ISLE OF WIGHT COUNCIL
COMPREHENSIVE PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
CONTENTS PAGE
Executive Summary 3
Section 1 : Setting the scene
Section 2 : What is the Council trying to achieve?
Section 3 : How has the Council set about
delivering its priorities?
Section 4 : What has the Council achieved /
not achieved to date?
Section
5 : In the light of what the Council has learnt to date,
what does it plan to do next?
Our Action Plan for the next three years 24
The Council is on a
transitional journey towards becoming a high-performing authority. Whilst we
have much to be proud of in the achievements and improvements in service
delivery secured to date, we acknowledge that we have some way to go before
arriving at our destination. The past year since the June 2001 elections has
been a time of building for the future - of learning from our successes and our
failures and establishing the political leadership and management drive to move
forward. We now have in place the essential building blocks to ensure sustained
improvements both in what we do and how we go about it. The Council is
confident that our direction of travel is improving and will continue to do so.
This Self-Assessment is
organised into 5 sections :
Section 1 : Setting the scene :
The Island faces a number of challenges which are
the driving force behind our Corporate Plan and are a common thread running
through this Self-Assessment. The combination of these challenges results in
the Council consciously pursuing a broad range of priorities - few issues could
be described as being a low priority. The insular nature of Island life results
in the Council being exposed to significant scrutiny which in itself provides
an excellent basis for on-going community dialogue. The Council is governed
through a cabinet and leader model.
The Council aims to provide excellence in service
delivery and to pursue a partnership approach to achieving our goals. We have
established clear priorities through our Corporate Plan which will be delivered
through an annual Service Plan process. To stay focused, Service Plans will be
subject to regular monitoring within the year and will be subject to review at
year end in the light of national priorities and local opinion. Through
effective political and community leadership and corporate management we have
been able to shift resources to match priorities and begin to tackle areas of
under-performance.
Section
3 : How has the Council set about delivering its priorities?
The Council has achieved much particularly through
our record of partnership and outsourcing arrangements. However, whilst our
financial management is sound we recognise the need to improve our corporate
capacity and approach to performance management. We have already made
significant progress in our journey to becoming a high performing Council and
have designated the Head of Paid Service as corporate “champion” to drive the
performance management agenda.
Section
4 : What has the Council achieved / not achieved to date?
Through our corporate governance arrangements the Council is able to demonstrate significant progress in achieving sustained improvements in service delivery, particularly in Education and Social Services and other priority areas. The incoming Island First administration have appointed a new Head of Paid Service, created a Deputy Leader post to lead on performance management and implemented a reorganisation of the senior management structure. We now have a strong corporate focus to tackle under-performance and the Council is moving forward with a new found sense of purpose and achievement.
The Council recognises the need for improvement in a number of key areas. Through the combined processes of internal monitoring and review, external scrutiny and inspection and through community feedback, we have built up a good understanding of where we do well and where action is required. We have learnt the lessons of our successes and failures and are aware of the barriers that need to be tackled in the future. We have a clear view of what now needs to be done through a focus upon 3 priority areas - corporate governance and performance management, community and partner engagement and capacity building.
SECTION 1 : SETTING
THE SCENE
Island overview
As the only Island in the south east region, the
Isle of Wight is a unique area. With a
resident community of some 130,000 people, the Island forms a natural
diamond-shape situated a few miles off the coast. Covering 147 square miles and measuring 23 miles from east to
west and 13 miles from north to south, the Island is a predominantly rural
area. The distance to the mainland is nowhere more than five miles and travel
links are maintained by 24 hour vehicle ferry services supplemented by hi-speed
catamaran and hovercraft services. Cowes and Ryde are the principal points of
entry, linking Southampton and Portsmouth respectively. Another vehicle ferry also links Lymington
with Yarmouth at the western end of the Island. The County town and administrative centre of the Island is
Newport, situated at the head of the navigable part of the River Medina.
Some 70% of the landmass is covered by UK or European
landscape designations reflecting the high quality of the natural environment.
Almost half of the population (44%) live in our larger towns (Newport, Ryde and
Cowes) which are also the base for much of the economic activity on the Island.
There are 4,670 companies on the Island with 82% employing less than 10 people;
the main employment sectors are manufacturing (17%), tourism (15%) retail (12%)
and public administration (30%). Much of our business base is also in tourist
dependent sectors over and above the 15% directly employed in the industry. The
Island also experiences significant levels of deprivation.
The Island faces a number of challenges which are
detailed below under 6 main themes. These themes are the driving force behind
our Corporate Plan and are a common thread running through this
Self-Assessment. The combination of these challenges results in the Council
consciously pursuing a broad range of priorities and few issues could be
described as being a low priority.
Health, Housing and the quality of life…..
Our Island status brings with it many positive
benefits – it generates a strong local identity, provides a wonderful base for
our tourist industry and supports a high quality of life for the majority of
our community. However, for a significant minority the situation is not so
favourable. 15 of our 48 wards are in the top 20% nationally of most deprived
areas and we have no wards in the top 40% least deprived areas. The Island also
has a disproportionate number of elderly people with 26% of adults being of
pensionable age compared to a national average of 18%. High out-migration rates
for young people are also a local characteristic. Our community also has a
relatively high level of benefit dependency (25% of the population are in
receipt of state benefits) and significant numbers of children are entitled to
free school meals (17.5%). Finally, the Island also has a growing shortage of
affordable housing exacerbated by low wages – a mortgage multiple of 7.4 is now
required to purchase the average house for an individual earning the average
wage.
These factors impact upon the Council in a number
of ways :
·
social services costs have risen by more than the
Government has allowed in calculating its grant to the Council, resulting in a
greater burden falling on the local taxpayer.
·
the loss of young people and the unfavourable
perception of the local job market also creates difficulties in recruitment and
retention for both local businesses and the Council.
·
the Council has a growing number of homeless people
and is having to resort to increasing use of bed and breakfast accommodation
Job creation and economic prosperity…..
Put quite simply, the Island does not share in the
economic prosperity more commonly enjoyed by our mainland neighbours - our GDP
is only 67% of the UK average. The economy of the Island is relatively fragile
and reliant on a narrow economic base dominated by tourism and a weak
manufacturing sector. Manufacturing is particularly vulnerable being dominated
by two large multi-national aerospace companies (GKN Westland and AMS, formerly
British Aerospace) who have both been affected by the global downturn in the
industry – GKN, for example, have made 750 redundancies since December 2001. In
addition, in the past 2 years there have been over 1,000 redundancies in other
manufacturing companies.
The Island is an important tourist destination in
the region attracting some 2.5 million visitors per year generating spend of
over £300 million and directly employing almost 7,000 people (15% of all jobs).
It is also estimated that a further 5% of the Island workforce is employed in
tourist dependent sectors such as retail. Whilst tourism brings many undoubted
benefits to the Island, the season is relatively short (5-6 months) and many of
the jobs are temporary and low waged. Furthermore, not all Island residents are
convinced of the benefits of tourism.
The impact of this fragile economic base translates
through to high unemployment and low wages. At 4.3% (May 2001) unemployment is
consistently above both regional and national averages (1.8% and 3.2%
respectively). Similarly, at £15,074 pa (2001), average wages are also 22%
below the average and the Island has the lowest percentage (3%) of people
paying higher rate tax.
These factors impact upon the Council in a number
of ways :
·
high unemployment imposes additional burdens upon
social and health care, benefit services and housing
·
the narrow economic base requires the Council to
invest in economic development to improve prosperity
·
the importance of tourism also requires the Council
to invest heavily in supporting the industry and maintaining the physical
environment, beaches and support services of our resort towns.
Education and learning…..
We have many excellent schools on the Island,
including 3 with beacon status, and standards are continuing to improve
year-on-year. However, whilst our latest Ofsted report acknowledges that the
Education service is well run and that “strengths outweigh weaknesses,” the Council
is concerned with the low levels of education attainment – the numbers of
pupils achieving 5 or more GCSEs at A*-C grade is 5% below the average.
The Island also has a below average number of
residents qualified to degree level – 11% against the national average of 18%.
