AGREED – That the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Panel held on 1 December 2016 be confirmed as a correct record.

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.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Director of Business, Development and Growth will be attending this meeting.

The Performance Panel received a report which provided contextual information relating to the performance of the Business Development and Growth directorate.  

On behalf of the Performance Panel, the Chair welcomed the Director of Business, Development and Growth to the meeting.

Members of the Performance Panel received a presentation from the Director of Business, Development and Growth.

The directorate, which was formed as part of the organisational restructure in May 2016, encompass the following services –

• Employment Skills and Business Support
• Development and Regeneration
• Markets and Town Centre (including the operational responsibilities for car parking)
• Property Services

The directorate was primarily focused on driving economic growth and building the business rate base through the delivery of the Economic Development Strategy, and was responsible for delivering a number of the council’s strategic projects which included –

• Westaway Integrated Sports Facility
• Chorley Skills framework
• Improve the look and feel of the town centre
• Digital office park

Key items for discussion included –

• Performance in relation to job creation being strong with the performance measure rated green and exceeded target.
• Indicators for new business supported through grant funding and advice from the council which continued to meet target levels.
• Floor space brought forward as part of Chorley BIG (Business Improvement for Growth) was rated red at quarter 3, being 6.36% off target.  Although there had been an increase in floor space being brought forward recently the figure still fell short of target.
• Chorley Works placement target of 100% had been exceeded.

Future priorities for the directorate included a refresh of the Economic Development Strategy.  As part of the refresh performance targets would be reviewed to distinguish between performance measures within the council’s control and those that were outside its control.

Presently, the Director of Business Development and Growth was reviewing staffing resources in the directorate.  The purpose of this review was to establish the skills set and expertise available to ensure that staff resources were appropriately assigned.    Other considerations included projects which would be best delivered in partnership with other organisations, and those the council could deliver itself.

During debate, members of the Performance Panel raised a number of queries which included –

• The definition of a work placement.
• Opportunities been identified as a result of the Cuerden development in the borough of South Ribble.

It was reported that following the Economic Development Strategy review, the main priority would be to identify and bring forward employment sites. It was important that the appropriate businesses were identified for the different sites and ensuring that the correct infrastructure was in place, which included digital and road network.  To achieve this objective the council would need to engage with other service providers and sectors both regional and national. 

In response to questions asked in relation to the Market Walk extension; the Director of Business Development and Growth had been encouraged by the way in which the project was developing.

RESOLVED –

1. That the report and verbal representation be noted.
2. That the definition of work placement be clarified  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.OSP.32

To receive the enclosed report from the Director of Policy and Governance, that was presented to the Executive Cabinet on 16 February 2017.

Members of the Performance Panel considered a monitoring report of the Director of Policy and Governance which set out the performance against the delivery of the Corporate Strategy, and key performance indicators during the third quarter of 2016/17 (1 October to 31 December 2016).

It was reported that overall performance of 2015/16 key projects was good, with 81% of the projects either on track or complete. The projects to ‘Deliver the Westway Integrated Sports facility’ and ‘Deliver the Chorley Skills framework’ were rated amber. Actions to address the issues had been identified and were being implemented.

One project was rated red, ‘Progress the delivery of Friday Street Health Centre’; the cause for which was due to external factors. It was reported that the Project Team was in regular dialogue and continued to work to ensure this project was recognised as a high priority by the Clinical Commissioning Group in support of the funding submission to the NHS England Estate and Technology Fund.  At the point where confirmation to proceed with this project was given, all elements of the project would need to be refreshed.  This would include scope, costs and timescales.  For this reason it was reported that the project had been put on hold and would be removed from the monitoring report until the council received confirmation to proceed.

In relation to the performance of key service delivery measures, there were ten indicators that were reported at the end of the third quarter.  Six of the key service delivery measures were performing on or above target. 

Two key service delivery measures were performing worse than target, but within the 5% threshold. 

·         Supplier payment within 30 days

·         % Council Tax collected.

Two key service delivery measures were below target at the end of quarter three –

·         Time taken to process all new claims and change events for Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit.

·         Number of missed collections per 100, 000 collections of household waste;

Plans had been developed which outlined actions to be taken to improve performance.

Members of the Performance Panel discussed various aspects of the report included –

·         The identification of digital access points across the borough

·         The progress of the delivery of the Westway Integrated Sports facility. 

·         Health and wellbeing measures

AGREED – That the report be noted and that members of the Performance Panel receive a list of digital access points across the borough.

Since the meeting the list of digital access points across the borough has been circulated.

The Chair thanked members of the Performance Panel, directors and officers for their contribution in 2016/17.