Meeting documents

Communities Scrutiny Sub-Committee (DCC)
Monday 6 September 2004


            Meeting: Communities Scrutiny Sub-Committee (County Hall, Durham - Committee Room 1a - 06/09/2004 10:00:00 AM)

                  Item: A7 Performance Management (a) Presentation by Corporate Policy Unit (b) Report of Acting Director of Social Care and Health


         

Scrutiny Sub-Committee
Promoting Strong, Healthy
& Safe Communities

6 September 2004

Performance Management

Report of Performance Monitoring Manager, Social Care and Health


1. Purpose of the Report

To provide Scrutiny Sub-Committee with an update on performance information within the first quarter 2004/05.

2. Background

Performance 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 48 Performance Assessment Framework (PAF) indicators some of which are also Best Value indicators.

Performance for first quarter 2004/05 and the previous three years performance against PAF indicators can be found in Appendix A.
Results are traffic lit and can range from dark green (‘very good’ performance) to red (‘investigate urgently’).

First quarter information is available for 25 of the 48 performance indicators currently within the Performance Assessment Framework.

3. Current position

Adult Services: -
Adult Services performance indicators for which there is available data first quarter performance in 2004 are grouped by banding as follows:
7 very good (dark green)
4 good (light green)
3 acceptable (yellow)
1 ask questions (orange)
Of the 15 Adult services indicators that are banded, 13 have stayed in the same banding while one has improved and one dropped a banding when compared to last year’s performance. Staying in the same banding represents a substantial achievement for 7 of these indicators as they are already in the top banding. To a slightly lesser extent the same is true of the 4 indicators in the ‘good’ or ‘light green’ banding.

Performance against indicator D39 (Percentage of adults and older people receiving a statement of their needs and how they will be met) has dropped into the yellow (acceptable) banding from the light green (good). However, performance has dropped by only .2% and now stands at 95.8%. A very slight improvement will therefore result in a reversal of this change in banding.

The percentage of items of equipment delivered within 7 days has risen to 85.3% and this has moved performance up to the dark green (very good) banding.

Children’s Services:

Children’s Services performance indicators for which there is available data first quarter performance in 2004 are grouped by banding as follows:

4 very good (dark green)
2 good (light green)
2 acceptable (yellow)
2 ask questions (orange)
Two of these Children’s services indicators have reduced banding and two improved a banding from the previous year’s performance.
C23 (Percentage of Children Looked After who are adopted) has moved from the yellow (acceptable) banding in 2003/04 to the light green banding for the first quarter 2004/05. The reason for this is an increase in the number of children looked after placed for adoption from 6.6% to 7.9%. The numbers involved are very small and performance against this indicator is therefore likely to fluctuate. In order to try to maintain this improved good performance a successful recruitment campaign for new adopters has been held and various support systems have been put in place.

Performance against C18 has also improved and is now in the yellow banding, reflecting the success of work that has been going on aimed at reducing the final warnings and convictions of children looked after as a ratio of all children given a final warning or convicted.
Performance against PAF indicator D35 ( percentage of children who have been looked after for at least 4 years who have been in their current placement for at least 2 years) has gone down from 50.3% in 2003/04 to 48.63% in 2004/05. There is a certain inevitability about this reduced performance given the strategy, which is still being implemented and which involves moving looked after children away from expensive out of county placements. Over time performance against this indicator should start to improve.
PAF indicator C20 (Percentage of child protection cases reviewed in the last year) has shown a very slight reduction in performance and this has caused movement from the light green banding to the yellow banding. Staff will be reminded of the importance of this performance indicator, which limit Star Rating to a judgement of ‘Serving some people well’. A very small increase in of .3% will move performance up to 96% and back into the light green banding.
4. Improvement Plans
Adult Services and Children’s Services PAF indicators, as well as results against other performance indicators, will be reported to the September round of Social Care and Health Performance Days. Attention will be drawn to those indicators against which improvements are most urgently needed and action plans will be developed. The success or otherwise of agreed actions will be closely monitored.

5. Recommendations and reasons

You are recommended to:

(a) Note the information contained in this report.
Contact: Keith Newby Tel: 0191 383 4959
FOR COPIES OF APPENDICES PLEASE REFER TO HARD COPY RECORDS

Attachments


 Adults PI Aug 043.xls;
 Childrens PI Aug 04 2.xls;
 September 04 Scrutiny sub-committee1.doc