Agenda item

Report of the City Treasurer and the Director of Policy, Performance and Communications

7.1      Dave Hodgkinson, Assistant City Treasurer, introduced the period 6 finance report which provided details of the forecast outturn in respect of revenue and capital and projected revenue and capital expenditure by Cabinet Member including key risks and opportunities.  The report also included details in relation to the revenue and capital expenditure for the housing revenue account.

7.2      Cathy Mullins, Interim Head of Evaluation & Performance, introduced the Quarter 2 performance report which presented detailed results of the period April to September 2017 against the 2017-18 Business Plans.  The report provided explanations and commentary in respect of outstanding, good and poor performance including achievements of targets and details of remedial action being taken where appropriate. Cathy Mullins referred the committee to a couple of minor errors in the report (risk on affordable housing being duplicated in the standing items section within GPH and within the risks and issues section within PPC the phrase “sub-prime subsidy” should read “super prime voluntary supplement”)

7.3      The Committee had invited Ian Heggs, Tri-Borough Director of Schools, to the meeting to discuss and answer questions on a range of amber rated KPI’s within Children’s Services and in particular the performance challenges around completing Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessments within 20 weeks and transferring SEN statements to EHC plans.

7.4       Mr Heggs provided a contextual insight to the specific key service indicators. In relation to special education provision, he explained that the City Council had previously spent a significant amount of money on funding placements out of borough. However, in each of the last 5 years the Council has reduced this dependence and increased provision locally. One of the benefits of this being less travelling time for pupils. With regards to transferring SEN statements to EHC plans, Mr Heggs explained that since September 2014 the Children and Families Act requires local authorities to transfer all SEN statements to EHC plans. The Act extended the age range that support is available until but did not include any additional funding. The Council has inherited a large number of students with statements. A considerable number have statements which have been found to be out of date and need reviewing. Working with health colleagues, new assessments are being progressed.

7.5       Turning to the performance targets Mr Heggs advised that the service plan directorate aims to transfer all pupils with an SEN statement to an EHC by 31^st March 2018. He advised that as at the end of October Children’s Services had transferred a further 100 statements leaving 433 outstanding. The Department for Education had allocated and funded a former Head of SEN to assist the Council who was reporting directly to him. They had already helped to unblock issues. The Council had also outsourced EHCP report writing to an experienced agency with capacity. Many local authorities had also outsourcing this particular process. He expected performance to improve by the next quarter. While he was more concerned about meeting the targets for completing new assessments he advised that in October performance was above the aspirational target level.

7.6       RESOLVED: That concerns around the performance of completing EHC assessments within the 20 weeks and transferring SEN statements to EHC plans be referred to the Children, Environment and Leisure Policy and Scrutiny Committee for more detailed scrutiny. This should include a breakdown of the SEN cohort.

7.7      ACTIONS:

Finance (Period 6)

1.    The committee would like future reports to include an explanation for any reprofiling of General Fund Capital Programme schemes and a detailed breakdown of Housing Revenue Account capital expenditure.

2.    Provide details of the reasons for the overspend in the Sir Simon Milton University Technical College scheme. (Action for: Steve Mair, City Treasurer)

Quarter 2 Performance Monitoring Report

3.    Organisational Health Scorecard – Workforce: Provide some context in future reports on how the outturn of around 14% - 15% annual staff turnover compares with other local authorities;

4.    Organisational Health Scorecard – delivery: Are any of the active KPIs which are off track of target within critical service areas?

5.    Provide a narrative in future reports where any impacts to achieving the overarching objectives of the Council or risks and issues within service directorates are being impacted by the move from Tri-Borough to Bi-borough services or MSP performance.

6.    Integrate complaints data alongside the City Survey findings within future performance reports to provide better contextual insight on the reason behind complaints.

7.    Adult Social Care

Clarification on the position reported for ‘Number of Carers who received an assessment review KPI’ and whether the outturn is cumulative and why the figure reported is low relative to last year. Also why the target is progressive and not ongoing (e.g. we aim to have 85% of carers assessed and reviewed throughout the year and not just by YE).

8.    Waste & Parks (Street cleansing): the committee would like to know if any of the streets that have failed the street survey score for litter have a persistent litter problem and which streets these are. (Action for: Mo Rahman, Evaluation and Performance Analyst)

9.    The committee would like a copy of the most recent performance report from CityWest Homes; (Action for: Jonathan Cowie, CEO, CityWest Homes)