Agenda item

To consider the Council Plan Performance Management Report for the second Quarter of 2018/19.

The Committee considered a report, set out Agenda pages 47 to 100, which gave details of Council Plan performance monitoring for Quarter 2, 2018/19 (July-September).

The report stated that 70% of the performance measures were achieving the assigned targets (Green), with 17% with performance marginally off-target (Amber) and 9 measures (13%) off-target (Red).

The key performance indicators reported Red in Quarter 2 were:

·           EA1i – Percentage of Wokingham borough state-funded primary schools with a current Ofsted rating of Good or better/ EA2 – Percentage of children who attend a Wokingham Borough state-funded school (Primary, Secondary or Special) which was Good or better.

·           EA7 - Percentage of infants who received a 6-8 week review by the time they were 8 weeks old.

·           EA11 (new) - 12-month rolling voluntary turnover of qualified Social Workers within the Children’s Social Care and Early Intervention Service.

·           SC7 – Percentage of household waste reused, recycled and composted.

·           VP1iv – Non-elective admissions.

·           VP4 – Percentage of referrals in 2018/19 which are repeat referrals within 12 months of the previous referral to Children’s Social Care.

·           VP7 - Percentage of children leaving care who achieved permanence.

·           VP8 - Percentage of child protection visits due in the period which were completed on time (within 10 days of the previous visit).

The report highlighted a service area which was achieving a high level of performance, Council Tax Collection (CE3). For the fourth consecutive year the Council had achieved the highest Council Tax collection rate in the country and was on track to be one of the leading Councils in 2018/19. The collection team maintained excellent performance by continually improving processes and seeking improvements through the 21^st Century Council programme such as the introduction of a self-serve option.

The report also provided responses to the issues raised by the Committee in relation to the Quarter 1 performance report.

The Chairman invited Members to comment on the performance management data in the report and any indicators causing concern. In the ensuing discussion, Members raised the following points and questions:

·           In relation to the Wokingham Town Centre Market Place Regeneration project, Members sought further clarification on the stated reasons why the Market Place was not included in the list of key regeneration projects.

·           In relation to the list of key performance indicators, why were some indicators (e.g. T9, T10 and T11) marked as “information only”?

·           The number of Red indicators and the number of indicators showing deterioration were noted with concern. What steps were being taken to address the performance underlying the indicators showing deterioration?

·           In relation to the performance indicators for Children’s Services, Shahid Younis gave details of some of the challenges facing the service and the steps being taken to improve performance. These included the recruitment of a new Director of Children’s Services and the filling of other key vacancies.

Shahid also confirmed that steps were being taken to develop more positive relationships with key partners such as the Schools Forum. It was noted that, whilst the service was moving in the right direction, some of the changes would take time to fully embed.

RESOLVED That:

1)     the Council Plan Performance Monitoring report for Quarter 2, 2018/19, be noted;

2)     further information be provided in response to the points and questions raised by the Committee.