Basic skills levels too, are low. This issue is also reflected in business
competitiveness with Island companies having a low knowledge and innovation
base – a recent study identified an index of knowledge capital of 71.5 compared
to 120.5 for the region, making the Island the lowest ranked area in the south
east.
These factors impact upon the Council in a number
of ways :
·
they can act to reduce the life-choices and
employability of people of all ages
·
they can undermine business competitiveness and
restrict economic growth and diversification
Community Safety…..
Compared with many mainland areas, the Island is
fortunate in being a relatively safe and crime-free community. Recorded crime
is generally below the rates for Hampshire and the national averages and is
falling in overall terms – down from 71.5 crimes per 1,000 population as at
March 2001, to 62.3 per 1,000 as at February 2002. For many of our residents,
however, there remains a fear of crime and tackling the issue remains a priority
for the community as evidenced by a number of consultation exercises. Concerns
also remain regarding certain categories of crime – particularly assault,
criminal damage, vehicle crime, domestic burglary and drug / alcohol misuse.
Young people on the Island are often seen to be the cause of crime and disorder
although they are actually more likely to be victims than offenders. There is,
however, a small percentage of young people that are responsible for a
disproportionate amount of crime - 25% of crimes committed by 14-25 year olds
are committed by only 3% of this age group.
These factors impact upon the Council in a number
of ways :
·
we need to focus our attention on those categories
of crime that are a concern and in those geographic areas where it occurs
·
maintaining a safe community and reducing the fear
of crime is vital to our tourist industry
Transport and highways…..
As a predominantly rural area, transport is a key
issue for many people. Almost 30% of our residents have no access to a car and
many live in rural areas with limited public transport. The costs of
cross-Solent travel are also viewed as expensive by some people which can
further act to restrict access to job opportunities and other specialist
mainland-based services. Transport difficulties particularly impact upon the
elderly and those with mobility problems or on low incomes. The volume of
visitors to the Island also impacts upon the highways network as a result of
the doubling of traffic volumes during the peak holiday period.
These factors impact upon the Council in a number
of ways :
·
limited public transport, especially in rural
areas, requires the Council to subsidise certain routes
·
previously low levels of funding for highways
maintenance, coupled with significant land stability issues, have resulted in
accelerated highway deterioration with an attendant backlog of road maintenance
requirements
·
highways maintenance has to be scheduled outside of
the main holiday season
Our environment…..
The quality of the Island’s natural environment is
exceptionally high with almost 70% of the landmass being protected by either UK
or European environmental designations. In particular, we have an Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering almost 50% of the Island together
with 44 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and 45 kilometres of
Heritage Coast. This exceptional quality is valued by both residents and
visitors alike.
The need to protect and enhance our environment
impacts upon the Council in a number of ways :
·
we need to carefully balance development pressures
against environmental protection
·
we need to invest in countryside management in
order to maintain environmental quality
The “island factor”
The “island factor” lies at the root of many of the
challenges facing the Council. In 1997
the EU Amsterdam Treaty recognised for the first time that island communities
face a number of distinct disadvantages.
The Treaty, which is binding on both the EU institutions and member
states, requires the Community to reduce the “…disparities between the levels
of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least
favoured regions or islands…”
A recent study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates
that the Council incurs additional costs of £XX million per year purely by virtue of being an Island. This is a
major issue for the Council. However, at the same time as seeking greater
Government and EU recognition of the “Island factor,” the Council does use its
strengths in building partnerships to secure economies of scale.
The Council
The Council is a County in its own right and is
responsible for all local government services, including a stand-alone fire
service, for a population of 130,000 and 2.5 million tourists each year. It
contributes to the Hampshire Police Authority which is responsible for police
services on the Island.
A unitary authority since 1995, the Council
consists of 48 members, of whom 19 are Liberal Democrat, 12 Conservative, 11
Independent, 4 Labour and 2 others.
Following the local elections in June 2002 control of the authority was
assumed by a newly formed “Island First” group which brought together 30
Liberal Democrat and Independent councillors.
The administrative
Headquarters of the Council is in Newport, although the Council has other
buildings in most of our larger towns.
Having piloted a Leader
and Cabinet model of governance in 2000, the Council formally adopted this
model in April 2001 following extensive public consultation. The Council now has an Executive of 10
members together with 6 Select Committees responsible for policy development
and the scrutiny of Council activities, 3 Regulatory Committees and a Standards
Committee.
The Council would
acknowledge that, although there has been a recognition of the need for change,
there has been a lack of urgency and momentum in terms of political and
managerial leadership in responding to this agenda. Prior to the June 2001
elections where change did occur it more commonly arose through external
inspection or individual initiative rather than through corporate intent. It
would also be fair to comment that Service Planning tended to be disconnected
from performance management processes.
In response to these
issues the officer structure has been reorganised over the past year into 4 directorates
( Education and Community Development, Corporate and Environment Services,
Social Services and Housing and Finance and Information) together with a Fire
and Rescue Service. The Director of
Education and Community Development is also the Head of Paid Service and acts
as Chairman of the Directors Group for corporate management purposes.
The Council’s gross
revenue budget for 2002-03 is £213 million (£133 million net of service
specific grants, sales and charges).
70% of the expenditure goes on Education and Social Services with the
remaining 30% covering a wide range of other responsibilities including roads,
waste collection, and disposal, fire and rescue, libraries, housing, planning
and consumer protection to name but a few.
Being an Island brings with it many benefits - it
inspires a sense of pride and generates a strong local identity. Island
residents are fiercely vocal in stating what they consider to be in the
interests of our community. With a widely read local newspaper, a local radio
station and a community TV network, Island residents have the opportunity to be
well-informed about Council activities and many are quick to offer and expect a
role in shaping service activities.
As a consequence, the Council tends to be exposed
to a greater degree of public scrutiny than in many other areas. It would be
fair to comment, for example, that not all members of the public will give a
good account of the Council’s approach to corporate governance. This is as much
a result of the time-lag factor as anything else – many of the changes
instituted by the Council in this respect are relatively recent and it will,
therefore, take time for the authority to become generally recognised as
high-performing.
The level of public scrutiny of the Council is, of
course, also an opportunity. The strong sense of common identify provides an
excellent base for community engagement. Indeed, as described in Section 2 of
this Self-Assessment, this is one of our key strengths. We have established
working protocols with our Town and Parish Councils and with the Voluntary
sector; we have an extensive network of community partnerships and have a
Citizens Panel of over 2,000 people top act as a sounding board for our
activities. Many of our councillors, including the Leader and the majority of
Executive members, are also school governors and serve on a wide range of
community bodies.
The Council has also enthusiastically embraced the
new “well-being” power introduced by the Government. A Local Strategic Partnership, Island Futures, has been
established and a draft Community Strategy recently published for comment (May
2002). The Strategy has been developed
following extensive community consultation through our Citizens Panel and a
series of local events.
As a relatively small unitary authority with
limited financial resources and internal staff capacity, the Council views
partnership working as a key means of enhancing service delivery. We are
committed to providing services in the manner most likely to achieve the
desired outcome whether this be in-house, through externalisation or in
partnership. Further details on our long-standing commitment to partnership
working is contained in Section 3 of the Self-Assessment.
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The starting point – establishing our
ambitions
Until recently the Council was a hung authority
with no overall political control. The difficulties of establishing all-party
consensus in such circumstances made it difficult to create effective and
acknowledged leadership capable of delivering sustained and continuous
improvements in service delivery. In addition, whilst there was recognition of
the need to move forward there was no real drive to do so at the highest
political and managerial levels eg. despite strong external advice, preparation
of the Corporate Plan was consciously delayed.
The June 2001 elections, however, marked a turning
point in this situation. The incoming Island First administration have moved to
establish firm political leadership supported by effective scrutiny of the
Executive. The administration established a number of early priorities :
·
establishing clear community leadership through our
LSP and preparing a Community Strategy for the Island
·
drawing up of a Corporate Plan setting out a
strategic framework for the Council’s activities and its contribution to
delivery of the Community Strategy
·
reorganisation of the senior management structure
of the authority, including the replacement of the Chief Executive with a new
Head of Paid Service to facilitate effective delivery of the Council’s aims
·
a clear focus upon the performance management agenda
We have made good progress in all these areas – our
LSP was launched in January 2002; the Community Strategy and Corporate Plans
are in final consultation phases; and the management restructuring has been
completed.
