Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Director of Transformation and Partnerships that provided progress against the council’s corporate basket of performance indicators (PIs), Council Plan and service plan actions and report other performance issues for the first quarter of the 2016/17 financial year, covering the period April to June 2016. A presentation was given by the Head of Planning and Performance (for copy of report and slides, see file of minutes).

There was discussion on crime figures, with the Police and Crime Commissioner publishing a press release on changes in recording which would be circulated to the Board.

In response to a query from Councillor Hillary regarding Child protection figures and the theme to achieve 100% of reviews completed within required timescales. The Head of Planning and Performance assured that appropriate action would be taken to address any areas of underperformance and advised that it was important to monitor that it was not the same families being affected.

The Chairman advised that he had spoken with the Interim Corporate Director, Children and Young People’s Service regarding social worker caseloads, training and backup. He was keen for Scrutiny to do further work on the issue and suggested that a member seminar be arranged and an induction package for new members be produced in order for all members to understand their responsibility as corporate parents.

Councillor Nearney was concerned with the drop in the number of people successfully completing alcohol treatment. He advised that Safer and Stronger Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee had looked at the issue previously and assured that alcohol treatment was taken very seriously and would be looked at again.

A typographical error was highlighted in paragraph 44 (iii) of the report which should have read ‘non opiate use’.

Councillor S Wilson referred to drug treatments and requested data on the levels of recreational and serious use.

Councillor Hopgood referred to affordable housing and questioned the viability of affordable house prices as some housing sites were in the region of £300,000. She asked that council policy be looked at to include off site development sites in order for affordable housing to be priced more appropriately. The Chairman would refer the matter to the Head of Planning and Assets.

Councillor Hillary was pleased that staff appraisal figures were moving in the right direction and the sickness absence figures were encouraging.

Councillor Hopgood referred to the increase in fly-tipping incidents and questioned whether the reason was related to the new way in which permits were obtained for vans and trailers. She advised that every single item had to be itemised as well as the quantity of each item and felt that the system should be simpler, not more difficult. Councillor Graham commented that the number of fly-tipping instances reduced when CCTV cameras were installed and that the increase in incidents from the last quarter was mainly in relation to white goods and fridges as they have little value to scrap collectors. The Chairman advised that the matter would be monitored and waste permit concerns would be referred to the Head of Projects and Business Services.

Resolved:

i)          That the performance of the council at quarter one and the actions to remedy under performance be noted;

ii)         That the changes to the Council Plan outlined in the report be noted.