Agenda item

A report was presented by Michael Walder, Senior Business Intelligence Manager, providing an overview of performance activity across the Council for quarter 4 of 2018/19 and, where appropriate/available, compared 2018/19 year-end performance with 2017/18.

Education and Children's Services

It was reported that the timeliness of undertaking children's social care assessments had improved in quarter 4. However, assessments completed during 2018/19 that had taken over 45 days to complete was still higher than all comparator averages, although this had been an improvement on the previous year. The number and rate of children looked after continued to increase. County Councillor Williamson reported that there were different reasons for different parts of the county for this, and confirmed that plans were in place to address these issues including the setting up of monthly, locally based panels to find children/young people permanent placements.

Quarter 4 had recorded an increase in the average time taken between a child entering care and moving in with their adoptive family. However, Lancashire's figure was better than the latest national average figure.

There were more first time entrants to the youth justice system in Lancashire for the last reported period, although the Lancashire rate remained lower than that nationally and regionally.

It was reported that attainment had improved amongst pupils at Key Stages 2 and 4 in 2017/18. Although the percentage of absence levels in primary, secondary and special schools had gone up slightly, the Committee noted that this was still better than the England average.  In relation to exclusions, it was reported that these were being monitored termly.

Growth, Environment, Transport and Community Services

There had been an improvement in the average number of working days to repair a Lancashire County Council street lighting fault (including traffic management) compared to last year. However, the time taken to repair some highway defects was above the number of days targeted. It was noted that the countywide traffic management contract was now underway, which should increase the number of contractors available to provide traffic management, thus improving the response time. The issues with the Highways Asset Management System seemed to have now been resolved.

Where problems had been reported with specific roads, County Councillor Parkinson queried whether checks were carried out to see if the roads were still under the 5 year guarantee. Michael White, Highway Regulation Manager confirmed that this was tracked by the Asset Team.

Visitor numbers to libraries and museums, in addition to e-book downloads and library public issues had increased in quarter 4 of 2018/19, in line with expected seasonal trends.

Adult Services and Public Health

It was reported that the proportion of adults receiving direct payments had increased again and that Lancashire was higher than the national average. High numbers of people were receiving reablement and effectiveness was high. The Committee noted that waiting lists in adult social care were improving, especially for those waiting for Occupational Therapy assessments, and that there had been an increase in the quality rating of Lancashire care homes and community care services.

However, concern remained about the level of residential admissions for older people. Admissions across the North West were generally significantly higher than the national average and the Committee noted the various actions that had been put in place to address this. In addition, delayed transfers of care from hospital (delayed days) had increased in 2019; Lancashire was no longer achieving our targets and investigations were underway as to why this was the case. A wide ranging action plan to help address this issue had been produced, which had been shared with the Cabinet Member for Adult Services, County Councillor Gooch. In addition, Louise Taylor, Executive Director of Adult Services and Health and Wellbeing was in contact with the Hospital Trust on this matter. Councillor Driver suggested that this issue be referred onto the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Tony Pounder, Director of Adult Services, informed the Cabinet Committee that a report would be brought to the next meeting on improvements in Occupational Therapy waiting lists and improvements in Disabled Facilities Grants performance.

County Councillor Driver requested that, for future reports, all columns for the red, amber and green rating be in colour instead of just the column for the current quarter.

Resolved: That the Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement note the reported performance for Quarter 4 of 2018/19.