Agenda item

The Leader presented the report, the purpose of which was to provide an overview on the progress of delivery against the service plans and performance measures for the first six months of this financial year (2019/20).

The report included the feedback and recommendations of the People Scrutiny Committee and Place & Corporate Scrutiny Committee following the presentation of the service plans in November 2019.

The report confirmed:

·           In 2017 Newport Council launched its five year Corporate Plan which set out its vision and goals for delivering Council services and delivering its Well-being objectives for the citizens of Newport.

·           To ensure these objectives were achieved, each service area in the Council developed supporting individual service plans which Cabinet Members for each service area approved.

The report detailed that:

·           The first six months of this financial year showed that 97% of the actions in service plans were ‘in progress’ with 11% of actions completed.  (The report provides full detail of progress):

·         43 out of 74 reported performance measures were ‘on target’ in achieving delivery against their annual target;

·         8 out of 74 performance measures were ‘short of target’ in achieving delivery of their annual target;

·         15 out of 74 reported performance measures were ‘off target’ in the delivery against their annual target.

The performance had been reviewed in detail by Scrutiny Committees and senior managers continue to monitor outcomes closely through the second part of the year.

·           The report also highlighted notable developments in the delivery of the Corporate Plan which had seen the Council taking bold decisions against the backdrop of ongoing financial pressures.  Whilst the full detail of the developments are included in the report, the Leader highlighted some of the progress made to date:

o   The Council has seen success in the delivery of Rose Cottage and encouragement in the development of children at the setting following them being brought back into the City; the children are thriving in this setting.  The Council is now in the process of purchasing a second property which will provide further opportunities to bring back out of county placements to the City;

o   Collaborative working between Newport, Caerphilly and Monmouthshire in the delivery of the Telecare service is now fully operational;

o   Civil Parking Enforcement has been a success following its implementation last summer which has transformed the environment of the city and a reduction in illegal parking has been seen throughout the city;

o   The success of the Council’s new Waste Strategy and implementation of smaller wheelie bins has seen an increase in the Council’s recycling rate and supporting the Welsh Government’s target of reducing waste taken to landfill;

o   There has been significant developments in the regeneration of the City Centre with the redevelopment of Chartist Tower, Market Arcade and the Transporter Bridge;

o   The launch of the Ringland Hub and the new Hub model across the city is bringing Council services together enabling residents to access the services they need more easily;

o   The Council also saw its first intake of graduate trainees in September 2019 and the Council continues to provide apprenticeship opportunities, training and development of new and existing staff.

With regard to National Performance Measures it was reported that:

·         At the Mid-year point for 2019/20, 16 out of 27 (63.5%) of the national performance measures were reported as being ‘on target’. 

·         4 out of 27 national measures were reported as being amber ‘short of target’ with 7 measures indicated as being red - ‘off target’.

The report documented the Scrutiny Committee Feedback and Recommendations being:

·         Mid-year performance updates were presented to the Council’s Place and Corporate Scrutiny Committee and the Council’s People Scrutiny Committee in November 2019.  A summary of the recommendations raised to Cabinet for consideration are included in the report;

·         As the Leader of this Cabinet we accept the feedback received from our colleagues at both Scrutiny Committees and encourage both Cabinet Members, Senior Officers and officers across the Council to consider these in the delivery of services and future reports presented. 

The Leader summed up the report by confirming that:

·           Cabinet Members are all responsible for the oversight and delivery of the service plans and where good progress is being made that recognition is given to the work being undertaken by the service areas and their staff;

·           Equally, Cabinet Members take responsibility and ensure that where underperformance is reported that the necessary action(s) is/are taken by the service areas to improve performance and deliver the services required by the Council’s constituents in the delivery of the Corporate Plan.

Cllr Jeavons asked to put on record his thanks to all the residents of Newport for embracing the major change to the smaller wheelie bins and thereby increasing recycling targets.

The Leader confirmed that whilst there is much work still to be done the Administration is totally committed to the people of Newport in fulfilling the commitments made in the Corporate Plan.

Cabinet was asked to consider the following proposals:

1.    Note the contents of the report;

2.    Receive a further update on the year-end position once the data is available;

3.    Take urgent action in conjunction with the Directors and Heads of Service to address areas of poor performance.

Decision:

Cabinet agreed the proposals.