Contact: Duncan Savage, ext 7479 or Keith Kerslake, ext 7317

1 Summary

1.1 The following decisions are sought:

· the outline content of the full and summary versions of the Best Value Performance Plan 2002/03 is approved

· the continued distribution of the summary version of the BVPP within the spring edition of Hampshire Now is approved

· that the full plan be subject to limited enhancement at no additional cost

· that proposals to jointly distribute the summary plan (within the spring edition of Hampshire Now) with Test Valley Borough Council be reconsidered once the results of the Government's review of the Best Value regime are known, in preparation for 2003.

· the creation of a web gateway to Hampshire authorities BVPPs and enhancements to our web version of the full plan, funded from existing budget provision, is approved

· All Hampshire authorities should join forces to promote their plans via a joint poster campaign.

· further discussions are held to explore the opportunities for co-ordinating the production, distribution and communication of the BVPP with other Best Value authorities in Hampshire.

2 Reason

2.1 To ensure that the County Council meets its obligations under the Local Government Act 1999.

3 Other options considered and rejected

3.1 No change to approach adopted for 2001/02.

3.2 Enhancements to the full BVPP requiring additional expenditure.

4 Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker or a member or officer consulted - Not applicable

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee - Not applicable

6 Reason for matter being dealt with if urgent - Not applicable

Approved by: Date:

7 Summary

7.1 This report outlines the proposed content of the full and summary versions of the Best Value Performance Plan (BVPP) for 2002/03. The report also makes recommendations for the design and distribution of both documents

8 Background

8.1 Under the Local Government Act 1999 the County Council has a duty to publish its Best Value Performance Plan no later than 31 March each year. The Council must also distribute a summary version of the BVPP to all households in Hampshire.

8.2 The Best Value Performance Plan is part of the County Council's Strategic and Policy Framework as defined in the Constitution and must be approved by the full Council.

8.3 The plan will tell the public what the Council has achieved in 2001/02, what it intends to do to improve services over the next twelve months and will set out demanding targets for achieving these goals.

8.4 Guidance from the DLTR emphasises the importance of communicating with the public and engaging them in the Council's activities. The summary version of the BVPP is a key mechanism in achieving this.

8.5 The Government has commissioned a review of the Best Value regime which is due to report by the end of this year and will focus in part on reducing the bureaucracy of Best Value. It is anticipated that the review could lead to significant changes in the Council's statutory responsibilities in relation to Best Value, particularly regarding the publication of the full and summary BVPP.

8.6 The Cabinet has already agreed that a Member Working Group aid the detailed development of the BVPP and it is anticipated that this group will meet during December / January.

9 Content of the full plan

9.1 Appendix 1 provides an outline of the content which will form the full BVPP. There are several main additions to last years plan:

· A summary of overall performance - recommended in last year's District Audit report

· Monitoring the progress in delivering the improvements promised to the community as a result of Best Value reviews carried out in 2000/01

· The results of our first round of Best Value inspections - this is a statutory requirement

· Priorities and targets set through the Public Service Agreement

· An explanation of the Council's new decision making structures

9.2 In last year's Best Value Audit report the District Auditor commented that "The overall impact of the Plan could be enhanced by creating a more user friendly document, which demonstrates clearly how performance targets are driving improvements". Bearing in mind the possible changes to the Best Value regime that the Government may make, we do not propose to make significant changes to the full BVPP this year. We recommend that the full plan continues to be focussed on a limited audience (County Councillors. Staff and managers, partners in the business and voluntary / community sectors, the District Auditor and interested members of the public). However, we have carried out a review of full and summary BVPPs produced by a range of other authorities to identify good practice that could be applied to our plan:

· Option 1

· The use of clearer language to highlight the Council's achievements and priorities, for example headings such as "In the last year we have..." and "Next year we will..." and the use of symbols to distinguish between good, average and poor performance

