Agenda item

To consider the report of the Service Manager – Performance & Democratic.

Members considered the report of the Service Manager – Performance & Democratic.

The Assessment of Performance fulfilled the statutory obligations placed on the Council as part of the requirements of the Local Government Measure (Wales) 2009 and was required to be published by 31^st October each year.  This report was subject to external audit by the Wales audit Office.

Councillor J. Millard left the meeting at this juncture.

Appendix 1 of the report detailed and highlighted the key activities and progress made against each of the Council’s Well-Being Objectives.

Education - The Leader of the Labour Group acknowledged the importance of the document and that it was aligned to the Council’s Corporate Plan.  However, he expressed his concern that the information contained therein should be a more detailed and an accurate reflection.  By way of an explanation he pointed out that whilst the GCSE results in secondary schools had been recorded as improving he had received conflicting information that Estyn was currently inspecting one of the schools due to its performance and that results had declined in other schools.

The Corporate Director of Education explained that education was currently undergoing national reform and as part of this process the reporting measures were also changing. At the time of the compilation of the document, the reporting measure was ‘Level 2+’ and performance at GCSE level during the summer of 2019 had increased from 41.1% to 44.5%.  Moving forward the national reporting measure would be ‘CAT 9’.

The Leader of the Labour Group again expressed his concern regarding the conflicting information being received i.e. the information within the Self-Assessment advised that good progress was being made but Estyn was inspecting a school due to its performance. Therefore, he stated that the Self-Assessment did not provide an accurate picture.

The Corporate Director of Education reiterated that performance had increased from 41.1% to 44.5% for the Level 2+ national performance measure for summer 2018.  This performance related to 5 GCSE’s including English and Maths.

National Public Accountability Measures – 21^st in Wales for Clearing Fly Tipping – a Member pointed out that Blaenau Gwent was now 21^st in Wales in relation to this measure and asked for an explanation why the average timescale for Blaenau Gwent clearing reported fly tipping was almost three times higher than the Welsh average.  He pointed out that under the previous administration Blaenau Gwent had been the best performing authority.

The Executive Member – Environment acknowledged that these statistics needed to improve but measures were being introduced to address this issue which included a capital bid for a new Household Waste Recycling Centre and enforcement action would be taken to prosecute individuals for fly tipping offences.

In reply to a further question, the Executive Member – Environment said that measures and actions would be put in place shortly to improve performance and to improve Blaenau Gwent’s position nationally in terms of this measure.

A Member pointed out that the Scrutiny Committee whose remit this was had been cancelled and said that this issue should have  been considered at that Committee and a Working Group established to examine the issue. The Executive Member – Environment confirmed that any report would be submitted to the relevant Scrutiny Committee for due consideration.

The Corporate Director Regeneration & Community Services clarified that Blaenau Gwent had been the best performing authority for one year.  However, Welsh Government was currently looking at how this statistical data was compared across all authorities as this 5 day measure was being reported differently by authorities.  In order to improve performance the authority was looking at best practice nationally and Welsh Government would be advising on the reporting measure going forward.

22^nd in Wales for the Percentage of Food Establishments that were Broadly compliant with Food Hygiene Standards – A Member expressed his concern that Blaenau Gwent was the worst performing authority in respect of this measure and asked whether this was due to under resourcing in this area.  He continued by referring to the wording ‘broadly compliant’ and requested an assurance that food outlets in Blaenau Gwent were safe to purchase food from and safe to eat in as there was a need to reassure members of the public. 

The Executive Member – Environment confirmed that the position was not satisfactory and advised that a detailed review was currently being undertaken to improve performance.

The Corporate Director Regeneration & Community Services on a point of clarification advised that this scoring indicator was a measure attributed and relevant to the establishment/person serving the food and was not a measure for the Council in terms of compliance with legislation.

Therefore, it was not a question of Council performance or resource nor was it because the Council was not inspecting the premises – this measure solely related to the establishments complying with the regulations.  The Council was very much adhering to Environmental Health legislation to ensure that food was safe to purchase and eat.

Councillor L. Parsons left the meeting at this juncture.

Another Member referred to food takeaways and outlets and pointed out that if there was a sufficient number of Environmental Health Officers repeat visits could be undertaken and appropriate action taken if the businesses were not complying with the regulations.

Councillor L. Parsons returned to the meeting at this juncture.

Schools Attendance Data/Attainment Levels - in reply to a question regarding school attendance data, the Corporate Director of Education advised that attendance data was only made public at certain times during the year i.e. May and October.  In respect of 2017/18 attendance data Blaenau Gwent had been placed second in its family of local authorities (Neath Port Talbot, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly and Rhondda Cynon Taff) for primary and third for secondary schools. With regard to Unauthorised Absence, Blaenau Gwent had been placed second in the family for primary and first for secondary schools and in relation to persistent absentees Blaenau Gwent was joint first in the family for primary 1.7% and for secondary 4.1% - this was below the 4.6% all Wales average for secondary schools.

The Member referred to some significant changes that had taken place in secondary schools during in 2018 and pointed out at that time there was a considerable gap between the top performing and lower performing schools.  In order to address this issue a considerable amount of resources had been provided to some schools to close this performance gap and asked whether these changes had improved performance levels.

The Corporate Director of Education advised that education had undergone national reform and for 2019 a new set of reporting measures called CAT 9 which was a point based measure awarded to each school.  The Corporate Director advised that a report for the South East Wales Consortium Region would be shortly submitted to Scrutiny (25^th October) and then to Executive which gave details of the new CAT 9 reporting measure.  For this academic year all schools had made progress in terms of performance.  It was noted that the current Level 2+ was not a reportable national measure.

The Member said he was concerned and wanted an assurance that the performance gap between the best and worst performing schools had diminished.  The Chair said that this issue would be discussed at the next meeting of the Education & Learning Scrutiny Committee.

Internal and External Regulations - The Leader of the Labour Group referred to Page 456 of the document and acknowledged some of the headline points that had been reported.  However, he expressed his concern that the Wales Audit Office had conducted work in respect of the Leisure Service Review but some of this work and findings had not been provided to Members. 

He concluded by stating that he felt that aspects of this Self-Assessment was ‘too positive’ and some aspects not overly accurate and said that next year’s assessment of performance should be more measured. 

Upon a vote being taken it was unanimously,

RESOLVED, subject to the foregoing, that the report be accepted and the Assessment of Performance for 2018/2019 be approved and published before 31^st October, 2019.