Contact: Jenny Heath, 01962 847402; [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 The following decisions are sought:

· That the summary of progress with the Hampshire Improvement Programme is noted and that the project monitoring reports are reflected in the Performance Plan.

· That the changes to the Best Value review programme are approved.

· That the Hampshire Improvement Programme and Best Value review programme are integrated into the annual review of the Corporate Strategy in 2003/04.

2 Reasons for the recommendations

· The Council is under a statutory obligation to maintain a programme of Best Value reviews, covering all its functions.

· Monitoring progress with the improvement programme is good practice in relation to the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) improvement reporting exercise. This in turn supports the Corporate Strategy aim 5: improving services, specifically in relation to the priority area: `ensure the County Council is judged as high performing'.

3 Other options considered and rejected

None

4 Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker, or member or officer consulted

None

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

Not applicable

6 Reason for matter being dealt with, if urgent

Not applicable

Approved by: Date:

7 Purpose of the report

7.1 This report informs the Cabinet of progress with the Hampshire Improvement Programme and the Best Value review programme, since they were agreed at its meeting on 23 December 2002.

7.2 Proposals are also made for future improvement and review activity.

8 The Hampshire Improvement Programme

8.1 The Cabinet was advised at its informal meeting on 10 November 2003 that the Council's self-assessment of progress since the first round of Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) has drawn heavily on the results of an exercise to monitor progress with the Hampshire Improvement Programme.

8.2 On the basis of the Council's excellent status and self-awareness of areas that needed developing, the improvement programme was developed in 2002 to reflect existing or planned activities. These were clustered into priority areas - seven reflecting community based priorities and four reflecting infrastructure priorities:

· Improved educational achievement for children at risk of social exclusion

· An integrated approach with NHS, housing and the voluntary sector to meet the needs of older people

· Natural Resource Initiative

· Reducing congestion and pollution on roads

· Keeping traffic safely on the move

· Increasing community engagement and access to public services

· Working with young people

· Ensuring high quality staff are in place to deliver quality services

· Development of Member scrutiny role

· Development of performance management

· Development of ICT infrastructure

9 Progress with the Hampshire Improvement Programme

9.1 Overall the progress has been positive. Appendix One provides the final version of the summary of progress since the first CPA self-assessment which was submitted to the auditor during November 2003.

9.2 The more detailed progress reports completed at the level of individual projects provide information which can support monitoring the corporate strategy and the Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA). Key elements of this information will be used to update the full performance plan on Hantsweb.

10 The Best Value review programme

10.1 In an attempt to streamline improvement activity into an integrated improvement programme, the revised Best Value review programme for 2003/04 was incorporated into the Hampshire Improvement Programme. The following Best Value reviews were approved:

· Early years childcare and development

· Lifelong learning

· Waste management

· Older people

· Community engagement.

Some reviews from previous years continued into 2003/04:

· Support for children in the community

· Education services for vulnerable children and those educated out of school or excluded

11 Progress with Best Value reviews

11.1 The start of the early years childcare and development review was initially delayed while the new head of the unit was recruited and allowed time to settle into the post. Subsequently there has been some uncertainty about future funding streams for early years and the project board for the review have recommended that the review is put on hold until the summer of 2004, when they will be in a better position to clarify the potential scope and benefit of a Best value review in this area. This will also give time for the findings of the review of lifelong learning to clarify where there are overlaps.

11.2 The lifelong learning review team will be presenting a project brief for consideration by the special Lifelong Learning Panel on 2 December 2003. The panel will consider the working vision that has been drafted for lifelong learning, with a view to arriving at options for improvement by May 2004 and finalising an improvement plan at the end of the summer term, 2004.

11.3 The Waste Management review is a joint review being led by the Project Integra Board. As such the County Council is a co-contributor to this review along with other partners in Project Integra. Reporting at various stages of the review will be to the Policy Review and Scrutiny Committee, which has 17 committee members (one Member appointed by each partner authority, one co-opted Member appointed by Hampshire Waste Services, and two co-opted Members appointed by the Committee to represent relevant community interests or groups). The Corporate Performance Team is providing support to the review team. The final report is anticipated in July 2004, with action planning in July / Aug 2004.

11.4 The review of support to older people has been overtaken by the decision to designate this area of activity a Cabinet priority. To avoid duplication of effort key people who would have been involved in the Best Value review are participating ion the older persons Cabinet priority group.

