Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were noted from County Councillor Geoff Driver.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None disclosed.

Resolved: The minutes of the meeting held on 14 June 2013 were agreed as an accurate record.

Matters Arising

Mike Hart, Directorate for Children and Young People, provided an update on GCSE results which the Committee have previously considered recovery plans for.  The Committee was pleased to note that whilst the national trend for young people receiving 5 A* - C GCSE's has decreased, the provisional Lancashire results show an increase from 59.9% to 61.2% of young people achieving 5 A* - C GCSE grades.

The Committee noted the update on GSCE results and welcomed a full report being submitted to a future meeting at the appropriate time, possibly November 2013 or January 2014.

Michael Walder, Corporate Policy and Performance Team, introduced the report and explained that Corporate Performance Monitoring for quarter 1 2013/14 (April 2013 – June 2013) details that 85% of the total number of Directorate Key Performance Indicators reported across each of their quarter 1 Quality of Service Reports are performing well and/or are on track to meet targets.

Monitoring has also revealed the need for 2 indicators to be highlighted to the committee for further information, explanation and examination.  The indicators presented to this meeting of the committee were:

• Debtor payments - Average days taken to receive payments

• Number of Carers receiving assessments & reviews (this item was considered under agenda Item 5)

Debtor Payments – Average days taken to receive payments

Lisa Kitto, County Treasurers Department, provided an update on this indicator and explained that the current adopted target performance for this indicator is to receive payments within the commercial norm (45 to 60 days).  The current performance of this indicator is running at 55 days for the period April to June 2013.

Lisa explained that approximately 200,000+ debtor invoices are raised on behalf of the County Council each year and this volume has remained constant for at least the past 3 years. The value of these debtor accounts has also remained fairly constant over this period with an average value of £300m per annum being invoiced.

Debt is treated in 2 distinct elements;

·  Care Debt - debt which has been raised in respect of the provision of social care.

·  Corporate Debt - all other debt of the council.

The commercial norm is to receive payment for outstanding debt between 45 and 60 days. Lancashire's performance is currently at 55 days and therefore although performance has deteriorated over the past 2 years, recovery times remain within the commercial norm. 

Whilst current performance is within the commercial norm there has been deterioration in performance over recent years and a review is considered appropriate to establish what measures can be taken to stop any further deterioration and improve on the position. 

What actions are required to put it back on track? What action will be taken?

Lisa reported that it is clearly in the interests of the County Council to ensure income due for chargeable services is realised at the earliest opportunity, not only to aid cash flow but to minimise the resources consumed in collection activity and reduce the risk of non-payment escalating into bad debt and the need for subsequent write off.

Although recovery times are within the commercial norm  there are a number of actions that can be taken to improve this further and these actions may also impact on the more difficult to collect care debt.  The actions outlined below feature within the County Treasurer's 2013/14 Business Plan and centre on the implementation of a Debt Management Strategy explicitly targeted at maximising the volume and value of income recovered within 30 days.  Delivering against this objective will reduce both the average payment period and the value of invoices  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Olive Carroll, Director of Personal Social Care and Barbara Lewis, County Head of Support, Planning and Review, Lancashire County Council presented the report.

Olive explained that whilst the County Council had not met its own performance target, it was above the North West and National averages.

Barbara explained that the report provided an update on:

·  the success of the carers' assessment pilot in Carers Centres and proposals for implementation across the county,

·  learning and practice development initiatives,

·  the pilot of the carers' break fund, and;

·  comprehensive performance monitoring plans.

Carers Assessments

In line with other authorities, Lancashire is looking to involve Carers Centres in carer's assessments. Whilst Local authorities have a statutory duty to undertake carers assessments, authorities can choose to contract with a 'trusted assessor'. Trusted assessors are able to undertake carer's assessments, identifying universal support but make any recommendation for formal service to the authority for 'sign off'.

This approach has been seen to have a number of benefits for carers:

·  signposting carers to local universal services/facilities. Carer specific organisations have up to date knowledge of the local support available that they are able to signpost carers to.

