Report by the Director of Public Health/ Head of Policy and Performance.

A report by the Director of Public Health/Head of Policy and Performance outlined the proposed performance management report to support the delivery of the Corporate Plan for 2013/14.  She apologised that the report had been produced in black and white.  In future similar reports would be colour co-ordinated and include a key to make them easier to understand.

The report detailed the priorities set out in the Council’s Corporate Plan into a coherent set of performance outcome measures and targets. The Committee was informed that these would be used to evaluate the achievement of strategic priorities over the next year of the Plan.  The report included proposed indicators and it was noted that the Council would make the ultimate decision on them.

The Director of Public Health/Head of Policy and Performance reported that she anticipated that the development of the Corporate Plan would be an iterative process during 2013/14 based on the feedback and requirements of Members and portfolio leads.  It would run in parallel to the wider development of the underpinning business planning and performance management infrastructure within the Council (e.g. Performance Management Framework Policy, electronic provision of performance information to Elected Members, transition from targets to outcomes).

The Director of Public Health/Head of Policy and Performance informed Members that it was useful to acknowledge the dash board as part of the performance management she wanted to introduce into the Council.

The Head of Commissioning, Performance and Business Intelligence (Tony Kinsella) was in attendance at the meeting and took Members through the detail of the report which translated the key priorities from the Corporate Plan to a high level set of targets which the Committee could scrutinise.  He informed that the reporting process would be developed over time and he was happy to receive Members’ feedback on the content and style of this type of report.

The Head of Commissioning, Performance and Business Intelligence informed the Committee that the model and approach being taken with regard to performance management was very much based on an exception model.  Officers were accountable for their performance and must produce exception reports and plans for delivery to turn round performance.  He explained the technical specification sheets and informed that in some cases data was only available on a quarterly basis and fields could only be populated once the first quarter had passed.

A Member commented that the descriptions used could be better and that they needed to relate to the Council’s targets.  The Head of Commissioning, Performance and Business Intelligence informed that a technical user guide would be produced.  The indicators presented had been led by the Directors in line with their corporate priorities.

The Director of Public Health/Head of Policy and Performance told the Committee that she would provide it with information on the connection between outcomes and why particular indicators had been chosen.

A Member drew attention to Appendix 2 to the report and informed that she did not understand a figure in relation to the indicator on permanent admissions of older people (aged 65 and over) to residential and nursing care homes, per 100,000 population.  Another Member informed that Members required some training if this new reporting arrangement was to be a useful tool for Members.  The Member also asked how up to date the figures were and was told that information was included as soon as it became available.  Usually the information was a month out of date but Officers were now trying to accelerate the processes involved with data collection.

The Director of Public Health/Head of Policy and Performance welcomed the constructive comments and confirmed that the manner in which performance information was reported would evolve and improve over time and feedback from Members was important in this process.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the information contained within this report be used to inform the Committee’s future Work Programme; and

(2)  appropriate training sessions be arranged for Members so that they can assess the information contained in this standing report to the Committee.