Meeting documents

The performance of Social Services Departments is measured using a variety of methods and tools such as Inspections and Spring and Autumn Delivery and Improvement Statements. Of universal relevance to this process are the 49 Performance Assessment Framework (PAF) indicators some of which are also Best Value indicators.

First quarter 2003/4 and the previous four years performance against PAF indicators can be found in Appendix A. Results are traffic lit in the established method with dark green representing ‘very good’ performance and red as ‘investigate urgently’.

Children’s Services: 9 out of 18 indicators are being reported on this occasion:
Indicator C18 (Final warnings and convictions of children looked after as a ratio of all children given a final warning or convicted) remains in the orange banding. This is partly as a result of the rate of offending in the general population decreasing and a concurrent increase in offending by the looked after children population. Operations Managers in Children’s Services branch are investigating further reasons behind this increase.

There have been significant changes to Indicator C20 (% of Child Protection cases reviewed in the last year).

The Department of Health have recently issued revised banding thresholds for this indicator, which are to be applied to both 2002/03 performance as well as previous years. This re-banding has resulted in Durham’s performance on this indicator falling into the ‘investigate urgently’ (red band) for the years 2000/01 and 2001/02 where previously the banding was ‘acceptable’ (yellow) for both of these years.

The Department of Health have also changed the definition for this indicator for 2003/04 with the changes being:

Early indications are that our performance for this indicator has improved with a positive change in banding recorded for the first quarter of 2003/04. Please note, however, that the banding thresholds used for 2003/04 are based on the old definition for Indicator C20 and may well be amended by the Department of Health at the end of 2003/04 when all Authorities have submitted their performance data for this indicator.

Monitoring work will continue in respect of this indicator in order to ensure that our first quarter performance is maintained throughout 2003/04 as C20 limits the maximum Star Rating for Children’s Services to “serving some people well” (i.e. 1 Star) where performance is less than 92.5%.

C23 (Percentage of Children Looked After who are adopted) has moved from the dark green banding in 2002/3 to the yellow banding in the first quarter of 2003/4. The reason for this is a reduction in the number of children looked after placed for adoption in the first quarter of this year as opposed to a fairly high number adopted in 2002/3. Performance on this indicator will be closely monitored throughout the year.

Adult Services: - 14 out of 31 indicators are being reported here:

6 very good (dark green)

With no banded indicators in the orange and red categories, this first quarter performance is encouraging. However, this represents less than half of the PAF indicators for adults. A fuller picture will be available in the second quarter when indicators that are reported 6 monthly will be available.

Adult Services performance would seem to be relatively stable in that there has been little movement between bands for indicators this quarter.

A5 (The percentage change from previous year of emergency admissions to hospital per 1000 population) has moved from the orange to dark green banding. The latest available data shows a considerable reduction in the number of emergency admissions to hospital which has resulted in a large percentage change when compared to the previous year. The reasons for this are being investigated with Health. The banding is changed annually to reflect the spread of performance by authorities. Durham are currently in the top 20% for this indicator.

C33 (Hospital admissions of those 75+ due to hypothermia or falls) has improved from the yellow banding to light green. This is as a result of a decrease in hospital admissions due to hypothermia or falls for the latest period. The reasons for this are being explored with Health.

The above indicators correspond with improved performance in D41 (Number of delayed transfers of care per 100,000 population aged 65 and over), which is in the yellow banding. This is a new definition of the indicator and as yet a target has not been set.

The reduction in hospital admissions and in delayed transfers is evidence of the initial success of the Department’s investment plans.

C27 (Admissions of supported residents aged 18-64 to permanent residential care) has moved back into the yellow banding in the first quarter from the light green banding in 2002/3. The performance in 2002/3 was particularly high and could be attributed to a high admission rate in the first quarter of that year. The figure reported in the first quarter of 2003/4 is more consistent with performance in previous years.

For two of the adults PAF indicators there have been significant changes in definition. These indicators are:

D38 Items of equipment must now be delivered within 7 days of decision to supply (previous definition allowed 21 days)

D43 All services in a clients care package must now be delivered within 28 days of assessment (previous definition stated the first service had to be in place within 6 weeks)

Current performance against these indicators appears to be low (potentially red or orange banding), although some clarification of the definitions are still being sought from the Department of Health. For the indicator regarding the issue of equipment, some data entry issues are also being addressed. Data for both these indicators will be presented at the end of the second quarter once the above issues have been resolved.

Adult Services and Children’s Services PAF indicators and other results will be reported to the September round of Social Services Department Performance Days. Attention will be drawn to those indicators where improvements are most urgently needed. Such indicators will be followed up at subsequent Performance Days to ensure that any developments and remedial actions taken are impacting positively on performance.