Cabinet considered the report regarding the the 2021/22 Mid-Year Performance Report.

The Deputy Leader of Council, Corporate and Resident Services, Culture and Heritage and Windsor informed Cabinet that appendix A sets out the council’s progress in relation to the strategic priorities of the Interim Council Strategy in the period 1 April – 30 September 2021 and looks forward to reporting the newly adopted Council Plan, this included the development of a new public-facing dashboard (Citizen’s Portal), providing increased transparency to Members and the public. 

The reporting period was dominated by the Pandemic and recovery, a series of campaigns were launched to provide reassurance to visitors returning to visit our local towns, and to promote the borough as a destination to residents and domestic tourists. Q2 saw the return of some large-scale events to the borough, including Royal Ascot as a government test event and the Royal Windsor Horse Show.  Good progress throughout the period had been made in the delivery of other priorities under the Interim Council Strategy such as supporting 8000 residents who had to ‘shield’, approval of the RBWM Climate Partnership and the launch of a new Family Hub Service.

The impact of COVID-19 continued to be reflected in a number the council’s performance indicators. For example, within adult social care people being discharged from hospital typically had more complex needs which impacted on performance in relation to admissions to care homes and reablement. Collection rates for Non Domestic Rates (NDR) was behind target. The measures were significantly affected by a number of national relief schemes.

Despite the hard work to reduce homelessness, the ongoing impact of COVID-19 was reflected in the slow decrease in the number of homeless households in temporary accommodation. With only the 2 exceptions mentioned, all performance indicators were on or near target at the close of Q2 and the Council continued to have better scrutiny, transparency and better use of data in decision making.

The  Lead Member for Finance and Ascot said he was delighted to support this report detailing Q1 and Q2 performance an the new performance regime for the new Corporate Plan.  He welcomed the new dashboard reporting KPI’s making the information available to all.  He noted that reporting to scrutiny would be on exception but he felt that this could lead to just looking at negativity and missing out good work so a summary report should be provided. 

The Lead Member for Housing, Communications and Youth Engagement said that with regards to homelessness even though the team were under pressure there were fewer families in temporary accommodation and more affordable housing.  The team had been working with the private sector to increase capacity and there were more people kept within or close to the borough. 

Resolved unanimously:  that Cabinet notes the report and:

i)            Notes the 2021/22 Mid-Year Data & Performance Report in Appendix A.

ii)          Agrees the proposed arrangements for future performance reporting against the new Corporate Plan (detail at section 2.17 – 2.21).

iii)        Agrees that the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel should take on primary responsibility for Member Scrutiny of the council’s performance.

iv)        Agrees the proposed transitional arrangements for performance reporting for the period January – March 2022 (detail at section 2.22).

v)          Requests relevant Cabinet Members, Directors and Heads of Service to maintain and strengthen focus on performance.