Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Leader of the Council, Councillor Hamida Ali

Officer: Interim Assistant Chief Executive, Elaine Jackson

Key decision: no

RESOLVED: To

1.            Review the Finance, Performance & Risk report (Appendix A of the report) as of 30 September 2021 with regard to overall performance against the Croydon Renewal Plan.  Note areas of good performance and those of concern.

2.            Note the progress made, and areas of concern, against programmes and projects in relation to milestones, deliverables and issues.

3.            Note the progress made against savings and growth targets as identified in the Croydon Renewal Plan. More detail on this area can be found in Table 2a of the Financial Monitoring Report also being presented at this Cabinet meeting.

4.            Identify areas of performance within the FPR report (Appendix A in the report) where they require deeper analysis to be presented at a future Cabinet for discussion and action.

5.            Note the recommendations of the LGA as to the content of future reports.

6.            Agree to the reporting frequency of this report to Cabinet be moved from monthly to bi-monthly.

7.            Review the request for the amendment / deletion of three performance measures within the framework.

The Leader of the Council (Councillor Hamida Ali) introduced the report, which demonstrated and outlined the organisation’s health and risk using 149 indicators. These measures were evolving and becoming more refined using the ongoing reporting to Cabinet and review by the Local Government Association (LGA). She noted that since the last report, there had been a 5% reduction in green indicators.

Members welcomed the regular reporting however expressed concern that one-third of measures were marked as red risk. A headline concern was the organisational health in that there was a high number of interim or vacant senior officers, a growing staff turnover, increasing staff sickness and rising agency costs. In response, it was explained that this was transparent and wide ranging reporting which highlighted the pressures of the organisation in the past 12 months and the impact on the workforce. Going forward, it would be investment, redesign of the council and recruitment of permanent teams to join the Chief Executive (Katherine Kerswell) would provide the leadership required.

Members raised that planning application targets were not being met and there was no clear explanation to those shortfalls and secondly asked for an update on Croydon’s plans for being the Borough of Culture 2023. In response, the Cabinet Member for Culture & Regeneration (Councillor Oliver Lewis) firstly stated that in the past year local authorities had seen an increase in planning applications as a result of people working from home. Croydon had increased their recruitment drive in the department and the Administration was keen to promote development and progress in the borough. Secondly, he replied that there was a significant amount work taking place in preparation for the Borough of Culture 2023. He mentioned that this achievement marked a long journey since the Conservative were holding the Administration and closed theatres and damaged the reputation and relationships with the cultural sector.

Members raised concern over the housing stock conditions statistics and resulting impact on residents. In response, the Cabinet Member for Homes (Councillor Patricia Hay-Justice) stated that any issues should be immediately reported to Housing officers and it was not acceptable for any resident to live in poor conditions. There was new management and other mitigations in place to ensure improvement of the service as a council priority.

In response to Members stating there were no indicators which covered community safety, the Leader of the Council said that following agreement of the Community Safety Strategy at December 2021 Council, they would look to embed some areas of the Strategy within the ongoing reporting.

It was agreed by Cabinet that recommendation 6 would be amended to say that the reporting frequency of this report to Cabinet be moved to bi-monthly, instead of monthly.

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

RESOLVED: To

1.            Review the Finance, Performance & Risk report (Appendix A of the report) as of 30 September 2021 with regard to overall performance against the Croydon Renewal Plan.  Note areas of good performance and those of concern.

2.            Note the progress made, and areas of concern, against programmes and projects in relation to milestones, deliverables and issues.

3.            Note the progress made against savings and growth targets as identified in the Croydon Renewal Plan. More detail on this area can be found in Table 2a of the Financial Monitoring Report also being presented at this Cabinet meeting.

4.            Identify areas of performance within the FPR report (Appendix A in the report) where they require deeper analysis to be presented at a future Cabinet for discussion and action.

5.            Note the recommendations of the LGA as to the content of future reports.

6.            Agree to the reporting frequency of this report to Cabinet be moved from monthly to quarterly.

7.            Review the request for the amendment / deletion of three performance measures within the framework.