25 April 2008

HCC IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2008/09

Our approach to improvement planning includes targeting:

  • areas of strategic priority for improvement
  • areas of customer or stakeholder dissatisfaction
  • areas of underperformance or of declining performance
  • areas determined for priority action after scrutiny work
  • areas highlighted through inspection and audit

To achieve this we have developed:

  • A high level plan reflecting key strategic improvement activity. This is a focus for key strategic improvement activity for both the Strategic Management Board and the P&R panel. The high level plan is strongly linked to areas of extra investment as part of the strategic compass work.
  • A lower level checklist of other recommendations often around improved process.

Improvement Plan
Current Strategic Areas For improvement
Service and Responsible Officer / Area / Why a highlighted area / Actions/ Deadlines/ Outcomes
Environment
Rob Smith / Highways / Public opinion; relatively poor performance on footways – only average performance on unclassified/non-principal roads; need for long term investment heavy road use.
(added Spring 2007) / Updated April 2008:
Action plan being delivered with real improvements in condition and public perceptions.
Children, School’s and Families
John Harris
Ann Domeney / Children’s social care / Inspection found that arrangements for safeguarding children and young people are inadequate and contribution of local services to improving outcomes for looked after children and young people is inadequate.
(added Spring 2007) / Updated April 2008:
Following inspection, Children First, an external support and challenge team reporting to DCSF, was appointed to help the council improve. A detailed 18 month improvement plan was put in place to address the areas of weakness identified in the inspection. Important features of the improvement plan included:
  • Improvements in performance management processes and culture;
  • Implementation of a new IT system to support children’s social care;
  • Implementation of new safe staffing policies and procedures and clearance of a backlog of CRB checks;
  • Significant improvement against a range of KPIs in children’s social care;
  • Better partnership working, including the implementation of the Common Assessment Framework and a substantially revised children and young people’s plan.
Following the first six months of work on the improvement plan, Children First report that there has been “overall good rapid improvement in children’s social care [and the] first milestones achieved…” As a result, their assignment with the council has concluded.
Work on the improvement plan will continue through to March 2009, following which an independent review of its effectiveness will be commissioned.
Adult Care Services
Iain MacBeath / Adult Care Services – Response to CSCI star ratings / Reduction from excellent to promising prospects.
(added Spring 2007) / Updated April 2008:
  • Work undertaken, particularly via Information Quality Officers, to improve data accuracy so this now accurately reflects practice performance
  • Improvement across range of key PIs, in particular percentage of annual reviews now over 60%.
  • Progress monitored at Board level, including quarterly performance report and risk register
  • CSCI Annual Performance rating for 2006/07 confirmed at end of November 2007; delivering outcomes–good, capacity to improve–excellent. Top star rating (3 stars)
  • Target for Direct Payments exceeded numbering 796 in 2007/08. New target for 2008/09 being set by ACS Board in April.

Adult Care Services
Anne Bretherton / Supporting People / Audit Commission findings
(added Spring 2007) / Updated April2008:
  • Audit Commission Re-Inspection Team on site January 9 – January 18 2008.
  • Audit Commission Draft report received 25 February 2008.
  • Initial findings show improvements in Delivery and Diversity.
  • More evidence being produced to support work done on Governance, Service User Involvement, Commissioning and Value for Money.
  • Final report awaited.
  • Scrutiny have reviewed action against their recommendations following the 2006 inspection.

Children, School’s and Families
Glenda Wood / Libraries / Standards missed – Opening hours, workstations available, active borrowers also- Strategic Action to address outdated library provision
(added Spring 2007) / Updated April 2008:
  • The CPA Culture Block rating confirmed as 4 star by the Audit Commission.
  • Library usage: unaudited full year returns to end of March 2008 show a 2% increase in issues and an 8% increase in visits (year on year comparison).
  • Library refurbishments completed at Hatfield, St Albans and Welwyn Garden City during 2007-8.

