Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Assistant Chief Executive which presented progress against the council’s corporate basket of performance indicators (PIs), Council Plan and service plan actions and reported other performance issues for the second quarter of the 2015/16 financial year, covering the period July to September 2015. A presentation was given by the Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager (for copy of report and slides, see file of minutes).

In response to queries from Councillor Crute regarding tracking job seeker allowance figures, quality of jobs and the value of employment factors in other areas, the Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager advised that universal credit was tracked via figures published by the Office for National Statistics. Meetings had been scheduled to discuss what figures would be available as they were dependent on national bodies producing statistics and acknowledged that it would become more of an issue in the future. He added there were a small number of people who were already claiming Universal Credit in County Durham who have migrated from other parts of the country where the rollout had already started.  Referring to the query regarding value of employment, the Corporate Scrutiny and Performance Manager would ask the service for further details.  The Chairman requested that the information be provided to Councillor Crute for the next committee meeting.

Councillor Boyes commented on the successful treatment of drugs and alcohol and asked if there was a duplication of work across Scrutiny Committees. The Chairman advised he would meet with Overview and Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chairs to review the work programme.

Councillor Batey referred to the altogether safer performance crime figures and asked for a breakdown on the type of offences, particularly for young people in order to get a better understanding of the specific crimes committed in terms of re-offending.

Councillor Hopgood asked if the Authority was relying on external funding to support the apprenticeship scheme and if there were contingency plans in place should it be required. The Chairman commented that financial support was required and the grant from Europe could not be relied upon as there was a danger of losing that funding. He asked that information be supplied on what contingencies were in place.