Agenda item

To consider the report of the Director of Strategy, Performance and Governance, (copy enclosed).

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Strategy, Performance and Governance that, as part of the Corporate Performance framework, required this Committee to undertake a quarterly review of the Thematic Strategies performance, as assurance that performance was being managed effectively to achieve the corporate outcomes as set out in the Council’s Corporate Plan 2019 – 2023.  In addition, that recommended changes and improvements be reported to the Strategy and Resources Committee in October 2020. Appendix 1 of this report provided an overview of performance as of the end of Quarter 1 (April -June 2020).

The Chairman introduced the report and deferred to the Programmes, Performance and Governance Manager to present the detail.

The Manager reported that the Quarter 1 report covered April-June 2020 and work was largely on track with outcomes being delivered.  However, the way the Council had planned to deliver had changed and activity had been diverted in some instances due to the impact of COVID-19.

She drew Members’ attention to section 3.3 of the covering report that provided a summary table for each of the three themes that highlighted the number of measures either on track or otherwise.  This followed feedback at previous committee meetings to give a high-level view. Section 3.4 specifically drew out the areas at risk by theme, in large part impacted by COVID-19, they were:-

Community - Customer Evaluation Survey for the private sector housing grants; Maldon District Council (MDC) digital service assistance and community weight management sessions.

Place - Volunteering activity facilitated/organised by MDC; Keeping Britain Tidy Green Flag Award for well managed parks and open spaces and the agreed 2019 Maldon District Strategic Flood Projects and Maintenance Plan.

Prosperity – The % of Strategic sites promoted through partners and the occupancy at the Enterprise hub.

Some of the new activity taking place not originally in the Corporate plan included:- Virtual Fitness campaigns; Grow your own vegetables; direct engagement with those in ‘isolation’ risk groups for COVID-19– which far surpassed the original target number of people expected to reach; an increase in channel shift as a result of online services; volunteering activity being used for open spaces had been redeployed to the COVID-19 response and conversations with 80 businesses in the high street as part of the COVID response.

In light of this new activity there was an additional recommendation this time round for a review report of the Corporate Plan and targets to go to Strategy and Resources committee to reflect this changed landscape and the impact on outcome measures.

In response to questions raised Officers responded as follows:-

·       That the timeline for the report to Strategy and Resources Committee would be December 2020 as opposed to October as reported at the time of writing this Performance report.  This revised timeline would allow for the planned in-depth review of the Corporate Plan in October-November 2020 to encompass the full impact of COVID-19 on the Corporate Plan, followed by a Workshop with all Members to review the significant additional impact on the Corporate Plan and targets.

·       That Officers would approach Essex County Council (ECC) to determine if there was any data on waste/recycling that aligned with Maldon District Council’s timeline for comparison purposes.

·       That the Sense of Place Board was a business led independent initiative therefore did not report direct to any Council Committee.  The Chairman of Strategy and Resources was a Member, representing the Council on the Sense of Place Board.  That should the minutes be available they would be placed in the Document Library on Mod.gov.

·       That the Director of Service Delivery would email Members the link to the 2019 Maldon District Strategic Flood Projects and Maintenance Plan. Subsequent to the meeting an update regarding the plan was circulated to all committee members on 29 September 2020.

A brief discussion ensued regarding the wording of the final recommendation and it was agreed by assent to amend recommendation (iii) as shown below.

The Chairman moved the recommendations as set out in the report and they were seconded by Councillor Channer.  She put the recommendations to the Committee and they were agreed by assent.

recommendations

(i)           That Members reviewed the information as set out in this report and appendix 1with priority focus given to the Strategic Outcome level performance.

(ii)         That Members confirmed they were assured through this review that corporate performance was being managed effectively.

(iii)        That Members endorsed Officers to prepare a report for the Strategy and Resources Committee setting out any recommended changes in light of impacts on outcome performance including Covid-19, in relation to the Corporate Plan.