Archived decisions

V2 Draft

Hampshire County Council believes the evidence summarised in this self-assessment demonstrates that over the last year, September 2005 to October 2006, the Authority has improved well by continuing to focus its effort and resources on value for money and performance. In a year of significant challenge as outlined below the County has kept its focus on maintaining its high quality services.

Where appropriate, links have been made to the VfM self assessment in order to avoid duplication.

Context

The main changes in the local context in which the County operates are briefly as follows:

The Police within Hampshire have made partnership working a priority and they have taken the lead on tackling crime and anti-social behaviour - a priority outcome for the Local Area Agreement (LAA). The Police have created two new posts and for the past eight months a Chief Inspector has been based in the Policy Unit for some of his time and has taken the lead on partnership working, LPSAs, the LAA and Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs).

The Health Service is also working with the Authority and they have taken the joint lead with Adult Services on promoting and improving the health and well being of Hampshire - another priority outcome of the LAA. The Health Service has however recently been reconfigured from seven PCTs to one which is now aligned with the County Council's boundaries. This will give us more opportunities for working together around integrated services, joint appointments for example the new Director of Public Health, partnership working and closer alignment of the NHS with Adults and Children Services. Linked to this will be the emerging wellbeing agenda, associated needs assessment and commissioning arrangements. Other areas which will affect the Council will be the changes around patient and public involvement for the NHS which will reinforce and strengthen the Health Scrutiny function and place additional responsibilities on local Authorities for the delivery of patient and public involvement for the NHS.

Hampshire County Council has been under massive organisational change over the past year particularly with the formation of the Adult and Children's Services Departments. The scale of change has meant that a lot of roles and personnel have moved and it has taken time to appoint senior managers and forming departmental management teams. The Environment Department has also been reviewing how it can work better with a view to how many staff should be based at Winchester HQ which also impacts on the space required within Ashburton Court and its impending refurbishment. The HR Department has joined with the Chief Executives Department in order to provide more strategic support to the Authority. Whilst all this change has been implemented the Council has strived to maintain its high level of performance and value for money.

1. What the Council has sought to achieve

The Hampshire Local Area Agreement ¹(LAA) was signed by Government Ministers and the Hampshire partners on 23 March 2006. This has eight priority outcomes and four `flagship' initiatives which are seen as high impact and are supported by a wider set of actions. These initiatives all focus on vulnerable groups and depend on developing stronger integrated multi-agency systems. Hampshire County Council has taken the lead on three of the priorities:

· Improve the life chances for children and young people

· Improve the co-ordination of transport and access to services across the County

· Use material resources more efficiently

and one of the flagship initiatives - Better chances, Better Lives (the 12 schools project) and working with the PCT on Flagship initiative 2 to develop effective schemes that provide care at home and in the community and prevent admission to hospital, residential and nursing care.

The Corporate Strategy forms a key part of the Policy Framework for the County Council and is included in the Constitution. On 22 May 2006²the Cabinet considered the draft direction and priorities with proposals for the development of the revised Corporate Strategy and supporting Corporate Business Plan for the period to May 2009. The overall vision is Looking after Hampshire, Looking out for you. To ensure the County is safe and secure and to work towards enhancing the county's quality of place. Looking out for our residents working with them to feel safe and secure and maximise their wellbeing. The aim is to lead and work in partnership with other organisations to remove barriers and improve choices whilst encouraging people to make their own decisions on the way the access services.

The three priorities are:

· Hampshire safer and more secure for all

· Maximising wellbeing

· Enhancing our quality of place

This was developed through a series of meetings between the Cabinet and the Corporate Management Team, followed up by Cabinet away days and resulted in the emergence of a clear statement of political direction and revised priorities for the life of the administration. The future direction and priorities have been shaped by wide variety of data, including the results of the MORI 2004/05 Residents' workshop and the Hampshire Local Area Agreement.

The development of the Corporate Business Plan will identify key corporate targets and indicators which will be capable of being monitored on an annual basis. All departmental service plans will be expected to demonstrate how they contribute to the delivery of the priorities and support the Corporate Business Plan. The continued development of integrated service and resource planning and reporting encourages value for money to be considered at every stage from the strategic to the operational.

