Agenda item

Charlotte Pomery, AD Commissioning  introduced a presentation on the state of the Borough profile, which set out a range up-to-date performance information captured as part of the Borough Plan development process. The profile provided an in-depth look at key areas of the Council and partner organisations’ work and remit. The presentation  was set out in the agenda pack at pages 53-114. The following arose from the discussion of the presentation:

a.    The AD Commissioning advised that officers were preparing a member learning and development session around the performance monitoring programme for September.

b.    In response to a query around the format of performance updates that the Panels received, officers advised that the format would not change from previous years and it was confirmed that this would include RAG status and updates provided by Heads of Service.

c.    In response to a query about providing performance dates for carers, officers acknowledged that broadly there was a gap in knowledge of the needs of carers and the AD for Commissioning agreed to come back to the Committee with further details of the information that was monitored and reported around carers.

d.    In response to a question around the culture of performance management within the Council, officers advised that data quality was critical and it relied upon staff correctly capturing data across the organisation. Officers advised that the state of the borough profile would be closely aligned within the Borough Plan and that a briefing session would be organised for staff. The Committee was advised that officers were keen to find ways in which the organisation could become more data-lead.

e.    In response to a query about children and young people as victims of crime, officers advised that the over-arching strategy was based around how to provide support to all children at risk. Officers also acknowledged that young people were the victims as well as perpetrators of crime and that work was being undertaken within area of youth justice to better reflect this.

f.     In response to a query, officers clarified that CAMHS services were designed for children and young people whose mental health problems were on the lower end of the scale, and that these services operated on a self-referral basis with no waiting lists. More severe needs would be undertaken by crisis services and hospital admissions. Although these services did have waiting lists there was also some opportunity for triage to prioritise the most acute cases. Overall, officers acknowledged the need for better early intervention and prevention services.

g.    In response to a query about wider public engagement and the forum for sharing this information publically, officers advised that the link to the presentation was on the Council’s website and that further work would be undertaken with community organisations around communicating this information.

h.    The Committee requested that it be provided with further information on the performance information contained in the state of the Borough profile, including details about its wider publicity and feedback. (Action: Charlotte Pomery).

i.      The Chair noted that individual scrutiny panels would have an opportunity to go through the state of the Borough profile at their next  meeting and this would then come back to the next OSC for further thoughts, feedback and conclusions. (Actions: Chair/Clerk).