Issue - meetings

Cllr Lynden Stowe reported on the Council’s performance and risk during Quarter 3 of 2023/24.

Having considered all the information, Cabinet

RESOLVED to

Note the report of the Council’s performance and risks, identifying any areas of concern requiring further analysis, assurance or action.

5.1      Cllr Lynden Stowe reported on the Council’s performance and risk during Quarter 3 of 2023/24.

5.2      He outlined that overall, there was a positively improving picture of performance, with 70% of corporate performance measures achieving target or within tolerance of target position (up from 58% during the first half of 2022/23). Good progress also continued against the majority of ambitions in the Council Strategy, with two-thirds of strategic priorities rated as on target, and actions being taken where there were risks to achievement. There clearly remained room for improvement however, and Cabinet colleagues would be in discussions with heads of service to move towards achieving 100% of priorities on target.

5.3      He specifically highlighted:

·      Organisationally, the Council was building capacity and resilience with a positive reduction in staff turnover for five quarters, which members would recall was severely impacted after the Covid-19 lockdown. Sickness and absence had been at a healthy level for 12 months and almost 80% of staff had an up-to-date professional development review (PDR). There continued to be a higher reliance on agency and interim staff, particularly in certain sectors of our workforce.

·      Positive work to support the Council’s climate agenda was underway with the order of a new fleet of electric vehicles for the parking enforcement team, 10 new fire appliances which were fitted with supplementary solar panels, and site designs completed to retrofit solar panels, batteries, and heat pumps to some GCC buildings, sites include libraries, fire stations and Gloucestershire archives. After some initial challenges, the Electric Vehicle charging point installation was also underway and would need to accelerate in pace over the next 12 months. The Council was ahead of target in delivering the structural maintenance programme to improve roads.

·         Referrals to our Employment and Skills hub now exceeded 1,500 since its launch and the 50/50 Challenge aimed to match employers with participants who are aged 50 or over for 50 hours of work experience to help develop confidence, identify transferrable skills. To date, 106 participants had signed up with 44 employers pledging placements which was a welcome and positive sign.

·      The Fire Service continued to address the priority areas within its transformation plan, with a particular focus on improving culture and diversity. For the third quarter its response timeliness to residents of Gloucestershire who had a dwelling fire had improved. There did however continue to be a challenge around recruiting qualified and experienced officers to carry out the more specialist and technical inspections/audits of business premises.

·      In Children’s Social Care, the Council continued to operate in a challenging environment, having seen a rise in children subject to a protection plan for the third quarter, up 22%. On average however, more than half of Children’s case audits had been rated as Good or Outstanding for the last 12 months, and improvement efforts would continue.

·      The Local SEND Area Inspection took place November and December 2023, and the Council had received and published the outcome of that inspection. The challenges it highlighted were ones  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5