Agenda item

To receive a presentation on Corporate Performance.

Received the Powerpoint presentation (pages 37 – 59 in the agenda pack) introduced by the Chief Executive, Nick Walkley, highlighting performance and areas of focus.

In response to questions from the Committee it was noted that:

a.         Concerns were raised about people claiming Job Seekers Allowance (page 52) who missed appointments at the Job Centre Plus (JCP) for genuine reasons and had their benefits immediately stopped as a result.  In response it was noted that sustainability and strengthening the Council’s partnership with the JCP was key in ensuring staff/ advisors were better placed to deal with individual situations.

b.         Reasons for high unemployment included a lack of candidates applying for local apprenticeships and local jobs particularly in construction.  Haringey’s Job Brokerage Service worked with large employers such as Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, Sainsbury’s and Stansted Airport to ensure jobs went to local people.  Skilled local people were, however, dropping out of the employment process due to issues surrounding employability and work was being done to give these people the confidence to take on these jobs.

c.         In response to concerns about the lack of careers advice in schools, young people travelling outside of the Borough for further education and young people not being able to sustain employment it was explained that the Council worked mainly with secondary schools offering support in more focused careers advice and to ensure all options were made available to all young people.  Haringey had recently held a careers fayre at a primary school to encourage aspirations and ensure an understanding of the routes to those aspirations and the effectiveness of local institutions in the relevant fields.  Haringey Skills and Employment Board will oversee the work in these areas and will include schools, providers, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and other partners. 

d.         The Corporate Delivery Unit’s work on temporary accommodation (p.53) had looked at other boroughs’ practices and it was noted that all boroughs were challenged by long term homelessness and a lack of private sector housing. The Council was looking at the regeneration of specific areas into more affordable homes and was working with Homes for Haringey to utilise empty properties.

e.         The Chief Executive confirmed that fly-tipping was still a concern and recognised the difficulties in catching persistent offenders. An action plan was in place to target hotspots (Operation Clean Streets) and included managing the appearance of front gardens, which encouraged fly-tipping.

f.          In response to questions on areas for further focus:

·         Numbers for children on child protection plans often fluctuated and had risen across London. This Performance Indicator (PI) was closely related to other PIs and the Council monitored referral rates and police processes (which regularly impacted numbers) in order to understand the changes.

·         The Council social care team was working closely with the NHS social work team to deal with pressures to reduce the high numbers of delays to NHS transfers of care, which were proportionately higher in Haringey compared to social transfers than in other boroughs.  High numbers of delays to transfers of care had previously been seen in the Mental Health Service and scrutiny of the service had led to improved pathways to accommodation for those coming out of acute mental care and performance had increased compared to other boroughs.

·         In relation to ‘NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) Not Known’: Requirements for tracking young people when they left school had ceased but the Council was creating better links with institutions (such as Islington College) to ensure they fed back to Haringey so that figures were accurate.

g.         There was a new approach to measuring performance, which looked less at outcome measures and more at how services will be delivered. Areas of the Corporate Plan will lead to the Delivery Plan with clear outcomes and would be monitored and measured with greater transparency.

h.         In response to how the new approach to performance monitoring linked with the performance monitoring of other bodies the Deputy Chief Executive stated that ideally all partners would publish performance data on one website to enable greater transparency and understanding.  However, partners were driven by their own centrally set targets and the Council held them to account in terms of how they were contributing to the Council’s outcomes. The Chief Executive highlighted the valuable role of scrutiny in holding these partners to account.

i.          The Chief Executive recognised concerns about the diverse information systems used by the various departments.  Some Councils had invested in one system which could communicate with another Many of Haringey’s systems did need further investment and renewal and the IT Strategy would consider key issues such as whether to invest in single line systems and looking at what information is held and how best to process it.

RESOLVED to note the Performance Report.