To receive a presentation on the subject of the Council’s Performance Dashboard.
(Presentation to follow)
Minutes:
The Chair reminded the Committee that all Members had been invited to attend the demonstration of the Corporate Dashboard which was delivered by Officers.
Officers explained that the Corporate Dashboard had been created over a number of years and was unique to Redditch and Bromsgrove Councils. The data collected focused on areas covered by the Council’s strategic purposes, which had been agreed by Councillors. The aim was for the data to be fluid and for those using it to be able to use it to draw down information on a particular area which would enable the user to see a full picture of that area. Performance Indicators in the traditional format were no longer used, being replaced by measures which could be used to gain a much more holistic understanding of the Council’s position in respect of service delivery at any one time.
During the demonstration Officers covered the following points in more detail:
· The aim of the measures was to help Heads of Service deliver better operational services.
· A common sense approach has been used which was geared towards the needs of the Council’s customers.
· The data included various graphs and background information together with the commentary which related to any significant changes which had occurred in performance over time.
· The data had been collected from 2013 to 2015 and would be updated regularly.
· How a good measure should identify a number of further questions which would allow Members to look at the information provided “in the round”.
· Members could discuss the data in order to meet with relevant officers to get further information about a particular area.
· The Dashboard was designed to be interactive and easy to use. Members were shown how they could create their own Dashboard picking out particular areas of interest.
· Councillors could access the Dashboard via the sunray units in each of the group rooms and it was hoped that access would also be available via Councillors’ iPads in due course.
Following the demonstration Members discussed a number of areas in more detail:
· The flexibility of the dashboard and how the data would be used.
· How the measures had been chosen and whether these would be regularly updated.
· The lack of performance indicators and planned targets and the impact this could have in particular areas. It was explained that the key objectives would be met by measuring what the Council was delivering and any problems which were highlighted would be investigated in more detail.
· The upper and lower control limits and how these could be adjusted to take account of any anomalies which may occur within the data.
· Who had built the system. It was confirmed that this had been undertaken “in house” by Council staff.
Officers encouraged Members to take time to look further at the Dashboard and to contact relevant members of staff if further explanation was required.
The Chair thanked Officers for the demonstration and suggested that in future the Committee might want to receive further presentations or to set up a Task Group to look at the Corporate Dashboard in more detail and to establish how it could best help the Committee in its work.
RESOLVED that
the demonstration be noted.