SUMMARY
1.
The purpose of this report is to receive
comments from the Audit and Performance Committee on the nature and content of
the reports relating to the Council’s performance in the financial year 2007/8.
ACTION
REQUIRED
2.
The Audit and Performance Committee is asked to
support the process identified in paragraphs 9-13 and 16 and to comment upon
the content and format of the presentation of future reports based on this
process.
BACKGROUND
3.
The Council has a number of performance
indicators imposed by central government upon which it is judged annually by
the Audit Commission. These are the Best Value Performance
Indicators (BVPIs) of which there are 150 in total. The Council has to produce a Best Value
Performance Plan each year (published by 30 June) in which the performance for
the previous financial year is reported and targets set for future years. A number of these indicators are defined by
the Audit Commission as comparators
and are focused upon when making judgments about the Council’s overall performance. A list of descriptions for all BVPIs is
attached as Appendix
A.
4.
In addition the Council has a number of sets of
indicators, in adults’ and children’s services, Local Transport plan, Planning
Delivery Grant, Fire & rescue and Consumer Protection on which to report
annually. These lead to a separate
judgments about these services and contribute to the overall assessment of the
Council. There are also performance indicators
in relation to the Local Area Agreement (LAA); the Local Public Service
Agreement (LPSA). These last two are
reported to the Island Strategic Partnership on a quarterly basis and monitored
by GOSE at six monthly intervals.
5.
In addition the Leader in consultation with the
Chief Executive, Cabinet Members and
Directors may decide to identify local indicators in area of high priority not
covered by the indicators identified in paragraphs 4 and 5 above.
6.
The Council is high performing in a number of
the statutory performance indicators but they are clearly some areas where
performance is below expected levels and in the bottom quartile when compared
to other local authorities in England.
7.
High performing councils determine a ‘basket’ of
key indicators from the whole range of indicators which are monitored closely
through out the year as well as receiving less frequent reports on the full set
of BVPIs.
8.
The current approach is a mixture with some
performance indicators receiving regular reports despite being high performing
whilst some which are of concern not being regularly reviewed.
IDENTIFYING AND
SETTING KEY INDICATORS
9.
It is proposed that each year the Council
reviews the indicators it identifies as the key indicators that will be closely
monitored during the coming financial year.
10.
These indicators will be closely linked to the
service plans in the Council which will reflect actions being undertaken to
respond to:
additional
responsibilities as required by central government;
changes
to service delivery as a result of local review (e.g. residents’ survey or
policy change;
need to
improve performance where there was under-performance in the previous year.
11.
This approach will enable the Council to develop
its annual ‘basket’ of indicators to sit alongside the comparator indicators.
12.
Service plans are being developed and will be
subject to moderation by the Directors’ team and Cabinet
Members during the month of February.
13.
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 the indicators
which are in the bottom quartile as shown in Appendix
A.
ANNUAL
BEST VALUE PERFORMANCE PLAN (BVPP)
14.
Each year every Council has to publish its BVPP
by 30 June. This is a statutory
requirement. In essence this contains
the end of year (quarter 4) figures for all performance indicators.
15.
It is proposed that for the 2006/7 year that the
draft BVPP is considered by this Committee at its 12 June meeting.
ACTION
PLANS
16.
The Council has published a number of action
plans which will need to be monitoring on a regular basis. These plans include the CPA action plan, the
Joint Area Review action plan and the F ire & rescue CPA action plan. The Committee are invited to consider whether
they wish to receive quarterly progress reports on each of these action plans.
FINANCIAL/BUDGET
IMPLICATIONS
17.
There are no direct financial implications in
this report.
LEGAL
IMPLICATIONS
18. Failure to publish the BVPP, with
accurate data, by the given time could lead to the Council having lower grades
in its annual assessment.
RISK
IMPLICATIONS
18.
Unless
due consideration is given to linking the key indicators which the Council will
monitor each year to key issues within Service and other Plans and areas
of under performance there is a risk that the indicators will be ineffective in
improving the level of performance. Concentrating on linking our basket
of key indicators to improvement plans and the comparator indicators will have
a positive effect on the risk of not achieving the Council’s aims and
objectives in the following year.
APPENDICES
Appendix
A: List of Best Value Indicators
Contact
Point : Steve Beynon ( 825410 Email: [email protected]
STEVE
BEYNON
Director
of Children’s Services