Archived decisions

Ambition

The County Council has a clear vision of its leadership role in relation to longer term issues that affect the people of Hampshire, and recognises its role along with the public and other agencies in creating an integrated approach to finding solutions through the Hampshire Community Strategy¹. This strategy sets out four main themes:

· Health and well-being

· Economic prosperity and life long learning

· Strong and safe communities

· Environment, infrastructure and transport.

These set the direction for the longer term vision for Hampshire and resonate well with the Council's aims for its own services.

Priorities

Looking at the medium and shorter term, the Cabinet and the Corporate Management Team have identified key themes and actions they wish to achieve over the course of the administration in response to the Community Strategy vision and based on the extensive programme of research with residents. These form the basis for the County Council's Corporate Strategy² and the framework for the Local Public Service Agreement³ (LPSA).

Future plans

Supporting the main corporate strategy, the County Council is improving its response to the complex sustainable development issues of social inclusion, community engagement, protection and enhancement of the built and natural environment and management of natural resources. There is also an Implementing electronic Government (IEG) statement⁴ and an equalities strategy⁵ which set out the Council's commitment to improving access to services and to giving a stronger focus on the needs, aspirations and choices of residents.

In addition to these cross-cutting, long term aims, the Council has also identified key people and resources to assess and respond to the significant organisational changes that will be required by the Children Bill.

Capacity

In order to deliver, the development of the County Council's leadership role is a priority.  Building capacity through partnerships and using its size as an asset, being prepared to take calculated risks, making best use of innovation and the mixed economy approach to service delivery are key building blocks that along with a competent and motivated workforce form an integrated framework for managing change.

The County Council has a good track record of partnership working both at the strategic level and across all services, both through existing inter-agency and local strategic partnership working and the development of new partnerships, especially more integrated working with health.  The added value of these partnerships, especially the ability to maximise the use of resources from other sources to achieve real improvements in delivery, is a key part of the County Council's strategy. The benefits are being felt through, for example, the development of the second LPSA, in partnership with district councils in Hampshire.

Focus

The wider performance management framework and culture is being developed to ensure the Council remains focused on its identified priorities. Whilst the building blocks of the framework have been in place for many years it is the integrating of these processes and timetables which is most important to ensure that the authority continues to improve, while retaining its track record for economy and efficiency.

Performance measurement is an important tool in our mission to continuously improve our services and ensure that we are focussed on our key objectives. Departments have identified their key priorities and this Autumn the authority is completing its first integrated six month monitoring and reporting of progress on its performance. This includes where feasible:

· progress on the national Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs)

· the Corporate Strategy aims,⁶ which now incorporate the LPSA targets and CPA Improvement Plan (if not already in service plans)

· local service plan targets, together with finance and resources.

Progress since first CPA

We are responding to the recommendations following the assessment of our corporate ability and the Corporate Strategy now provides a single, integrated focus for our corporate goals and targets. The CPA Improvement plan⁷, the LPSA targets and other key strategies are firmly embedded in our Corporate Strategy and service plans - the outcomes of which are recorded in our Performance Plan. In support the Corporate Communications Team has developed the Internal Communications Strategy and is also reviewing the way we consult with our communities.

In terms of cross-cutting activities, we are reviewing our approach and capacity to deliver on equality and diversity issues and departments have begun a phased implementation of race and equality impact assessments. The Director of Environment is leading a group focusing on activities to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and support disaffected young people.

We have set up scrutiny and area committee pilots to explore ways of improving the engagement of elected members in local policy development and in scrutinising executive decisions. The pilots are informed by previous experience in best value and the increasing expertise being developed through health scrutiny.

Results - achievements and areas for improvement

As a general principle, the Council has set itself the aim of achieving top quartile status and targets have generally been set at a high level. In some cases these are extremely challenging and reflect either nationally set targets or the Council's own ambitious plans set out in the local Public Service Agreement.

Year on year comparison (2002/03 to 2003/04) of the whole suite of BVPIs indicates improved performance for 52% of those BVPIs where it is possible to make comparisons, with a further 12% of indicators showing stable performance. Overall we have had a positive upward trend in performance since 01/02 - 55% of indicators improving or remaining stable - with the increase being most marked from 02/03 to 03/04.

Again where it is possible to measure, performance in 2003/04 against target figures indicates they were achieved for 48% of the indicators. They were not achieved for 52% of indicators - a reflection of the `stretching' nature of many of the targets, some of which are set nationally. ⁸

Key results include:

· Funding for three year old nursery education places became a universal entitlement in Hampshire in 2004 - six months ahead of plan

· In both primary and secondary schools there were fewer surplus places than the target

· Progress relating to pupil achievement is in line with national trends: the overall number of pupils achieving 5 A* - C passes is increasing, although the position with A* - G passes in the targeted Gosport schools is less encouraging.

