Agenda item

That the 2012/13 draft Annual Performance Report be approved for publication.

The Chief Executive introduced the report and delivered a presentation for Members to endorse the 2012/13 draft Annual Performance Report for publication following approval by Cabinet.  He thanked the Policy & Performance Manager and Performance Team Leader for their work on the report and reminded Members that the document would need to be adopted by the statutory deadline of 31 October.  The Annual Performance Report met the statutory requirement to review the Council’s progress against the Improvement Priorities and overall progress for the previous year 2012-13.  A public summary would be produced for inclusion in ‘Your Community, Your Council’.

The Policy & Performance Manager provided an explanation on the statutory requirements for the content of the report.  She reminded Council that it was important to recognise that performance indicators were only part of the total picture.  It was noted that 56% of Improvement Targets continued to improve or remained at top ranking whilst 44% showed a downturn (which in the majority of cases was marginal), with 61% meeting or exceeding the target set.  In national rankings, Flintshire had performed better than the Wales average in 59% of indicators and was placed top of ranking in five indicators and bottom in one.  A total of 37 indicators were in the top and middle quartiles compared with 21 last year.

The Chief Executive said that during the current transitional year, the former ten Improvement Priorities for 2012/13 had been condensed for 2013/14 and it was important for the report to compare the performance across both.  The statement of progress as at 31 March 2013 set the close of the year reported to Cabinet and Overview & Scrutiny showed that good progress had been made in five of the Improvement Priorities with satisfactory progress achieved in the remainder.

The Policy & Performance Manager highlighted changes to the format and content of the Plan to make it easier to read and identify outcomes, together with examples of good practice and areas for improvement.  Outcomes for each sub-priority would be determined and linked to the Improvement Plan for tracking.  Links to the Improvement Plan would help the reader to understand past and future actions.  The Chief Executive said that an up-to-date progress statement against the eight new Priorities which had recently been reported to Cabinet would be submitted to Overview & Scrutiny committees to review in their respective portfolios.

In moving the recommendation in the report, Councillor Aaron Shotton thanked the officer team for putting together the report and referred to the complex nature of the new Improvement Plan in which the approach to Priorities and Improvement objectives had been streamlined.  The proposal was seconded by Councillor Bernie Attridge.

Councillor Richard Jones queried the recommendation to endorse the report as Members had previously been requested to approve.  He welcomed the continuous improvement in trends and queried consistency in the practice for business cases on regional partnerships to show evidence of benefits specifically for Flintshire and the need to ensure that the value of services was not reduced.  On sub-priority 2.2 to achieve the set efficiency targets from collaborative projects, he felt that actions should be set out on how to achieve a ‘Green’ rather than an ‘Amber’ outcome.

The Chief Executive confirmed that a summary would be produced and that the wording on the recommendation was due to terminology used.  In response to concerns about collaborative projects, he was unaware of any new projects where the adopted three stage reporting Protocol had not been followed and would follow this up with the Member Engagement Manager.  To further strengthen the Protocol it was intended to include involvement by the Audit Committee.  On the last query, he said that efficiencies on collaborative projects had been delivered broadly on time and that this was about the level of confidence in the region’s ambitions to deliver major cost savings.  Any further information required by Members was readily available.

Councillor Mike Peers suggested that a ‘road map’ would be beneficial and that greater transparency was needed on the changing number of Priorities.  On secondary priority 6.13, he said that consistency was needed due to differences between an outline plan and a ‘master plan’.  He felt that there was some repetitiveness in the Improvement Priorities and that there was a resistance to change on pace and ambition running through the document.  He went on to suggest that a prioritised action plan was needed to show recovery plans for the areas marked ‘what we didn’t do so well’ in the report.

The Chief Executive said that the timing of information was due to the data clearance process with input from WAO and confirmed that the review of Priorities for next year’s Improvement Plan would be open and subject to Member involvement.  The former ten Improvement Priorities had been condensed into the new set of seven for 2013/14 with an additional eighth Priority to support those vulnerable to poverty through welfare reform.  Assurance was given that detailed action plans with targets were in place to address areas in need, which were available for scrutiny, although it was not possible to summarise these within the report.

Councillor Ian Roberts asked for clarity on the agreed procedure for local Members to be kept informed of progress where high level discussions were taking place on options for major developments within their wards.  The Chief Executive confirmed that there was an expectation for all officers to conform to this practice.

Following the earlier comments made by Councillor Richard Jones, the Chief Executive confirmed the amendment to the wording in the recommendation from ‘endorse’ to ‘approve’.  On being put to the vote, this was agreed by the Committee.

RESOLVED:

That the 2012/13 draft Annual Performance Report be approved for publication.