Agenda item

To receive and consider report 31/09 of the Head of Corporate Strategy. 

(Time: 3.55pm to 4.13pm)

The Executive received and considered report 31/09 of the Head of Corporate Strategy which set out the corporate governance report for the fourth quarter of 2008/09 (January to March 2009).  This looked at progress against the Council’s corporate priorities, performance against national indicators, progress against service prioritisation plans, key staffing data (sickness and turnover levels), progress with business process improvement reviews, and a financial commentary.  The Management Team had highlighted exceptions to be reported to the Executive. 

Members expressed concern and disappointment that the Oxfordshire Local Area Agreement 1 (LAA1) target had been missed by the Vale and two other councils, resulting in a loss of £1M performance reward grant funding across the county.  This related to National Indicator 195 (NI 195) on street and environmental cleanliness, such as levels of graffiti, litter, detritus and fly posting.  (Detritus was defined as dust, mud, soil, grit, gravel, stones, rolled leaf and vegetable residues, fragments of twigs, glass, plastic and other finely divided materials).  The Public Services Board had not been alerted to this until very late and there had been a delay in informing the Executive also.  This was caused by incorrect interpretation of the national indicator definition, which had changed between Local Area Agreements 1 and 2; and the Vale had inspected itself more thoroughly than other districts.  This resulted in incorrect measurement against the indicator.  Conversely, the Council’s performance against NI 195 for litter had improved due to the efforts by the waste contractor, Veolia, but overall performance had not improved enough to attract the £1M funding.  Members welcomed the improved performance from Veolia but asked the officers to meticulously check the definitions of national indicators and Local Area Agreement measures to ensure that these were properly understood. 

The Executive expressed frustration at being unable to improve performance against the national indicator target to increase the housing stock (NI 154).  The actual number of completions was 324 against the target of 485.  This indicator was also included in Local Area Agreement 2.  The Portfolio Holder expressed disappointment that more had not been done to find ways to increase the affordable housing and reduce levels of homelessness.  She suggested that funding was available for housing projects and this should be sought and the Council could consider using its investment funds to assist.  The Executive agreed that further work was needed to improve the position. 

The Council’s performance against National Indicator 8 was encouraging.  National results showed that the Vale was one of the best in the south-east report at encouraging adult participation in sport.  The Sports Development Team was congratulated for its work. 

Turning to staff data, it was noted that sickness levels had reduced since the introduction of the ‘Bradford factor’ and closer monitoring by managers. 

RESOLVED

(a)       that the report 31/09 be noted; and

(b)       that further work be requested to improve the Council’s performance under National Indicator 154 (NI 154), particularly to find ways to increase the affordable housing available and reduce levels of homelessness.