Corporate Services
David Robinson / The Way We Work / Annual Efficiency Statement 2005/06
We made a statement that:
Property is a valuable asset of the county council and is needed for all of our activities. We will, by targeting our investment, improve all of our service property so that it enhances service delivery
(added Spring 2007) / No change from January 2008:
Key Actions:
  • A rationalisation of council offices – it is planned to rationalise the Council’s current office portfolio to provide a more cost effective and efficient working environment.
  • Aim of TW3 to reduce 51 office locations to three major sites.
Programme on target – move to the first base at Apsley completed for approx 1,000 staff and now fully operational. Acquisition of second base achieved (Stevenage) and fit-out started on 30 March 2007, occupation by next 1,600 staff on target for relocations 18 April – August 2008. Third base, County Hall, on course for completion August – December 2008.
Corporate Services
Geoff Brown / Inconsistent approach to performance management.
Inconsistency of service plans.
Not all strategies and plans are robust and underpinned by data.
Not SMART plans and SMART targets. / Corporate Assessment 2007
Across the Council, there is an inconsistent approach to performance management. Plans for service level priorities also lack consistency; many plans are incomplete or not comprehensive. If the Council had specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timebound (SMART) targets, measuring and managing performance in all areas of the Council would be much more effective. The Council needs to ensure that all strategies, plans and performance mechanisms are robust, underpinned by data and include smart targets to measure progress.
(added Autumn 2007) / Updated April 2008:
A short, focused, external review of the Council’s performance management arrangementshas been commissioned in order to build on good practice and ensure consistency and compliance. This work by Tribal commenced 1st October 2007 and they have published the report and recommendations.Sarah Pickup is leading for SMB to ensure that key issues such as organisational culture and effective performance management at the Board are addressed. This work will then addressensuring consistency of reporting to service boards.
Work is being undertaken in CSF,involving the corporate Performance Improvement team,to improve the planning framework and ensure golden threads run through the planning hierarchy. This work will initially be shared with services through the Performance and Planning Group and will be incorporated into the Service Planning Guidance.
More immediately a number of specific actions will be taken including:
  • Revision of service planning arrangements to focus on consistency and comparability – draft proposals now prepared;
  • Audit of current plans to assess where SMART targets are missing and put remedial action in place to address this – work progressing on service plans and good practice to be built into new model;
  • Development of consistent whole organisation approach to performance systems and accreditation.
  • The systems works is being developed to focus on business need, new national indicators and LAA reporting.

Corporate Services
David Robinson / Cultural Change and The Way We Work / Corporate Assessment 2007
The Council has invested significantly in its transformational programme but there remains some resistance to change by staff delivering services in the front line.
Partners and service users’ experience of access to services is mixed. The Council therefore needs to ensure that staff groups are given sufficient support to fully enable cultural changes required for the ‘Way We Work’ transformation programme.
(added Autumn 2007) / Updated April2008:
In addition to the activities outlined in the last updates the following actions have been completed/are planned:
Stevenage
  • Targeted emails to managers have commenced with input from the departmental leads.
  • A strategic group has been identified for Stevenage whose role will be to identify & resolve strategic issues related to the way we work once the moves commence. The first meeting of the group was held in March where the terms of reference were agreed. The group will now identify representatives for the User Group which will meet in June.
  • A pre-move survey has been completed which statistically shows improvements when compared to the Apsley 1 & 2 pre-move surveys.
County Hall
Manager’s workshops were held during February 2008 for all managers at County Hall. The objective of the workshops was to assist managers in preparing for the transition to The New Ways Of Working & that they:
  • Understood the TW3 vision, timeline & the rationale for change
  • Understood the benefits & impact & identify steps needed to enable the Ways of Working
  • Developed & implemented action plans & measure ongoing process
  • A manager’s guide which included an overall planning calendar for managers was distributed to managers at the workshops.
  • 257 managers were invited to the workshops of which 203 attended (an attendance rate of 78%).
  • Feedback from the workshops was positive. An average of 82% of attendees scored the sessions during the workshops as between 3-5 out of 5.
  • Non attendees will be briefed by the departmental leads. There will also be briefings to departmental boards.
  • 1:1’s have also commenced between managers & their staff.
  • The workshops are being followed up by general & themed briefing sessions throughout 2008. The first of these are 4 general sessions held throughout April for staff at County Hall.
All of the above activities should assist managers in supporting and preparing their teams for the transition.
Corporate Services
Alan Warner / Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults / Corporate Assessment 2007
Safeguarding children at risk is inadequate, in part because of inconsistent criminal background checking procedures of staff who work with children and young people. The council should improve recruitment processes including a robust system for screening staff who work with children and ensure that similar robust procedures are used fro staff working with vulnerable adults.
(added Autumn 2007) / Updated April 2008:
The Council has moved quickly to address the issues identified.
  • A Safe Staffing Board chaired by the Chief Executive has been established and has agreed revised polices for CRB checks and employee record files. Taskforce teams drawn from the Herts HR service were set up to implement these policies and are now completing any required CRB and other documents checks. Significant progress has been made. Any traces identified via priority CRB re-checks are being dealt with swiftly by senior service managers and HR.
  • Quality assurance standards, including close monitoring of the revised policies and processes, are also being introduced.
  • It is estimated that a one-off sum of approximately £150,000 is required to conclude this work.

