REPORT OF THE TASK GROUP CHAIRMAN

SUMMARY / PURPOSE

This report provides an update on the task group's progress and indicates its future direction. The Group plans to submit proposals the Committee in May covering the involvement of Select Committees in:

_ Service planning

_ The medium term budget process

_ Monitoring performance

_ Monitoring budgets

With a view to recommending a standard approach to all Select Committees

TASK GROUP PROGRESS

1 The group has met three times since it last reported to this Committee. Consideration has been given to:

_ The role of a corporate plan and a community strategy in the Council's planning processes

_ The form and content of a concise service plan, and

_ The reporting of performance indicators.

_ A procedure for scrutinising service plans and budgets in future

Further discussion will be needed on this last point. A further meeting has been arranged with the intention of reporting to this Committee again in May.

2 It is clear to the Group that:

_ the forthcoming Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) of the Council will be very challenging.

_ elected members will need to involve themselves much more in performance management and devise, with Directors, more integrated and consistent service and financial planning processes.

_ the Council should consider adopting the community strategy themes in place of its current corporate objectives.

_ these themes, supported by wide public consultation, should shape the Council's service in future.

_ the Council's own contribution to the Island's community strategy should be summarised in the corporate plan

detailed actions should be contained in such documents as the Education Development and Local Transport Plan.

_ the focus of the corporate plan should be on setting the future direction for the authority, identifying how the council matches up to the CPA requirement and how it proposes to improve. The corporate plan will thus shape the Councils own performance improvement programme.

_ the work being done separately by members to define the political vision for the Council is very important.

3 The Group is close to agreeing a final version of a concise service plan that would be much more easily used by Committees in monitoring performance and in scrutinising services.

_ the link between this and the current, larger service plans will need to be considered further to ensure consistency.

_ it seems sensible to consider the concise version as a working document with the fewer, larger service plans, being information sources which best practice dictates all heads of service would maintain.

_ it is particularly important that members have a clear plan of the services for which they are responsible.

4 The Group has also been impressed with a simple reporting format for key indicators that uses colour coding to flag up performance as good, giving cause for concern or poor. There are a number of bespoke computer systems being used by other local authorities and the Group will begin to investigate these.

5 On the budget itself, the Group believes that;

_ options for the future budget in line with the corporate plan should be brought to each Select Committee in May. This allows the Committee an early input to the budget process with a more real chance of investigating the options or researching their own proposals.

_ that budget proposals should ultimately be presented to each Select Committee by the appropriate Portfolio Holder and Strategic Director before Christmas.

6 Work has been done by individual members of the Group to establish questions that can be used to 'drill deeper' into individual service plans and this will be refined. Such an approach could apply to all services but for the budget process would need to be applied selectively.

RECOMMENDATIONS

That the work of the task group be noted

BACKGROUND PAPERS

Papers and notes of the Measuring Performance Task Group 27 February, 12 March and 26 March 2002

Contact Point: Tony Geeson, Head of Corporate Policy F 3291

GARRY PRICE

CHAIRMAN OF THE TASK GROUP