Agenda item

The Leader presented the report, informing Cabinet on the Mid-year performance analysis (2021/22) in the delivery of the Council’s service plans for the first six months (April to September) of this financial year.

Cabinet was asked to consider the contents of this report noting where the Council was succeeding in delivering against their Plans and where the Council could also improve.  The report included the feedback and recommendations from the Council’s performance scrutiny committees. 

The Council was in its final year of the five year Corporate Plan which set out vision and goals for improving people’s lives in Newport and the delivery of services.  The Council’s eight service areas developed service plans outlining how they would contribute toward achieving the Council’s Wellbeing Objectives and improve the delivery of their services. The focus in the last two years was to protect its services and some of the most vulnerable residents and businesses in the City during this pandemic. Despite these challenges services were responding and adapting to meet these new demands and additional pressures.

The report provided an overview of the progress being made across the Council’s projects, service area objectives and actions; and performance measures.   Overall, despite the challenges being faced by services, the Council continued to make good progress against the objectives set in the service plans.

At the Mid-year point of this financial year, 47 out of 61 projects were reporting a green status meaning they were on track to deliver within scope, time and budget.  There was only one project (Additional Learning Needs Transformation) that was reporting a Red status with 13 projects reporting an amber status, however officers were taking all necessary actions to ensure their performance improved.

With regard to the performance measures across the eight service areas, 69% of their actions were reporting a Green status with only 2% (6 actions) reporting Red and 17% reporting an Amber status.  63% (48 out of 76 measures) of the Council’s measures reported a green status meaning they are on track and/or succeeding against their target.  15 out of 76 of measures reported an amber status meaning they are behind on meeting their target. 13 measures however were reporting a red status meaning that the measures are significantly off target.  Further information on the Council’s Red projects, actions and performance measures were reported in appendix 1 of the report.  The Council’s Senior Officer group were taking necessary actions to improve their performance and to closely monitor these measures to ensure improvements were made. 

The report has also highlighted some of the achievements and notable developments in the delivery of the Corporate Plan:

Adult & Community Services – Continued support to services within the community, including care homes.

Children and Young People Services – Supporting Kinship Carers and unaccompanied Asylum Seeking children to settle in Newport.
City Services  – Continuing delivery of strong recycling performances for Newport, the Active Travel programme; installation of the new footbridge across Newport and the purchase of more electric vehicles to contribute towards the Council’s goal of being net zero carbon by 2030.
Education – Pupil attendance, Collaboration with the Education Achievement Service to deliver Additional Learning Needs Transformation by September 2022 and progress of the 21^st Century Schools and EdTech programmes including the amalgamation of Fairoak and Kimberly Nursery into Newport Nursery school and opening of the fourth Welsh-Medium primary school, Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Gwenlli.
Finance Service - Supporting delivery of services and 2022/23 and medium-term budget preparations and supporting residents to catch up on arrears coming out of last year and providing debt advice / support to address wider needs of residents.
Law & Regulation – Supporting businesses to adhere to the Covid / health & safety regulations taking action as necessary to ensure compliance. Democratic support to the Council’s elected members and meeting the new Local Government and Elections Act including Assembly Elections and by-elections; virtual / hybrid meetings. Environmental Health supporting schools, care homes and Civil Contingencies to ensure Covid outbreaks are managed / mitigated. 

People and Business Change – Continued to play an essential role in enabling the Council to meet its corporate objectives and supporting all service areas to deliver key outcomes.  This included moving to a New Normal building plan with flexible working and Climate Change initiative.  Civil Contingencies continued to be at the centre of coordinating the Council’s response to the Covid pandemic which will continue into remaining 21/22.  Wellbeing policies, policy partnership as well as supporting families to resettle in Newport as part of the Home Office refugee resettlement scheme, to name a few.
Regeneration Investment & Housing –Neighbourhood Hubs, supporting residents through work and skills initiatives such as Kickstart and Restart, school holiday play provision throughout the summer.  Housing and homelessness support collaborating with partners to find long term support and accommodation.  Business Support, Indoor Market/Market Arcade redevelopment and the new Leisure & Wellbeing Centre on Usk Way.

Scrutiny Committee Feedback and Recommendations - Feedback provided by Performance Scrutiny Committees in November on the delivery against the service plans and wider context of the Covid crisis.  The Cabinet Report included their feedback and key points raised in each of the meetings and full minutes / videos of the meetings can be accessed online through the Council’s website.  Cabinet accepted the feedback received from its colleagues at both Scrutiny Committees and encouraged both Cabinet Members and Senior Officers to consider these in the delivery of services and future reports presented.

Comments of Cabinet Members:

§  Councillor Davies highlighted school attendance.  The Council took a proactive approach to all attendance, as this was also a safeguarding issue for children.  One key red area was in relation to the ALN provision, however the Council was still waiting on guidance from WG and were therefore unable to progress.  Other issues however, in relation to funding needs would be addressed.

§  Councillor Jeavons also mentioned that City Services were still delivering targets as highlighted above including the installation of the Devon Place footbridge which was installed on Christmas Day ahead of schedule.  The Deputy Leader took the opportunity to thank all the hardworking staff involved in the installation of the project.  The Leader also commended the work and referred to the time lapse video showing the working being carried out on the installation of the footbridge.

§  Councillor Cockeram referred to Appendix 1 where officers were awaiting guidance from WG on Corporate Parenting which meant that the Council was in the red because of this, however the Corporate Parenting Forum was one of the best committees with foster carers and children attending, yet because of the delay from WG, this was showing as red.  The Leader agreed that there were factors beyond the Council’s control regarding these issues.  It was however important to recognise that the pandemic did also impact on WG, which would contribute to the delay.  The Leader finally thanked the Cabinet Member for his hard work and contribution towards social services as well as staff in Adult Services.

§  Councillor Harvey mentioned that considering it was almost two years of covid restrictions, there were 220 listed actions that were green with six red actions, which was commendable.  The Cabinet Member considered that the report was very well put together and thanked staff for their hard work in the most difficult of times.  The Leader also supported the Cabinet Members acknowledgements.

§  Councillor Hughes also thanked all those staff working in the Environment Services during these challenging times, working with the communities during the pandemic.

§  Councillor Mayer supported the work that was undertaken by Scrutiny and considered that Newport City Council was doing an excellent job under the circumstances and felt that the red areas would be addressed later in the year, which was a positive move forward.

The Leader thanked and strongly agreed with all the comments made by the Cabinet Members on this report as well as thanking Scrutiny colleagues for their support.

Decision:

That Cabinet considered the contents of the report noting the performance of the Council’s service areas acknowledging where the Council was performing well and addressing areas of underperformance with Directors and Heads of Service.