· Incorporating strong imagery and illustration into the design which helps to convey that the County Council is involved in a wide range of activities, delivering many things to many people. Carrying photographs of clearly identifiable landmarks, places and services helps to stimulate interest and give the immediate impression that it's about the local area. The use of graphs and charts to illustrate changes in performance over time, or comparisons against similar authorities

· The provision of clearer contact information for Members, services, plans and other authorities

· Option 2 - option 1 plus the use of two colour printing at an additional cost of £2,200 for a print run of 600 copies

· Option 3 - option 1 plus the use of full colour printing at an additional cost of £6,400 for a print run of 600 copies

9.3 Given the potential impact of the Government review and the audience for the full BVPP we recommend the adoption of option 1. In other respects the content and design of the full BVPP will reflect that produced last year.

10 Content and design of the summary plan

10.1 The summary BVPP is required by legislation to reflect the content of the full plan. However the summary version of the plan is aimed specifically at the public of Hampshire and has the objective of informing service users and those who may have little direct contact with local government, other than through payment of the council tax.

10.2 The items selected for inclusion in the summary will be determined by :

· Those year 2 reviews with significant outcomes, reviews of services which feature highly in the residents survey, or which have a far reaching impact on the community

· Those services whose performance measures indicate large variances from estimated or targeted levels of performance, or against national standards

10.3 We propose to continue to include the summary within the spring edition of Hampshire Now, using some of the articles to illustrate and amplify performance issues raised in the summary BVPP.

10.4 In order to gauge what readers thought of last year's summary BVPP once published, a reply-paid response card was included in the summary. 87% of the 886 residents who returned the questionnaire said they found the supplement easy to read and 85% found the information in the supplement easy to understand. This method of gathering views and opinion should be employed again in 2002/03 to encourage readers to comment on the plan.

10.5 Last year, focus group research was used to measure reaction to the proposed design and layout of the summary BVPP, prior to production. There was unanimous agreement over the presentation of the summary, with a strong preference for the text to be easy to read, and for the design and imagery to reflect how the services provided by the County Council are of relevance to a broad spectrum of residents. The research also investigated which graphical treatments best enable residents to interpret numerical data. Bar charts were clearly favoured over pie charts and seen as a more effective way of presenting the information. We intend to carry out similar research this year.

10.6 A survey of other authorities summary plans confirmed that Hampshire had followed good practice in encouraging residents to read its version and help them understand the content by:

· Focussing information on strategic aims or priority areas

· Using an easy to read layout without too much text on each page

· structuring performance information into an easily digestible read by dividing it under facts and figures headings such as `In the last year we...' and `Next year we will...'.

· Incorporating strong imagery and illustration into the design

· In order to encourage feedback and hear residents' views on content, format or any aspect of the plan, the inclusion of a short questionnaire or response card was a feature of many of the summaries studied. A few authorities took it one step further by offering an incentive, such as a prize draw or competition, to encourage a response

· Some summaries featured an `A-Z of services', providing a handy reference tool for residents which puts them in touch with their local authority. This is already a regular feature of Hampshire Now.

10.7 On this basis we do not propose to make any significant changes to the design and content of this years summary plan, but recommend the adoption of the successful formula utilised last year.

11 Distribution of the Plan

11.1 For the past two years the summary BVPP has been included as a special pullout within the spring edition of the countywide magazine Hampshire Now. Research shows that Hampshire Now continues to be the public's favoured medium of regular communication from the Council This method of distribution ensures the summary BVPP reaches as many homes as possible without incurring separate distribution costs. To produce and distribute the Hampshire Now and the summary BVPP separately, targeting every home in Hampshire, would incur an additional cost of £40,000.

11.2 Hampshire Now is delivered to the county's half a million residents via shared distribution, which has proven to be very cost effective. The vast majority of households will receive their copy with their local free newspaper. Those areas not covered by free newspaper distribution receive a copy via the Royal Mail Walksort system, whereby the magazines are hand delivered with regular post to the individual addresses. Hampshire Now is also sent to doctors surgeries, libraries, information centres, surgeries, residential homes for the elderly and Citizens' Advice Bureaus.