Local priorities…..
Preparation of the Corporate Plan has benefited
from the consultation phase of the Island Community Strategy which was
completed in February 2002 – this enabled the Strategy to directly inform
development of our Corporate Plan. The recurring themes highlighted by the
public during the consultation exercise included :
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The policies of the Council have also been, and
continue to be, strongly influenced by on-going community consultation and
community leadership through :
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National priorities…..
The Council has also
ensured that local priorities support and complement the Government agenda. Past
examples of how we have incorporated Government priorities into local actions
include :
·
we have actively embraced the Government’s
modernisation agenda through piloting executive arrangements and have
implemented a leader and cabinet model from April 2001
·
we have actively pursued the Government’s
neighbourhood management and social exclusion agenda through four successful
SRB programmes and a number of European Union funded projects eg. Leader+ for
rural regeneration and ESF
·
we have developed innovative approaches to the
health and social care agenda through jointly funded Council / Primary Care
Trust posts, partnership service delivery and are planning to actively
investigate the setting up of a Care Trust to deliver all health and social
services
·
we are actively pursuing the e:government agenda,
have a number of projects to support this underway and are developing a
programme to roll-out electronic service delivery across the authority
·
we have developed and implemented a highly
effective early years strategy that has exceeded Government targets for
pre-school places and gained excellent inspection reports
The Council has taken all these issues into account
in setting its political priorities in May 2002 and has produced a draft
Corporate Plan which, following consultation, is to be considered by the full
Council in October 2002. Through our Corporate Plan we will continue to respond
positively to the Government’s aims and achieve an appropriate match with local
needs and opinions.
Our priorities…..
Our draft Community Strategy has a vision of a
“happy, contented and prosperous” Island that is :
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The Council will contribute to realisation of this
goal through its Corporate Plan and the authority’s vision of “improving Island
Life” by :
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The Corporate Plan provides a clear strategic
framework for achievement of the Council’s vision and for supporting the
Community Strategy. The Plan identifies 7 priority themes the first of which
relates to “how” we aim to deliver services and the remainder to operational
actions. We will achieve this vision through strong and effective leadership
and an on-going community dialogue.
How we operate…..
The Council aims to provide high quality services
through an emphasis upon :
·
putting performance, quality and best value at the
heart of the Council’s approach to service delivery.
·
being transparent, open and accountable in all we
do.
·
ensuring effective scrutiny of our services
·
valuing our staff and ensuring they are empowered
to get on with the job
·
active development of e:government and electronic
service delivery
1.
Improving
health, housing and the quality of life for all
-
our priorities for improvement are twofold. Firstly, to reduce homelessness and
improve the availability of affordable housing. This is to be achieved through
rigorous application of planning policies, through land disposals to housing
associations and through joint working with RSLs. Secondly, to continue the
improvements in the standards of care for vulnerable adults and children . This
is to be achieved through the PSA, Service Plans, our Housing Strategy and
through rigorous performance management.
2.
Encouraging
job creation and economic prosperity
-
our priorities for improvement are to create sustainable jobs and support the
regeneration of our disadvantaged communities. This is to be achieved by
continued support for the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership through staff
secondments, the provision of core funding, joint working on key strategic
priorities and proactive use of our planning policies. Support for tourism is a
particular priority for the Council through the Tourism Partnership.
3.
Raising
education standards and promoting lifelong learning
-
our priorities for improvement are to raise the standard of Special Education
Needs provision and raising achievement levels at all ages. These are to be
achieved through implementation of our SEN Development Plan and the
reorganisation of our special schools, and through an emphasis upon achieving
attainment targets in all key stages.
4.
Creating
safe and crime-free communities
-
our priority for improvement is to reduce crime and the fear of crime. This is
to be achieved through our Crime and Disorder Partnership with a particular
focus upon youth crime, drug / alcohol misuse and domestic violence. We are
also extending CCTV usage in crime hotspots. Maintaining an Island-run Fire and
Rescue service is also a priority.
5.
Improving
public transport and the highways infrastructure
-
through our LTP and best value Improvement Plan, we have two particular
priorities. Firstly, tackling the roads maintenance backlog through the
carriageway reconstruction of our key strategic routes which accommodate 70% of
our traffic. Secondly, tackling social exclusion by developing a Rural
Transport Partnership to co-ordinate improvements in rural transport services.
6.
Protecting
the Island’s natural environment
-
our priorities for improvement are to protect and enhance the natural
environment. This is to be achieved through an emphasis upon effective control
of development through our Unitary Development Plan, by continuing to improve our
excellent record on the recycling and composting of waste and by protecting and
preserving our natural and coastal environment.
Building support for our
priorities…..
Whilst members and senior
managers have had considerable input to development of the Corporate Plan and
establishing our priorities, we recognise the need to secure commitment and
“buy-in” from all staff and partners. Our Executive have recently agreed to
undertake a consultation exercise over the next 2 months to achieve this.
What are not our
priorities…..
In response to community
aspirations and the community profile in the Setting the Scene statement, the
Council has consciously pursued a broad strategic and operational agenda. Over
successive years, we have determined that our main priorities are Social
Services, Education, Fire and Rescue and Tourism / Economic Development. In
these areas expenditure has been protected or enhanced at the expense of other
service areas.
Although these are our
priorities, few issues can be defined as not
being priorities for the Island given the reliance by the community on the
Council to deliver all services locally. Three areas of relatively low priority
should, however, be noted :
·
it is not a priority for the Council to deliver all
services in-house. We have a long-standing record of externalisation and
providing services in partnership where the Council considers that improved
outcomes would result. In 1999, for example, we entered into a Service Level
Agreement with the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership to deliver our economic
development service. We have also recently agreed to externalise delivery of
our Tourism Services through a similar arms length agency and are intending to
deliver our Leisure Services through the setting up of a non-profit making
independent trust.
·
it is also not a priority for our Education service
to provide a comprehensive advisory service for schools. Rather, we aim to
provide a brokerage facility to enable schools to access curriculum advice from
a range of providers
·
uniquely, as an Island authority, it is not a
priority to promote the building of a fixed link to the mainland. This has been
an area of considerable debate on the Island in recent years. Following a
feasibility study, and in response to strong public opposition, the Council has
formally determined not to support the concept.
Our draft Community
Strategy and the Corporate Plan provide the strategic direction and focus for
both corporate governance in the Council and service delivery. In order to
ensure that the Council’s priorities remain locally relevant and complementary
to the national agenda, we will remain focused through two principal mechanisms
:
1.
Strong
political and community leadership through :
·
the collective leadership of the Executive and
individual portfolio holders
·
the newly created Deputy Leader position who will
lead the performance management agenda
·
quarterly financial reporting to the Executive
·
the member-led Measuring Performance Task Group
which reviews performance against targets
·
the Citizens Panel through which we regularly
canvas public opinion
2.
Effective
corporate management through :
·
maintaining our sound financial base thereby
enabling members and directors to concentrate on strategic service improvement
·
the Annual Action Statement which will set out a
detailed programme for in-year activities to maintain progress on delivery of
our 3 year Corporate Plan
·
the Directors Group which will regularly review
performance against the Corporate Plan, Service Plans, key performance
indicators, budget forecasts and against the Best Value Performance Plan
·
Heads of Service who have clearly delegated
responsibility and accountability for achievement of Service Plan targets
·
the use of cross-cutting project teams led by
Strategic Directors for key priorities eg. Social Inclusion, our “Connecting
with the Public” best value review, etc.
The Council is able to
demonstrate a number of examples of how it has shifted resources and used its
capital programme and surplus land to meet established priorities including :
·
increasing Council Tax by 13.25% in 2002/3 to
maintain services and support increased spend in priority areas
·
In 2000/1, the Social Services budget was 1% below
SSA. The Council has determined to increase expenditure in this priority area -
in 2002/3 spend is budgeted at 11.6% over SSA. This will particularly
facilitate increased expenditure on residential and nursing homes and services
for children
·
Whilst maintaining Education spend at SSA levels,
resources have been shifted within budget to reflect strategic priorities.