11.5 Once the review of community engagement was announced there was considerable interest from all departments in its potential scope - with the result that it was starting to mean all things to all people and developing a scope that covered all council activity. Over the summer and early autumn advice has been taken from District Audit, helping the officer Corporate Performance Steering Group to consider how best to refine the boundaries of the review. In conclusion it is proposed to restrict the initial review to responding to the recommendations from the Corporate Assessment (CPA) Team. These were:

· In order to make best use of consultation with users and stakeholders, and to ensure that consultees' views are both respected and seen to be respected, the Council should:

ensure that it consults all relevant stakeholders over strategies, policies, and priorities early enough to enable the results of consultation to influence outcomes, and make better use of established consultation mechanisms.

As a result Keith Kerslake, Head of Communications, has agreed to lead this more tightly defined review. Part of the outcome of the review will be to flag up what other areas of community engagement need further review in later years.

Although refining the scope has meant a delay to the review starting, significant research exercises have maintained community engagement, for example through consultation on the budget strategy and a repeat of the Resident's Survey, which tracks opinions over time and informs decisions about the Council's priorities.

11.6 The continuing reviews for children in the community and children educated outside school are taking time to consider the impact of the Green Paper `Every Child Matters'. Both review teams are beginning to develop options for improvement.

12 Future Best Value reviews

12.1 The following topics have been flagged up in various exercises as potential candidates for Best Value reviews in 2004/05:

12.2 Equality and diversity - following discussion with Jane Goodwin, the Equality and Diversity Adviser, the scope of this review is clarified as carrying out an authority wide assessment against the national standard that will enable the Council to move towards level three of that standard. The anticipated outputs from the review are:

· new aims in relation to equality and diversity, which will be incorporated in the Corporate Strategy

· a plan for delivery of these aims

· validation of the Council's policies and guidance that relate to equality and diversity.

12.3 Procurement - following the recent development of the Corporate Procurement Strategy, together with its associated improvement plan, the requirement for a formal review has reduced. However, the officers' Corporate Procurement Network will consider proposals for the potential scope and benefit of a Best Value review during 2004/05. This will take account of Government guidance and lessons learnt from implementing the Council's strategy.

12.4 Risk management - a Best Value review of risk management in 2004/05 would duplicate effort already put into the development of the recently approved Corporate Strategy for Managing Risk. The detailed action plan which accompanies the strategy will be monitored by the officers' Risk Management Board.

12.5 It is proposed to keep the number of Best Value reviews to a minimum in 2004/05, so that the Council can continue to target its resources on the four Cabinet priority areas and on developing the performance management framework, so that it provides a robust springboard for continuous service improvement.

13 Conclusions

13.1 The Hampshire Improvement Programme and the Best Value Review Programme are devices which enable the Council to respond to legislation and audit requirements. On the one hand the improvement programme is designed to list those projects and activities which will deliver the Council's priority outcomes. On the other hand the Best Value review programme is designed to ensure the Council takes time out to reflect on and consider options to improve areas that currently cause concern. However, separate documents confuse the messages about what the Council's priorities are and how they are being addressed. To address this confusion, it is proposed that both the Hampshire Improvement Programme and the Best Value Review Programme are integrated into the Corporate Strategy during its annual review, so that it can clearly be seen how these programmes of activity are designed to address the Council's corporate aims and objectives.

13.2 The value of both programmes is not limited to responding to statutory or audit requirements. The monitoring exercise has resulted in useful information of how the range of projects undertaken across the authority contribute to corporate, cross-cutting priorities. It would be inappropriate for the Corporate Strategy to record activity at this level of detail. It is, therefore, proposed that the individual projects supporting corporate priorities identified in the Corporate Strategy should be collated and monitored as part of an overall approach to programme management.

Recommendation

1 That the summary of progress with the Hampshire Improvement Programme be noted and that the project monitoring reports be reflected in the Performance Plan

2 That the following changes to the Best Value review programme for 2003/04 be agreed:

· The Early Years and Child Care review be postponed pending further consideration of its potential scope and benefit.

· The older persons review be deleted from the programme

· The community engagement review be tightly focussed on responding to the Corporate Assessment Team's recommendations, with a view to considering further related topics for review in the future as appropriate.

3 That the following changes to the Best Value review programme for 2004/05 and forward be agreed:

· The procurement review be postponed pending further consideration of its potential scope and benefit.

· The risk management review be deleted from the forward programme

· A review of equality and diversity be undertaken in 2004/05 with a focus on achieving level three of the national standard.

4 That the Hampshire Improvement Programme and Best Value review programme be integrated into the annual review of the Corporate Strategy in 2003/04

5 That individual projects supporting the updated Corporate Strategy be monitored as part of an overall approach to programme management.

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.