11.3 Both full and summary versions of the BVPP will be available in libraries and information centres and on the County Council's website by 31 March 2002. Distribution of Hampshire Now including the summary BVPP will take place during March and April 2002.

11.4 Copies of the full and summary BVPP contained inside Hampshire Now will be sent to every County Councillors and partners in the business and voluntary / community sectors. All staff will receive a copy of the summary version within Spotlight, with those closely involved in Best Value also receiving a full version.

11.5 Both versions of the BVPP will be publicised through a comprehensive internal and external communications campaign. This will include: press releases to all local media, the Budget Leaflet, which will carry a `trailer' to raise awareness of the BVPP and let residents know a copy of the summary will be dropping through their letterboxes shortly, radio advertising - as part of Hampshire Now's sponsorship agreement with Wave FM, as well as informing all staff through Stop Press, an article in the March edition of Spotlight and a message on all pay slips.

12 Co-ordination with other authorities

12.1 The Audit Commission has encouraged closer working between the County Council and the district councils on Best Value. The development of the Community Strategy, has started the process of establishing closer working relationships between Hampshire County Council and its district authorities.

12.2 The production and distribution of the summary BVPP presents an opportunity for closer co-ordination between the County Council and other local Best Value authorities. In 2001/02, the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service joined forces with Hampshire County Council to distribute their summary with Hampshire Now.

12.3 The County Council already liaises with other Best Value authorities through a variety of regular meetings, this has resulted in some interest in joint working with Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority, Hampshire Police Authority, Test Valley Borough Council and Fareham Borough Council. The following proposals have resulted:

· Hampshire County Council should co-ordinate electronic links between web versions of the BVPP summaries and full plans and set up a BVPP gateway. The cost of this and improvements to the navigability of the web version of our plan would be around £2,600 and will be funded from the Corporate Communications budget

· All Hampshire authorities to be invited to carry each others telephone numbers and the web gateway address in the printed version of their BVPP summary, the County Council will co-ordinate this

· Subject to detailed costings Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service will distribute its plan with the spring edition of Hampshire Now

· A pilot exercise has been considered involving joint distribution with Test Valley Borough Council of their summary BVPP and ours contained within Hampshire Now. This would be logistically possible and would be a positive move towards joining up our communication with the public, however there would be an additional costs to us of around £8,000. Given these additional costs, it would seem sensible to wait until the results of the Government's review of the Best Value regime are known before a final decision is made.

· All Hampshire authorities should join forces to promote their plans via a joint poster campaign. The design and production of the poster will be co-ordinated by Hampshire County Council and the Police Authority. Displayed in information centres, libraries and other locations countywide, the poster will point residents in the right direction for obtaining any of the plans or visiting the web gateway.

12.4 An evaluation of the success of these proposals, and further discussion on the possibilities for joint distribution and production for future years will take place once the outcomes of the Government's review of Best Value are known.

13 Recommendation

13.1 It is recommended that:

· the outline content of the full and summary versions of the Best Value Performance Plan 2002/03 is approved

· the continued distribution of the summary version of the BVPP within the spring edition of Hampshire Now is approved

· that the full plan be subject to limited enhancement at no additional cost

· that proposals to jointly distribute the summary plan (within the spring edition of Hampshire Now) with Test Valley Borough Council be reconsidered once the results of the Government's review of the Best Value regime are known, in preparation for 2003.

· the creation of a web gateway to Hampshire authorities BVPPs and enhancements to our web version of the full plan funded from existing budget provision is approved

· All Hampshire authorities should join forces to promote their plans via a joint poster campaign.

· further discussions are held to explore the opportunities for co-ordinating the production, distribution and communication of the BVPP with other Best Value authorities in Hampshire.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NONE

N.B. The list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

Appendix 1

Best Value Performance Plan 2002/03

Outline content of full plan

Table to be completed