There has been an increase in primary school spend per pupil between 1999/00 -
2002/3 of 27.5% compared with 23% for Middle Schools. There has also been an
increase in budget delegation to schools from 76.8% in 1999/00 to 87.1% in
2002/03.
·
There have also been smaller shifts in resources
such as the increase in core funding for the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership
– up from £60,000 in 2000/01 to £104,000 in 2002/3. As further support, the
Council also agreed to underwrite the lease on the Partnership’s office HQ.
·
Prioritising resources through the single capital
pot process on improvements to the road infrastructure
·
Use of a large tract of surplus land in Newport to
significantly improve the provision of affordable housing
Whilst demonstrable
shifts have been made in the allocation of resources to reflect local
priorities, the Council would acknowledge the need to improve this process. Our
Corporate Plan will provide the framework to ensure that resources are better
matched to priorities.
To reinforce this new approach, our Resources
Select Committee (May 2002) have recently approved a revised approach to
preparation of the annual Service Plans which will ensure a stronger link
between budget and service planning activities and facilitate improved
involvement of Select Committees in the process.
What we have learnt
Considerable progress has been made by the Council
over the past year – we now have a clear vision of where we want to be and what
our priorities are. From this element of the Self-Assessment we have learnt the
importance of :
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PRIORITIES?
SECTION 3 : HOW HAS THE COUNCIL SET ABOUT DELIVERING ITS
Significant changes have been introduced over the
past year to the Council’s political and management structures. Following a one
year pilot exercise, the Council formally adopted the cabinet and leader model
in April 2001. We now have an Executive of 10 members each of whom has a
defined portfolio of service responsibilities. Equally importantly, the Executive exercises collective
responsibility for corporate governance and delivery of the Corporate Plan. To
reinforce the Executive’s corporate leadership role, the Council elected a
Deputy Leader (without portfolio) at the last AGM with specific responsibility
for the Corporate Plan and performance management issues. Training is also provided for all
councillors under the Modern Members programme.
Following the departure
of the Chief Executive in 2001, significant changes have also been introduced
to the management structure of the Council. A year ago the Council had a Chief
Executive, 5 Directors, a Chief Fire Officer and 31 Chief Officers. The
structure now in place consists of 4 Strategic Directors, a Chief Fire Officer
and 18 Heads of Service. The Director of Education and Community Development is
also the Head of Paid Service for the Council. The new structure achieves
savings and provides a more effective management framework :
·
Directors now have an explicit “strategic” element
to their role
·
A smaller and flatter senior management structure
facilitates closer working with Strategic Directors and the Executive and also
better supports cross-service working
·
The new heads of service have more clearly defined
roles and responsibilities
The restructuring has not
been easy and has resulted in significant short-term disruption. The
willingness to carry though such change and the need to bring in new Heads of
Service in key areas, demonstrates the strength of leadership in the Council.
To further build our management capacity we have also instituted a Management
Development Programme for senior staff and introduced a performance appraisal
scheme for all service heads linked to progression through the new senior
management salary grades.
The reduction from 31
chief officers to 18 Heads of
Service has established a clear level of accountability for each service area
evidenced, for example, by the recent external appointment of a new Head of
Planning Services in place of three senior managerial posts. This will ensure a
clear focus on an area of service whose performance requires significant
improvement.
We also recognise the
need to build staff capacity throughout the Council. For example – it has not
always been easy to recruit and retain high calibre staff resulting in skills
gaps; the changes of the past year have had an inevitable short-term impact
upon staff morale; and we need to improve staff communication in some areas.
Delivery through
partnerships and outsourcing…..
As a relatively small
unitary authority, the Council recognises the limitations on its internal
capacity to deliver the Corporate Plan – delivery through partnerships is a key
means of enhancing that capacity. The Council has a long-standing commitment to
partnership working and is committed to providing services in the manner most
likely to achieve the desired outcome whether this be in-house, through
externalisation or in partnership. We have a number of jointly funded posts in,
for example, the LA21 officer and our Countryside Team. Other examples of
externalisation and partnership delivery and the outcomes achieved include :
·
Waste
Management : following the first PFI project of its type, the
Council externalised waste management in 2000 at a contract value of
approximately £5 million pa. Since then, in addition to delivery of an
excellent service, we have achieved amongst the highest figures in the country
for the recycling of household waste and composting.
·
Isle
of Wight Economic Partnership : established in 1999
through a Service Level Agreement with the Council, the Partnership is
responsible for economic development and regeneration. The Council has seconded
staff and provides core funding for the agency. Since its establishment, the
IWEP has created or safeguarded over 1,200 jobs, and delivered SRB projects
benefiting over 1,500 voluntary groups.
·
Early
Years Childcare Development Partnership : established in 1997 to
oversee the development of early years provision on the Island. Independently
chaired, but serviced by the LEA, the Partnership exceeded the Government
targets for 3 and 4 year old places. This innovative partnership with
independent providers has topped inspection performance tables with 100% of
early years settings achieving good inspection outcomes. A notable feature of
this partnership is that of, 46 primary schools, 43 have independent pre-school
providers operating on site in LEA premises.
·
Crime
& Disorder Partnership : jointly chaired by the Council and the
Police Authority. Between March 2001 and February 2002, the Partnership
achieved a significant reduction in all crime – down from 71.5 per 1,000
population to 62.3 (down by 13%).
·
Tourism
Partnership : the Tourism Partnership brings together Council
and industry representatives to co-ordinate delivery of the jointly-funded
“image campaign” through which the Island is marketed as a tourist destination.
The success of the partnership is demonstrated in continuing industry financial
support and its success in maintaining visitor numbers last year despite the
impact of foot and mouth. We have also been able to increase the average length
of stay - up from 3.6 days in 2000 to 3.8 days in 2001.
From Ofsted inspection, Oct. 2000 “The
LEA has good partnership arrangements and relationships with a number local
agencies. In particular, the partnership with the Rural Community Council…
is good and there are good links with the Isle of Wight College on post-16
matters.”
We have a wide range of
other statutory and non-statutory partnerships including the Drugs Action Team,
Youth Offending Team, Surestart, Homestart, Childrens Fund Partnership, Local
Learning Partnership and the Strategic Housing Group to name but a few.
In January 2001 the
Council also formally launched our Local Strategic Partnership which has
overseen development of the Island Community Strategy – the draft Strategy is
currently going through a final stage of public consultation and is due to be
adopted by the Council by the end of July 2002. We aim to develop the LSP as “a
partnership of partnerships” and will be reviewing existing partnership
arrangements in order to support effective and coherent service delivery.
Staff and members are kept informed in a variety of
ways – through our intranet site which incorporates a weekly “Bulletin”;
through regular Heads of Service meetings and through a number of cross-Council
project teams driving forward key priorities. Individual directorates also have
their own internal communication mechanisms. The Head of Paid Service has also
kept staff informed of developments in the recent senior management
restructuring through circulation of a regular “In Touch” briefing. Taken
together these techniques ensure that all staff receive the key messages the
Council wishes to convey and are able to feed back their views. Members and
officers also keep up-to-date on national matters through attendance at
conferences and monitoring key web sites such as that maintained by the
I&DeA and the LGA. We would, however, accept that we need to improve
internal communication – a staff survey in 2000 indicated significant levels of
dissatisfaction.
The Council is on the way to achieving excellence
in all we do and putting in place the necessary structures and processes to
support effective political and managerial leadership of the authority through
:
·
a commitment to continuous improvement in service
delivery
·
a focus on tackling major strategic issues and priorities.
·
strong financial management based on 3 year
planning
·
regular review and monitoring
·
informed decision-making through excellent
community and socio-economic data
·
strong partnership working
Our new approach to performance management will be
driven by two particular mechanisms – Service Plans and the Best Value
Performance Plan. Service Plans set out the aims, objectives, tasks and targets
for each service, how they relate to corporate priorities and how they link to
the BVPP. Plans are subject to scrutiny by Select Committees and are approved
by the Executive as part of the annual strategy and budget process. The Service
Plans are underpinned by individual Personal Development Plans which ensure
that staff fully understand their role in contributing to the achievement of
corporate objectives. Service Plans and PDPs are subject to regular review by
Strategic Directors and Heads of Service.
