Contact: Paddy Hillary Ext. 7391/Jill Lovelock Ext. 7591

1. Summary

1.1 This report updates Cabinet on the progress to date after 18 months of
operation in terms of performance and spending for each of the 13 targets
included in the Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA).

1.2 Cabinet is asked to endorse that continuing priority be given to activities in
support of achieving the PSA targets.

2. Reason

2.1 As part of the LPSA the County Council will receive a Performance Reward Grant at the end of the period (2002/3 - 2004/5) of up to £22m. This is payable on a sliding scale and is dependent on achieving at least 60% of the stretch in performance on the individual targets. The County Council needs to ensure that the implementation of actions to achieve these targets is being delivered.

3. Other options considered and rejected: Not applicable.

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

5. Dispensation granted by the Standard's Committee - Not applicable.

6. Reason(s) for the matter being dealt with if urgent - Not applicable.

Approved by: Date:

Councillor T K Thornber CBE

Contact: Paddy Hillary Ext. 7391/Jill Lovelock Ext. 7591

1. Summary

1.1 This report updates Cabinet on the arrangements for monitoring the County Council's local public service agreement and the progress to date after the first 18 months of operation in terms of performance and spending for each of the 13 targets.

1.2 We are now half way through the PSA period and the pump priming money and actions are starting to have an effect on performance in relation to the targets. The following headlines highlight key messages about implementation and progress at the halfway stage.

Headlines

· The targets are stretching ones and for many we started at a high level of performance, so we must expect to find this a challenge.

· The targets are related to the key Cabinet priorities, so provide a base for delivering priority services.

· It is unlikely we will meet 100% of each of the 13 targets and, on current performance, some may not be achieved at the 60% level.

· Procedures are now in place but there is some time lag in availability of PI data.

· Where targets are particularly high in education and road casualty reduction, even if we do not meet PSA targets by 2005 there will be continuous and sustained improvement in our services through and beyond PSA period.

· Hampshire will still be a high performing authority even if the targets are not all met in full.

· There is an impact on the scope for delivery around changes in Government policy and target/indicator definitions.

Summary assessment of each target (See Appendix 1 for schedule of targets):


1. Slow progress although Hampshire is performing better and improving faster than its statistical neighbours.

2. Progress with targeted schools in areas of deprivation is good

3. Mixed performance and overall some concern. Further action to be discussed with these schools.

4. 5 A*-C looks achievable, but concerns at 5 A*-G and unauthorised absence and exclusions, where follow-up action will be taken.

5. Negotiating with DOH on target measurement. Pump priming and investment starting to impact, particularly on social care waits.

6. Good progress in 5 A*-G and well above national average. Expect to exceed final target. Reasons for below target performance on KS3 SATS can be identified and each child has an individual plan for next year.

7. Currently below expected target but on track to meet targets by 2005.

8. On target, but disruption rates need to be reduced.

9. On target, but sustaining this beyond the PSA period depends on significant changes.

10. Although figures now received from operators are lower, marketing funded by pump priming is starting.

11. Performance below target, but new focus on measures necessary to improve performance.

12. The next survey is spring 2004 with a target of steady state from 2003

13. This is very challenging and we are unlikely to meet even partial reward grant.

2. Introduction

2.1 Cabinet will recall that the County Council concluded negotiations for the local public service agreement with the Government in January 2002, for an agreement covering the period April 2002 to March 2005. The agreement covers 13 targets which are a mix of 7 national targets, as prescribed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and 6 local targets. A full list is attached as Appendix 1.

2.2 As part of the LPSA, the County Council has received £2,002,000 in pump priming funds. In addition, the Performance Reward Grant, of up to £22m, will be payable at the end of the agreement on a sliding scale assuming that at least 60% of the stretch in performance for the individual targets has been achieved. The reward grant is divided equally between the 13 targets and where multiple indicators are used to measure the targets, reward grant is divided equally against the indicators unless otherwise stated.

3. Monitoring arrangements

3.1 The Government does not specify any monitoring arrangements or reporting mechanisms for the LPSA. The County Council has devised its own pro forma for departments to use on a 6 monthly basis in reporting progress in terms of the actions needed to deliver the targets, the performance indicators specified in the agreement and the spending of pump priming. The monitoring includes issues relating to progress with the freedoms and flexibilities negotiated into the agreement with Government. The completed pro formas showing the position as at end September 2003 are attached to this report.

