The Chairman introduced the report that report summarised the performance in the first two quarters’ of the council’s 25 strategic measures in the performance management framework.

The Chairman informed that the 25 key measures aligned to the refreshed Council Plan with the six strategic priorities detailed in section 2.1 of the report.  The new performance management framework would also feed into the Residents Survey report that is due to come to Cabinet in January 2019. 

Out of the 25 strategic measures 18 (72%) reported in Q2 had met or

exceeded the target (Green), 4 measures (16%) (Amber) were just short of the target and three measures (12%) (Red) were below target.  The Chairman asked for additional information on the three measures reporting ‘Red’.

The Director of Children’s Services reported on the measure percentage of children with a review at 2 to 2.5 years of age.  Cabinet were informed that to get a better connection with social care the authority were one of a few who had decided to undertake these review by using our health visitors.  A number of authorities counted any contact with families as a review, however it had been decided locally only to include face to face contact with families.  Although below target performance had been stable over the last two quarters and the service offered after work evening sessions and sessions on Saturday.  Parents were reporting that they were satisfied with the high quality feedback they got from childcare providers and thus did not wish to take up reviews offered. 

With regards to the number of homelessness preventions through council advice and activity the Chairman asked the interim Head of Housing Services Manager to provide an update. 

Cabinet were informed that in the past it had been difficult to help prevent homelessness but new legislation provided a legal framework and thus a wider range of initiatives were required. 

The Chairman asked for clarification on the main reasons for homelessness within the Royal Borough and was informed that the three main reasons locally were also national reasons; the end of private tenancies, family breakdown resulting in a family member being ask to leave the home and domestic abuse. Within the Royal Borough the high cost of tenancies was problematic.

The Chairman asked how many families required help and that informed that there are usually about 500 approaches.  Not all the families require accommodation sometimes they require advice and support, it was better to help prevent homelessness then having to find accommodation.   The Chairman said that as we were talking about 500 families this could mean over 1000 residents and demonstrated the need for more housing, especially affordable housing, which planning panels needed to be mindful of.  

Cllr Beer addressed Cabinet and said that agenda page 35 showed the number of affordable homes delivered was 32 at quarter two but the emerging Borough Local Plan required well over 400 affordable homes each year. 

The Chairman responded that it took time to produce affordable homes and therefore realistic targets had been set.  In central Maidenhead we are using our land to generate 30% affordable housing including significant social rent.  The RBWM Property Company had also been established and targeted to provide 1000 affordable units.  The Royal Borough had an affordability crises that was being addressed in part by having the emerging Borough Local Plan.  We were moving in the right direction but there was still a lot of work to be done, in Maidenhead alone 800 new homes had been approved.

The Lead Member for Finance and Economic Development informed that at planning meetings he mentions that for every site the council owns or has influence over we should strive to going beyond the affordable housing allocation in the emerging Borough Local Plan with a range of tenure. With regards to the target it should include private development and developers should be encouraged to build more affordable homes above other planning considerations.

The Chairman agreed that planning members were going to have to give consideration to our affordable housing policies and commitments.

The Leader of the Opposition mentioned that private rent was not affordable and asked how the council could influence affordability in the private sector.  The Chairman replied that if we increased the availability of private rent on the market than the indexation of rent would soften.  Although additional private rentals was important it was not the only answer additional tenures of affordable housing was also important.  The Royal Borough will be seeing a number of proposed developments that will ask challenging questions to those on planning because there will be an increase emphasis on affordable housing with mixed tenures.  

The Chairman asked for further information about the final ‘Red’ indicator the performance of the Tivoli contract.  The Deputy Director Strategy and Commissioning informed Cabinet that during the first quarter ISS Landscapes was taken over and a new company Tivoli was formed a new management structure was implemented but during this period accurate performance data was not available.  Officers worked with Tivoli on improving the performance of contractual obligations, the new management structure was implemented, a new operations manager was in place and front line staff recruited.  Improvement trajectory was approved and as of today these were on track with continued improvement expected.

The Chairman mentioned that the recent Residents Survey showed that residents were pleased with our open spaces and parkland and this satisfaction rating would improve as the Tivoli improvements.  The performance management framework provided monitoring of performance and remedial actions to be taken. 

Cllr Beer asked why the dashboards on page 35 showed targets not being met but the indicators were shown as ‘Green’.  The Strategy and Performance Manager informed that the diagrams were a visual representation that went beyond the actual target and that performance was as reported on target.

Resolved unanimously: that Cabinet notes the report and:

      I.        Endorses the quarter 2 performance summarised in table 1 and appendix A.

    II.        Requests relevant Members and Heads of Service to focus effort to improve performance in the areas that are below target and maintain performance in the measures meeting target.