Agenda item

To consider the Council Plan Performance Monitoring report for the fourth Quarter of 2017/18.

The Committee considered a report, set out at Agenda pages 11 to 20, which gave details of the Council’s performance against 48 performance indicators and 19 key projects. The report covered the fourth quarter of 2017/18 and gave details of end of year performance compared to the assigned targets.

The report stated that the majority of measures (71%) achieved the assigned targets (Green) whilst 15 (24%) were slightly off target (Amber) and three measures (5%) were further off target and were reported as Red. The direction of travel for the majority of measures was positive, showing an improvement in performance compared to quarter 3.

The three indicators with a Red rating were:

·           Percentage of children who became subject to a Child Protection Plan for a second or subsequent time ever;

·           Percentage of children leaving care who achieved permanence (being adopted or entering into a Special Guardianship Order);

·           Percentage of household waste reused, recycled and composted.

The report also highlighted an indicator showing good performance, the percentage of housing stock which meets the Decent Homes Standard. In 2017/18 the percentage of homes meeting the standard stood at 99.6%.

The report explained that most of the components within the Decent Homes Standard were time-based which meant that properties complying in one year could fall out of compliance in the following year. An investment programme had been developed to ensure that, for the next three years, any property which fell out of the standard at the start of the year would be brought up to standard before the end of that year.

During the ensuing discussion, Members raised the following points and questions:

Kgs of residual household waste per household and Percentage of household waste reused, recycled and composted – Members raised a number of points and questions about performance relating to these indicators, including:

·           What was the breakdown between residual waste sent to landfill and waste to energy;

·           What were the cost implications of the measures proposed to move the Council to the 50% recycling target by 2020;

·           Was there a net cost for the green waste service or did the service break even?

·           Some Welsh Councils achieved recycling levels of 70%. Was this due to a more innovative approach or a different reporting system?

·           What was the impact on recycling of the significant reduction in printed newspapers, magazines, etc?

·           Could wet materials, e.g. newspapers, card, etc be recycled or were they sent to landfill?

·           What were the cost and service implications of adding lids to the recycling boxes?

Members requested a further report on the waste and recycling services to address the points above. Members also agreed to develop Key Lines of Enquiry in order to ensure that key issues of interest could be addressed in detail when the report was considered by the Committee.

In relation to the key performance indicators reported, Members asked for more information on the selection of indicators and the setting of annual targets. This included details of mandatory national targets and local targets set to monitor progress against the Council’s key priorities. Members also requested evidence to demonstrate that the Council was attaching SMART targets to the key indicators, i.e. targets that were specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

RESOLVED That:

1)     the Quarter 4 2017/18 Council Plan Performance Monitoring report be noted;

2)     the Committee receive a further report on waste and recycling services in order to address the questions raised by Members;

3)     Members agree Key Lines of Enquiry prior to the Committee’s consideration of the report on waste and recycling;

4)     the Committee receive a further report on Performance Management setting out the rationale for each key indicator e.g. national versus local and evidence of the use of SMART targets (see also Minute 91 below).