The Assistant Chief Executive will report on progress made in delivering the priorities contained in the Council’s Business Plan for the 4th quarter in 2021 and progress made during 2020/21 as a whole. Report No. ACE2103 can be found here.
Minutes:
The Committee welcomed Ms Rachel Barker, Assistant Chief Executive, who was in attendance to give a presentation on Performance Management and Monitoring 2020/21.
At its meeting in February, 2021, the Committee had considered some review work which had been undertaken on the way the Council’s performance had been monitored and reported on. This work had been endorsed and continued to be developed and embedded in the structure of the Council’s Business Plan.
Performance management allowed the Council to monitor its achievements and ensure the work being undertaken was effective and sustainable. This was done through a number of performance measures and indicators to assess if actions/plans were being achieved. Successful performance management and monitoring resulted from a number of good practices, including, a clear vision and purpose, good planning, priorities, allocation of resources, development of action plans and ensuring the data met the need of its audience, at the right time, to inform good decision making.
Ms Barker, reported on the summary of 2020/21:
· Business Plan Projects – a number of strategies and action plans had been agreed, these included the Climate Change, Supporting Communities and Rough Sleepers Strategies and Action Plans, the Procurement Strategy 2020-24 and a revised plan for the Council’s Waste and Recycling Service and Food Waste Collection Service 2021/22. Other projects included the Places Leisure contract, the Moor Road Park development, a review or polling places and districts and an action to agree the future of the CCTV service.
· Regeneration Projects – a number of projects had been completed as part of the Council’s regeneration work, these included renovations to the Digital Hub, Aldershot, Voyager House, Farnborough – now operating as the Farnborough Centre for Health, Elles Hall, Farnborough demolition completed and Union Street, Aldershot – funding agreement with Enterprise M3 in place and enabling works completed.
· ICE Programme – a number of projects had been completed or were underway, these included, rollout of Windows 10 laptops to all staff, People Strategy and a new e-billing service in council tax and an online service to “apply for a postal vote” had both been launched.
A summary was also provided on the COVID-19 response, success stories had included:
· COVID testing sites
· Vaccine Centres
· Payment of £23,000 in business grants
· 54 online council meetings
· COVID advice page on the Council’s website accessed 53,000 times
· Provision of the ORCA – which had dealt with referrals/requests for coronavirus support services
It was reported that, at the end of Q4, the majority of activities in the business plan were considered to be on track, however COVID continued to impact projects but the number of projects affected were steadily reducing.
Moving forward, a new streamlined Council Business Plan with 18 priorities would be measured each quarter, this new approach would help to ensure that that there were no delays in performance data being shared.
The Committee discussed the report and agreed that the new streamline reporting would benefit the scrutiny process. It was also important however, to monitor what wasn’t performing well and why, and it was agreed that this would be discussed at a future Progress Group meeting. It was noted that the performance of the new food hub was of interest to the Committee, this issue would also be raised at the Progress Group.
The Committee ENDORSED the work around performance management and monitoring and thanked Ms Barker for her presentation.