To note the contents of the report.

The Director of Children’s Services introduced the item and explained that the final report would be published and shared with residents. Of particular note to the Panel were the Key Performance Indicators, which were targets set at the start of 2017/18 for a number of service areas. The Director of Children’s Services stated that three of these Indicators related to children’s services. Of the 25 Indicators only two had been given a red rating of having missed its target and one of these related to children’s services, regarding the proportion of children aged two to two and a half who had taken part in health checks carried out by Council health visitors. It was noted that 46.6 per cent of children in this age group had received a health check, compared to the target of 77 per cent, which was the national average. An improvement towards 60 per cent had been made in more recent months. The Director of Children’s Services said the causes of not meeting the target included the transfer of the service into RBWM from the Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust, which was coupled with the introduction of a new IT system which meant that for some time no health checks could be processed. Members were informed that there was now a renewed focus on contacting families who had indicated that they did not want a health check. It had been identified that a large proportion of these families had children in nursery, and because they had been updated on the progress that their children were making they were satisfied that they did not need an additional health check from the Council. Work was now taking place to market the benefits of the health checks to residents. The target remained at 77 per cent.

Cllr Wilson asked how the Key Performance Indicators had been selected, and noted that the Pupil Premium and attainment rates of disadvantaged children had not been included in the report. The Director of Children’s Services stated that the priorities had been selected through the Lead Member process, and the Pupil Premium was referenced in the annual report on educational standards; however he agreed that it should be referred to in this report.

Cllr Wilson noted that there was no reference to the numbers of pupils who had been allocated their first preference school. The Director of Children’s Services informed Members that the figure was 88 per cent, the highest in the Royal Borough for ten years; however for certain groups there had been challenges in getting in to their preferred schools, and the figure of 88 per cent was liable to change due to the ongoing admission appeals process.

It was noted that the other Indicator to be given a red rating for not meeting its target was the number of telephone calls to be answered with 60 seconds. It was clarified that this related to calls going through the customer contact centre and not necessarily through to specific departments, including children’s services, school admissions etc. Regarding the Indicators that had been given orange ratings, it was noted that this included the number of days to process new benefits claims or changes in circumstances had just missed the target of 3.5 days and the average was 3.7 days; however, this was against the national average of 22 days. The Director of Children’s Services explained that this meant the Council was one of the best performing in the country in this respect. Members felt that the size of the text relating to these targets should be increased so it could be seen more clearly, and that a key should be included to explain the table’s contents. A comparison of the Key Performance Indicators against previous years and/or other local authorities was also suggested by Members.

Cllr Wilson noted that many residents seemed to be unaware of the investments being made with regards to the schools expansion programme, and that there was a perception in Windsor that there weren’t enough school places. He stated this was despite investment of £4million into two schools, which were admitting pupils under the Planned Admission Number. The Director of Children’s Services stated his belief that the Council needed to do more in publicising investment in schools. He noted that the schools being expanded were Academies, and the signage outside them stated that the Academy was working on a project rather than stating that the Royal Borough was expanding school place capacity. The Director of Children’s Services said he would work with the Communications team on this matter, although it was noted that some projects would be dependent on the appropriate planning permission being given.

Members suggested that the size of the diagrams on pages 10 and 11 of the report could be reduced and the text increased, in order to make it easier to read.

Cllr Wilson noted that the contents of the report was entirely positive, and suggested that for balance information on challenges and issues that the Council faced should also be included. The Director of Children’s Services stated that the report did highlight the major change of transferring of services to AfC and Optalis. He added that the decision on which Key Performance Indicators to highlight had been made through the Senior Leadership Team and Heads of Service but was not sure if it had gone out to wider consultation. Members were told that the design of the final report had been led by the Communications team. The Chairman suggested that in future the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Panels should be asked for their views on which Indicators should be included in the annual report.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Panel noted the report and:

i) Noted the progress towards meeting the council’s strategic objectives.

ii) Endorsed the Annual Report 2017/18, appendix A, to be reviewed at a meeting of the Full Council.

iii) Requested the Managing Director and Executive Directors, in conjunction with Lead and Principal Members, to progress improvement actions for areas that are off target.