Issue - meetings

Report ED18043

The Sub-Committee considered a report setting out the proposed reporting regime for key performance measures to be reported to the Sub-Committee at future meetings.  Key findings of the Ofsted inspection in May 2016 included that senior leaders, including elected members, and managers lacked a comprehensive understanding of the strength and weaknesses of the services provided and that performance management information was not being used effectively to improve practice and service delivery.

As a result of this, part of the improvement plan had been the development of a more robust approach to performance management at all levels of the organisation.  The Performance Management Framework before the Sub-Committee had been designed to articulate key roles and responsibilities in respect of performance management for staff, managers, elected members and partners in the arrangements for appropriate oversight of performance going forward.

The Assistant Director for Strategy and Performance introduced the report setting out the context of the Performance Framework which had been developed following the key criticism from Ofsted Inspectors that management oversight at all levels of the Council had been ineffective.  The proposed Performance Framework before the Sub-Committee emphasised key roles and responsibilities ensuring that there was the necessary oversight.

The Assistant Director introduced Paul Ballatt to the Sub-Committee.  Mr Ballatt had been working on the development of the Performance Management Framework.  Mr Ballatt explained that the Departmental Management Team were proposing that the Sub-Committee received a regular performance update which reflected a basket of key performance indicators requiring consideration by the Sub-Committee.  There was a need to ensure that information was received by the Sub-Committee in a timely manner in order to enable Members to undertake their scrutiny role.

The Chairman emphasised that the development of the Performance Framework fitted well with the Sub-Committee’s own journey to performance monitoring.  In particular the Chairman welcomed the inclusion of datasets of quantitative, qualitative and outcome performance indicators which would form the core of the Sub-Committees work.  Members noted that outcome measures were a crucial evaluation tool and highlighted that it was also important to include a measure of whether value for money was being achieved.  It was also suggested that consideration be given to benchmarking against neighbouring Local Authorities as well as including relevant case studies in order to enhance Members understanding of issues.

The Sub-Committee welcomed the development of the Performance Framework and encouraged further corporate roll out.

RESOLVED: That:

1. The Performance Management Framework be noted;

2. The Sub-Committee receive a report at its next meeting in March 2018 providing options and rationales for key performance indicators to be reported to the Sub-Committee; and

3. Thereafter, the Sub-Committee receive a quarterly report on the agreed performance indicator set commencing with quarter one 2018/19 data.