Agenda item

7.1

Present for this item was James Henderson (Director of Policy, Performance and Communications) and Nicola McHugh – Business Intelligence & Performance Manager

7.2

An early draft of the new Corporate Performance Framework was presented. It was explained that there is a commitment within the one-year plan to become a more performance focussed organisation and that the framework feeds into that goal. The performance management cycle was set out and explained to the committee. The 4 performance lenses were explained to be around service, customers, financial and workforce. It was also explained that the set of measures being utilised within the framework have been chosen to provide sufficient confidence within the data so that it is timely, accurate and can be used for comparative purposes. It was stated that it is important to assess progress at a city-wide level and by Local Area Committee wherever possible. The importance of maintaining flexibility within the framework was emphasised, so that it could accommodate changing priorities or emerging challenges. The use of improvement on technological infrastructures and the benefits was also explained. It was stated that the plans are still in a draft stage and feedback on the framework from the committee was encouraged.

7.3

Members of the Committee raised questions, and the following responses were provided:

·       It was explained that the ability for the performance framework to be disaggregated according to the themes of the new committees, once determined, was an important consideration in the design of the new framework It was explained that the hope is to be able to have a framework which can effectively split out between the committees resulting in a line of sight between committee responsibility and the relevant performance measures in the corporate framework.  The role of the new committees in holding services to account for delivery will be important and having effective performance information to support this is crucial for the committees to be able to undertake this successfully.

·       It was explained that there is already some information available at small area geographies (including lower super output areas for the Indices of Deprivation) and that this information can be used to look at performance for some measures at those levels as opposed to averages over wards.

·       It was outlined that the Performance and Intelligence team were working closely with Community Safety and Youth Services to identify the best measures to use for these areas. It was stated that these will be added into the framework in addition to what is already listed.

·       It was suggested that a conversation should be had with the planning department around responsiveness as this fall under the realm of customer measures.  Officers confirmed that discussions would be held with Planning about whether such a measure could be included in the framework.   In response to a question about the timescales for the Local Plan, it was stated that there was a report to the Co-operative Executive recently about the Local Development Framework which sets these out. 

·       It was explained that the wording on item 6 of the Climate Change, Economy and Development section of the framework regarding the development of the Local Plan exactly mirrored the wording in the One-Year Plan. It was noted that the current wording does not include an explicit reference to climate change and carbon reduction as a key driver for the Local Plan.

·       In response to a question regarding the reference to climate change impact assessments in the performance framework, it was stated that the question surrounding ‘how climate change impact assessments will be prioritised against other considerations (e.g. Equality Impact Assessments)’ will be taken away and reported back separately.

·       It was explained that the item in the performance framework on the ‘quality of apprenticeships’ is still being developed, and that officers are exploring what the most appropriate performance measures might be to track performance in this area.

·       It was explained that some commitments in the One Year Plan are focused on completing a particular action (for example, developing a new Youth Strategy).  These commitments are not in themselves amenable to performance management, although in most cases the completion of the commitment would lead to a change in service delivery that should be capable of being performance managed.  In this example, the new Youth Strategy will contain a series of expected outcomes and outputs that will be accompanied by relevant performance measures.  In this way, it was explained that officers are adopting a two-step approach in relation to these types of One Year Plan commitment.  The first step (the completion of the action) would be tracked and recorded but would not be part of the performance framework itself.  The second step (the resulting change and associated performance measures) would then be incorporated into the corporate performance framework at a later date.   It was reiterated that tying financial performance into this is also important being able to triangulate a review of the service.

·       It was stated that it would be useful to separate between internal measures and outward service delivery focus measures within the framework.

·       It was explained that as part of the wider review of the council’s approach to performance and business intelligence, improving the underlying technology that is used for performance management had been identified as being important. This will help to reduce effort on tasks that could be undertaken automatically, and will help to ensure that there is a single version of the truth being used across the organisation, with different ‘cuts’ of the data being made available for different audiences and users of the information.  Work is also ongoing to improve the underlying interfaces between the performance systems in use and the line of business systems where the data is collected through the use of new approaches such as process automation.

·       It was suggested that each of the new committees might be presented with a report at the start of the year setting out overall performance in their areas and this will give an opportunity to help set their work programmes. This could also be used to enable committees to identify specific topics that they wished to review in more detail.

·       It was stated that the question surrounding fly tipping will be picked up outside of the committee meeting.

·       It was explained that through the development of the framework, officers will be seeking to increase the number of measures where it is possible to disaggregate the information by protected characteristic.  This will be an important contribution to the council’s equality objectives and in helping to achieve our commitments under the Equality Act.

·       It was recognised that Health and Wellbeing needs some focus and priority and more of a holistic picture is needed around prevention.

·       In response to a question around ‘what proposals are in place to raise awareness with other committees about the development of the framework’, it was stated that this was the first time a conversation had happened within a Transitional Committee about the framework. It was suggested that officers could present the framework to other committees if requested by the relevant chairs and that the framework be circulated to all Transitional Committee Members.

It was recommended that the measures and data each committee will receive should be included.

7.4

RESOLVED: That the Committee:- (a) advises the executive of the importance of the Performance Framework providing a balance between measures of impact, quality, and efficiency (including value for money), (b) the framework be circulated to all Transitional Committee Members (c) advises that the new committee structure should include in the terms of reference for each committee the importance of receiving and discussing regular performance information about the topics within its remit; (d) advises that the performance framework should draw out health and wellbeing as a clearer theme.