Adult Care Services
Sarah Pickup / Wellbeing of people over 50 / Corporate Assessment 2007
There is no overarching strategy or plan to support the LAA targets for health or older people over 50. Some investment has been made on key officers and a joint appointment of a Director of Public Health but there is no coordination of activity to address health and well-being generally and nothing specifically for older people over 50. The council needs to develop and implement a comprehensive cross-cutting strategy for addressing healthier communities and the well-being and health of people over 50.
(added Autumn 2007) / Updated April 2008:
  • Strategies will be produced in partnership with older people themselves.
  • Engagement with older people planned for Spring / Summer 2008.
  • Cross-departmental project group working on ongoing arrangements to enable production of overarching strategy and identification of actions in context of LAA2 and Sustainable Community Strategy 2021.

CSF
Tom Rees / Youth Offending Team Inspection / YOT HMI Inspection highlighted areas – YOT improvement plan in place and approved by HMI
(added January 2008) / Updated April 2008:
  • Recruitment is underway for the victim liaison workers. A steering group is in place covering Youth Justice and Victim Support working on service delivery issues.
  • Training is now underway or been commissioned as required to meet the identified needs.
  • The YOT weekend rota coverage is now agreed, discussions regarding appropriate remuneration are almost complete, new level of coverage should begin June 2008.

CSF Youth Service
Andy Manson and Peter Hosier / Enhanced Youth Service Inspection (EYSI) / Inspection found Service “adequate and improving”. Areas for Development were highlighted.
(added January 2008) / Updated April 2008:
  • Post-Inspection action plan written and being implemented;
  • Continued process of improving quality of work through focussed support and development to individual staff and staff teams;
  • The programme of internal inspections was completed in February, the last two teams receiving a “good” grade. A new programme will be started later in the year to reflect IYSS;
  • New MI system in place to accurately record data;
  • Service priorities reaffirmed to staff;
  • Accommodation issues identified within the report remain unresolved and will be addressed as part of IYSS developments;
  • Integrated Youth Support Service was launched on 10 April 2008. It will work to increase understanding of the value of youth work at all levels and will continue work identified in post -inspection action plan.

Checklist of other recommendations/actions
These are important improvement issues but not strategic level aspects of the improvement plan
Service and Responsible Officer / Area for improvement / Reasons for inclusion eg Inspection finding / Declining, relatively poor performance etc / Progress made, actions planned, targets or project deliverables, comments
Corporate Services
Guy Pratt / Trading Standards Checklist / Worst quartile but improving performance.
(added Spring 2007) / Updated April 2008:
  • The Trading Standards Checklist (BVPI 166b) has been replaced from April 2008 by the new national indicators, of which NI182 and NI183 are relevant to this previous indicator.
  • The Service for 2007/2008 improved its score against the checklist (the old indicator) and was in the top quartile.

Corporate Services
Guy Pratt / Trading Standards Consumer Satisfaction / Worst quartile but improving performance.
(added Spring 2007) / Updated April 2008:
  • This measure no longer current as of April 2008. This measure has not been directly replaced, but the new national indicators NI 182 and NI 183 will be relevant measures for Trading Standards. Baseline figures for these indicators to be produced this year.
  • Final figures for the old indicator (year 2007/2008) will be available June 2008.