Evidence of our capacity to support the continuous
improvement of services is also shown by feedback received on the many
statutory plans the Council has to prepare.
|
Statutory and Other Plans |
Score / Commentary |
|
Capital Strategy |
GOSE – satisfactory |
|
Asset Management Plan |
GOSE – satisfactory / fairly robust |
|
Education Development Plan |
Ofsted – Grade 2 (very good) |
|
Annual Library Plan |
DCMS – satisfactory |
|
Housing Strategy |
GOSE – average |
|
Local Transport Plan – Annual Progress Report |
GOSE – effective and thorough |
|
Childrens services Plan |
DoH / approved |
|
Fire & Rescue – Brigade Business Plan |
HMI / satisfactory |
|
Best Value Performance Plan |
DA / satisfactory |
Evidence of our commitment to high performance is shown by our achievement of IiP for 34% of staff and our aim to have IiP status for the whole Council by 2003/4. We have also secured Chartermark status for 2 services. Further aspects of our approach to human resource management include – formal corporate and directorate induction for all new staff, regular liaison with trades unions, comprehensive corporate guidance and protocols and a proactive training and development programme. Support for training includes funding for masters degrees and in-house NVQ management qualifications up to Level 5. We also recognise the importance of health and well-being amongst staff to the development of a high-performance culture – in January 2001 we launched our Healthy Workforce Strategy as part of a concerted focus upon achieving an appropriate work / life balance. We also intend to have secured a Public Service Agreement by September 2002 and will be seeking Beacon Status for at least 2 services by 2005.
Our Best Value Performance Plan is similarly
integral to our approach to performance management. However, whilst our Plan
complies with all statutory requirements we would acknowledge that our
programme of reviews has suffered significant slippage and that there have been
shortcomings in corporate processes. In
order to address District Audit concerns about our record on best value we have introduced a number of changes :
·
use of a “traffic light” system to identify areas
of under-performance and drive our programme of best value reviews
·
external challenge is now an integral part of all
best value reviews
·
we aim to do fewer but broader reviews linked to
areas of poor performance and / or public concern
·
enhancing support for the Best Value team by
transferring management responsibility to the Head of Select Committee Support.
This also supports the scrutiny role of Select Committees
·
enhancing member input through the setting up of a
member-led Measuring Performance Task Group
·
the Directors Group have taken stronger ownership
of best value, given it a high priority for action and regularly review
progress on the BV programme
From
BV inspection of Social Services Out of Hours service, Sept. 2001 (2 star /
definitely improving) “Overall
we were impressed by the thorough and professional approach to the review
process, the resulting report and its recommendations. It was our view that
the service would change for the benefit of all concerned.”
In order to provide a concerted focus to improving
performance, the Head of Paid Service has been designated as the “champion” for
performance management – working with the Deputy Leader and the member chair of
the Measuring Performance Task Group, he is charged with ensuring the
development of a comprehensive and effective performance management system. Integral
to this will be establishment of robust monitoring and review systems to assess
progress and initiate remedial action where required.
The Council has a long history of sound financial
management consistently receiving unqualified audit reports. The District Audit
Management Letter for 2000/1 notes that the “Council has sought to maintain a
disciplined budgetary control regime.” Significant budget pressures have,
though, tested the Council’s approach in recent years requiring difficult
decisions about Council Tax levels and service priorities - Council Tax was
increased by 13.25% in 2002/3. Despite these pressures, the Council has
successfully maintained a balanced budget.
Our approach to financial
management is based on a 3 year budget underpinned by the following principles:
·
Managing services within agreed cash limits
·
Delegation to managers to enable them to get on
with the job
·
Providing flexibility for managers to vire and
carry forward budgets
·
Holding reserves at prudent levels
·
Directing any savings and/or growth to priority
services
In order to ensure that
budget overspends do not divert attention from the Council’s commitment to
excellence in service delivery, the Directors Group and member-led Measuring Performance
Task Group have instituted improved procedures for financial management and
member involvement. The new
arrangements have put in place clear guidelines and a timeframe to ensure
closer integration of financial and strategic planning.
The Council also seeks to maximise the opportunities for drawing in external finance to pursue its priorities. We have, for example, been successful in 4 out of 5 bidding rounds for SRB funding, secured over £10 million in ESF funds and attracted significant funding through other UK and EU programmes. These have all directly contributed to achievement of the Council’s corporate priorities in economic development and social inclusion.
The Council would acknowledge the need to enhance
its approach to risk management and has established a Risk Management Group to
develop a formal policy framework. An audit was carried out last year leading
to the production of a Risk Management Register - this is now being developed
by an external consultant into a more formal strategy thereby ensuring that
risk management is fully embedded in all areas of Council activity. The Council
has also recently commissioned a Business Continuity Management Strategy report
to support disaster recovery arrangements which will assist us in producing a
Business Continuity Plan.
From
DA Management Letter, 2001/2 : “The
Council has demonstrated its commitment to the risk management process by
establishing a Risk Management Group and developing a policy.”
Monitoring and review…..
Integral to our approach to performance management is a recognition of the need for constant and robust scrutiny of Service Plans and targets and the importance of accurate and up-to-date performance data to support informed decision-making. Through the Service Plan process the Executive and Strategic Directors now have a framework to support regular review, and recent organisational changes have enhanced the research and data capacity within the Corporate Policy team. Only through effective monitoring and review will we ensure that resources are being used effectively and that we are remaining focused upon our priorities.
Looking to the future…..
A great deal of progress
has been made since the elections in June 2001. For example, Service Plans have
been improved with a focus on establishing more stretching targets and
performance monitoring; we have a more strategic approach to best value; and
there is greater engagement by Select Committees in the monitoring of
expenditure and realigning priorities as evidenced by the work of the Social
Services and Housing Select Committee in 2001/2. Through a concerted focus upon
improved financial and performance management, our objective over the coming
1-2 years is to move to a situation where the Council’s budget more directly
follows strategic and operational priorities.
What we have learnt
We are confident that, over the past year, we have
significantly enhanced the leadership and management capacity within the
Council – we are aware of the gaps in capacity and have the framework in place
to support effective performance management. From this element of the
Self-Assessment we have learnt the importance of:
|
|
SECTION 4 : WHAT HAS
THE COUNCIL ACHIEVED / NOT ACHIEVED TO DATE?
Performance in many
services has improved steadily in recent years. Data from the Audit Commission
for the top performing unitary authorities in 1998/99 and 2000/01, shows a
steady increase in the percentage of performance indicators the Council has in
the top quartile – up from 26.4% in 1998/99 to 31.9% in 2000/01. Findings from
our Corporate Health Users Satisfaction Survey, conducted in 2000/01, also show
the Council to be exceeding our unitary benchmark family average in 11 out of
the 18 indicators of public satisfaction.
The new political drive
and management focus developed over the past year has brought a concerted
corporate emphasis to the Council’s working style. Effective leadership has
built upon the longer-standing skills and commitment of staff and led to a
range of achievements and service improvements across the Council.
Education is one of the
Council’s key priorities reflecting strong community support for the service.
Our latest Ofsted inspection in October 2000 stated that:”…strengths outweigh
weaknesses” and went on to say that, where there are weaknesses “the LEA is
aware of them and has, for the most part, promising strategies for
improvement.” Audit Commission and Ofsted have identified and reported two
areas of best practice including the LEA’s performance with regard to
supporting access to education and reducing surplus places and very effective
asset management planning. Achievements since the last inspection include :
·
the Education Development Plan for 2002/5 was
approved unconditionally in April 2002 gaining a grade 2 from Ofsted.
·
3 of our schools have beacon status
·
all of the recommendations concerning Special
Educational Needs have been met with increased delegation to schools, the
implementation of a monitoring system for school SEN provision, full compliance
with statutory requirements, completion of a comprehensive joint Best Value
Review with Social Services and the production and implementation of an SEN
Development Plan.
