Agenda and minutes

No apologies for absence were noted.

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 28 November 2013 were agreed as an accurate record and were duly signed by the Chair.

Mike Heaton, Directorate for Children and Young People, presented the report.

Mike explained that the report presented responded to two key actions arising from previous reports overseen by the Cabinet Committee.  These actions were:

1.  providing an update on performance of the European Social Fund Not in Employment, Education or Training Project 2011/13.  This update covers the validated data period of 1 September 2011 to 20 December 2013. 

2.  providing an outline of delivery performance and example case studies.

Mike summarised how the programme started, what funding had been received from the Skills Funding Agency, the aims of the service, funding target number of young people to be helped and outcomes and performance to date.

The Committee noted that in terms of targets for total number of young people to be supported by December 2013 that on all indicators the programme had exceeded the target numbers.

In addition the Council has successfully won a new two-year contract to support young people who are not in education, employment or training

(NEET).  The bid for the European Social Fund (ESF) funding was led by Lancashire County Council and covers the adjoining local authority areas of Blackburn, Blackpool and Cumbria.

Nearly £2m will be spent to support 1000 young people across these areas between the ages of 14 and 19. The money will also be used to support people with disabilities or learning disabilities up to the age of 24, who are NEET or are at risk of becoming NEET.

Under the new contract which will start in the near future, the Council will continue to work with key partner organisations including further education colleges, work-based learning providers and voluntary and community groups.

Resolved: The Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement:

(a)  noted the report, outline of delivery performance (Appendix 'A') and example case studies (Appendix 'B') and commended the good progress and performance of the project, and;

(b)  Requested reports be presented to appropriate future meetings on progress against the new two-year contract.

Report attached.

Bev Cullen, Office of the Chief Executive, presented the report.

Bev explained that previously a report was presented to the Committee at the meeting held on 22 November 2012 in respect of claims relating to highway defects. The report now presented provided an update to the earlier report.

For the insurance year 1 June 2012 to 31 May 2013 1937 files were opened in respect of public liability highway claims.

Of those claims received on average:

• 52% are the result of personal injury

• 43% are the result of vehicle damage

• 5% are the result of property damage / loss of property

Approximately 33% of all public liability highway claims closed in the same period were paid out on either because they were settled on Counsel's advice or were lost after trial.

Bev explained that analysis shows that the number of claims received in 2012/13, where the incident related to the 2012/13 insurance year, increased by almost 35% compared to 2011/12. An increase in the receipt of claims was anticipated due to changes that were implemented in 2013 to the amount of costs recoverable by Claimant solicitors and the introduction of fixed fees. However on examining the type of claim received in 2012/13 there was a 273% increase in the number of vehicle damage claims received (generally wheel and tyre claims), up from 317 in 2012 to 871 in 2013. These claims are routinely submitted directly to the County Council by unrepresented members of the public so these claims rarely have a related claim for solicitor costs.

Due to the period in which claims can be brought [3 years for personal injury claims and 6 years for other claims] apart from scrutinising the number of claims received, it is difficult to predict any future trends as the claims on-going in any one year relate to a number of insurance years and are subject to the Council being able to defend claims due its system of highways inspection. The weather can also have an impact on the number of claims snow and ice claims are prevalent in winter.

Resolved: The Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement noted the report and request a future report be presented to the committee at an appropriate time with further analysis of all claims against the council.

Deborah Barrow, Human Resource, Payroll and Pension Service, presented the report.

Deborah explained that this 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 include; the numbers of starters and leavers; reasons for leaving; secondment and redeployment activity; vacancy numbers and recruitment costs.

The data highlights that:

• More employees are leaving the organisation that starting

• Year on year spend on advertising costs is continuing to reduce

• The Employment and Support Team is on track to deliver the target 1100 new starts onto employment programmes for 2013/14

Resolved: The Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement noted the report, and welcomed receiving regular updates when appropriate.

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 of the Committee will be held at 2pm on the 4 March 2014, in Cabinet Room 'B', County Hall, Preston.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee will be held on Tuesday 4^th March 2014 at 10am, in Cabinet Room 'B', County Hall, Preston.