Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Leader of the Council, Councillor Hamida Ali

Officer: Interim Assistant Chief Executive, Elaine Jackson

Key decision: no

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To

1.    Note the work that has taken place to date in order to address areas of performance reporting where weaknesses have been highlighted within the Croydon Renewal and Improvement Plan.

2.    Review the set of performance measures in Appendix A of the report which will be used to measure performance against the delivery of actions within the Croydon Renewal Improvement Plan. A finalised set with targets will be presented to Cabinet on 7 June 2021

3.    Note the roadmap Appendix B which details future work and delivery of additional reports in order to have a complete suite of reports in place by September 2021.

4.    Note that the report be reviewed at Overview and Scrutiny for input and comment on the proposals contained within this report. Any recommndations received, will then be contained in the report update to Cabinet on 7 June 2021.

The Leader of the Council (Councillor Hamida Ali) informed Cabinet that the report provided an update on the work which had taken place to develop and reform the council’s management systems. This took into account the reviews which had been undertaken, including the Report in the Public Interest (RIPI). It was noted that one of the key recommendations of the RIPI had been to develop a monthly performance and risk reporting regime and the report provided an update on work to develop a suite of reporting mechanisms to strengthen internal controls within the council.

The Leader highlighted that Members were due to receive the first of the monthly reports in June 2021 as more work was required to develop full performance report which would cover not only financial data. This report, it was noted, would be underpinned by a tracker which was coordinated by the council’s Programme Management Office which would manage a central source of reliable data for the council. It was highlighted that Appendices A and B of the report set out some of the source data which would form part of the suite of reporting. The Leader stated that she had noticed that there were only two housing related performance indicators at Appendix A and neither related to the quality of the housing service which she felt could be looked at as part of the ongoing work to develop the performance reporting.

The Interim Assistant Chief Executive (Elaine Jackson) advised Members that capturing all of the data from across the council was a significant piece of work but was important for Members, residents and staff to understand how the council was delivering. It would enable the council to celebrate what it was doing well and focus on areas which required improvement.

The council was moving towards providing one dataset for the whole organisation and the Interim Assistant Chief Executive advised that this would drive change and would ensure there was a consistent means of measuring performance. It was stated that Members could be assured that officers were working on creating the suite of performance indicators and that the report provided an update on that work. The Interim Assistant Chief Executive confirmed that the housing metrics would be looked at in greater detail to ensure that the right areas of housing delivery were being reported on.

Members thanked the Interim Assistant Chief Executive and officers who had been working on developing the reporting framework.

The Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal (Councillor Stuart King) stated that he felt that the report gave an update on the reporting framework which he felt it provided the council with opportunities to improve service delivery and would take into account benchmarking which was important to ensure that the council provided good services. It was noted, however, that when benchmarking had previously been discussed it had been felt that it was difficult to find the right authority to benchmark against and the Cabinet Member stated that he hoped that this challenge could be resolved.

In terms of Appendix A, the Cabinet Member also highlighted the relatively small number of housing related measures and further stated that he felt that there were not enough environmental quality of life measures. It was suggested that such a measure could be associated with the number of school streets which had been delivered and the number of children who were benefitting from safe school entries. Whilst it recognised that measuring matters such as procurement exemptions was important for organisations corporately, it was felt that a suite of universal indicators should be developed which reflected residents’ concerns such as; refuse collections, street lighting and measures in relation to safety, as an important barometer was understanding how the organisation was regarded by those wo lived in the area.

The Cabinet Member queried how the performance indicators could be split in terms of the renewal programme, such as “living within our means” and those which were more customer focus and customer satisfaction. The Cabinet Member further queried whether external organisations, such as the LGA, had provided any advice on the development of the performance indicators.

In response, the Interim Assistant Chief Executive confirmed the council had worked with the LGA and London Councils in developing the performance framework. In terms of benchmarking, Members were advised that there was a suite of data available to the council and that the council could begin to benchmark against authorities with similar profiles; as had been done when the budget had been developed. It was stressed that the organisation needed to become used to using metrics on a daily basis.

Members were advised that via the Improvement Panel the council had been able to work with Essex County Council to build the performance management systems which had been beneficial. Furthermore, London Councils were due to review the process put in place to ensure it was efficient and fit for purpose however it was recognised that with any new processes it would need to develop to respond to flaws which arose.

In response to the Cabinet Member, the Interim Assistant Chief Executive confirmed that it was anticipated that the appendix would become more resident friendly and meaningful for residents over time, however it was stressed that it was important for the organisation to report on a number of areas beyond those which residents would be readily interested in.

The Cabinet Member for Sustainable Croydon (Councillor Muhammad Ali) welcomed the tangible indicators and the proposed list within Appendix A of the report. In respect of the suggestion of a school streets indicator, the Cabinet Member suggested the indicator should be in relation to walking and cycling with a proxy indicator in relation to school streets. Furthermore it was noted that indicators in relation to street lighting and refuse collection also helped the council to hold contractors to account, which residents wanted.

The Cabinet Member for Communities, Safety & Business Recovery (Councillor Manju Shahul-Hameed) noted that Members could contribute in identifying more indicators which reflected priorities for residents and business communities. In terms of confidence, the Cabinet Member queried what level of confidence could be given to residents and businesses that the actions would be achieved by the identified timescales. In response, the Interim Assistant Chief Executive advised that she was confident of the timescales within the report as officers had been working to map it out. It was noted that a version of the performance report would be available in the coming months but would be reviewed further in November 2021 to ensure it was working effectively and provided the required information.