As a result of the 2005/06 Performance Results the Chief Officers identified the key areas for action for the coming year. These will inform the development of the Corporate Business Plan for 2007/08.³⁴

Hampshire County Council made representations on the draft South East Plan in June 2006. The over-riding aim was to protect the character of Hampshire and the quality of life of its residents.⁵ The Government has appointed an independent panel of planning inspectors to conduct a type of public inquiry called an Examination-in-Public (EiP) into the draft South East plan. Hampshire County Council has been named on a draft list of organisations the panel wishes to invite to speak at the EiP and topics it plans to debate.

In March 2006 the Local Transport Plan was completed which sets out the Council's transport strategy for the next five years. This strategy is rooted in a thorough examination of current and future problems and opportunities, it is also firmly set within the context of emerging regional and national policies.⁶

The Hampshire Children and Young People's Plan has been drafted by a multi-agency steering group, and it went out to a wider audience for consultation. This plan acts as an "umbrella" for a number of plans affecting children's services, including provision for children with learning difficulties and disabilities, and the development of Extended Schools and Children's Centres.⁷

Phase two of the County Council's Children's Centre Strategy began in April and 53 more Children's Centres⁸are to be developed by the Council over the next two years reaching over 42,000 children under the age of 5, targeted in the most deprived areas of the County. This strategy supports the five outcomes of the Children Act as well as our Corporate Strategy.

Hampshire has a number of primary schools with more that 25% unfilled places which is significantly above the national average. Although the figure fell slightly to 13.2% in January 2006, the underlying trend of significantly falling rolls is exerting a continued upward pressure, in spite of measures to reduce surpluses through area reviews and local re-designation and re-use of general teaching spaces. In response to the Auditors recommendation, a draft School Places Plan has been produced which went out for Consultation with responses required by September 2006. ⁹

The Annual Performance Assessment of Children Services was completed this year in April and addresses previous recommendations and highlights our current strengths, areas for development and direction of travel. Whilst we have received verbal feedback this year indicating that our self assessment is accurate we are awaiting the formal judgment.

The Adult Service's CSCI - Annual Review Meeting which took place on 12 September went well and the outcome will be published nationally on 30 November.

Hampshire County Council has been raising its profile in order to influence national and regional initiatives and both the Leader¹⁰and Senior Officers¹¹have been appointed to national and regional organisations. The County is also hosting support for the South East Counties Leaders and Chief Executives in their joint approach to `South East issues'.

2. How the key improvement priorities are being delivered

The key improvement priorities are being delivered by the Community Strategies both the Hampshire and 11 District strategies, LPSA 2 which will be reported via the Local Area Agreement, the Corporate Strategy and the 11 District Crime & Disorder Strategies. Running alongside the Corporate Strategy is the Local Transport Plan and Children's and Young People's Plan. The Council has also signed up to the European local government's Aalborg Commitments and set itself challenging, sustainable targets.

The Council has been given the go ahead by Government to prepare for a private finance initiative to replace the majority of street lighting throughout Hampshire. The project team are now producing the outline business case which once agreed, will cover the replacement of over 72,000 of Hampshire's ageing street lighting columns and the maintenance of all the stock for a 25 year period.

Increasing demands and limited resources within Adult Services led to a £11.1m overspend even though performance improved against the key PIs. This overspend has been taken very seriously and has led to the development of a Modernisation and Recovery plan which will enable Adults Services to transform their traditional services¹²

The Council is now in the implementation phase¹³of the Pay and Benefits project and has resolved to deliver in April 07.

Under Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) 2005 - The Harder Test,

the Council was judged to be improving well and performing at the 4 star level. This was based on the County's continued achievement of high performance across most services that matter to residents, the trend of improvement shown by 60% of its key performance indicators over the last three years and the effective plans in place for future improvement. The Annual Audit & Inspection letter recommendations have been followed up by the Authority and also the implied areas for action.¹⁴

3. What has been achieved to date

To add any half year results if in time

Performance in relation to Corporate Strategy Aims 2005/06

The Corporate Strategy targets are heavily focussed on outcomes and clearly describe the impact for local people¹⁵ The Performance Results showed considerable progress was made with an increase in number of measurable targets achieved from 33.5% in 2004/05 to 53% in 2005/06. Of the indicators that didn't meet the target - the majority of these were the Children's Services LPSA 1 `stretch' indicators which were particularly stretching `aspiratihttp://www3.hants.gov.uk/cpa/cx-policyunit-newpage.htmonal' targets set by the DfES. Some notable achievements are:

28% of 13-19 year old reached through youth work

397 children in friends and family placements ?

