Agenda item

To consider a report by the Strategic Planning and Performance Officer, which provides an update on the delivery of the Corporate Plan, had been circulated previously

                                                                                       9.35 a.m. – 10.10 a.m.

A copy of a report by the Head of Business, Improvement and Modernisation (HBIM), which provides an update on the delivery of the Corporate Plan 2012-17 as at the end of quarter 3 of 2015/16, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

The Lead Member for Finance, Corporate Plan and Performance introducing the report outlined the key performance summary and stressed:-

·                     the importance of the Council’s performance in meeting its Outcome Agreements with the Welsh Government (WG);

·                     that the Council still considered improving corporate sickness absence levels as a priority for improvement, hence the reason for setting such an ambitious target.  Whilst the target had not been met the Council still compared favourably with other Welsh authorities and would continue to strive for improvement;

·                     the information on carbon emissions should be available in the near future.  As the Council was due to switch its energy supplier in April 2016 this would not be a problem in the future as  the new supplier had undertaken to routinely provide the information.  Denbighshire was not unique in not being able to report carbon emissions information at present, it affected the majority of Welsh local authorities;

·                     the number of staff receiving performance appraisal reports had now reached 90%

Responding to Members’ concerns in relation to economic growth and development the Lead Member for Finance, Corporate Plan and Performance and officers advised that:-

·                     the new Procurement Strategy and revised Contract Procedure Rules (CPRs) approved by Council recently should support economic development.  The Procurement Board  would be monitoring the implementation of the Strategy and new CPRs.  In addition it would be ensuring that officers in different services as well as suppliers would receive appropriate training to deliver the Strategy and support economic growth;

·                     economic growth was one of the Council’s top priorities.  Whilst there was now a smaller team of officers responsible for economic development corporately, this was a very strong team who were there to support other officers within the Council’s various services to deliver the economic development priority.  Businesses within the county were now far more positive about the Council’s prospects of delivering economic growth.  Substantial investment was taking place across the county, approximately £200m in total, through the building of new school buildings, improvements to libraries etc.;

·                     there was a need to celebrate the achievements and investments by the Council and businesses realised to date, in Rhyl and across the county, including the high survival rate for new businesses in Denbighshire;

·                     whilst the local authority had a role to play in economic development it was only one of a number of organisation who could influence this area, others such as WG, higher education and businesses had as much of a role to play as Councils if the ambition was to be fully realised;

·                     the Council could support economic development locally, but it could not control the local economy.  There were certain areas of the county which required a collaborative approach from a number of public and private organisations in order to improve skills and income levels with a view to stimulating the local economy and prosperity

·                     reference was made to Rhuddlan as an example of where small businesses seemed to flourish, with retail premises lying empty being a rare occurrence

Members raised concerns with respect to performance in the following areas:-

·                     the perceived lack of WG support for St. Asaph Business Park and availability of business units for new businesses to move to once they had established themselves and were ready to grow.  A number of home-grown businesses had been lost from Denbighshire because of the shortage of suitable premises;

·                     council housing – the period of time that houses lie empty due to refurbishment requirements before they are re-let;

·                     the development of affordable housing;

·                     prioritising highways maintenance work; and

·                     education – pupils’ educational performance since GwE had taken over responsibility for school improvement and the number of pupils excluded from the county’s schools

Responding to the above the Lead Member and officers advised that:-

·                     if Members had specific concerns about performance in specific areas they could follow the process established by the Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chairs Group (SCVCG) to call Lead Members and officers in to discuss those concerns;

·                     the Committee would during the summer of 2016 commence monitoring the progress made in delivering Theme 2 of the Council’s Housing Strategy, which related to creating a supply of affordable houses;

·                     with respect to highways maintenance works the Council, like many other local authorities, faced a backlog of expensive work which would probably cost in the region of £25m to rectify satisfactorily and could at present only commit circa £1m annually towards that work.  The work therefore had to be prioritised on a risk basis;

·                     GwE was more than aware that the Council was not satisfied with the service they had provided to the county to date, whilst pupils’ performance in the county had not slipped since GwE had taken over the school improvement function their performance had not kept a pace with other local authorities.  The support given by GwE to the primary sector had been well received and successful, this was not the case in the secondary sector and it was this sector that had suffered.  Whilst there was a correlation between economic deprivation and pupils’ performance this was not the only factor that affected performance, and Denbighshire on the whole was an affluent area therefore educational attainment should be higher.

At the conclusion of the discussion Members:-

RESOLVED – that, subject to the above observations, and the completion of ‘scrutiny proposal forms’ on the areas of most concern highlighted above, to receive the information provided on the Council’s performance in delivering its Corporate Plan up to and including the end of Quarter 3 2015/16.