3.2 Departments have set up procedures to monitor progress and systems to collect the necessary data, some of which is already standard PI data for national BVPIs. This exercise will be repeated in 6 months (April/May 2004).

3.3 The County Council was awarded pump priming grant of £2.003m to assist
in achieving the service improvements required to meet the PSA targets. This grant was paid to the County Council during April 2003. Though the grant has been paid in a single instalment the use of the grant has been planned over the three years of the PSA. The use of the grant to date is as follows:


Actual Planned Total
2002/03 2003/04
& 2004/05
£000 £000 £000

Education - all

targets 744 241 985

Environment -waste

Diversion and bus 33 429 462

use

Social Services -

All targets 90 466 556

----- ----- ----

867 1136 2003


The majority of grant payable in respect of pump priming of Social Services and Environment targets is therefore available in 2003/4 and 2004/5.

3.4 In addition the County Council was authorized to incur unsupported borrowing of £2.250m allocated as follows:

£000
Bridgemary Community School - provision of IT suite 200
Brune Park Community School - extension of dining facilities 200
Social Care Information System 1850
-------
2250

All three are contributions towards larger projects. The Bridgemary and Social Care Information projects are in progress and the Brune Park project is due to start in June 2004.

4. Progress to date

4.1 Most of the targets have had a period of putting in place the actions required to achieve the improvement in performance and there is still a time lag in relation to the results especially in educational attainment. In some areas, such as road casualty reduction, the new performance monitoring arrangements are resulting in the re-shaping of services and programmes to improve our chances of meeting the targets. The pro formas include factors relating to implementation and achievement of the targets both internal and external which may influence the ability to deliver, including the impact of changes in Government policy and target/indicator definitions e.g. the new processes around the monitoring of delayed discharges.

For most of the targets a significant level of performance improvement will be achieved through the PSA even though it is recognised that there are concerns about the ability to deliver on some of the more stretching targets even at the 60% level. Departments have recognised the need to review spending and resources to support PSA activities.

The main value of the PSA process has been to give a focus to Cabinet priorities and key areas of performance for the County Council and is leading to improved services in many areas.

The key issue in relation to the performance reward grant is the achievement of at least 60% of the stretch in performance. This is calculated from the stated level of anticipated improvement in performance without the PSA to the level expected with the PSA. For many of the targets the incremental improvement from 60% to 100% is relatively small with most of the improvement in the change from the current level to the anticipated level of improvement without the PSA. This means that for some targets achieving even the 60% will be a struggle and to reach 100% even more difficult.

4.2 Education Targets (1-4)

Progress so far towards the targets is summarised in the tables below. Performance information available since the last monitoring report in March is now included for all targets, although GCSE results for the whole county are not yet available. Performance information for Target 3 is provisional and is currently being checked.

Target 1 - KS3

This target covers all Hampshire secondary schools. Performance is summarised below.

Key Stage 3 Level 5

2003 results are provisional. Overall there is not a great deal of progress towards the targets, although science looks achievable. The limited progress on ICT is due in part to more realistic teacher assessments.

The national picture is similar, although Hampshire is performing better than its statistical neighbours and is improving faster. Given the national picture, is there a case to be made to the DfES that the LPSA targets are unrealistic, since this is a national target and the LPSA stretch element is based on DfES targets which in the main look unachievable?

Target 2 - GCSE

This has two components: a countywide target and an aggregate target relating to twelve schools in areas of relative deprivation (listed in Appendix 1).

Progress by the twelve schools is good and the target looks reachable. County-wide performance has improved, but is still a good way below the target.

Target 3 - Unauthorised absence

Performance is very mixed and overall gives some cause for concern. The Acting Principal EWO will be contacting the schools concerned to consider what action is needed to improve the position in Andover and Havant and to maintain progress in north Basingstoke.

Target 4 - Gosport Secondary schools

Progress towards the 5 A*-C target has shown a slight fall from last year, although the target still looks achievable. A*-G results are of more concern; the target itself is very challenging and there has been a significant fall in performance from last year, which was already below the base.The cohort at Bridgemary Community School had suffered previously from poor attendance and there was a residual problem over incomplete coursework and continuing erratic attendance, including at the examinations themselves, despite the school and Education Welfare Officer's best efforts. In some cases parents could not or would not support the school's strategies for providing support. Unauthorised absence and exclusions have also increased. Follow-up action is clearly needed on the latter targets.

