Agenda and minutes

None.

The minutes were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

Improvement Plan Objective 5 – Supporting Young People into Education, Employment or Training

Invitees;

·         Head of Regeneration, Investment and Housing

·         Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

Members requested that the performance report should be printed in colour to assist their analysis.

The Head of Regeneration, Investment and Housing provided an overview of the progress made on the objective in Quarter 2, the overall performance for which was Green.   He stated that Newport had its lowest level of NEET young people to date, due to the Council’s wide ranging support to these young people. While this year there had been a reduction in Communities First funding, due to the experiences and learning gained last year this year had improved and the informal figures demonstrated the positive impact on the lives of NEET young people in Newport, up to the 31 October.

It was explained that the target for percentage of young people who are NEET at the end of Year 11 is 1.9%, an increase of 0.2% from last year. This increase was a reflection of the loss of funding. It was clarified that 1.9% amounts to 26 young people. Those 26 young people were predominantly in prison or unable to engage with education, training and employment due to ill health, but  there was ongoing communication with the Prison Service to find out which of their young people were accessing training and education, and how these young people could be incorporated into the data collated for reporting. 

The Committee asked whether any mitigation been put in place to future proof against the potential effect of Brexit on future grant funding. The Officer advised that the European funding had been extended until 2021 and the Inspire to Achieve and Inspire to Work Programs were replacing the removal of Communities First funding.  However, there was concern about the loss of funding especially for  the most deprived areas , but the best practice from working with NEET young people was being applied to those other areas to limit the impact. 

The Committee asked whether there is any cross referencing of the young people going through different projects and programmes delivered by the Council or its partners. Members were advised that this was currently difficult to achieve but Officers across the organisation were currently looking to improve and tighten procedures on how young people are tracked. Newport had gone from having the highest percentage of young people not in employment, training or employment (10.4%) to one of the best, even though it is ranked with more rural areas where they do not have the same problems that face a city.

The Chair commended the good work and asked that this be passed on to the team.

Conclusions

The Committee noted the developments made to support NEET young people in Newport and the difficulties facing the Officers to target the remaining group. The Committee Members were conscious of the loss of funding and the impact that this could have on the areas outstanding, current performance and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Head of People and Business Change Overview

The Head of People and Business Change advised the Committee that the information presented in the report related to the second quarter of this year and was being reported to this Scrutiny Committee before being reported to the Cabinet, to enable the Committee’s comments to be provided to Cabinet to consider together with the Performance Update, in accordance with the revised process.

Finance (Corporate)

Invitees;

·         Head of Finance

The Head of Finance clarified that the measure; CFH/006 - Payment of Invoices within timescales %, was Amber not due to performance, but to ongoing problems with the electronic payments process. However, raining on the electronic system and on-going dialogue with service areas was continuing, to ensure all invoices were paid promptly

Conclusion

The Committee noted the Finance performance measures within Appendix 2 and acknowledged the explanation of the Amber performance measure and would continue monitoring progress via Performance Updates.

People and Business Change (Corporate)

Invitees;

·         Head of People and Business Change

·         Cabinet Member for Communities and Resources

The Head of People and Business Change advised that a new measure for the service area; PBC/062 %ICT Helpdesk calls resolved at first point of contact; was Red and that the performance of 54.20% against the target of 85% was due to new software implementation requiring staff training upon the new operating system and the direction of travel for the measure is upwards, performance is improving.

Members questioned the low level of ICT Customer Satisfaction % reported at 68%, with a target of 85% for measure PBC/061. - It was explained that 68% of customers surveyed were completely satisfied, with a further 25% partially satisfied. This leaves a remaining 7%, 3% of which stated they were completely dissatisfied with the service they received. The Head of Service clarified that the Amber measure: SLT/010 - Performance above target % Green, related to the number of Green measures across the organisation, which was 2% from achieving the target and work was ongoing with other services areas to improve this measure.

Members enquired about the performance of measure: C&I/L/005 – FOI Responses in time, which was reported as Amber and was 0.96% under target. -  It was explained that the number of Freedom of Information (FOI) enquires had increased dramatically over the last year with the Council receiving 1500 FOI enquires last year. The Cabinet Member advised that consideration was being given to increasing information published online, so in the future the Public can just be signposted to the information.

Conclusion

The Committee noted the People and Business Change performance measures within Appendix 3 and acknowledged the explanation of the Red and Amber performance measures and would continue monitoring progress via Performance Updates.

Streetscene and City Services (Place)

Invitees;

·         Head for Streetscene and City Services

·         Cabinet Member for Streetscene

·         Cabinet Member for Communities and Resources

The Head of Service and Cabinet Member for Streetscene advised that the Amber performance measure: STR/L/018 - % of municipal waste recycled at the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Overview and Scrutiny Officer presented the report to Members and outlined the purpose of the report in seeking the Committees approval for items on its work programme for the next two meetings.

The Committee approved the work programme for the next two meetings.