Contact: Jenny Heath, ext 7402

1. Purpose of the report

1.1 Following on from the production of the first half yearly corporate performance report in October 2004, this report now delivers the full year results for 2004/05 and an analysis of performance based on those results.

1.2 Comparative results for 2003/04 are also provided, replacing the format of previous reports comparing the Council's results with those of other county councils.

1.3 An initial attempt is being made to link the presentation of the information to the qualitative information provided by MORI residents' and staff surveys. This approach needs to be developed further, so that qualitative and quantitative information about both demand for and delivery of services is available to the executive in determining future priorities and deployment of resources.

1 Format of the Corporate Performance Report

1.1 There are three elements to this report.

i) The full year performance results for 2004/05 (attached). Similar in layout to the half year performance results, this document also has three sections:

· Progress with the corporate strategy aims and objectives, identifying both general / milestone achievements and results against specific targets

· Department summaries of their performance, relating particularly to their service priorities

· Results against the national performance indicators, which are now separated in a single block at the end of the document

ii) A presentation and analysis of the key results, including the key corporate performance messages

iii) This paper which introduces the results and the presentation and which provides a record of the overall corporate assessment of performance.

2 Corporate summary of performance

2.1 The key messages about the Council's performance in 2004/05 are drawn from an examination of the departmental returns and are attached in the appendix. They reflect progress with our own local goals in the Corporate Strategy and will form the `progress with corporate aims' element of the Performance Plan.

2.2 The Council has maintained its `excellent' status for the third year running and is justifiably proud of the external validation of the calibre of its services and overall management of resources. The Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) has generated a national emphasis on performance, with all local authorities striving to improve their rating. The Council aims to have a high percentage of its national performance indicator (BVPI) results in the top quartile compared with other county councils. Starting from a base of 43% BVPIs in the top quartile in 2000/01, this has slowly dropped to 34% in 2002/03 and to 26% in 2003/04. While this is only a comparative position, coupled with the failure to meet the stretching LPSA targets, this suggests there is a need to review how other authorities are making this recorded progress and whether there are any implications for service quality. However, this should be considered against a backdrop of achieving top quartile status for residents satisfaction levels and maintaining the level of Council Tax in the lowest quartile.

3 Next steps

3.1 The corporate summary plus the departmental summaries will form the basis of:

· the revision of the overall summary of performance in the Performance Plan on Hantsweb, updated to meet the statutory deadline of 30 June

· The Value for Money self-assessment required in July, relating achievements to expenditure. This is part of the revised CPA model and represents a highly weighted element of the new model.

· the corporate self-assessment required for this year's CPA refresh, which will be further updated with the half-year performance results for the current year (2005/06) before its submission to the Audit Commission in October 2005.

Recommendations

1 That Cabinet consider the results in the performance report and identify key issues or achievements which require further consideration.

2 That the revision of the Corporate Strategy in 2005/06 takes account of the performance results highlighted in these docuemnts.

3 That the corporate summary and the performance results are published on the Perf.ormance Plan website by 30 June 2005.

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.

Departmental returns of performance results - held by the Corporate Performance Team

N.B. The list excludes:

1. Published works

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