Agenda item

The Chairman of the Committee introduced the Q.3 Performance Monitoring report and asked Officers to present the item.

The Chairman welcomed Ben Thomas, Strategic Lead for Children and Young People. The Committee welcomed the opportunity to review the Children’s Services Improvements alongside the role of the Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee. Members requested an update following publication of the second Ofsted Monitoring visit letter. 

Mr Thomas informed the Committee that the direction of travel is positive with improvements continuing to be embedded. The Committee noted that work was still ongoing to shape improvement activity and ensure that all staff understand the scale of the improvements required.

The Committee expressed concern over the 60 percent negative rating on the bin collection dates page over the Christmas and New Year period in comparison to the previous quarter. Kitran Eastman, Street Scene Director joined the meeting and noted that one of the reasons for the increase in the negative rating was that the collection information was not published on the webpage.

Following discussion, it was agreed that the Environment Committee be asked to consider the operation of the New Year Bin collection service as part of its Forward Work Programme. (Action)

Mathew Kendall, Adults and Communities Director joined the table to respond to queries from the Committee around sickness absence within Adults and Communities which was at 10.42 days during Q.3 in comparison to 9.55 for Q.3 in 2016/17.

Mr Kendall informed the Committee about the measures taken within the Delivery Unit to help support staff and tackle sickness with support from HR Partners. A Health and Wellbeing Group has been set up within the Delivery Unit to help improve health and increase physical activity. 

Following a comment from the Committee about the high sickness absence in Street Scene, Ms Eastman spoke about the mitigations put in place to tackle the higher levels of short term sickness absence which includes appointing a dedicated staffing supervisor to improve sickness management processes and an increased focus on return to work interviews.

The Committee agreed to make a referral to the Community Leadership Committee in respect of the Commissioning Plan indicator SPI CG/C3 on p.98 of the agenda, to consider what more can be done to respond to Domestic Violence and Violence with Injury offences, including working with perpetrators to reduce re-offending. (Action)

The Committee expressed concern over the small cohort representing the data on p.57 about CES/S26 Percentage of pupils with an EHCP or statement of special educational needs achieving the ‘expected standard’.

Members requested that details on the range (top and bottom ranking) and results for top 10% (rank 15) be incorporated in future reports for any educational attainment indicators that do not achieve target. (Action) 

The Committee requested that the next performance report provide details of capital slippage for Family Services (p.24)

It was RESOLVED that:

1.    The Committee scrutinised the overall performance of the council, in relation to the Corporate Plan; Theme Committee Commissioning Plans and Strategic Contracts; and made recommendations to other relevant committees on the policy and commissioning implications.

2.    The Committee noted the Q3 2017/18 revenue position, as detailed in paragraphs A.6-A.7 and in Appendix B.

3.    The Committee noted the additions and deletions (which include virements) and accelerations and slippages in the capital programme, as detailed in paragraphs A.8-A.9 and in Appendix C.

4.    The Committee noted the savings delivered in Q3 2017/18, as detailed in paragraph A.10.

5.    The Committee noted the agency costs for 2017/18, as detailed in paragraph A.11.

6.    The Committee noted the strategic risks, as detailed in paragraph A.18, and the corporate risk register, which includes high level service/joint risks in Appendix A.