Agenda item

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee was presented with the Finance and Performance Report for Quarter 1 2018/19, which provided an overview of progress made since the last report.

 

The Director of Corporate Resources and Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Director of Finance were in attendance at the meeting, and responded to key issues of concern raised within the report.

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

It was explained that performance and the overall position in Quarter 1 had shown a good start with the majority of performance indicators being on track.  Highlights included;

 

• 243 new homes built this quarter;
• Local authority spend with local businesses stable and on target at 73% at the end of the quarter.

 

It was outlined that areas for further improvement included;

 

• Overall staff sickness - which for year-end stood at an average of 9.19 days per employee, a slight increase from Q4 position.  It was noted that an improvement had been made last year which had previously reduced this figure. 

 

Reference was made to progress made in Quarter 1 around all aspects of Doncaster Growing Together, our partnership transformation. Highlights of that included the launch of the Post 16 Review of Education, the announcement that a Doncaster University Technical College (UTC) would be located in Doncaster and the opening of the second phase of Great Yorkshire Way

 

CONNECTED COUNCIL

 

Doncaster Children’s Services Trust (DCST) Finance - Looking at the Councils financial position, it was commented that the picture across Council services was satisfactory.  It was recognised that the Doncaster Children’s Services Trust contract proved to be the biggest financial pressure for the Council and it was noted that the Council was meeting with the Trust on a regular basis to monitor progress, considering what actions could be taken and what further savings could be delivered in 2018/19. 

 

It was explained that other Local Authorities were fairing worse than Doncaster due to increasing costs occurring across the sector.  Members were assured that steps were being taken to produce an action plan, with a range of measures in place to achieve better outcomes.  It was added that going forward there was now an arrangement in place that would benefit from the Council having a greater influence and closer control.

 

Members were reminded that the Trust had attended an OSMC meeting during February 2018 and recommended that the Trust be invited back to the Committee to provide an update subject to their financial performance.  Members emphasised the need to get underneath the structure and nature of the Trust’s finances to find out more about the challenges and expectations around the financial management needed to operate within their budget.  It was recognised that there was a need to work with the Trust to ensure that the statutory function was delivered.  It was acknowledged that Council reserves could be used although concern was raised around the longevity of that as a long term solution.

 

The Committee’s union invitee raised concern about potential savings to be delivered through restructuring and questioned whether the Terms of Conditions would be affected.  Concerns were raised as to whether such savings would affect just frontline services and could result in further spending on agency staff if redundancies were made.

 

Reference was also made to concerns raised over DCST performance indicators that included one that was red (where 70.2% of children were being seen within appropriate timescales against a target of 80%) and a target around Special Educational Needs (SPEN) which was Amber.

 

Homelessness and Out of Authority (OAA) Placements - Concern was raised that towns such as Peterborough had been transferring individuals into Doncaster and had resulted by placing indirect pressures on services and resources (such as on officer time as well as financially for the Council and its partners).  It was commented that the Police had needed to deal with matters that had arisen from individuals placed in unsupported accommodation places.  Members were informed that a meeting had been held with Peterborough, and following a number of interventions, there would be no more placements made within South Yorkshire. In terms of whether other Local Authorities were undertaking similar practices, it was clarified that this was not known.

 

A Member referred to 253 young people placed into Doncaster from Out of Authority Area Placements (OAAs) and Members recognised the challenge of reducing costs from these.  In terms of process, it was clarified that it was the responsibility of the placing authority to locate individuals in a suitable place. 

 

Agency and Consultants – It was explained that benchmarking and an analysis of spend was taking place with others directorates.  It was recognised that more was being spent on agency staff (particularly within Adults Social Care).  In terms of consultants, it was explained that ‘consultants’ covered a number of areas wider than consultants and included ‘legal’ and ‘shared service’ costs.  Members were informed how the responsibility of recruitment had been delegated to Senior Managers.  It was explained that a neutral vendor arrangement is now in place to reduce the arranging costs from around 30% to 12%.

 

Within Adults Social Care, it was explained that the bulk of spend on agency staff was to address short term recruitment challenges.  In terms of Consultants, it was explained that these were mainly recruited on an interim basis undertaking specific strategic undertakings.  It was felt by Members that there was an opportunity to maximise chances for staff development in-house.

 

Concern was raised whether certain posts were being paid more than the actual evaluated post and that contracts were lasting longer than planned.  It was felt that there should be further due diligence and checks in place. 

 

Assets – Regarding the disposal of assets, it was explained that regular meetings had taken place around this issue.  It was stated that the actual amount would be less than that stated in the report.

PDRs – Concerns were raised at the meeting about the robustness of the PDR process and how the undertaking and monitoring of that process was not necessarily consistent across the authority

 

DONCASTER LIVING

 

Members were informed that the Vibrant Town Centres Programme was working to improve the co-ordination of activity and services taking place, initially in the town centre.  Members were informed that during Quarter 4, the programme had planned and supported major events in the town centre namely Delicious Doncaster and Tour de Yorkshire.  It was explained that the Integrated Town Centre Team had continued to work in partnership with teams from across the Council and businesses to focus on clean-ups within that area.

 

In respect of environment aspects, it was reported that there had been a positive performance of environment standards such as flytipping and 100% of licensing aspects processed. 

 

Members were informed that the Directorates sickness performance indicators were above target.

 

Number of people who had been killed or seriouslyinjured - it was explained that the reason the figures looked higher was that the definition of being “seriously injured” had broadened.  Members were advised that overall the figure had significantly reduced; it was therefore due to this and the broadening of the definition that this indicator would be reviewed.

