Agenda item

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Chief Executive which gave details of progress against key performance indicators and explored areas of underperformance in respect of the Altogether Better for Children and Young People priority theme (for copy, see file of Minutes).

Mrs C Payne, Head of Strategic Commissioning gave details of the second quarterly performance management report.  Section 1 covered the overview of performance of the Altogether Better for Children and Young People priority theme, section 2 covered an index of performance indicators, section 3 covered indicator analysis report, section 4 covered indicator tables and section 5 detailed the Council Plan progress.  Risk management was integrated into the report.

Strong progress had been made in achieving Council Plan actions for Children and Young People in Quarter 2, with all actions on track, meeting or exceeding the target set.

Significant improvement had been made in GCSE results with 83.9% of pupils achieving 5 or more GCSE (or equivalent) passes at grade A*-C and 55.6% achieving a national indicator of 5 or more GCSE passes at A*-C including English and Maths.  The outstanding level of improvement meant that the Council was now above the national average.

Members commented that it was a very positive report and it was hoped that it could be sustained the following year even though there had been a reduction in funding received.  Councillor Armstrong suggested that the performance of Looked After Children’s achieving level 4 in key stage 2 English and Maths could be a future addition to the Committee’s work programme.

Councillor Barker referred to assessments carried out on reception children and the correlation between children attending Sure Start Children’s Centres and commented that the results were not as good as they should have been.  The Head of Strategic Commissioning explained that performance indicators measured the assessments carried out in schools and there had been an improvement from a whole range of providers including Sure Start.  A national survey published recently had concluded that half of children were not ready for school.

RESOLVED that the performance and remedial action for key Performance Indicators be noted.