Audit Committee Minutes - 13 February 2007

58. OUTCOMES OF SERVICE BOARDS – QUARTER 3

Members were advised that the financial and performance results for quarter 3 would be considered at the Cabinet meeting on 6 March 2007.

With regard to the Council’s property disposal programme, Members were concerned that this was not being monitored formally through the committee process. The Committee was advised that the Medium Term Financial Plan included details of the Disposals Programme and the Council now had an Asset Management Strategy which would be published in the near future.

The Committee also reiterated that the MP’s correspondence data for each department should be limited to exception reporting only.

The Committee reviewed the performance indicators detailed in Annex 2 of the report, particularly those showing unexpected or unusual performance. The appropriate Cabinet Members and Directors were invited to respond to the Committee’s queries as listed below.

Cllr Barry Abraham, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities and Fire and Rescue Modernisation

The Director for Environment and Neighbourhoods responded to questions in the Cabinet Member’s absence.

No. of item	Name of Item	Query Raised	Director/Cabinet Member response
4	Number of Violent Crimes.	Lack of national comparators and the apparent rise in figures despite recent action.	The trend would be more meaningful if the figures included a 3 month period.
8	Fire and Rescue Service – number of days lost due to sickness absence by all staff (not including retained).	Members congratulated the Service on their improved sickness absence record, during an uncertain period.
		What was the total weight of waste collected on the Island compared with other Local Authorities?	More information would be provided on the next quarter’s report.

Cllr Dawn Cousins, Cabinet Member for Island Health and Community Wellbeing

The Director for Financial Services and the Director for Children’s Services responded to questions in the Cabinet Member’s absence.

No. of item	Name of Item	Query Raised	Director/Cabinet Member response
23	Intensive Home Care – PAF C28 Intensive Home Care Households (BVPI 53). Per 1,000 population aged over 65 or over (monthly)	Members asked if more could be done to improve the rating?	This was one of the Local Area Agreement targets. Further information would be sought and circulated to Members
44	Directorate of Adult and Community Servies – working days lost due to absences of 4 to 20 days duration.	More information requested – suggested that an officer from Human Resources be invited to attend a future meeting.
33	The percentage of young people aged under 16 who have been looked after for 2.5 or more yeas and living the same placement for at least 2 years or are placed for adoption (monthly).	Concern raised about 28% of looked after children being moved up to three times a year. Further information requested, so that this could be monitored.

Cllr Ian Ward, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport

The Director for Environment and Neighbourhoods responded to questions in the Cabinet Member’s absence.

No. of item	Name of Item	Query Raised	Director/Cabinet Member response
48	Total number of free fare passenger journeys made on buses on the IW by people either aged over 60, or with a disability, in a rolling twelve month period.	These figures should be submitted on a regular basis.
50	To ensure that all urgent repairs are undertaken within 24 hours from the time these are reported to the time of completion (%).	Indicators submitted were queried and Members requested that more detailed criteria and a list of planned works be made available.	This information is submitted to the Cabinet Member on a regular basis and plans to disseminate this information would be discussed.
65	Percentage of Highways road repairs within 2 hours – to ensure that all urgent repairs are undertaken within 2 hours from the time these are reported to the time of completion.	As above.	As above.
54	Number of fly-tipping incidents reported on Council property or public highway (monthly).	Members requested information about when and how quickly reported incidents were dealt with.	This information could be included in future.
62	Number of justified complaints received regarding dog bins (cumulative).	Concern about the number of justified complaints.	Provision of litter bins and dog bins was currently under review.

Cllr Jilly Wood, Cabinet Member for Resources and Town/Parish Council Empowerment

No. of item	Name of Item	Query Raised	Comment
84	Number of purchase orders transacted electronically expressed as a % of total applicable corporate purchase orders placed.	Members questioned the target for this item.	This was a monthly indicator updated after each Service Board. Further information to be sought and circulated to Members.
79	Proportion of recommendations made by Internal Audit accepted by management.	Members suggested that a more meaningful indicator should include the number of recommendations fully implemented.	Changes to these indicators were already under discussion and was likely to include a quarterly measure of the percentage implemented against those accepted.
92	Complaints referred to the Local Government Ombudsman	Members queried the number of complaints referred.	The Cabinet Member would circulate further information to the Committee.

Cllr Patrick Joyce, Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Learning

The Director responded to questions in the Cabinet Member’s absence.

No. of item	Name of Item	Query Raised	Comment
118	Percentage of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET).	The Committee made comparisons between the percentage of young people not in education, employment or training to the number of care leavers taking up employment, education and training.	Figures were affected by seasonal changes, although progress was being carefully monitored.

Members asked if a local indicator could be provided for the number of children taking up sporting activities and the Director agreed to provide information on a quarterly basis.

Cllr Tim Hunter-Henderson, Cabinet Member for The Economy, The Customer, Communications, Leisure and Tourism

No. of item	Name of Item	Query Raised	Comment
137	Number of library visits per 1,000 population.	Concerns raised about the falling number of library visits, although it was recognised that the Island’s service was well supported compared to national statistics.
160	Value of on-line bookings achieved - £.	Members queried the indicators for on-line booking and asked to review this again in the fourth quarter.

Cllr George Brown, Cabinet Member for Assets, Planning and Housing

The Director for Financial Services responded to questions in the Cabinet Member’s absence.

No. of item	Name of Item	Query Raised	Comment
173	Number of households accepted as homeless and in priority need (cumulative).	Queries raised about the indicators.	The Cabinet Member was currently working on a different approach and could provide further information in due course.
175	New houses built on brownfield sites.	Queries raised about the indicators.	As above.
180	Affordable housing units built on qualifying sites.	Queries raised about the indicators.	As above.

