Agenda item

            (a)       That the Annual Improvement Report and the Council’s response be noted; and

(b)       That the Schools Maintenance backlog issue be referred to Lifelong Learning Overview & Scrutiny Committee for monitoring.         

The Chief Executive introduced a report to update Members on the Council’s Annual Improvement Report 2013-14 which will be published by the Auditor General for Wales and to provide Members with the Council’s response.  He introduced Mr. Paul Goodlad from Wales Audit Office (WAO) to the Committee. 

                        He explained that the Council had two principal annual reports from the WAO with the second being received in October.  The report which was very positive, and was the best one that the Council had received in recent years, had also been submitted to Cabinet and Audit Committee; it illustrated that the Authority was governed well and was performing well, and had listened the comments of WAO made in previous reports and improved its arrangements for performance management and reporting accordingly. 

                        Mr. Goodlad reiterated the comments about the positivity of the report which he was pleased to present to the Committee.  The report covered the evaluation of governance and services at Flintshire County Council. In summary, Mr. Goodlad said that the Council had made good progress against the improvement priorities and had improved its overall performance against the national indicators.  The WAO had not made any new recommendations or proposals for improvement and appendix 5 summarised the status of the previous recommendations and proposals for improvement.  WAO was confident that the Council had recognised what needed to be done and had taken the appropriate action to ensure that this was undertaken.  However, it was important to recognise the scale of the financial challenges ahead and Mr. Goodlad said that WAO would continue to provide support to the Council. 

                        On performance, Mr. Goodlad explained that data for 2012-13 had been considered and had been updated where information from 2013-14 was available.  Action had also been taken by the Council to strengthen its approach to performance evaluation, and the need for further work to harmonise its improvement planning and performance reporting arrangements had been acknowledged by the Council.  The Auditor General’s Improvement Letter of December 2013 had concluded that the Council had discharged its improvement reporting duties under the Measure.  Mr. Goodlad added that improvement reporting for 2013-14 was much improved.  The Council had enhanced its arrangements for planning and supporting improvement, but further action was required to provide the rigour necessary to cope with the challenges ahead.  The Auditor General’s September 2013 Letter raised concerns that some aspects of the Council’s improvement arrangements remained underdeveloped.  However, six months later, there were clear signs of the Council taking action to strengthen its improvement arrangements including the development of a medium term financial plan that explained how the Council expected to balance its budgets.  Previously concerns had been expressed about slippage but in 2013-14 significant progress had been made. 

The Council had embarked on a programme of organisational development and so far this had been risk managed well and a lot had been achieved in a short space of time. Paragraph 72 highlighted the challenge faced by the Council with the assumption of efficiency savings of £12m during 2014-15.  Mr. Goodlad explained that appendix 5 reported that two recommendations had been closed down as a result of work undertaken by the Authority. 

                        Councillor Ian Dunbar welcomed the report which he felt showed a forward looking Council.  He said that the fact that there were no new recommendations or proposals was a positive sign of the significant impact made on the issue of improvement.  He suggested that the good news story be put out onto social media as it highlighted to residents that the Council was protecting front line services.  The Chief Executive responded that the document was available on the Council’s website and had been reported in a standard press release - it was also important to make Members and the workforce aware of and interested in the report. 

                        Following a question from Councillor Ron Hampson about the selling of Council assets to fund the budget gap, the Chief Executive said that in recent years the Authority had had difficulty in achieving its pre-set capital receipts targets.  A report would be submitted to the next meeting of Cabinet which would provide details of the current situation on the capital programme. 

                        In echoing the comments about the positive report, Councillor Paul Shotton said that it was pleasing to see no additional recommendations from WAO for the second year running.  He referred to the difficult challenges ahead but added that closing the £15.5m budget gap had been a significant achievement. 

                        Councillor Robin Guest said that it was a mostly positive report but said that some negative points had also been raised.  He referred to paragraph 29 about homelessness in Flintshire and asked whether the year-end performance data was available yet to confirm whether performance had subsequently improved, as had been reported in Council reports during 2013-14.  He also queried why a reference to extra–care housing was included in the section about new affordable homes target.  Councillor Guest said that performance in Social Services was generally extremely good and welcomed the comment about the strong interdepartmental working within the Council as identified by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW).  He raised concern about the ability to deliver organisational change under the School Modernisation Strategy and the national 21^st Century Schools programme.  Councillor Guest highlighted the comments on the need for effective and disciplined in-year financial management to ensure that budgets were managed effectively and prompt action taken to mitigate the impacts should variances occur.  He also referred to the delivery of the organisational change programme putting significant pressure on both officers and Members and sought assurance that detailed information would be provided to Members on the progress made on the delivery of the programme.  He added that the report celebrated areas where improvement had been made and identified challenges where the Council was not performing as well. 