4.2 Social Services Targets (5-8)

Target 5 - Older People

* The D41 indicator definition changed for 02/03 within the Social Services Performance Assessment Framework and became based on SITREP's data. The indicator is now calculated as the average number of delays in the last quarter of 02/03 per 100,000 population over age 65 for the county council area. The base PSA figures were for the original 3 Health Authorities using the former definition. We are negotiating a new target measurement with the Department of Health that will be included in the HCC PSA as there is therefore no comparative base or LPSA Target agreement with this new definition.


Progress has been made on the number of intensive home care packages provided and the level of delayed discharges. There is high turnover of service users receiving intensive home care packages due to the level and complexity of their needs. During an average week approximately 58 packages may be started but 40 are ending. The performance improvement of 1.5 in the first 6 months of this year therefore represents significant investment. Similarly performance on delayed transfers of care has significantly improved during the first 6 months of this year. For the week ending 30 March 2003 the total number of delays reported for Hampshire was 225, however only 116 of these were `social care waits'. For the week ending 7 September 2003 the figures were 160 and 51 respectively. These much lower figures reflect the impact of the additional investment by the County Council and further improvements are anticipated by 1 January 2004.


Target 6 and 7 - Educational attainment of looked after children

Target 6

Indicator	Base	2002	Current September 03	2004 Target	LPSA Target 100%	LPSA Target 60%
5 GCSEs A-G	40%	47%	60%	69%	69%
Key stage SATs (level 5) English Maths Science ICT		32% 45% 41% 41%	36% 39.4% 44% not available	45% 50% 47% 47%	51% 54% 55% 55%

Substantial progress has been made in the performance of young people gaining GCSE A*-G. We are above the expected outcome for September 2003 and will exceed the 2005 target next year.



Target 7

Indicator	Base	2002	Current September 03	2004 Target	LPSA Target 100%	LPSA Target 60%
5 GCSEs A*-C	11%	13%	8%	17%	21%

Although our performance has failed to reach expected targets, we are still on track to reach expected outcomes by 2005. We have put a corporate structure in place (Corporate Team for the education of children looked after) who are making substantial progress in developing individual action plans for young people who are identified as needing extra support to reach 5 GCSEs A-C. PEP dowries are being made available to provide extra tuition in key subject areas. This process will be managed by the corporate team




Target 8 - increase number of children in permanent placements

Indicator	Base	2002	Current September 03	2004 Target	LPSA Target 100%	LPSA Target 60%
Increase number of children achieving permanence.	219	221	247	242	345	N/A
C23 Adoption orders	56	49	12	39	84	N/A
Family/friends placements.	163	172	247	203	261	N/A

Adoption orders continue to be slow in progressing although an increased number of children have been placed in adoptive placements in the previous year. A monthly meeting is being held to track the progress of individual children.

There has been an increase in the number of children being placed with family/friends who would previously have been adopted i.e. younger, 'easy to place' children, which is having the predicted impact on children requiring adoptive placements.

There is a significant increase in the number of children who are looked after in family/friends foster care and as support mechanisms increase, also an increase in `private law' arrangements such as residence orders.

Disruption rates of childrens' adoptive placements are higher than desirable and need to be reduced by 2005 to 5%.

4.3 Environment Targets (9-12)

Target 9 - Waste (HNRI)

Confirmation has now been received from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on the projects that count towards the PSA and the audit system we will use to measure our performance against the target. The first year has been spent forming partnerships and developing a programme of works for delivery over the two remaining years. A number of demonstration projects are under way and implementation of schemes will follow providing the demonstrations are successful. The table below shows the current maximum and minimum tonnages we expect to achieve over the three years of the target

	2002/2003	2003/2004	2004/2005
Maximum	0	49369	97144
Minimum	0	27045	50796
Target	40000	40000	40000

Dependencies include implementation of the proposed specification changes across the department to stimulate the markets for recycled materials and delivery of the Material Resources Strategy and the Sustainable Construction Framework.

