Agenda item

(Item 8 – report of Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance and Health Reform and Mr D Cockburn, Corporate Director for Business Strategy and Support)

Cabinet received a report of the above named Member and officer which detailed the performance of the Council against key targets in the third quarter of the financial year and highlighted any areas of significant change or concern.

Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance and Health Reform spoke to the report; in particular he referred to the following:

·                That the report contained the 30 Key Performance Indicators as identified by Kent County Council and a range other Lead Indicators.  In addition information was included on Organisational Development and on the Council’s Risk Register.

·                Within the KPI’s red indicators were reduced by 4. Those that remained were showing a positive direction of travel.  In addition, some of those targets which remained at red were acknowledged as being extremely hard to achieve but remained a commitment of the council.

·                The Contact Centre had reported significant improvement as a result of work conducted recently, particularly by the Performance and Evaluation Board to improve target achievement.

·                Corporate Risk Register included a systematic report of how risks were mitigated.  The report had improved over the last 18 months and now recorded and reported actions as a result of issues raised.

The Leader of the Council expressed particular pleasure that an improvement had been shown in days lost to sickness absence.  This showed, he argued, that more staff were being better supported in work and throughout episodes of sickness and that productivity was improved as a result.

Mrs Jenny Whittle, Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services updated the panel on figures for children in care who were placed with families as the report was no slightly out of date.  At this time last year 70 children had been placed, this year that figure would be 105.  She accredited this improvement largely to the vast improvements that had been made in relations between KCC and its partners and the genuine and dynamic partnership working that had ensued.

In addition Voluntary organisations were now referring potential adopters to the KCC coffee mornings and she hoped this would lead to further successful placements of children into loving families.

Finally she thanked the members of the Adoption Improvement Panel for providing a valuable and robust check on the service. 

These things combined she hoped would lead to a ‘good’ rating when ofsted had inspected the service later that day.

Amanda Honey, Corporate Director of Customer and Communities highlighted the number of first time entrants to the youth justice system and throughout the period reported a significant reduction had been achieved.  From1900 in March to 770 at present and like Mrs Whittle she praised the excellent partnership working, particularly with the police that had helped to secure that success.

Mr Mike Whiting, Cabinet member for Education, Learning and Skills expressed his gratitude for the work of the Education team at KCC for the upward trend in almost all of the indicators reported.  In addition he reported the number of schools now classed as good or outstanding by ofsted.  Kent has previously been criticised in this area and had responded well.

Mr Bryan Sweetland, Cabinet member for Highways, Environment and Waste spoke to the item, he reported that the small number of amber indicators were largely as a result of the inclement weather experienced recently and that measures to address these were now in place.  The County Council ‘Find and Fix’ project was underway and potholes on roads in Kent left by the rain and snow were being rectified.

In addition he announced that a new way of reporting potholes had been introduced and members of the public could now take a picture of a pothole, send it to the council and it would be added to the programme of works.

The Leader referred to the snow that had occurred recently and the challenge that it presented in some areas of the County.  He congratulated the team on the work that had been undertaken to prevent or rectify problems, including the farmers with who we work in partnership to clear roads.

Richard Fitzgerald was in attendance to talk to the item and he added in conclusion that satisfaction measures reported in relation to the customer contact centre website had now been added to the performance report.  These baseline figures would now be tracked to identify trends.

It was RESOLVED