Issue - meetings

The Deputy Chief Executive presented the Corporate Performance Report.  Members were advised that the report would be presented on a bi-monthly basis, with each edition focusing on a different strategic purpose.  This version of the report was focusing on the purpose ‘keep my place safe and looking good’. 

Data had been provided in relation to Anti-Social Behaviour incidents which reflected the type of information that was discussed at Tasking Group meetings.  There was a data lag of two months for this as the Council needed to wait to obtain this information from an external organisation.  A significant narrative had been provided in respect of the transition of the Place teams within the Locality areas.  Officers had been pleased to learn that nearly 900 residents had signed up for the new garden waste collection service and it was hoped that numbers would continue to grow. 

Corporate data had also been provided.  There had been a lag in the provision of sickness absence data following the introduction of a new system in January 2017.  The final figures would not be available until April 2018.  The Council’s figures were lower than the norm for sickness absence in the public sector, though higher than the standard figures for sickness absence in the private sector.

Members noted that on the previous occasion on which this matter had been discussed some of the measures had not recently been updated.  Since then reminders had been issued to managers to keep the information up to date and officers were encouraged to clarify within the commentary for a measure if there would be a delay in obtaining the data.

The Committee also briefly discussed sickness absence data and the extent to which pregnant women’s experiences featured in this data.  Officers clarified that if a pregnant member of staff experienced sickness during her pregnancy that caused her to be absent from work this would be recorded in the absence figures. 

RESOLVED that

the contents of the report and associated appendix be noted.

The Head of Business Transformation and Organisational Development presented a report outlining the approach Officers were keen to adopt to update Members on the Council’s corporate performance.  Officers were proposing to present this report to the Executive Committee every two months, each of which would focus on a different strategic purpose.  The reports would also include information obtained from the Corporate Dashboard.

Following presentation of the report the Committee discussed Members’ familiarity with the Dashboard.  There was general recognition that Members of the Performance Scrutiny Working Group were well acquainted with the dashboard but other Councillors had had more limited exposure.  Members suggested that it would be helpful for training to be provided to enable Members to review and utilise the data available on the dashboard more effectively.

The regularity with which the data on the dashboard was updated was also discussed by Members.  Some Councillors had accessed the dashboard and had found that data did not always appear to be up to date.  It was acknowledged that sometimes officers might only be able to obtain data on a quarterly or yearly basis but this was not always clear from the commentary provided for a measure on the dashboard.  Officers noted that this would be raised with the lead officers for those measures to ensure that clarification could be provided.

RESOLVED that

the approach to performance reporting to Executive through use of the Measures Dashboard and a bi-monthly report, detailed in the draft template attached at Appendix 1, be approved.