 

Grass-cutting – Members were informed that grass-cutting services saw a significant drop in performance from 98% to 85% due to unusual weather conditions this Summer and this has affected the number of grass cuts. It was reported that there was an intention to review this indicator to reflect the reduced number of cuts required and to react to a potentially longer grass cutting season.

 

Other highlights included the following. That;

 

• 100% of all Licensing Act applications were processed within statutory timescales; and
• 88% of all major planning applications were processed within required or agreed timeframes, significantly exceeding the target of 70%; and
• Highways were doing well in certain areas
• Doncaster’s employment rate has increased, however wage rates had not improved significantly.

 

Sheffield City Region -There was a brief discussion around this risk as part of the Council’s Strategic Risk Profile.  Members were assured that plans would be reviewed in view of implications around devolution.

 

Affordable New Houses – Concern was raised about how many affordable new houses were being built within the number of new houses being developed.  A Member requested that information be provided around the number of affordable housing being built within the number of new homes being developed.  Clarification was also sought on whether the numbers of disability friendly properties were being monitored when building new properties. 

 

Streetcleaning – Concerns were raised around problems following the restructuring within Streetscene, brought about after the recent procurement of the Suez contract converning route mapping.  Members were assured that services were now communicating together to address those problems and adjust the routes.

 

DONCASTER LEARNING

 

Education Results - Members were informed that during Quarter 1, Key Stage 2 figures had improved across the board with the most significant being in reading and writing, rising 7% on the previous year of 2017/18 with the current figure at 60% and 4% below national average, although at a better rate than neighbouring authorities.

 

Reference was made to the Local Authority Improvement Strategy and investment out of the Dedicated Schools Grant compared to 2/3 years ago.  It was added that grading had changed over the last year and there were therefore challenges in making direct comparisons.  It was commented that the majority of schools had made significant improvements, however, there was still an expectation that they could perform better.  Members heard that there had been significant challenges in terms of Maths and English although improvements had been made with Maths.

 

Members were reminded that these results had come in before Doncaster had been chosen as a Social Mobility Opportunity Area (SMOA) and therefore further impact should be seen. 

 

In respect of ‘A’ level results, Members were informed that an early indication of provisional A-level results showed that Doncaster had improved on last year and was narrowing the gap nationally.

 

Persistent Absence – A Member raised concern about persistent absence connected to safeguarding issues. Members were assured that work was being undertaken to and that a report had been previously considered at a Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny meeting, when the Panel had the opportunity to comment on the strategy on Key Stage 2.

 

DONCASTER CARING

 

Employment – A Member sought clarification as to whether there was any co-ordination in place for the many support groups available to those with disabilities to help them back into employment.  It was also asked whether there were any gaps.  Members were informed that a group was in place chaired by the
Head of Stronger Families, in addition, steps were being taken to map and co-ordinate what was already available.  It was commented that there was a gap in terms of co-ordination of health.

 

Direct Payments – It was shared that there were no mechanisms currently in place to measure how many people were receiving direct payments that paid for their own staff.  It was explained that it would be very difficult to retrieve that detail of information.

 

It was commented that in terms of adult social care moving forward, it was important that such initiatives were pursued to reduce the number of people depending on both care and a relative amount of support. 

 

It was recognised that partnership working such as that with Sports England, were taking steps for example, designing communities so that people would be directed towards becoming more active.  It was further explained how the right conditions needed to be developed such as through the Local Plan.  It was outlined that partners were looking for opportunities where support could be provided through additional funding for Doncaster.  It was stated that £250,000 had been received so far and that officers were working with Sports England on the next phase.  It was recognised that there were still challenges ahead to be addressed alongside health partners.

 

Training and Development – Concern was raised that not enough investment was being made in developing staff within adult social care and that staff needed to wait longer for training they had missed.  It was recognised that more could be done including commencing the training process at an earlier stage, as it was felt it was highly important for staff to be engaged in the process.

 

Data Quality - Members were informed that a new system “DIPS” had been procured and would support both children, adults and education and look to supplying more rigour to improve data quality.  It was explained that this information was being migrated onto the new system and would be more robust and used more regularly.

 

RESOLVED that

 

·         the Quarter 1 Performance and Financial information be noted; including;

 

·                  note the fee detailed in paragraph 42;

·                  note the changes to the Strategic Risks as detailed in paragraphs 43 to 45;

·                  note the new additions to the Capital Programme, detailed in the Appendix A – Finance Profile

·                  the treasury management quarterly performance report detailed within Appendix A – Finance Profile

 

ii.        that the Committee make the following recommendations to;

 

·         Reviewing areas showing a high recruitment of agency staff of certain occupational group types and therefore resulting in significant spends (groups such as Social Workers, Care Workers and Occupational Therapists).   That Managers are asked to review those areas identified and consider best practices from neighbouring authorities to look at what steps the Council should take to become the employer choice within the region. 

 

·         Revising Council policy and procedures to ensure that Directors and Senior Managers endeavour to work towards using in-house resources in the first instance where possible.

 

·         That the report made available to Human Resources and Finance be looked at by Cabinet, and further work to address the issues are undertaken.

 

iii.       That consideration be given to reviewing the robustness of the PDR process and that the Audit Committee be also made aware of the concerns raised by Members, should it wish to consider them within the remit of their workplan.

 

iv.       That an invitation is sent on behalf of the Committee to invite the Doncaster Children’s Services Trust to attend a future Committee meeting to present an update on the financial report.