Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Panel meeting held on 4 December 2014 (enclosed)

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Panel meeting held on 4 December be confirmed as a correct record for signing by the Chair.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

No declarations of interest were received.

Report of the Chief Executive (enclosed)

Councillor Alistair Bradley (Executive Leader and Member for Economic Development and Partnerships) will attend the meeting.

The Panel received a report of the Chief Executive that provided contextual information and proposed initial questions to promote discussions regarding the performance of the Public Service Reform Board.

The Executive Leader, Councillor Alistair Bradley attended the meeting to present the report and answer questions of the Panel.

Councillor Bradley explained that in April 2014, the Chorley Partnership had changed to become the Chorley Public Service Reform Board. This was to focus the partnership on a collaborative approach to transforming public services. Whilst being ambitious, this has enabled the Board to move from a traditional ‘local strategic partnership’ approach and structure, to one that has real focus and objective on improving services for the residents of Chorley by bringing together leaders from across public services that will consider how they can make changes within their organisations to improve quality and access of services.

The Board is chaired by Councillor Alistair Bradley and members of the board include, Chorley Council, Lancashire County Council, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Services, Lancashire Constabulary, Lancashire Teaching Hospital, Chorley and South Ribble CCG, Lancashire Care NHS Trust, VCFS Network, Live Well Champion, Age UK Lancashire, Department for Work and Pensions, Runshaw College and a business representative from Porter Lancastrian.

The Board operates to a terms of reference with its key objective being to work together to ensure high quality public services with the best outcomes and value for residents and provide better coordinated and integrated services which are intelligence led. This objective would be delivered through an annual work plan and Councillor Bradley provided Members with an update on the work to date.

The Board has been successful in securing funding from five main partners including this council and other funding streams to enable them to appoint a programme office and access to external funding opportunities to pump prime transformation work. This includes a jointly funded officer, who is based at Chorley Council; the programme office is currently funded from 1 October 2014 to 1 October 2015 and is tasked with the delivery of the work plan.

The work plan 2014/15 exists as a series of three enabling workstreams (data sharing, assets and commissioning) it was thought that if the Board could deliver some agreements and improvements in these areas, it would lay the foundations for future integration and joint working. Two were rated as green and one amber.

The aim of the intelligence led services and sharing intelligence work stream was to overcome the barriers to data sharing and better use of the intelligence that each organisation holds about vulnerable people to target support were it is most needed. This work was nearing completion and included a baseline of data held by each partner and the establishment of a working group to look at the barriers to sharing and develop an Information Data Sharing Agreement. Plans were in place to start sharing data and using intelligence across partners to support vulnerable and high end service users from March onwards.

As part of the integrating assets  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.OSP.69

Report of the Chief Executive (enclosed)

The Chief Executive submitted a report that provided an update on the performance of the Organisational Plan that included the 20 key projects set out in the Council’s Corporate Strategy. It was reported that overall good progress was being made with 84% of projects rated green or complete.

The report also provided an update on all the corporate strategy and local performance indicators which can be reported at this time. Performance was good with 70% of the 40 indicators which can be measured achieving or exceeding their target and a further 17.5% performing within the 5% threshold.

The Organisational Improvement Plan for 2014/15 contained a series of projects and objectives that set out the main improvement actions to be undertaken during the year by the organisation. This included the key projects as set out in the 2013/14 Corporate Strategy. The Plan also set out a number of business improvement, budget growth and neighbourhood priority projects that had been agreed in April 2014 and were due to run until the end of the financial year and in some cases for larger projects into 2015/16 and beyond.

The Corporate Strategy 2014/15 included 20 key projects. At the end of December 2014 overall performance of the key projects was excellent with the majority of projects either completed or on track. At the end of the third quarter, 16 projects were rate green; three projects were complete, with only one project being rated as amber. As part of the Corporate Strategy two projects, the Friday Street Health Centre and the Chorley Youth Zone had been carried over into the 2014/15 – 2016/17 Corporate Strategy.

A further two projects, the development of Astley Park and the Play and Open Spaces Strategy, are two much larger programmes of work with delivery scheduled over a number of years. These two projects would continue to be delivered and monitored through the delivery of the 2015/16 Organisational Plan and beyond. The remaining 13 projects were expected to be completed by the end of March 2015.

A breakdown of organisational plan projects by Corporate Priority was provided for the Panel. Where projects had been rated amber or red and explanation about the issue(s) and action(s) that are being taken to address them was provided.

Delivery of 22 of the 24 neighbourhood priorities would be completed by 31 March 2015. The project to provide additional off-street parking in Croston is undeliverable due to lack of sites available and completion of the project to deliver improvement works at the Eaves Green centre was dependent on third party owners of land and property.

The construction of the Buttermere Community Centre had commenced building works in January 2015, but would continue into 2015/16, along with the marketing of the Civic Pride campaign.

The reduction of long term empty properties to 195 was slightly off target at 206, however, an Empty Properties Officer had recently been recruited and it was expected that this figure would improve.

The Town Centre and Steeley Lane Pilot Action Plans  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.OSP.70