· Unauthorised absence is mixed and exclusion performance in Gosport schools has been negative, in spite of an overall reduction in the number of exclusions per head of the school population. This is being tackled through specific steps, such as one-to-one counselling, Youth Service projects and targeted use of Education Welfare Officers.

· The Council has pump-primed the development of 56 apprenticeship posts.

· The increase in the number of school pupil visits to museums reflects the extended learning programme developed by the Museum Service for schools and the joint working with the Education department to support the curriculum.

· The priority to increase the number of children in permanent placements has improved in respect of children placed with friends and family, while a decrease in adoptions is being addressed by a new post to market the concept of adoption.

· The percentage of 14 year olds in care achieving level 5+ at Key Stage 3 test results in English and Science increased in 2003 but fell in Maths.

· We are one of the largest direct payments scheme users nationally with over 100 older people managing their care in this way.

· We are on target to provide 500 additional nursing care places through an innovative scheme in partnership with the NHS.

· We've invested in key bus routes, using money secured by our partnerships with bus operators and district councils. Passenger numbers are increasing on a number of major bus routes, with growth of up to 20% in urban areas.

· In partnership with the Strategic Rail Authority, South West Trains and Network Rail , we opened a new railway station at Chandlers Ford in 2003.

· We reduced the level of waste going to landfill from 72% in 2002/03 to 58% in 2003/04.

· Road casualties are reducing as a result of plans and strategies being put in place.

· Road condition is improving as a result of increased investment.

· We are still on track to reach the government-set target of all appropriate services being electronically available by the end of 2005.

· The number of Council's public buildings which are accessible for disabled people, was exceeded by 4% making 74% compliance.

· The Council has consolidated its position in relation to payment of undisputed invoices and does well compared with other County Councils. The results however fall short of the Government target of 100% which is unrealistic in a large devolved authority with 30 day payment policy. It is hoped to improve this indicator to 92.5% but even in the longer term 95% is a more feasible aspiration than the Government's 100% requirement.

· The target percentage of planning applications dealt with within the prescribed 13 week period was not achieved. The 2003/04 Customer Satisfaction Survey however, showed that 91% of applicants are satisfied with the service. The Regulatory Committee is considering how the service can be improved.

Green shoots that indicate `positive signs'

· The implementation in libraries of the People's Network has reversed the decline in the number of visits to libraries. The satisfaction results from the first tranche of libraries in the three year Public Library User Survey (PLUS) indicate a shortfall against the target and performance for one of the three indicators, 118b, since the 2001 survey. The Discovery Centre developments, it is hoped, will sustain the increase in the number of library visits and improve the satisfaction performance in the PLUS survey over the next 2 years.

· The number of passengers using public transport is dependent primarily on market conditions in the bus industry. The County Council is seeking to influence the result through action it takes to improve services, infrastructure and marketing to supplement what the operators provide. The positive results of this activity should become more apparent in 2004/05.

· The voluntary and community sector and the Council have started work together on a single compact for Hampshire, building on the success of the current compact with the aim of extending the approach to other public sector organizations.

· We have established a corporate procurement network, creating an environment that is supportive of strategic procurement. The network has participated in the launch of the regional centres of procurement excellence, negotiated allocation of e-government money to support e-procurement and negotiated a strategic contract for agency staff across a wide range of administrative and professional disciplines.

· The Council has been both proactive and responsive to central Government initiatives. The Innovation Forum and ministerial sounding boards have provided arena in which it has been possible to explore ideas and engagement in initiatives such as Local Area Agreements and our pilot to reduce hospital admissions and the Council is finding its views increasingly canvassed as national policy / strategies are developed.

Notes

1. Hampshire Community Strategy

http://www.hampshirestrategicpartnership.org.uk/pages/community_strategy.htm

2. Hampshire County Council's Corporate Strategy - What we aim to achive

http://www.hants.gov.uk/corporatestrategy/

3. Local Public Service Agreement

http://hantsnet2000.hants.gov.uk/TC/policyunit/psaindex.html

4. IEG Statement

http://hantsnet2000.hants.gov.uk/TC/egovt/egovt-project-homepage.html

5. Equalities Strategy

http://www.hants.gov.uk/TC/equalities/strategy.html - TopOfPage

6. Corporate Strategy Aims and targets

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/aim1.pdf

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/aim2.pdf

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/aim3.pdf

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/aim4.pdf

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/aim5.pdf

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/aim6.pdf

7. Performance Plan - How well we are doing

http://www.hants.gov.uk/cpa/hccimprovprog.html

8. What do our performance results tell us about our performance?

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/how-well-are-we-doing/performance-measurement-pis/performance-measuring.htm