Agenda item

(Rachel Kennard (Chief Analyst) was in attendance for this item)

(1)          Mr Gough introduced the report which set out information about key areas of performance to the end of June 2020.  He said the report reflected the changes to performance reporting previously discussed by the Cabinet.

(2)          Miss Kennard said a summary of the changes to the indicator set was set out in appendix 2 of the report.  She said: in Children, Young People and Education two indicators had been moved to the activity indicator section and replaced by two new ones; all five indicators  in Adult Social Care had been removed and five new ones introduced; and in Public Health, the key performance indicator – ‘Proportion of clients accessing GUM services offered an appointment to be seen within 48 hours’ had been replaced with a more challenging indicator – ‘Percentage of new first-time attendances at sexual health clinics who take up the offer and are screened for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, and HIV’.  Miss Kennard said that of the 35 indicators, 22 had been RAG-rated green indicating that they were on or ahead of target and this was a decrease of one compared with the previous quarter; 10 indicators had reached or exceeded the floor standard and were RAG-rated amber, while three indicators had not achieved the floor standard and were RAG-rated red.  One of the indicators rated red related to Education and Health Care Plans (EHCPs) and the other two fell under Public Health and related to health checks and sexual health. All indicators which were RAG-rated red had been affected by the recent lockdown.

(3)          Mrs Bell said that it had been impossible to conduct health checks during the lockdown; however, other services, such as drug and alcohol services, had continued online.  There was evidence that some people were more comfortable accessing services online than in traditional settings and this was being considered for the future of the services.

(4)          Miss Carey said that the target for greenhouse gas emissions from KCC’s estate (excluding schools) was an ambitious ‘stretch’ target and had been rated amber. Although the ‘stretch’ target had not been met, the floor target had.  She said the authority’s £40million LED street lighting project had contributed to the achievement of the target and current projects, including the Solar Panels project, would contribute to further reductions in emissions making it likely that the ‘stretch’ target would be achieved by the end of the year.  She also referred to the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) on municipal waste sent to landfill and said the authority made great efforts to ensure waste collected by district councils was recycled.  She said less than 1% of Kent’s waste went to landfill and most of that was asbestos waste which was subject to specific deep fill regulations.  About half of Kent’s waste was recycled and the other half was converted to energy. 

(5)          Mrs Chandler said officers were working hard and good progress was being made in clearing the backlog of EHCPs. She also drew attention to the extraordinary efforts made by social care staff in placing children in care with adoptive families during the lockdown and referred to an uplifting story shared by an adoptive family at the recent meeting of the Corporate Parenting Panel.

(6)          Mr Gough referred to the positive performance in relation to the Economic Development and Communities KPIs which were all RAG-rated green. He also thanked Miss Kennard for the report.

(7)          Resolved that the Quarter 1 Performance Report be noted.