·  offer carers the support that carers centres themselves provide, such as Peace of Mind 4 Carers, sitting in service, courses, support groups.

·  increased carer satisfaction with the assessment process.

·  carers may feel more comfortable and more open 'telling their story' with a carers centre worker than with a social worker.

·  increased choice around who would undertake their carers assessment.

Barbara explained the background to the performance target and that a pilot took place in 2012 in North and Central Lancashire which offered carers who wanted a separate assessment the opportunity to have their assessment undertaken by a Carers Centre.  The pilot project successfully met the initial aims and the outcomes for carers. Feedback received from carers, social workers and the workers undertaking the assessments as part of the pilot was positive. It was clear from the experiences and evidence gathered that there was a good case for rolling out the project across the county. As a result, it was agreed by ACS Senior Management Team that carers' assessments by Carers Centres should be implemented across the county. The plan is to have all Carers Centres undertaking assessments by the end of October 2013.

·  On average, there are 166 new referrals a month to Carers Centres, 88% of which are people referring themselves or via Help Direct or Health.

·  Peace of Mind 4 Carers, referred to above, is a service that provides cover for people's caring responsibilities in the event of an emergency.  There were 3,178 carers with a plan in place in 2011/12, rising to 3,885 in 2012/13. 

Practise Development

Practise development within Personal Social Care is delivered by Advanced Practitioners who supervise staff and identify learning opportunities to facilitate continuous professional developments.

Recent emphasis on carers in practise development means practise issues relating to carers will be highlighted and staff signposted to appropriate training courses. Examples of good  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Deborah Barrow, Head of Employment Services, and Katie Dunne, Business Manager – Employee Relations, One Connect Limited presented the report.

Deborah and Katie explained that the Corporate Human Resources 'Health Check' report provides information across the authority against key metrics regarding workforce information for 2012/13 and part year for 2013/14.

The Corporate Human Resources key metrics regularly monitored and reported against including; the numbers of starters and leavers; reasons for leaving; secondment and redeployment activity; vacancy numbers and recruitment costs.

The data in this report highlights that:

• More employees are leaving the organisation that starting
• Year on year spend on advertising costs is continuing to reduce

The data also shows that the number of leavers during the first five months of 2013/14 indicates that the estimated projected numbers of leavers in 2013/14 (1393) will be slightly less when compared to the figures for 2012/13 (1408).

Currently the estimated projected number of voluntary redundancy leavers in 2013/14 (103) is less when compared with the voluntary redundancy leavers in 2012/13 (140).  However, it should be noted that this is likely to be affected by organisational change initiatives taking place during the remainder of the year.

Dismissals include dismissals for conduct, capability and sickness absence and the estimated projected figures for 2013/14 show a downward trend when compared with 2012/13.

There were more leavers than starters in 2012/13 and this trend looks set to continue in 2013/14 as organisational changes continue to take place.

The data provides combined detail on both the number of adverts placed both internally and externally, and the number of positions advertised, as some adverts include multiple positions. Requests for external recruitment advertising are submitted to Directors for a decision.

The cost of recruitment advertising has decreased significantly since 2010/11 and is continuing on a downward trend.

The Committee welcomed the report and expressed an interest in seeing trends regarding Human Resource levels on a regular basis (possibly quarterly) with a more detailed breakdown for areas including work start employees, apprenticeships and redeployment.

Resolved: The Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement noted the report and requested that regular report be presented (possibly quarterly) to the Committee.

An item of Urgent Business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the minutes, the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Members' intention to raise a matter under this heading.

None

The next meeting will take place on Thursday 28 November 2013 at 2.00pm in Cabinet Room 'B' - The Diamond Jubilee Room, County Hall, Preston.

The Committee noted that the next meeting will take place on Thursday 28 November 2013 at 2.00pm in Cabinet Room 'B' – The Diamond Jubilee Room, County Hall, Preston.