·
the establishment of an admissions forum for Autumn
2002.
·
the alignment of the corporate plan objectives with
the directorate’s strategic plan and service plans.
·
we have achieved our goal of having no schools in
special measures
·
school attainment data sits on or just below the
national average at key stages 2, 3 and 4 whilst key stage 1 performance is
well above the national median.
·
the administration and support functions of the
Directorate were highly praised in the inspection report and indicators have remained
high with over 95% of parents gaining their first preference school.
From LEA Support for
School Improvement, Audit Commission, Feb. 2002 : “Good
practice following delegation is harder to find : the Isle of Wight
provides an excellent service using a pooling arrangement – the LEA is very
effective in asset management planning and in supporting schools with their
premises responsibilities.”
A Joint Review report in
1999 gave the service a very poor assessment and concluded that the Directorate
was not yet serving the people of the Island well. The Council has, however,
risen to this challenge – since appointing a new Director in 2000, a marked
improvement has been achieved culminating in a 2 star ranking in the May 2002
SSI assessment. Achievements in recent years include :
·
PAF returns for 1999/00 to 2001/02 have shown
sustained improvements in key areas eg. delivery of equipment, numbers of
looked after children in foster care, reviews of children on CPR, etc.
·
a steady reduction in the number of patients
awaiting discharge from hospital from a high in September 2001. During 2001/2
the Directorate overachieved the SSI target by 25%.
·
a Commissioning Strategy has now been produced to
better secure value for money
·
we have reduced the number of looked after children
by almost 15% since 2000 at a time when the national figures have been rising
by 4% pa.
·
the SSI have inspected 2 best value reviews and
concluded that all services were likely to improve
·
joint commissioning and pooled budgets with the PCT
have been introduced in a number of key areas eg. mental health, provider
services, learning disabilities and we are consulting on more.
·
our Housing service has secured an improved
assessment from GOSE from “below average” in 1996/99 to “average” in 2000/1
·
we are introducing a Common Housing Register and
have agreement with RSL partners on a new needs point system
·
tackling homelessness is a priority in the
Community Strategy and the draft PSA
From SSI Annual Review of Performance, 2000/1 (ranked
2 star), May 2002 “We
are pleased to have identified some important improvements in performance
over the year…the inspections of Best Value Reviews has indicated a
rigorous BVR process…which was felt to be a good driver for improvement…it
is noted that (this) has been achieved within a financial situation where
you forecast an overspend by £0.570m this year, much reduced on forecasts
earlier this year. Your budget for social services expenditure for 2001/02
was 5% over the PSS SSA, the second lowest in the south east.”
Corporate and Environment Services…..
Some 70% of the Island is
covered by either UK or EU environmental designations reflecting the high
quality of the landscape. Our built
environment, too, is of a generally high quality. Protecting and enhancing this environment is a key priority for
the Council from the perspective of meeting the needs of both residents and the
2.5 million tourists who visit the Island each year. Achievements include :
·
the Island 2000 Trust has been established to
utilise over £500k in landfill tax credits and deliver innovative environmental
improvements across the Island. The Council has also secured increased funding
to support our AONB project with the Countryside Agency being “exceptionally
pleased with…the partnership”
·
the Rights of Way section was the first in the UK
to have all paths signed, recorded and open for use
·
through our pioneering PFI waste disposal contract
we are now one of the top performing authorities for recycling and composting
(22% and 6.5% compared with unitary averages of 10% and 2%)
·
we have received 2 awards for building conservation
and 5 for managed projects over the past 3 years
·
we have implemented the “Probity in Planning”
recommendations made in the 2001 District Audit report
·
the Directorate performs in the top 25% of new
unitaries for 16 performance indicators and a further 14 are in the top 50%.
The poorly performing indicators are being targeted for action.
·
the Land Charges section have consistently matched
or bettered national turnaround targets for searches
·
the asset management of school premises has been
praised as “best practice” by Ofsted
·
we have appointed a senior officer to provide
dedicated support to Select Committees
From GOSE comments on first LTP Annual Progress
Report, 2001 “Your
authority has produced an effective and thorough annual progress report…We
were particularly pleased to see the excellent response to comments in last
year’s decision letter…this continues the good progress made since the
publication of your provisional plan 2 years ago.”
Finance and Information…..
The Council’s corporate
financial service provide a vital support function which is integral to
performance management. Successive Annual Audit Letters have recognised our
sound financial management through the issuing of unqualified audit opinions
and acknowledgement of our “disciplined budgetary control regime” (Annual
Audit, 2000/1). Achievements include :
·
excellent in-year tax collection rates - 98.4% of
Council Tax (3rd best in the country) and 99.7% Business Rates (2nd
best) and 92% of invoices paid on time
·
successful introduction of document image
processing and Benefits Verification Framework
·
annual savings of £800k through efficient debt
management
·
our Customer Services Centre has achieved
Chartermark commendation
·
realignment of service budgets, together with
additional funding, to support e:government and electronic service delivery
including the introduction of an electronic payments system
·
new risk based audit system introduced
Fire and Rescue Service…..
Uniquely in
England, the Island is the only unitary council that is its own Fire Authority.
Maintaining a locally controlled and managed service remains a corporate
priority for the Council, despite the fact that we spend at 34% over SSA. This
is a conscious decision overwhelmingly supported by the public through
successive Citizens Panel surveys. When the additional costs of being an Island
are taken into account, the costs of the service are, in any case, comparable
with other shire services. The service
continues to perform at a satisfactory level in relation to nationally
recommended standards. The Brigade is also receptive to external challenge and
is actioning the recommendations from the last HMI inspection report in 2001.
From HMI Inspection, 2001: “…creditable performance in many aspects…the
level of activity and achievement in the fire safety department is highly
commended…the authority is commended for implementing recommendations to
improvements to the fleet of front line appliances…”
We know, from what
our community tells us and from our performance management information, that
there remain areas of under-performance.
In some cases under-performance arises from low levels of funding whilst
in others it is linked to the need to improve corporate and service management
processes. The Council would also acknowledge the importance of effective risk
management as, previously discussed. Priority areas for attention include:
1.
Improving
corporate governance and performance management
After an indifferent start to best value,
the Council has begun to make the required improvements identified in the
District Audit Management Letter for 2000/1. This issue has been discussed in
more detail in the previous section (see page 13, Performance Management). The
outcome of recent BV inspections bears out the benefits of the enhanced
corporate approach which had been taken with the 3 Social Services reviews all
being deemed as having good prospects for improvement. We also need to build
upon the improvements made in corporate management and leadership. Our
priorities for the future are to focus upon key cross-cutting best value
reviews (eg. the on-going “Connecting with the public” review), upon robust
scrutiny / review of Service Plans and targets, and ensuring that resources
follow our strategic priorities.
2.
Highways
Following a best value review inspection in
2001, the service received a “poor” no star rating with poor prospects for
improvement. The Directors Group have prioritised the service for improvement.
The review identified 3 key issues – the ability to spend resources, the lack
of corporate direction and absence of a performance management system. Whilst
the inspection team acknowledged that the Improvement Plan addressed their
concerns, reservations were expressed about the ability to deliver in the
timescale set. The Council has risen to the challenge and engaged an external
consultant to test each stage of the action plan – we are confident of a marked
improvement for the August re-inspection. Despite the poor inspection result,
the service has been praised by the DTLR for its Annual Transport Plan.
3.
Planning
A 23% increase in planning applications over
the past 3 years has seen the department struggle to meet the 8 week turnaround
target. Although performance has improved over the past year, at 60% of
applications performance still falls short of the 80% Government target. In
order to achieve greater progress, a new Head of Service has been appointed,
additional resources provided, procedures are being revised and stretching new
targets have been set for the current financial year. A full BV review of the
service will take place in 2003 once the new Head of Service is in post.
4.
Bereavement
Services
Following a desktop BV review in 2001,
deficiencies were identified in this service – poor grounds and buildings
maintenance, deficiencies in the BV process particularly as regards user
consultation, and the lack of a Service Improvement Plan. The Council has
responded to the inspection and is confident of a marked improvement at
re-inspection.