                        On the issue of homelessness, the Policy and Performance Manager said that the performance figures for 2013-14 for homelessness prevention had increased from 83% to just under 85% and as a result of this a target of 90% had been set for 2014-15, despite an increase in the number of people presenting themselves as homelessness. 

                        The Chief Executive accepted the comments about the need for Members to be provided with detailed information about organisational change.  On the issue of VFM raised earlier by Councillor Richard Jones, he said that the Council had not before planned the scale of reduction in workforce that was required and the programme in hand remained a risk to deliver. 

                        Councillor Jones said that he appreciated that the report was positive but that was a need to ensure continual improvement for the future.  He referred to paragraph 21 on the Council’s approach to channel shift and queried what was meant by the final sentence.  Councillor Jones raised concern about the amount of time homeless households spent in temporary accommodation and asked why there had been a reduction in the number of new affordable homes that the County had benefited from, with the number reducing to 57 new affordable homes during 2012-13 compared with 71 in 2011-12.  He asked for details of the six out of 10 indicators for monitoring of children’s services which had deteriorated, as referred to in paragraph 33, and queried why the issue of dementia was now covered across a series of services instead of by a dedicated post of dementia officer.  He indicated that more information was needed of the impact of performance for collaborative projects and that further explanation was required on the uncertainty about delivery of organisation change of the School Modernisation Strategy. 

In response, Mr. Goodlad explained that this was as a result of the Council’s own evaluation at the end of 2012-13 and that the assessment would be revised now that the results of 2013-14 were known.  The Chief Executive explained that the Council had decided not to give a ‘green’ status for performance where the issue was complex and a risk but added that feedback from Welsh Government on the C21st Schools Programme for schools at Shotton, Connah’s Quay and Holywell showed that Flintshire County Council was one of the top performing authorities.  He added that the authority was ready to progress with projects but was awaiting Ministerial approval, hence the risk rating.  

                        The Leader of the Council also welcomed the positive report and the balanced view and comments made by Members.  He was mindful of the information within the report that the Council needed to consider, such as the issue of homelessness and the need to recognise work required in the context of society changes and welfare reform.  He was keen to examine in the future the comment that Flintshire schools provided VFM with the option for further efficiencies and he took comfort from the comments about housing.  He echoed the remarks of the Chief Executive about the importance of communicating the positive aspects of the report to the workforce to show them how their efforts had contributed to the Council’s success and the  achievements they should be proud of. 

                        On the issue of affordable housing, Mr. Goodlad said that it was difficult for Council’s to achieve the target unless they were able to develop the properties themselves.  Councillor Jones felt that if Councils adhered to affordable housing policies, this would help them achieve the targets set.  The Chief Executive said that the development of sites was subject to the outcome of the planning process and pre-set targets for affordable new-build homes were not easily controlled by the Council. 

                        Mr. Goodlad said that he did not have the details of the six indicators for monitoring of children’s services which had deteriorated but the Chief Executive advised that the indicators included the actioning of assessments on time.  He added that he would provide Councillor Jones with a copy of the recently re-adopted Dementia Strategy.  On the issue of channel shift, Mr. Goodlad said that measuring the number of people who visited the Council’s website did not provide an indicator of whether they had been able to access the service they required. 

                        Councillor Guest pointed out that a number of comments had been made about there being no new recommendations from WAO but he reminded Members that the original recommendations were still in place. 

                        In referring the earlier comments and the overriding concerns of the report on the financial management of the Council, the Chief Executive said that the challenge of the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) was a great concern to officers. 

                        Councillor Peter Curtis felt that issues of homelessness and affordable housing were issues that were beyond the Council’s control. 

                        In response to a question from Councillor Jones about the reduction of the schools maintenance backlog which had reduced from £35m to £23.6m since 2010, Mr. Goodlad said that this related to a number of schools which had closed and therefore no longer accrued maintenance costs.  The Chief Executive explained that the Council’s response was provided on page 50 and that the figure had now increased to £25.8m for 2013/14 following a resurvey of 75% of primary schools.  Councillor Jones suggested that the issue be referred to Lifelong Learning Overview & Scrutiny Committee and on being put to the vote, was agreed by the Committee. 

            RESOLVED:

(a)       That the Annual Improvement Report and the Council’s response be noted; and

(b)       That the Schools Maintenance backlog issue be referred to Lifelong Learning Overview & Scrutiny Committee for monitoring.