Agenda item

Richard Fitzgerald (Head of Performance and Analytics) was in attendance for this item.

1.            Miss Carey introduced this report which set out the key areas of performance for the authority. 

2.            Richard Fitzgerald set out the highlights of the report, it was the Quarter 3 report with results up to the end of December ‘18.  Performance was generally good for the quarter with the majority of indicators rated as green and a higher number of improving indicators than those showing a decline.  Richard drew out the highlights of the report as follows:

a.    Customer Services

                                  i.    Good performance was maintained for caller satisfaction and call answering but complaints responded to in timescale fell below target – action was in place to address this.

b.    Economic Development

                                  i.    Jobs created and safeguarded from the Regional Growth Fundstood at 4379 and repaid loans were being recycled through new loan schemes for increasing leverage and job creation. 

c.    Environment and Transport

                                  i.    Highways maintenance - the backlog of work continued to reduce, but remained above expected levels for this time of year. 

                                ii.    Waste Management - performance was maintained with only 1% of waste going to landfill.

                               iii.    Carbon emissions continued to reduce ahead of target with the roll out of LED street lighting helping to deliver this. 

d.    Children, Young People and Education

                                  i.    Percentage of schools good or outstanding was ahead of target at 93% and 97% of early years settings were good or outstanding. 

                                ii.    The performance area of completion of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) was red, there were very high levels of demand and this had not reduced.

e.    Integrated Children’s Services.

                                  i.    All indicators in this area were above target or very close to target.  There had been an increase in the number of qualified social workers who were permanent staff and this was now above target. 

                                ii.    Case loads remained stable, but there had been an increase in the number of care leavers being supported. 

f.     Adult Social Care

                                  i.    Contacts resolved at first point of contact was above target along with the number of referrals to enablement.

                                ii.    Admissions to residential nursing care was higher than the target level and there was a focus on moving people out of hospital which affected this number. 

g.    Public Health

                                  i.    Health Checks completed in year remained below target but further work was in place to understand why the take up had not been as high this year as in previous years.

                                ii.    The number of universal checks delivered by the health visiting service continued to be ahead of target.

3.            In conclusion there were many positive results, there were areas where

performance was lower than expected, these were being monitored and were subject to management action.

4.            The Leader spoke about clients being placed into nursing care and rising budgets and whether health partners were paying their share.  He requested that this be monitored closely through the budget monitoring report.

5.            Janice Duff explained that in terms of performance against nursing and residential, this remained above target however this was a declining figure.  The pressure on the budget was more in line with the cost of placements rather than numbers and the council was seeing some increased costs from providers.  There was a pressure from hospitals with discharge rates but the council was working with health partners on joint pathways around recovery.  A piece of work was beginning to review continuing health care to determine whether there were opportunities to explore for Adult Social Care. 

6.            Dave Shipton confirmed that each month the variance on costs was reported and this month there was a £1.1million overspend on residential and nursing. 

7.            Miss Carey commented on the number of calls to the contact centre, the decline in calls correlated with an overall rise in visits to the website.  Amanda Beer commented on the timeliness of response to complaints which was currently a red indicator, a new system was being used to record this and there was currently a lag between the response being sent to an individual and the complaints teams logging this on the system.  Work was underway with directorates to ensure that the correct dates were logged.  There had been a spike in complaints in Q2 and some management changes but there was a lot of action being taken and it was expected that this indicator would be green in the next report. 

8.            In relation to the potential for increased contact over the next few months with congestion at ports and traffic information, KCC had been working hard with Agilisys to ensure there was sufficient staff to answer calls, homeworking had been enabled and Rochdale were due to take calls if necessary. 

RESOLVED that Cabinet note the Quarter 3 Performance Report and monitor closely the cost of residential and nursing care.