5.
E:government
Whilst we have made good progress with the
development of our web site and facilities for electronic service delivery, the
Council wants to up the pace of development. An additional £1.3 million has
been allocated to the service over the past 2 years and further investment is
planned through a 10 year ICT Investment Strategy. This is also a proposed PSA
target.
6.
Maintaining
improvement in priority services
We have received good inspections for three
of our priority services – Education, Social Services and Fire and Rescue. We
are not complacent and will be maintaining our improvement focus to address the
few areas of concern raised by Ofsted, the SSI and HMI. These priorities are
reflected in the proposed PSA.
7.
Homelessness
We are aware of falling performance as the
supply of housing fails to keep pace with demand. Our latest Housing Needs
Survey in 2001 confirmed the scale of the shortage in affordable housing on the
Island which has led to growing homelessness and longer stays in bed and
breakfast accommodation. Tackling this issue through use of our planning
controls and joint working with our housing associations and RSLs is a priority
for 2002/3 ; it is also a target in the draft PSA.
Investing for the future
The Council aims
to deliver and sustain these improvements through :
·
effective political leadership and corporate
management
·
continuing to pursue a partnership approach to
service delivery
·
continuing to engage and work with our local
community
·
continuing to develop our staff, particularly
encouraging innovation and risk taking
·
learning from experience
·
encouraging external challenge of our services
·
strengthening the scrutiny function
We have put in
place a network of building blocks to support a continuous improvement in
service delivery :
·
our Corporate Plan is drafted and out for
consultation
·
reorganising the senior management structure of the
Council has been completed and, following national advertisement, a number of
new Heads of Service have been appointed in key areas
·
changes have also been introduced in the political
structure, particularly the appointment of a Deputy Leader (without portfolio)
who is charged with leading the performance management agenda
·
we have reviewed our approach to best value and
taken strong corporate ownership of the issue
·
we are progressing well towards our goal of IiP
recognition for the whole Council by 2003/4. A number of services have already
achieved recognition.
·
We are continuing to develop our community
leadership role through our Local Strategic Partnership and the emerging
Community Strategy
·
Work is well-advanced on drafting a Risk Management
Strategy
In order to provide
a focus for maintaining the step change in performance management, the Council
has scheduled a peer group review with the I&DeA in September 2003. This
will provide an opportunity to review progress and ensure that the building
blocks for continuous improvement are sharpened and refined.
What we have learnt
Despite diffident political leadership and
corporate management prior to June 2001, the Council has achieved much over the
past 3 years. We are also well aware of the need to tackle under-performance in
a number of key areas. From this element of the Self-Assessment we have learnt
the importance of :
|
|
SECTION 5 : IN THE LIGHT OF WHAT THE COUNCIL HAS LEARNT TO DATE,
WHAT DOES IT PLAN TO DO NEXT?
Whilst the Council acknowledges the need for action
on a number of fronts, particularly with regard to enhancing corporate
governance, we have performed well across most of our priority areas:
·
our Education and Social Services Directorates,
which account for 70% of the Council’s budget, are providing good and
demonstrably improving services as evidenced by Ofsted and SSI inspections
·
job creation and area regeneration is being
successfully tackled through our Economic Partnership
·
our tourism industry continues to be well supported
and promoted by the Council
·
overall crime levels are falling creating a safe
community for residents and visitors alike
·
through our AONB project, our Countryside Team, our
Coastal Management Unit, our LA21 Strategy and through the Island 2000 Trust,
considerable success has been achieved in protecting and enhancing our
environment
·
our Fire and Rescue service is continuing to
improve its services
·
areas of under-performance are being actively
targeted for action and are being kept under regular review by the Executive
and Directors Group
·
we have a sound track-record of partnership
delivery and outsourcing leading to improved service outcomes and enhanced
value for money, especially in waste management, Social Services, Education,
Economic Development and Tourism
·
the incoming Island First administration have
established clear political leadership and prioritised performance management
for action. A new Head of Paid Service has been appointed, the senior
management structure reorganised and new appointments made to key management
posts
·
we have a Corporate Plan drafted and out for
consultation which will be formally adopted by October
·
we have built an effective member scrutiny function
by providing senior management support to the service
·
we have a strong community focus through our
network of Community Partnerships and Town and Parish Councils which has been
further reinforced by our recently established Local Strategic Partnership
·
our financial management is recognised as
“disciplined” by the District Auditor who consistently issue unqualified audit
opinions
·
after an indifferent start to best value, the
Council has taken a stronger grasp of the performance management agenda. The
Head of Paid Service has been designated as corporate “champion” for this
issue. Recent favourable BVR inspections in Social Services and Education
evidence the improved approach
·
the Council is committed to IiP recognition by
2003/4. 34% of our staff work in services which have already gained recognition
CASE STUDY : Learning
from experience – Fire & Rescue call-handling times
: Following
a comparison with W. Sussex as part of the BV review, it was recognised
that call-handling times for the Island were significantly worse despite
use of the same equipment. One year on, we have reduced response times from
an average of 72 to 59 seconds.
Learning from success…..
The new political and
management administration in the Council is seeking to learn from success. We
have many excellent staff working for the authority – through corporate
leadership we aim to develop and encourage success and innovation. Where we do
well, we aim to identify the success factors and build upon them in order to
develop best practice.
CASE STUDY : Learning from success – attracting
external funding The
Council and our Economic Partnership have a successful track-record in
attracting external funding from both UK and EU sources to support economic
development and regeneration on the Island. For SRB and ESF funding we have
consistently attracted levels of funding per head well above regional
averages. To build upon this success, the Grants Task Group, of our
Resources Select Committee, are developing proposals to establish an
External Funding Team to extend bid development skills across the
authority.
Learning from our
failures…..
Our failures and areas of
under-performance have provided similar valuable learning opportunities. Our
initially indifferent approach to best value is perhaps the best illustration
of this. The general lack of corporate ownership of best value led to
significant slippage in the programme and deficiencies in the overall process
leading to poor inspection findings on our early reviews. Our Directors Group
have now taken a stronger grasp of the issue – all reviews are now led by a
Strategic Director and are subject to regular scrutiny and review by the
Directors Group.
CASE STUDY : Learning from our failures – Corporate
Plan Despite
strong external advice to the contrary, our previous Chief Executive
consciously delayed work on development of a Corporate Plan for the
Council. This exposed the authority to criticism from the District Auditor,
Ofsted and others and, more importantly, created a strategic vacuum in
terms of political and management leadership. Following the June 2001 elections,
the incoming political administration and new Head of Paid Service took
early remedial action. A Corporate Plan has now been prepared and,
following staff and partner consultation over the next 2 months, will be
formally approved by October 2002.
Barriers to progress…..
The Council continues to
face a number of potential barriers to achieving sustained and continuous
improvements in service delivery :
·
Recruitment
and retention of staff : the restricted Island job market acts to
hamper the ability of the Council to recruit at middle and senior management
levels eg. it is often difficult for partners of externally appointed staff to
find appropriate employment. Recruitment difficulties also occur in a number of
specialist areas such as homecare. To tackle this barrier we have developed
innovative recruitment practices eg. use of overseas recruitment fairs for
teachers, payment of “golden hellos,” running lifestyle adverts on the ferries,
together with lifestyle recruitment packs etc.
·
Building
staff and management capacity : the combination of
recruitment and retention difficulties and weaknesses in our approach to HR
management, can lead to gaps in our capacity to respond to the change agenda
facing the Council. We are beginning to tackle this through more effective
staff development programmes with an emphasis upon “growing our own” in
response to the difficulties of external recruitment
·
Performance
management : the Council also needs to improve its general
approach to performance management through more robust scrutiny of Service
Plans and targets and through improving the accuracy of performance indicator
data. To tackle this barrier we have, for example, introduced new Service
Planning procedures, developed a “traffic light” system to identify areas of
under-performance and enhanced our corporate research and data analysis
capacity.
