Agenda item

To consider a report by Councillor Barbara Smith (copy enclosed) about the Council’s draft Annual Performance Review for 2012/13.

Councillor Barbara Smith presented the report, circulated previously, which provided Cabinet with the opportunity to scrutinise the Council’s draft Annual Performance Review for 2012/13, Appendix I, prior to a final draft being presented to Council in October, 2013.

RESOLVED - that Cabinet agrees that the draft 2012/13 Annual Performance Review be submitted to County Council for approval.

Councillor Barbara Smith presented the report, circulated previously, which provided Cabinet with the opportunity to scrutinise the Council’s draft Annual Performance Review for 2012/13, Appendix I, prior to a final draft being presented to Council in October, 2013.

The Corporate Plan 2012-17 outlined the Council’s strategic direction and priorities for the five-year period.  The Authority’s intentions to assist in the delivery of the priorities had been set out in Annual Service Plans and the Corporate Plan Annual Deliver Document.   The Council also had a number of equality objectives within its Strategic Equality Plan, and a set of Outcome Agreements with the Welsh Government. 

The Annual Performance Review provided a retrospective evaluation of the Authority’s success in delivering against its commitments during 2012-13, and of whether it had successfully fulfilled its obligation to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement.  Problems had been encountered in obtaining information due to the more sophisticated performance management system based on excellence thresholds rather than locally-set targets. 

In reply to questions from Members the HBPP explained that information which had been unavailable, related mainly to the Residents Survey and had been noted as “tbc”, would be incorporated in the report prior to its presentation to Full Council.  He confirmed that the Council were obliged to publish the Annual Performance Review for their Regulators who would expect the Authority to provide a comprehensive and substantial amount of information in relation to its performance.  Members were reminded that this was the first year of the Plan and next year’s figures could be utilised for comparison purposes.  It was explained that the colours provided in the report could be used for analysis purposes while the figures produced depicted trends.  The HBPP highlighted the need to recognise the Council’s position in terms of ambitions, targets and to reflect the absolute quality in relation to other Authorities and organisations.  Councillor H.Ll. Jones emphasised the importance of the inclusion of the development of rural areas and made reference to the indicators relating to Rural Denbighshire. 

An Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA), Appendix 2, had been undertaken on the Corporate Plan and had been presented to Council when approved in October, 2012.

The performance information in the document had been provided by services and drawn from the Ffynnon performance management system.  Consultation had taken place with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and the Performance Scrutiny Committee.  The risk of any significantly negative reports from external regulators had been identified in the Corporate Risk Register.  Failure to publish the Annual Review by the 31^st October deadline would be likely to result in statutory recommendations from the Wales Audit Office, with significant implications for the reputation of the Council.

The Chief Executive explained that the Authority had raised its expectations and moved away from traditional targets and therefore an increase in red indicators could be expected.  He confirmed that red indicators were not necessarily an indication that the Authority were under achieving but that the Council had set more challenging targets than previously and had become more aspirational.  The importance of measuring excellence in comparison with the wider private sector public standard was emphasised if higher standards were to be achieved by the Authority.  The Chief Executive acknowledge there were areas which required addressing, particular reference was made to the undertaking of Equality Assessments and provision of raised kerbs, and failure to address such issues was unacceptable.

The HLDS responded to concerns raised by a number of Members and explained that timescales did not permit for the inclusion of an update from Scrutiny in the report being presented to Cabinet.  The Chief Executive suggested that the concerns raised be reviewed and that the possibility of inviting the Chair, or a representative, of Scrutiny to provide an update at Cabinet be examined.

RESOLVED - that Cabinet agrees that the draft 2012/13 Annual Performance Review be submitted to County Council for approval.