Agenda item

To consider and scrutinise the corporate Q4 Performance Monitoring Report – January to March 2023.

The Committee considered a report, set out at Agenda pages 21 to 68, which set out the Q4 Performance Monitoring Report for 2022/23 (January to March 2023).

Prue Bray (Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Children’s Services) attended the meeting to present the report on behalf of Sarah Kerr (Executive Member for Climate Emergency and Resident Services).

Louise Livingston (Head of HR & Organisational Development) introduced the report and highlighted some inconsistencies in the figures, including the pie charts at the start of the report.

Overall, Q4 showed good performance in spite of ongoing challenges relating to inflation and financial uncertainty at a national and international level. Of the 41 KPIs reported, 23 were Green, 7 were Amber and 4 were Red. Seven KPIs were in the process of being categorised and assigned SMART targets..

The four Red KPIs were:

·           RA 10B – Completion to time and budget of regeneration works (residential works);

·           CS3 – percentage of children in care who were 20 miles + from their homes and out of the Borough;

·           CS4 – Percentage of Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) assessments completed within 20 weeks of referral;

·           AS2 – Social work assessments allocated to commence within 28 days of the request (counted at the point of allocation).

The report gave details of the measures being implemented to bring these KPIs back on track.

The report also gave details of the top wins, top opportunities and challenges facing each of the Council’s service directorates.

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

RA4 – Return on investment portfolio – Property Investment Fund – would it be useful to include a valuation for the assets in the Council’s property portfolio? Graham Ebers commented that the return on investment was the most useful information for Members. However, further consideration would be given to this suggestion about valuation, with feedback provided to Members.

RA8 – Capital Budget monitoring forecast position – what factors lay behind the 11% underspend on the Capital Budget? Graham Ebers stated that there were a number of factors. High inflation and high interest rates had led to a focus on avoiding Capital expenditure in certain areas in order to mitigate the impact of the current financial situation. The detail would be reported to the Executive in July 2023.

CS3 – Percentage of children in care who are 20 miles + from their homes and out of the Borough – what factors had led the KPI to move from Red to Green? Prue Bray commented that children could still be in care if placed with family members. Some families had moved out of the Borough but were still included in the report. There was also an issue around unaccompanied asylum seeker children. The KPI covered a number of complex issues. Andrew Mickleburgh commented that this KPI would be closely scrutinised by the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Pages 29 and 33 – Challenges for Place and Growth and Children’s Services – were action plans in place to address these challenges? Prue Bray stated that action plans were in place in relation to the Children’s Services challenges. These action plans would be considered by the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee in due course. In relation to Place and Growth, Graham Ebers commented that 2023/24 would be a challenging year for all services. A service corporate efficiency target of £12m had been set, which was twice the target in any other year. High levels of inflation, interest rates and the cost of living were ongoing challenges in addition to emerging pressures, such as home to school transport and homelessness.

Recruitment and retention appeared to be an issue across the organisation, along with sickness absence. What steps were being taken to address these? It was confirmed that the HR team were working on a new People Strategy, linked to the new Community Vision and Council Plan. Work was also ongoing to improve absence management. The report stated that the absence rate for Q4 was slightly above target but still well below the public sector average.

RA3 – usage of Wokingham Borough leisure centres – was the aim of the service to achieve financial break-even? Graham Ebers confirmed that the Council had an arrangement with the contractor (Places for People) which involved a management fee. Increased usage resulted in an increased management fee. It was noted that some of Borough’s leisure centres (such as the Carnival Hub) were achieving better results than others.

RESOLVED That:

1)     Prue Bray and supporting officers be thanked for attending the meeting to present the performance report and answer Member questions;

2)     officers review the layout and content of the charts at the beginning of the report to ensure that they were providing accurate information and adding value to the report;

3)     the KPI relating to use of the Borough’s leisure centres (RA3) be reviewed by the Executive Member and Director in light of the recent improvement in attendances;

4)     leisure centre attendance, targets and performance be the subject of a further report to the Committee;

5)     officers consider the Member request for the inclusion of asset values in KPI RA4 - Return on investment portfolio – Property Investment Fund;