Environment
Rob Smith
(highways)
Richard Brown
(waste) / Environment –
work with our strategic highways and waste partners to identify more efficient ways of working / In the Annual Efficiency Statement 2005/06 we stated an objective:
To continue to work with our strategic highways and waste partners to identify more efficient ways of working.
(added Spring 2007) / No change fromJanuary 2008:
  • The Hertfordshire Waste Partnership has adopted the Waste Strategy 2007,endorsed by all 11 local authorities. The Strategy,with an accompanying Memorandum of Understanding,commits the Partnership to work better together.
  • A partnership development manager is being recruited to take forward integrated work-programming,harmonising procurement contracts and joint decision-taking.
  • Alternative financial arrangements are in place to reward the meeting of Strategy targets for waste minimisation and increased recycling.
Updated April 2008:
  • Significant savings planned for 2008/09 with further efficiencies built in to extended contracts.

Environment
Jan Hayes-Griffin / Planning applications / Performance in bottom quartile of Audit commission comparative data
(added Spring 2007) / Updated April2008:
  • Development Control performance doubled in 2006/07 from 13% to 26%.
  • 2007/08 year end performance was 55%.
  • This has been achieved through focussed management attention and the implementation of a Development Control Action Plan agreed by Development Control Committee in March 2007.
  • The small number of County matter planning applications upon which this indicator is based and their complexity makes this indicator particularly volatile.

Environment
Rob Smith / Pedestrian Crossings / Worst quartile but improving performance.
(added Spring 2007) / Updated April2008:
BVPI so projected to be significantly better than worst quartile.
Corporate Services
Geoff Brown / Racial incidents leading to further investigation / Declining performance Worst quartile PIs.
(added Spring 2007) / No change fromJanuary 2008:
  • End of year data (2006/07) for further investigations into racial incidents shows an 11% improvement on the previous year. This increase is due in part to improved explanation for schools of what is considered "further action". We are now only 1.15% off our 100% target.
  • The majority of incidents are reported through schools where the procedures have been adapted to try and ensure simplicity of recording.
  • The trends in numbers of incidents are monitored and will continue to be investigated to ascertain the reasons for variance.

Environment
Jan Hayes-Griffin / Articulated long-term strategy not in place.
Long term sustainable outcomes not in place. / Corporate Assessment 2007.
(added Autumn 2007) / Updated April2008:
The draft Sustainable Community Strategy for Hertfordshire to 2021 has been prepared and the consultation closed on 26 March. Results of the consultation and suggested revised Strategy will be reported to Herts Forward in June 2008 for final approval.
Report to Herts Forward in January 2008 agreed lead responsibilities on each theme, setting of targets, development of action plans and future performance monitoring arrangements.
Corporate Services
Andrew Laycock / Scrutiny needs streamlining. / Corporate Assessment 2007 highlighted that Scrutiny is effective but some structures are cumbersome. There is some confusion about what should be scrutinised where and the council recognises that there is some further work required to improve this.
(added Autumn 2007) / Updated April2008:
Proposals to streamline Scrutiny agreed by Council in February 08 for implementation in May. Preparation for the new system is under way.
Corporate Services
Geoff Brown / Pockets of under-performance. / Corporate Assessment 2007 highlighted there are pockets of underperformance such as in children’s social care and the take up of direct payments for social care.
(added Autumn 2007) / No change fromJanuary 2008:
Improvement Plan updated to address issues raised, eg, see planning applications above.
Corporate Services
Carole Grimwood / Staff appraisals inconsistently applied. / Corporate Assessment 2007.
(added Autumn 2007) / Updated April 2008:
Revised streamlined scheme has been rolled out. Following review further improvements are now being introduced. Improved monitoring arrangements are being implemented and new release of SAP will allow on-line monitoring from next year.
Corporate Services
Alan Warner / Need to improve recruitment processes. / Corporate Assessment 2007
There are… pockets of limited capacity affecting performance in some areas such as adults’ services and although the Fire and Rescue service is managing the situation well, there are retention pressures with trained and experienced fire fighters.
(added Autumn 2007) / Updated April 2008:
  • A major recruitment and retention initiative for Child Care Social Workers is being rolled out “Straight Talking”. Vacancy levels are continuing to fall.
  • All services have annual resourcing plans which roll forward every quarter.

The following items have been addressed and will be removed from the Improvement Plan: