Issue - meetings

That the 2013/14 Annual Performance Report be approved for publication.

The Chief Officer (Streetscene & Transportation) introduced the draft Annual Performance Report 2013/14 seeking approval for publication prior to the statutory deadline, to meet the requirements of the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009 (the Measure).  He thanked the Policy & Performance Manager and her team for the level of work involved in collating and preparing the report whilst stressing the importance of its contents.

The Policy & Performance Manager thanked the Performance Team Leader for her contribution to the report and delivered a presentation on the key points.  Whilst the report detailed performance in achieving the Council’s improvement priorities, it also gave a balanced view to reinforce success and highlight areas for improvement.  ‘Good’ and ‘satisfactory’ levels of progress had been made on the eight priorities in the Council’s Improvement Plan 2013/14, with ‘high’ and ‘medium’ confidence levels on achieving outcomes.  Where there were borderline levels, the view had been taken to allocate the lower level status so that improvement could be sought in that area.  A revised page 43 of the Annual Performance Report was circulated for the sub-priority ‘Modernised and High Performing Education’ which reported an improvement in the percentage of learners achieving GCSE Grade C or above in English (72.7%) from the previous year.  During the presentation, Members were reminded of the importance in recognising that performance indicators were only part of the whole picture.

A summary of overall performance stated that 65% of improvement targets had been met or exceeded whilst the majority of the remainder had missed by an acceptable margin.  National rankings indicated that Flintshire had performed better than the Welsh average in 51% of indicators and was ranked top in six indicators and bottom in one.  In comparison to 2012/13, overall quartile performance had declined slightly, however 61% of Flintshire residents surveyed said that the Council provided high quality services, which was above the national average percentage.

Following endorsement of the Annual Performance Report by Cabinet on 15 October 2015, approval was sought from Council to publish within the statutory deadline of 31 October.  The Wales Audit Office would subsequently issue a Certificate of Compliance based on the published report which it was hoped would be equally as positive as the Certificate received earlier in the year.

In moving the recommendation in the report, Councillor Aaron Shotton thanked the team for facilitating the report and spoke of the combined effort by different departments in collating information and scrutiny by Members of the quarterly updates.  He referred to the areas of achievement noted in the presentation which were equally as important as those areas not currently meeting the Council’s ambitions and which required a greater level of emphasis.  He went on to refer to the financial pressures ahead for all Councils in this time of austerity and the challenges for public services.

On the list of highlights in the Executive Summary, Councillor Nigel Steele-Mortimer congratulated the Chief Officer and Cabinet Member for achievements on Skills and Learning.  When asked about plans for the 21^st Century School  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58