·
Funding
: as a relatively small unitary authority, the Council has limited financial
resources to tackle to the issues facing it. Budget pressures in recent years
have stretched our resources leaving the level of reserves at a lower level
than desirable. This issue is exacerbated by the “Island factor” – a recent
study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (June 2002) has demonstrated that the Council
incurs additional costs in excess of £XX
million purely by virtue of being an island authority. To tackle this barrier
we have actively developed the use of pooled budgets, jointly funded staff posts
and joint commissioning with partners and sought to maximise the levels of
external funding secured from Government and EU sources.
·
Community
leadership : successfully responding to the modernisation
agenda will require consistent and effective political and managerial
leadership. Prior to the June 2001 elections this was an area of weakness
largely as the consequence of being a hung authority. The new political
administration is successfully establishing its political leadership role
supported by a reorganised senior management structure. This, together with our
many successful partnerships and Local Strategic Partnership, provides the
basis for on-going community dialogue.
The Council is fully aware of these barriers to progress and is making successful in-roads to tackling them. Our Corporate Plan provides the strategic framework to maintain our focus and ensure progress.
The lessons learnt…..
With a new political
administration providing clear leadership and a new senior management structure
now in place, the Council has successfully established the basis for a
sustained improvement in both service delivery and corporate governance.
Against the background of limited resources we have learnt the importance of :
·
getting the basics right ie. the right people in
the right place with the right skills
·
building effective and acknowledged political
leadership
·
building management and staff capacity to deliver
the required improvements
·
effective corporate management to identify and
tackle the “big issues” in a systematic and co-ordinated manner
·
building an effective scrutiny function to support
policy development and tackle complex cross-cutting issues
·
listening to the public and establishing effective
2-way dialogue
·
establishing effective partnerships for the joint
delivery of services
·
robust monitoring and review
·
external challenge and learning from both our
successes and our failures
·
sound financial management as a building block for
improvement
CASE STUDY : Learning
from internal scrutiny – Car Parking Charges review : Following an external
consultancy study a substantial rise in charges was recommended. The
proposals were scrutinised by the Environment Select Committee who
considered the report and then made recommendations for a revised policy
that found agreement across the Council.
CASE STUDY : Learning
from external challenge – post-14 education and training : Following an
independent consultancy study in 2002, the LEA has entered into partnership
with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Learning and Skills Council to effect
a full review of Post-14 education and training. A Tertiary Strategic Group
has been established with representation from all providers to implement
effective collaboration to achieve overall curriculum coherence and
effective advice, information and guidance for students. This is a
“pathfinder” project in the south east region.
The new political and managerial leadership of the
Council is committed to applying the lessons we have learnt. We now have the building blocks in place to
tackle under-performance and secure continuous improvement in the areas where
we do well.
Our priority for the
future lies in working to get the basics right through a focus upon three known
problems :
·
corporate governance and performance management
·
community and partner engagement
·
building organisational capacity
Improving our corporate capacity is essential If
the Council is to successfully address the challenges facing us. Future action will focus upon:
·
adoption of a business excellence model to drive
the Council’s approach to performance management
·
implementation of new Service Planning procedures
(approved by Resources Select in May 2002) to better integrate strategic and
financial planning
·
ensuring that the Select Committees, portfolio
holders and Directors Group regularly review all Service Plans and targets and
embed best value principles into operational management practice
·
reviewing and improving the quality of performance
management information and our monitoring and review systems to better support
informed corporate management
·
development of a clear medium-term budget strategy
·
enhancing the role and effectiveness of the Best
Value Support Team and ensuring greater strategic leadership by members and the
Directors Group. A new “traffic light” system will be used to drive future BVRs
and external challenge will be an integral part of all future reviews
·
providing strategic leadership in the development
and delivery of our e:government strategy and how it will facilitate more
effective service delivery
·
completing and implementing our Risk Management
Strategy
·
encouraging all members, particularly those on the
Executive, to enhance their community leadership skills by undertaking training
through the I&DeA Modern Members programme
·
further strengthening of the scrutiny function and
implementation of the District Audit review of the select committee process
We believe that our approach to community
engagement and partnership working is generally good. We do, however, need to strengthen our role as regards providing
effective community leadership. Future
action will focus upon:
·
establishing an effective and acknowledged LSP and
completing our Community Strategy. We will review the membership of the LSP and
its relationship to other key partnerships in order to reinforce its community
leadership role
·
completing our cross-cutting “Contacting the
people” best value review and Developing a Communications and Community
Involvement Strategy to ensure a corporate approach to community engagement
·
continuing to develop our network Community
Partnerships
·
promoting democratic engagement through support for
our Youth MP and events such as Democracy Week
·
supporting the creation of further Town and Parish
Councils where supported by local communities
·
Implementing the Action Plan arising from the 2002
District Audit review of partnerships on the Island
·
continuing to extend the use of “pooled budgets”
and joint commissioning for partnership delivery of services. Establishing an
independent not-for-profit tourist agency and a Leisure trust following BV
reviews. Given our relatively limited resources, innovative partnership
delivery is an essential element of our approach.
·
producing an Annual Standards Report in order to
improve public confidence in our standards and ethics
·
delivering services so as to meet the needs of
visitors as well as residents
Developing a corporate culture for the Council that
values and develops our staff is a key priority for the authority. Future action will focus upon:
·
developing a co-ordinated Human Resources Strategy
to ensure that staff are valued, developed and appropriately rewarded
·
improving staff communication arrangements through
development of consistent team briefing procedures and extending access to the
Council’s intranet to all staff
·
building on our Management Development Programme to
enhance our management capacity to achieve a continuous improvement in service
delivery
·
achieving IiP status for the whole Council by
2003/4
·
actively implementing our Healthy Workforce
Strategy to promote an appropriate work-life balance
·
actively implementing our Equalities Strategy
·
as an aid to recruitment and retention we will
invest in training and development of our existing staff for succession
planning purposes. We will also continue to develop innovative approaches to
the recruitment of external staff
Members and officers have
found the self-assessment process to be an extremely instructive exercise in
itself. It has greatly assisted in maintaining and sharpening our focus upon
the improvements required, many of which have begun to be instituted since the
June 2001 elections.
Our draft Community
Strategy sets out an ambitious vision for “a happy, contented and prosperous”
Island. To achieve this the Council is well aware of the scale of the challenge
facing us. Whilst we have much to be proud of in the achievements and
improvements in service delivery secured to date, we know that we have some way
to go. Until last year the Council had a less than satisfactory record of
effective political and managerial leadership. We now have in place the
building blocks to ensure sustained improvements both in what we do and how we
go about it. The Council is confident that our direction of travel is improving
and will continue to do so.
Our Action Plan
(overpage) describes the outcomes we aim to achieve over the coming 3 years.
OUR
ACTION PLAN FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS
|
ACTION |
OUTCOME |
|
Securing
effective corporate governance and leadership by : ·
establishing strategic leadership and
management through our Corporate Plan ·
securing continuous improvement in service
delivery ·
tackling areas of under-performance ·
improving risk management and financial
control ·
better integration of service and budget
planning ·
improving monitoring and review systems ·
enhancing the role of select committees |
·
established and acknowledged community
leadership ·
robust and effective performance
management ·
best value integrated into day-to-day
management ·
achievement of Corporate Plan and Service
Plan targets ·
high performing Council with all PIs in
top quartile |
|
Sustaining
community and partner engagement by
: ·
improving our democratic and community engagement ·
developing and extending the use of
strategic delivery partnerships ·
catering for the needs of visitors as well
as residents ·
improving public confidence in the
standards and ethics of the Council |
·
pride in our Island ·
democratic renewal and improved election
turnout ·
an inclusive community ·
diversity in service delivery through
shared provision with our partners ·
greater public trust in the Council |
|
Building
organisational capacity by : ·
improving the skills, performance and
motivation of our staff ·
developing a culture of continuous
organisational improvement |
·
high performing, well-motivated and
appropriately rewarded staff ·
customer focused service delivery ·
healthy workforce with appropriate
work/life balance ·
continuous improvements in service
delivery |
Note
: These actions can all be directly traced back to the Council’s
draft Corporate Plan which provides further
details