RESOLVED:

(a) THAT a regular update report should be received on the Disposals Programme to enable the Committee to monitor progress throughout the year.

(b) THAT the Cabinet Member for Assets, Planning and Housing be invited to provide a briefing for Members on the Asset Management Strategy and the Disposals Programme.

(d) THAT further information for intensive home care would be circulated to the Committee.

(e) THAT further information for sickness absence in the Adult and Community Services directorate should be sought from the Human Resources section.

(f) THAT further information be made available for Looked After Children placements.

(g) THAT figures for free bus passenger journeys for those aged 60 or over be monitored on a regular basis.

(h) THAT the information relating to urgent repairs (item 50) and highways repairs (item 65) be provided to Committee Members.

(i) THAT information regarding how quickly and when fly-tipping incidents were dealt with to be provided in future reports.

(j) THAT a local indicator for the number of children taking up sporting activities in schools be provided on a quarterly basis.

59. THE PROPOSED PROCESS FOR SETTING 2007/08 PERFORMANCE TARGETS

The Committee considered the report which also provided details of the Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI’s) for 2006/07. Members were asked to support the process identified for 2007/08, to provide comment on the Council’s performance and the content and format of the information.

Members noted that in addition to the Audit Commission’s BVPI’s a number of comparators were used to define the Council’s overall annual performance. Separate indicators were also applied to individual services and in addition the senior management team could decide to identify indicators on priority issues not already covered by other indicators. It was envisaged that the Council’s annual performance for 2006-07 would be considered at the Audit and Performance Committee meeting on 12 June 2007, prior to publication on 30 June 2007.

The Committee was advised that comparative data, collected from other authorities and bodies providing similar services, should be available in the future, enabling more meaningful comparisons. The indicators identified by the Council’s Heads of Service would provide a base for national benchmarking.

Members discussed the format and content of the information provided and suggested that an informal meeting be arranged, with recommendations being forwarded to the Director for consideration.

RESOLVED:

(a) THAT each year the Council reviews the indicators it identifies as the key indicators that will be closely monitored during the coming financial year.

(b) THAT these indicators will be closely linked to the Council’s service plans, which will reflect actions being undertaken to respond to:

(i) additional responsibilities as required by central government;

(ii) changes to service delivery as a result of local review (e.g. residents’ survey or policy change);

(iii) the need to improve performance where there was under-performance in the previous year.

(c) THAT this approach will enable the Council to develop its annual ‘basket’ of indicators to sit alongside the comparator indicators.

(d) THAT service plans are developed and will be subject to moderation by the Directors’ team and Cabinet Members during the month of February.

(e) THAT the performance indicators and targets will be agreed at the March meeting of Service Boards (29 and 30 March 2007) and these will then be subject to review during 2007/8. The Committee may wish to pay particular attention to indicators in the bottom quartile.

(f) THAT the Council’s action plans are monitored on a regular basis. These plans to include the CPA action plan, the Joint Area Review action plan and the Fire and Rescue CPA action plan.

(g) THAT the Committee receives quarterly progress reports on each of these action plans.

(h) THAT an informal meeting be arranged to enable further discussion of the format and content of the Best Value Performance Indicators report and recommendations would be forwarded to the Director for consideration.

(i) THAT the Council’s Draft Annual Best Value Performance Plan would be considered at the Audit and Performance Committee meeting on 12 June 2007, prior to publication on 30 June 2007.

60. VALUE FOR MONEY REVIEW OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP

The Committee considered the findings of the report conducted by the Council’s internal audit function as part of its constitutional responsibility for achieving value for money services through its contracts.

Members noted that performance management was integral to the Service Level Agreement which included regular reports to Cabinet and regular meetings between the Managing Director of Isle of Wight Economic Partnership (IWEP) and senior officers of the Council. Historically, some of these measures were not undertaken as planned, which resulted in no performance targets being agreed. However, other performance measures were included as part of the Local Public Service Agreement 1, and the Local Area Agreement. In addition, performance targets were set and monitored by the South East England Development Agency and the Government Office of the South East.

The Committee questioned the progress of the proposed hotel exit strategy, whether the Innovation Centre was self-financing, opportunities for green sustainable tourism and the fluctuation of safeguarded jobs achieved. Members were advised that although IWEP sought to assist discussion and support the Bay Area Steering Group, the hotel exit strategy itself had been undertaken by Isle of Wight Tourism. Regarding safeguarded jobs, it was envisaged that the numbers would always fluctuate and this was a difficult target to achieve. Members also expressed disappointment that IWEP was not asked to contribute to the Constructionline debate.

A further debate took place regarding IWEP’s involvement with the SRB projects at Ryde and Members heard that funding decisions had been made locally through the Ryde Development Trust. The Government’s national SRB initiative had been intended to assist and support deprived wards, but unfortunately had not achieved the expected results. The Audit Commission had been asked to review the management of the SRB funding and the Committee would discuss the findings when a report was available.

RESOLVED:

(a) THAT a new SLA should be developed to reflect the latest expectations of the IWEP incorporating targets to enable performance to be monitored and managed.

(b) THAT the new SLA should be formally monitored.

(c) THAT the issue of value for money provided to the Council by IWEP be revisited in twelve months, when comparative information should be available to enable meaningful comparisons.

(d) THAT the Audit Commission’s report be discussed at a future meeting.

61. MEMBERS QUESTION TIME

There were no questions presented.

CHAIRMAN