Report of the Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources.

A report by the Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources set out the current performance of the Council against the delivery of the Corporate Plan as at Year End 2014/15.  The Committee was requested to consider the details of the report and highlight any issues.

The Strategic Director reported that the Performance of the Corporate Plan was regularly monitored against the targets set at the start of the year.  Red, amber and green (RAG) ratings were assigned depending on the performance level against those targets.  For indicators rated red, the responsible officer was required to complete an exception report and highlight what corrective actions would be put in place.

The Corporate Plan Performance Report (Appendix 1 to the report) set out the final year position against 20 outcome measures from across the Council. 14 (70%) of the measures were rated green, 4 (20%) were rated amber and 2 (10%) were rated red.  For the 2 measures rated red, action plans were provided and included as follows:

·  Performance appraisals completed – (Appendix 2 to the report.)

·  Sickness Absence: The number of working days/shifts lost due to sickness (cumulative) – (Appendix 3 to the report.)

The refreshed Corporate Plan for 2015/16 had been agreed by the Council on 8 December 2014.  This was the final year of a three year planning cycle.  The first quarter performance against this would be reported to the Committee in September.

The Committee noted that work was under way to re-shape the Council’s business planning framework for the next planning cycle from 2016 onwards.  A new Council Plan would be considered by the Council on 13 July 2015 and the performance reporting that underpins it would be developed later in the year. This would involve a significant change to the way performance was reported against a range of agreed priority outcomes.

Members asked a number of questions and issues raised included the following:

·  There was no correlation between sickness absence and performance appraisal. 

·  The Strategic Director held regular meetings with the Trade Unions and a Workforce Engagement Group was well established. 

·  Some staff did not work normal office hours (9am to 5pm) so there had been difficulties in arranging their performance appraisals.

·  Sickness absence was now recorded through the new Selfserve system and it was possible to obtain information and position statements relating to staff illnesses etc.  This was seen as good management rather than an HR matter. 

·  Some staff were supported by Occupational Health, there was wellbeing management and there was a Counselling Service that staff could access themselves. 

·  Staff were also supported in various ways when they returned to work and if necessary reasonable adjustments were made.

·  Members identified that they had a training need as they wanted to better understand the information they were provided with so that they could monitor trends etc. so that they could see if there was any improvements

·  A new suite of performance indicators was required to fit in with the Council’s Corporate Plan. .

·  The Council had seen a dip in terms of stress related absence and this was encouraging.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the content of the report be noted; and

(2)  the Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources be requested to develop an appropriate training and development plan for Members to help them to understand performance information and data including their analysis and evaluation.