The Cabinet Member for Homes (Councillor Patricia Hay-Justice) noted that there were only two housing indicators but stated that customer satisfaction surveys were already undertaken by the housing team which could feed into indicators so as to avoid duplication. In terms of duplication, the Interim Assistant Chief Executive confirmed that it would be important to avoid this so as to avoid putting additional pressure on staff to report data twice.

It was noted by the Shadow Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal (Councillor Jason Cummings) that a further report would be taken to the Cabinet meeting in June 2021 which would include the final set of performance measures; however it was queried whether this report would include the benchmarking data and current performance levels to enable Members to analyse targets. The Shadow Cabinet Member further queried whether there was a clear indication of how over or under performance versus the targets would be interpreted.

Concerns were raised by the Shadow Cabinet Member in terms of the fly tipping indicator which had been set previously which had been consistently exceeded until a point when it had not been met, but the previous Cabinet Member had considered the drop in performance a positive matter.

In response, the Leader confirmed that the report to be taken at the June 2021 Cabinet meeting would include the performance framework and would set out what the indicator was being measured against. The Interim Assistant Chief Executive further confirmed that a clear methodology would be available.

The Shadow Cabinet Member for Families, Health & Social Care (Councillor Yvette Hopley) noted that the framework would be important for the council, but concerns were raised that a number of the indicators within adult social care were demand led and that a number of items were difficult to benchmark and measure. Further concerns were raised that those indicators related to the most vulnerable residents in the borough who required support.

It was stated by the Shadow Cabinet Member that the interpretation and evaluation of data would be important, alongside futureproofing services and the delivery of services in light of budget reduction strategies. She stated that she hoped that data and information would be provided which could be available and understandable for all.

The Leader, in response, confirmed that the reporting on the performance indicators would form part of a regular report to Cabinet which would mean it was part of the public domain. A single source of information would be created which could be used operationally but it was recognised that it would be important that it was accessible for all and included data that residents would be interested in. The Interim Assistant Chief Executive further advised that officers would work with each department to add some context to go alongside the performance data and a session going through the data could be arranged with Shadow Cabinet Members.

The Shadow Cabinet Member for Homes (Councillor Lynne Hale) noted that there appeared to be a number of duplications within Appendix A of the report and queried whether any performance indicators had been considered but not included and reason for not including them. Additionally, concerns were raised that there were only two indicators relating specifically to housing which the Shadow Cabinet stated she found both surprising and disappointing. This was especially in light of the issues experienced at Regina Road and the Shadow Cabinet Member requested a statement on the delay in publishing the independent report until after the elections on 6 May 2021.

In response to the concerns raised in relation the delay in publishing the independent report into Regina Road, the Interim Executive Director Resources (Asmat Hussain) stated that she had advised that due to the council being in a period of heightened political sensitivity, due to the pre-election period, that the report should not be disclosed, discussed or published until after the elections. It had been felt that as there five by-elections, with one being held in the ward of Regina Road, that there was a risk that the report could be used as part of an election campaign and the council was required to abide by statutory guidance.

The Interim Assistant Chief Executive advised that work was ongoing with directors in Place and Health, Wellbeing & Adults to add further measures. It was further noted that assurance checks were required also to remove and avoid duplication and that it would be important that the measures were continually reviewed to ensure that it reflected future reports and decisions.

The Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal reflected that he had felt the discussion had been very helpful and showed Members engagement with developing an effective framework and understanding the measures before the data was applied. It was noted that there were over 170 measures proposed and the Cabinet Member stated that it was likely this figures would grow to over 200 following consideration by the Scrutiny & Overview Committee and queried how relative importance of those measures would be determined.

The Cabinet Member reflected whether there could be best value performance indicators which covered those areas which residents would have the highest levels of interest in. In response, the Interim Assistant Chief Executive recognised that a number of the measures listed in the appendix were operational and, as such, it was suggested that it could considered whether those were reported by exception both where there was over and under performance.

In response to the reflection from the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning (Councillor Alisa Flemming) the Leader noted that there would be some reporting which would be considered more internal, such as sickness levels and third party payments, and so it would be important to ensure reporting was audience appropriate and so potentially there would be different categories of reports. The stress report, it was noted, would pick up on areas of concern and Members would be able to ask officers to focus on and provide additional information on. The Interim Assistant Chief Executive stated that it was hoped that a dialogue on the reporting would be developed which was informed by real time information.

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To

1.    Note the work that has taken place to date in order to address areas of performance reporting where weaknesses have been highlighted within the Croydon Renewal and Improvement Plan.

2.    Review the set of performance measures in Appendix A of the report which will be used to measure performance against the delivery of actions within the Croydon Renewal Improvement Plan. A finalised set with targets will be presented to Cabinet on 7 June 2021

3.    Note the roadmap Appendix B which details future work and delivery of additional reports in order to have a complete suite of reports in place by September 2021.

4.    Note that the report be reviewed at Overview and Scrutiny for input and comment on the proposals contained within this report. Any recommendations received, will then be contained in the report update to Cabinet on 7 June 2021.