Council and councillors

Report No.161/2019

Report No.161/2019 was received from the Chief Executive.

Mr Hemsley, Leader and Portfolio Holder for Rutland One Public Estate & Growth, Tourism & Economic Development, Communications and Resources(other than Finance) introduced the report the purpose of which was to provide Cabinet with strategic oversight of the Council’s performance for 2019/20 in delivering the Corporate Plan’s aims and objectives. Members were accountable for the delivery of the Council’s Corporate Plan and the monitoring information reported on progress and highlighted any key challenges.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         Mrs Stephenson, Portfolio Holder for Culture and Leisure, Highways, Transportation & Road Safety queried whether the number ofmissed bin collections as reported on page 4 of appendix A of the report was due to parking issues. Mr Brown, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Planning, Environment, Property and Resources clarified that although this was partly due to parking issues, particularly in Langham and Barleythorpe, it was also due to breakdown by Biffa vehicles and also as a consequence of storm damage which had resulted in trees coming down and blocking access

·         Mr Wilby, Portfolio Holder for Childrens’ Services and Education acknowledged the four red indicators within children’s services but commended the extremely dedicated and passionate staff who worked very hard to get the job done in very difficult circumstances and with limited resource.

·         There had been a changes in key posts to Children’s Services this year with a new Deputy Director, and a new Head of Service starting shortly, who had already put in place new procedures to address some of the issues.

·         Children’s Services would be under the spotlight in November with a 2 day SEND inspection happening and then a Peer Review.

·         The Strategic Director for Resources reported that the figure for CLA cases reviewed within timescales was now at its 100% target for September and highlighted to Members that because of the small number of cases that Rutland dealt with, one large family could disproportionately skew the percentage figures.

·         Within Customer Services, answering calls within 60 seconds was a standard response time and performance target. The Council was implementing some changes to achieve this target and manage the call volume and as a first measure, additional staff had already been recruited.

·         Mr Walters,Portfolio Holder for Safeguarding – Adults, Public Health, Health Commissioning & Community Safety received reassurance from the Strategic Director for People that each Child Protection Plan was reviewed regularly to make sure it was suitable. Children would be released from plans after careful review but if, for example, a parent relapsed with a drug or alcohol issue then a child would be subject to a Child Protection Plan for a second time. Thus one family with several children, who all needed new plans after a relapse, greatly affected performance targets.

·         Although Rutland was still slightly below target for recycling, it was in fact in the top 20 of Councils nationally. Work on reducing residual waste would be ongoing.

·         Cameras had been put in place in known areas to address concerns about fly tipping and there had already been one successful prosecution.

DECISION:

Cabinet NOTED the overall position in relation to performance so far during 2019/20 and the actions being taken to address areas of underperformance.

Reasons for the decision:

88% of indicators (58) measured were on or above target with 12% of indicators (8) currently below target. The main areas of concern had been highlighted in the report and the remedial action being undertaken to improve performance had been identified.

Overall performance based on activity so far in 2019/20 was good.