Agenda item

The Executive Mayor in Cabinet Resolved to:

2.1      Note the Mayors Business Plan performance report (Appendix A and B) with latest data available on 28 February 2024 (unless otherwise stated) regarding overall council and partnership performance, and actions being taken to improve outputs. 

2.2      Note that it is necessary to review measures within outcomes one, four and five of the Mayor’s Business Plan to reflect changes to statutory reporting and the requirements of independent boards, as detailed in points 7.3 and 7.4 of this report.

2.2      Note the enhanced escalation process for areas where performance requires improvement, as detailed in section 8 of this report.

The Executive Mayor introduced the Mayor’s Business Plan 2022-2026 Performance Report which looks at the journey of improvement for Croydon. Cabinet Members were invited to address the KPIs in their area.   

The Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Homes, Councillor Lynne Hale shared with Cabinet that housing continued to be a very challenging area in terms of delivery with data being central to many of the problems faced,  the unreliability of it and the absence of any data at all. Accurate homelessness and temporary accommodation data will be submitted to the government at the end of May, for the first time following a two year pause due to the unreliability of the data.

A significant period of change has taken place, there has been a phased transition to a new IT system, the NEC system resulting in the build up of accurate and reliable information including data on households in temporary settings and the realisation that repairs demand is considerably higher than anticipated. As a result, there will be a review of the KPIs for 2024-2025 which will provide more realistic targets based on sound data and will be conducted in consultation with the Executive Mayor, the Housing Improvement Board and IAP. Any proposed changes to measures/targets will be presented to Cabinet for review and sign off.

Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Councillor Maria Gatland was pleased to note that targets were being met. Cabinet noted the improvement in the M20 indicator which historically had shown as  red, now there is much more connection with schools and colleges, extra case workers who are funded externally, and social media all of which resonated with young people. The Education, Health and Care plans also improved and demand continues.

Councillor Gatland highlighted the M37 child protection plan remained red as it takes time to deliver change, and is also impacted by families moving in and out of the borough. An active plan is in place for improvement in conjunction with Islington, the sector led improvement partners. There is a lot of work going on to enhance the lives of young people in the borough, and for further reassurance a meeting will take place with the Child protection Chairs soon.

The Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, Councillor Yvette Hopley informed Cabinet that the indicators remain the same as when last presented. Cabinet noted that the red indicators were those were a number of clients that have been in the system for a long time. However, there is much work in progress currently, especially with Partners and over the next six months a significant change to the figures will be seen in the reports.

The Cabinet Member for Communities and Culture, Councillor Andy Stranack updated Cabinet on the latest collated data for Croydon’s year as the London Borough of Culture and was pleased to note that the targets set out at the start of the programme by the funders had already been exceeded. The innovative approach to partnership working with the cultural sector across Croydon was highlighted by the volume of volunteers who helped run events and according to feedback the quality of those events were considered good or very good by 98%. Overall, the programme has kept to budget and achieved a small underspend.

The Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Councillor Ola Kolade shared with Cabinet that progress against the indicators continues to be monitored. Cabinet noted several successful achievements such as the commissioning of third sector partners to deliver a programme of outreach and engagement for young people at risk of violence across the hotspots building on the success of last years commissioned activity engaging young people, and has enabled the expansion of the programme to a year long initiative.  Effective collaboration between the council and partnerships in preventing and reducing violence was further demonstrated with the significant level of funding secured by the Minds programme to continue bringing positive change and creating better opportunities for young people. In regard to tackling violence against women and girls these operations have also been successful with arrests made. In the case of domestic abuse, the budget has been maintained and ringfenced to safeguard the most vulnerable residents in the borough, and remains the highest priority issue.

Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration, Councillor Jeet Bains advised Cabinet that there were no red indicators for the Planning and Regeneration portfolio. Cabinet noted that a high number of appeals continue to be received against decisions on planning applications, however, there is an above average rate of success in these appeals.

Cabinet Member for Streets and Environment, Councillor Scott Roche highlighted the key performance indicators from the report for Cabinet who noted the continued improvements which are going in the right direction across the service.

Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Jason Cummings was pleased to share with Cabinet that the council is still predicting a year end under spend against its budgeted position. Cabinet noted that Council Tax is amber due to a phasing issue as a result of the pandemic (as with most boroughs) however, reassurance was given that the year end target on collection rates is expected to be achieved therefore there are no issues.

The Executive Mayor thanked Cabinet Members and colleagues for the updates and work in their areas.

The Leader of the Opposition, Councillor King noted that the thresholds set out in section 8 of the new escalation process were too high and requested that the monthly reports are made available to Scrutiny and Opposition lead Members as part of the good governance around service improvement and transformation. Further, although the opposition recognise the challenges and have confidence in the Leadership of the Housing department concerns were raised over the operational effectiveness, in particular the discharge of the homelessness responsibilities and remain skeptical that the answer to missing targets is to lower them.

The Executive Mayor responded by explaining that it is a long process repairing the housing department and the amount of work that now needs to be undertaken.

The Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Homes, Councillor Lynne Hale reiterated how bad the service was previously as recognised externally by the ARK report. Currently the teams are working hard to repair the damage and provide residents with the service they deserve.

The Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Callton Young questioned whether having one strategic budget KPI namely variance against net budget is good enough when the real test is negotiating debt write-off to address structural financial difficulties faced by the council. Also, are there concern on the data presented on violence with injury, knife crime with injury and void times given homelessness in the borough.

Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Jason Cummings responded to the finance points stating that the M1 indicator was the summation of the council’s financial position and includes everything so is an excellent indicator of the financial concerns. There is capitalisation this year as in many years.

The Executive Mayor added that Croydon is on a trajectory of improvement and the commitment remains resolute.

The Executive Mayor in Cabinet Resolved to:

2.1      Note the Mayors Business Plan performance report (Appendix A and B) with latest data available on 28 February 2024 (unless otherwise stated) regarding overall council and partnership performance, and actions being taken to improve outputs. 

2.2      Note that it is necessary to review measures within outcomes one, four and five of the Mayor’s Business Plan to reflect changes to statutory reporting and the requirements of independent boards, as detailed in points 7.3 and 7.4 of this report.

2.2      Note the enhanced escalation process for areas where performance requires improvement, as detailed in section 8 of this report.