Agenda item

Quarterly Corporate Performance Monitoring Report – Quarter 2 2018/19

Minutes:

A report was presented by Donna Talbot, Head of Service, Business Intelligence, providing an overview of performance activity across the council for Quarter 2 of 2018/19.

 

Education and Children's Services

 

Referrals to Children's Social Care had continued to increase and around 26% of assessments completed in Quarter 2 had taken over 45 days to complete.  In addition, the number of children with child protection plans had increased by 10.6%, giving a rate of 54.5 per 10,000 population, which was significantly higher than the national rate, and the number of children looked after had increased again when compared to the previous quarter.

 

However, it was reported that average social worker caseloads remained comparatively low, and that the number of first time entrants to the youth justice system and re-offending levels in Lancashire had continued to reduce; these figures were lower than regional and national rates.

 

There had been an increase in the average time between a child entering care and moving in with their adoptive family, but the current rolling figure of 419 days was rated good in comparison to the latest national figure. County Councillor Green pointed out that the increase in days could be due to circumstances out of the county council's control, and asked that more information be provided to Cabinet Committee on what had caused the delays.

 

Provisional data published by the Department for Education for 2017/18 showed an improvement in the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Key Stage 2.  In relation to GCSEs, Lancashire's performance had improved on the previous year, and both the Attainment 8 score per pupil and the Progress 8 scores were currently similar to the national rates.  However, it was agreed that Lancashire should be aiming to be better than the national average.

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Growth, Environment, Transport and Community Services

 

It was reported that the average number of days taken to repair street lighting faults had reduced.  The Cabinet Committee noted that data relating to the new Highways policy would be included in the Corporate Performance Monitoring Report for Quarter 3 of 2018/19.

 

County Councillor Iddon reported that LED street lighting saved the county council around £200k per year. County Councillor Iddon agreed to look into County Councillor Crompton's query on what percentage of Lancashire was covered by LED street lighting.

 

In response to a query, County Councillor Atkinson informed the Cabinet Committee that fly tipping figures in Lancashire had reduced and that new rules were due out in relation to fly tipping, in an attempt to reduce the figures further.

 

Tonnage figures for re-used, recycled and composted waste at the Household Waste Recycling Centres for both Lancashire and the districts were requested.  It was noted that the county council had saved money at the Household Waste Recycling Centres due to the service being in-house and the reduction in opening hours at some of the smaller centres.

 

In relation to the libraries and museums figures, County Councillor Buckley asked how these were RAG rated.  Donna agreed to provide this information. The Cabinet Committee noted that the Libraries and Museums Service was developing a range of new indicators to cover the offers which featured in the library strategy.

 

Adult Services and Public Health

 

It was reported that, as part of the Service Challenge, various options were being considered to reduce the level of residential admissions for older people, including working with partners on various issues, and the establishment of a night service. Performance for delayed transfers of care from hospital (delayed days) continued to show considerable improvement, and timeliness of social work assessments continued to improve, with over 96% being completed within 4 weeks.  In addition, much greater numbers of people were receiving reablement, and effectiveness remained high as people were remaining at home.

 

Although there were still approximately 1,100 people waiting for a social work assessment, it was noted that these people would already have been triaged, and that this was a significant reduction in the number reported at the end of the previous quarter.

 

A discussion took place around registered social landlords. County Councillor Crompton would report any specific problems to CC Gooch, who would arrange for these to be looked into.

 

Although the proportion of alcohol and drug users that had left treatment successfully and who did not re-present to treatment within 6 months was lower when compared to the previous year, it was noted that the figures for both were considerably higher than those nationally.  There were a number of reasons for the reduction and the team monitoring the contract were in discussions with providers.

 

The Cabinet Committee noted that the county council was working closely with the Troubled Families Team to further increase our payments by results claims including a data cleansing exercise, the implementation of the Early Help Module and the alignment of school attendance to the agreed percentage target progression. County Councillor Turner reported that a sample of 15 cases from the Team had recently been analysed and that the system was working well.

 

Resolved:  That the Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement note the reported performance for Quarter 2 of 2018/19.

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