s improvement action to keep our Corporate Plan commitments and performance expectations under continual review in the future, the next Corporate Plan Tract Review should consider the impact of reducing capacity and ceasing projects such as Llwybrau and how these would impact the Council’s ability to deliver the Corporate Plan and outcomes.
• The need to publish details of the engagement network of people and groups with protected characteristics on the Council’s website.

Members discussed the following further –

• Concerns were raised that the Council’s performance in relation to some indicators and was not improving, or was worse than in previous reporting periods. What were the potential risks and consequences to the Council of not meeting thresholds for excellence and delivering aspects of the Corporate Plan?   Officers clarified that the consequence was reputational damage to the Council but more importantly the detrimental impact on residents if performance was to continually deteriorate and priorities were not delivered. It was emphasised that the plan was a long-term plan and that it would take a while for all aspirations to come to fruition. The Plan’s delivery was regularly monitored.  Officers fully understood members’ feelings and concerns on the matter.  However, they highlighted that making comparisons with previous plans delivered by former administrations was not as straight forward as it seemed, as they would not be comparing like with like, as so many elements had changed.  The plan aimed to improve well-being.  Whilst performance in some areas was considered a ‘Priority for Improvement’ other areas of performance was good. Officers also explained that the Council had set higher goals and thresholds rather than ones more easily achievable.  It was also added that external factors similar to those faced by most local authorities made achieving targets more challenging.
• under the ‘Greener Denbighshire’ priority, the ‘total carbon tonnage emissions’ had increased instead of reduced in the last year, how was this being addressed, and would the requirements of the new Procurement Act have implications on performance against this measure in due course? This particular measure is based on a fairly crude methodology set externally, which we hope will become more sophisticated and reliable in time. Officers clarified that the Procurement Act was not expected to have a significant impact on carbon reduction targets. During recent months factors such as the coastal flood defence work had made the greener Denbighshire target harder to achieve along with the poor summer weather impacting on the effectiveness of solar panels in generating energy.  However, specific service areas such as Fleet and street lighting were meeting their targets. All local authorities and public sector organisations were currently working together with a view to reducing carbon emissions via the supply chain.  The North Wales Construction Framework was good example of how authorities worked together with a view to reducing carbon emissions when procuring construction work.  The appointment of a De-Carbonisation Officer to work as part of the Procurement Service would also be key to success in this area.
• Officers confirmed that applying the team Denbighshire approach should in time help improve performance in areas that were currently struggling.  No service or area operated in isolation.  Applying a collective approach, with staff at all levels taking ownership of performance, would help support the Plan’s delivery in the long-term.  Management valued staff at all levels and acknowledged that they held the key to success.
• The Lead Member and officers agreed with members’ views on the need to get residents more involved with the Council’s work.  There were a number of working groups currently working on how best to engage and consult with residents on various proposals. Whilst the Council’s reputation had been damaged by the problems encountered with the roll-out of the new waste and recycling service, good work was going on throughout the Council and people needed to be more positive rather than negative.
• Regarding the gaps in the data highlighted, they were due to several factors, such as waiting for data from external sources and not receiving data ahead of publication dates. External sources were also experiencing challenges, similar to the council and could not source the data as they had previously.
• Confirmed that work was currently underway on how to improve the performance in relation to the percentage of damaged roads and pavements made safe with a specific focus on the quality of work rather than on a time sensitive target.
• A number of suggestions were put forward on how to make the documents more navigable, reader and user-friendly without compromising its accessibility to all.

Following an in-depth discussion, the Committee:

Resolved:  subject to the above observations, the provision of the additional information requested, and further work being considered on the format of the Performance Update Report, to acknowledge the Council’s progress to date in delivering its Corporate Plan 2022-27 as detailed in the Corporate Plan Performance Update:  April to September 2024 report (Appendix 1).