Issue - meetings

Mid Year Performance Progress Report

Meeting: 12/11/2020 - Cabinet (Item 2)

2 Council Plan 2020-2025, Quarter 2 Performance Progress Report, Period under review: April 2020 to September 2020 pdf icon PDF 479 KB

A report that presents Cabinet with an update on the Council’s performance set against the targets contained in the Corporate Plan.

 

Portfolio Holder – Councillor Kam Kaur

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Kam Kaur (Portfolio Holder for Customer and Transformation) introduced the published report. Cabinet’s attention was drawn to paragraph 2.1 (page 21) and a list of eight performance measures that have been paused during the current Pandemic. Paragraph 2.3 highlighted five measures where performance was not on target.

 

A significant improvement in performance in two areas was noted. These were,

 

1) % of Children in Care (CIC) aged under 16 who have been looked after continuously for at least 2.5 years, who were living in the same placement for at least 2 years, or are placed for adoption; and,

 

2) the Number of days sick leave per FTE (rolling 12 months).

 

Councillor Kaur thanked all staff for their hard work during the Pandemic. She added that the County Council must continue to be mindful that stress, mental health and general wellbeing are an issue for staff.

 

Five measures of particular concern were highlighted. (Pages 22 to 26). These are

 

  • No. of Children in Care (CiC) excluding unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

 

  • % times a fire appliance arrives at life risk or property incidents within agreed response standards

 

 

  • Cost (£) of SEND Home to School transport provision

 

  • % of residents in Warwickshire aged 16 - 64 who are in employment, compared to the England average

 

  • Value of Revenue Savings Achieved Against Agreed MTFS (Whole Council)

 

Councillor Helen Adkins (Leader of the Labour Group) expressed her concern over budget performance with the SEND home to school transport service. Councillor Adkins observed that cost savings should not be a prime consideration when determining where a child is schooled. Mainstream school inclusion is not appropriate for many children. Parents should be given more of a say in the matter as should the child’s school. Changes, she suggested, are being introduced too quickly. A task and finish group has been established and its outcome should be awaited.

 

In response, Cabinet was informed,

 

  • that the objective of current work on SEND is not solely to save money,
  • the SEND Strategy had been co-produced with parents,
  • the task and finish review will address the roll out of the strategy and will focus on the needs of the child.
  • The report set out performance to September.

 

Councillor Jerry Roodhouse (Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group) recognised the eight measures that had been paused. He understood why Ofsted and CQC inspections had halted but requested that a message go to them, possibly via the Local Government Association, that they need to resume some form of inspection regime to begin to understand the current position. That proxy school attainment measures are to be introduced was welcomed. It was hoped that these would be included in the next report to Cabinet. In addition, it was considered that it would be useful to see trend data included as well as forecasts for future performance. Regarding employment data (page 24) Councillor Roodhouse suggested that the information provided should be broken down by age. This would help to highlight the challenges to be faced around skills  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2