Agenda item

The Cabinet considered a report of the Chief Executive which informed members, senior managers, employees and the public of progress towards achieving the strategic ambitions and objectives set out in the Council Plan 2024-28 (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

The Leader of the Council thanked the Head of Corporate Affairs and his team for the detailed and comprehensive update on performance against the priorities of the Council. The transparency of strategic planning and the Performance Management arrangements were welcome and something that the Joint Administration continued to champion. It was also pleasing to note the feedback from residents and customers in the report that the Council continued to deliver strong performance.

The Leader highlighted the strong economic performance across the county in key areas such as jobs, investment, demand for employment land and industrial premises and the employment rate, all of which were favourable compared to previous years.

The Council had continued to exceed targets for securing investment for companies and supporting businesses and increased attendances had been recorded at all cultural event venues.

In respect of the environment the Council were diverting a smaller proportion of waste to landfill and contamination of household recycling continued to come down. The Council were building, with regional partners a new energy recovery waste facility which would meet the future needs of the county. Although there had been improvement in the levels of carbon emissions generated from within the county, through Council activity there was awareness that more progress would be required to meet Net Zero targets.

For our people, statutory demand for children's social care was higher than last year but remained relatively low compared to regional comparators. The Council continued to deliver good outcomes across statutory children's social care in achieving a consistently low re-referral rate. The rate of increase of children in care had slowed down in the most recent quarter and the Council were aware that more need to be done. The sufficiency and commissioning strategy continued to deliver against its objectives opening more of our own homes to help mitigate against ongoing challenges in the sector experienced locally and nationally. Improvement in processes and an increased capacity in the SEND service had improved timelines and it was expected that performance improvement would continue throughout the remainder of the financial year.

Similar to many other areas, demand for Educational Health and Care plans continued to be very challenging and work continued with schools and families to provide support within the system. The Leader was pleased to note that the independently assessed quality of social care in County Durham was very good and a high proportion of Care Homes and community based providers were rated either good or outstanding.

In terms of communities, reports of fly tipping remained low, environmental cleanliness was high and more long-term properties were being brought back into use. The overall crime rate in County Durham had fallen and compared favourably with many Council areas in the region. Bus patronage and punctuality continues to improve and work continued with other councils across the region to implement the North East bus service improvement plan. Progress continued in the selective licensing scheme with 58% of properties being fully licensed. Legal proceedings were instigated against those that avoid taking part.

For our Council, the scheme to identify children eligible for free School meals through auto enrolment directly with their school had been highly successful and was highlighted as an exemplar of good practice which had been implemented in lots of other areas across the region and the country. As a result, in County Durham over 2,000 eligible children had been identified potentially saving parents around £450 a year. This increase in eligibility had a positive impact on school budgets with a direct increase in pupil premium funding of around £3 million plus further additional income from mainstream funding. The Council were continuing to provide much needed support to its most vulnerable residents through financial support schemes and were one of only a few authorities which offered support of this type. Satisfaction with overall Service delivery remained high with most service requests met or indeed exceeding their performance standard.

There were a range of other areas to note. These were summarised in the executive summary of the main performance report.

The Leader of the Council then invited each Cabinet Portfolio Holder to summarise their respective areas.

Resolved:

That the report be noted.