Meeting documents

Portfolio updates were provided as follows;

Leader

• It was noted that work continued to improve the fibre connectivity within the County to ensure at least 95% rollout. Rural areas would make up the majority of the final 5% and investigations continued to determine how this could be provided to such areas which were difficult to reach.

Community Engagement & Public Health

• Percentage of residents invited to NHS health checks; it was confirmed that Buckinghamshire continued to place above the national benchmark including above UK England and ahead of the curve. It was noted staff changes and pressures of primary care had impacted on the numbers.
• The Public Healthcare Team continued to encourage residents to take part in health checks, this included being creative and visiting residents in their local area to carry out health checks locally.
• Smoking cessation metric - it was confirmed this metric reflected the national trend. The service continued to target those who were hard to reach, it was also noted that smoking in general had decreased which was largely due to the popularity of e-cigarettes.

Health & Wellbeing

• Timely transitions & percentage of placement clients receiving annual review; it was noted there were significant variations on both areas which were concerning. Performance had at times been low and the service had commissioned a detailed review by the Business Intelligence team to radically improve the performance.
• Adults with learning disabilities who live within their own family - the service were looking at how to develop facilities to enable independent living. New Hughenden living area was a great opportunity to look at transitioning to a more supported living environment. 

Childrens Services 

·         Repeat referrals; it was noted that this continues to be an area of concern even through some progress was made over the previoustwo quarters which was positive. Repeat referrals were indicative of some of the deep seated issues of the system, which the council and partners were working hard to address. 

·         It was confirmed the percentage of care leavers in employment or training had increased to 65% which was positive. This would continue to be monitored through the Corporate Parenting Panel. 

·         The action plan put in place during the Ofsted inspection has been strengthened to incorporate all Ofsted findings and recommendations.

Education & Skills

·         Phonics; variance from target reflected the need to share good practice with every school in the County and to identify those which required more support. A project was underway to improve this and to bring both indicators up. Their remained a gap between disadvantaged and mainstream pupils which would need to be addressed. It was noted in the past the service had hidden behind the good performance in mainstream schools but that now focus was strongly on identifying and getting into those not performing quite so well, although this was not an easy trend to change. It was noted the earliest element of schooling and to a large extent at the preschool stage we should be identifying where there are difficulties and building on these to ensure these children go into primary schools without issue.

·         Education, Health, Care plans (EHCP’s) were the new version of the previous "statements". There was an objective to complete the transition of the old to new model by the end of March 2018 and the service were confident this could be achieved. 

Resources

·         Reduced revenue expenditure through service efficiencies - it was confirmed this metric referred to the Council as a whole. This had slightly fallen short of meeting savings target and the Health and Wellbeing had not met its ambitious target which was reflected in the figures.  

·         It was noted the resources budget had exceeded its revenue target.

Planning & Environment

·         75% of residents were committed to recycling.

·         Recycling - China were banning importation of plastics, which would be a challenge for the national recycling agenda, however residents were encouraged to maintain focus and  to continue recycling. It was noted that Buckinghamshire’s plastic was sold within the County and therefore the China issue would not bear any impact locally. 

·         The Energy from Waste plant continued to bring in income which helped the County Council to balance front line service budgets. 

·         Public satisfaction currently remained at amber, and the service were working to push this to green. It was noted there was a four year capital programme in place aiming to improve rights of way.

Transportation

·         Delivery of congestion free infrastructure was being explored.

·         Welcomed publically supporting the route that follows the A418. It was noted a decision would be taken by Highways England and the Department of Transport.

Recommendation

Cabinet is asked to:

1. Come to a view on how the organisation is performing

2. Take action to improve performance where necessary

RESOLVED

Cabinet NOTED the report.