Target 10 - Increased bus use

Agreement has been reached with DfT on the baseline calculation and the methodology for measuring improvement. Data received shows a decrease for the period 99/00 -02/03 demonstrating the size of the task ahead. The Quality Bus Partnership study has identified 10 routes which will be the subject of a targeted marketing campaign, using PSA pump priming funds, to build on improvements to services, vehicles and route infrastructure achieved in partnership with operators. A specialist marketing consultant has been awarded a contract to undertake `Personalised Marketing' on these routes and this work started in September 2003.

The project will use the full pump priming budget of £308,000 over an 18 month period employing a range of measures including marketing literature, detailed passenger transport information and ticket initiatives and incentives.

	Base 99/00-02/03	2003/4	LPSA targets - 100%	LPSA targets - 60%
Increase in bus use over 2000 levels	-2.13%	Interim target +2.5%	4%	3.4%

Target 11 - Reduction in fatal and seriously injured casualties

Some progress has been achieved with reductions in casualties relative to the baseline however performance is currently behind target on the PSA even at the 60% level, which is still a very stretching target. Project mobilisation is progressing well through both safety camera deployment and a wide-ranging review of road safety programmes and services, currently being re-shaped to focus on reductions in the most serious road casualties. Within these new programmes has been the introduction of joint Police/County Council site investigation teams aimed at producing a rapid identification and elimination of the factors possibly contributing to the causes of accidents. These programme improvements are expected to significantly improve the County Council's abilities to meet the national headline casualty reduction targets set by Government for the year 2010 and reflected in the Hampshire Local Transport Plan (2001-2006) and Road Traffic Reduction Act report.

	Base 94-98	2002/3 (2002 calendar year)	2003/4 (Latest available 12 months to June 2003)	LPSA targets - 100%	LPSA targets - 60%
Police recorded fatal and seriously injured casualties on Hampshire roads incl motorway and TR network	1054	938	957	780	814

Target 12 - Condition of local roads

Interim highway condition results for two thirds of the non classified roads, carried out Spring 2003, show a small but significant improvement over 2002 survey results. However, this may be due to the roads surveyed being different to those surveyed during 2002 rather than an improvement in condition. Any progress towards the PSA target will not be confirmed until the Spring 2004 condition surveys are carried out.

4.4 Target 13 - Cost Effectiveness

When the LPSA was signed in January 2002, the Government had not finalised negotiations on the definition of the cost effectiveness measure. A definition has now been agreed and the change in cost effectiveness is measured by dividing an index of change in performance by an index of change in cost. Cabinet approved a target for this indicator at the last meeting for the partial payment of reward grant when performance on the cost effectiveness indicator reaches 106 rising to a full reward grant when it reaches 108.

The performance index is built up from 26 local and national performance indicators with many of these indicators replicating those in the other 12 PSA targets. Weightings have been applied to ensure that the importance of any indicator within the performance index measure is consistent with its scale and impact relative to the activities of the County Council. The cost index is based on the change in the County Council's spending net of specific grant adjusted for inflation.

Information is currently available for 2002/03 for 20 of the 26 performance indicators. The table below shows the results to date, weighted to exclude the missing indicators from the performance index. They will be revised when all the data is available.

	Base	2002/03	2004/05 target
			Partial reward grant	Full reward grant
Performance index	100	98.0	-	-
Cost index	100	104.4	-	-
Cost effectiveness indicator	100	93.9	106	108

As the report to the last meeting warned, the cost effectiveness target will be very challenging as the increase in performance on some of the individual performance indicators, such as educational attainment, are unlikely to match or exceed the increase in the County Council's overall spending.

This has been borne out by the results for the first year. The weighted performance index has decreased from 100 to 98.0 but the cost index has risen to 104.4. This leaves the cost effectiveness indicator down from 100 to 93.9. It will be difficult to increase the cost effectiveness indicator over the next two years (2003/04 and 2004/05) from 93.9 to 106.0 at which grant first becomes payable.

Recommendation

That Cabinet endorses continuing priority being given to activities in support of achieving the PSA targets.

Background Information

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.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works.

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

File: Documents held by Chief Executive Location: Chief Executive's Dept.

Appendix 1

SCHEDULE 1: PERFORMANCE TARGETS

Summary table