To review the Council’s key performance indicators and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

The Board considered the submitted Performance Report for Quarter 4 2024/2025 which provided an overview of the performance of the Council working towards the ambitions and priorities within the Community and Corporate Plan and the Council Business Plan.  125 performance indicators had been identified and 33 projects.  The percentage of projects on target, completed or better than target had increased since Quarter 3.

The Board asked a number of questions in relation to the following:

·                what was the reason for BP47 percentage of weed spraying schedule achieved during the period (quarterly) being worse than target and was there not an opportunity to spray the weeds after the good job the Team had done sweeping leaves off paths and roads;

·                was there an update on the take up of MyBay since the report was prepared;

·                BP26 number of concessionary bus journeys was down on target, with a reason that 2025/26 did not have part of Easter, this was due to the date that Easter fell on that year;

·                what was the Minecraft Project and was it going to be delivered to other schools;

·                what were the challenges and incentives to encourage employed people to take up training;

·                when would we know if we have funding for the Family Hubs for 2026;

·                rough sleepers were worse than target, what action was being taken to reduce this;

·                BP04 percentage of contacts to Children’s Services progressing to early help services in the period was much worse than target, what was being done to improve this;

·                the Family Hubs have been really successful but the report refers to continuing to exit plan, how far had that progressed; and

·                the target for the number of young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and/or who were also care experienced accessing work experience, internship and apprenticeships had not yet been achieved, what was being done to support this.

The following responses were provided to Members’ questions:

·                BP47 for weed spraying was 100% on target for Quarter 4, but overall was 79% as it was taken over the whole year;

·                approximately 2,280 residents had signed up to the discount card and the Director of Pride in Place was meeting with the Team next week to look at card set up and for the Team to increase the number of businesses currently signed up from 150.  It was noted that there were also discussions on whether or not to have an additional sign up period around Christmas but were waiting feedback from residents;

·                the Minecraft Project was part of the Build Torbay initiative running with the construction sector across Torbay to raise awareness of careers across the sector and had been held at Shiphay Academy.  There were issues regarding capacity and resources to roll this out further, but the overall Build Torbay support had gone well;

·                the lack of employed people taking up training was around a contractor and what they had in place for training for the community, this had been addressed in contract review meetings and was expected to improve moving forward.  There was also a need to build some targets in for Build Torbay;

·                Government funding was expected to be announced on 11 June 2025 as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review, but it was not clear what level of detail would be included and if this would include funding specifically for the Family Hubs;

·                there was an annual count of rough sleepers which took place across the country on the same day each year (Councillors were invited to take part in the count), this time it was 29 compared to 27 the previous year.  The data showed that there were 111 different rough sleepers over the year which was roughly the same number for the last few years.  The Council operates the severe weather emergency protocol (SWEP) and a Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Plan was being developed in partnership with the voluntary sector looking at homeless prevention and would be coming through the Adult Social Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board for consideration; 

·                the BP04 target for contacts to Children’s Services had been set before there was a portal to separate out early years, it looks worse as people were going to Family Hubs instead of being referred through the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).  Families can now refer direct to the Family Hubs and there was a need to realign the target to reflect the positive changes in the system and the portal;

·                the Director of Children’s Services and Director of Public Health were working alongside the Family Hubs to ensure the services were delivered and looking at ways to continue to deliver the service, as the Government Funding was not known and they wanted to be able to continue to offer services through the Family Hubs; and

·                the target for the number of young people with SEND and/or who were also care experienced accessing work experience, internship and apprenticeship would be extended if it was not achieved by 2026.  The Director of Children’s Services was doing a lot of work looking at internships especially for young people with SEND, working with the Director of Adult and Community Services on how the Council could support and improve the numbers.

The Board noted the Performance Report for Quarter 4 2024/20205 and requested an all Members briefing to be arranged on the work of Build Torbay.