33% of household waste was recycled

31% take up of Broadband

46 Apprentices in Hampshire County Council

£31.6m investment brought into the County by promoting Hampshire as a location

The £60 million ENHANCE project which is believed to be the first project of its kind in the Country to provide an additional 500 nursing care places for some of the most vulnerable people in Hampshire is nearing completion. All ten new build projects have been completed, meaning all 500 beds have now been delivered of which 250 are providing care to nursing residents. This project was established in response to the shortage of nursing care across the County to meet the future care needs of an aging population and to ensure older people are cared for in the best way in the community and have some choices around that care.

This project has caused a lot of national interest with a feature length article in a Saturday national daily newspaper¹⁶and a delegation of councillors took time out from the LGA national conference in Bournemouth to go on a study tour to one of the flagship nursing homes.¹⁷

In partnership with the North Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust, the Council opened an innovative Children's respite facility in Basingstoke for children with severe and profound learning disabilities and/or complex health care need. The facility provides five social care and four health care beds and provides planned, programmed respite care for children which is fun and enjoyable for them and offers a secure and reliable service for parents supporting them in caring for their children.¹⁸

The Council's work on the crime and disorder reduction agenda has gathered pace with achievements including the launch of a single non emergency number (101) which provides easy access to safety advice, information and the ability to report things which requires action whilst freeing up the 999 services for real emergencies. The County Council, with its Accredited Community Safety Officers (ACSOs), is working closely with the police to improve the delivery of these non-emergency services and help gain information on community issues.

Hampshire now has 36 ACSOs and recruitment is taking place for a further eight officers who will operate as a central mobile team to assist when and where extra resources are needed. The deployment of the mobile team will be based on bids from the Community Safety Partnerships and District Councils, reacting to information from Members and the public, and in liaison with the police.¹⁹

Performance of Best Value Performance Indicators BVPIs 2005/06

Overall, 58% of BVPI results were better than last year and 53.6% of BVPIs met their target.

All six of the Adult Service's national indicators²⁰showed an improvement on the previous year and four exceeded their targets. The number of adults/older people, for example receiving direct payments per 100,000 population²¹was 68.2 in 2003/04, 102 in 2004/05 and 129 in 05/06 well exceeding the target of 120.

54% of Human Resources/Corporate Health national indicators showed an improvement of which 36% exceeded their targets. These improvements were related to the top 5% earners that are women and those that declare they have a disability and from ethnic minorities.

45% of the Transport and Environment national indicators showed an improvement particularly in waste management. This was achieved as a result of the investment in energy from waste plants. The percentage of waste sent to landfill²²fell from 46% to 19% during the year. Road Casualty figures also improved with the number of fatal and serious casualties falling a further 8% on the previously lowest figure recorded in 2004.

38% of Children's Services national indicators showed an improvement most notably the number of pupils with 5 or more GCSE's A* -C²³which has steadily increased from 57.5 in 2003/04, 58 in 2004/05 to 60 in 2005/06

Other areas of improved performance in relation to the national indicators include:

· Visits to museums from 265 per 1,000 population in 03/04 to 284 in 04/05 and 323 in 05/06.

· An increase in services delivered electronically for 74% in 2004/05 to 99% in 2005/05.

· Further increases in buildings with facilities for the disabled and continuing high levels of performance in Trading Standards reflected in a 100% level of compliance with BV166b.

· 94% of invoices paid on time

Comments on Data Pack

Add any comments from PI Audit Report if appropriate due mid October

Provisional Children's Services Educational Results - Academic Year 2005/06

Provisional results²⁴indicate higher scores in two of the three core subjects and results on a par with last year's for the other core subject. A total of 80% of pupils achieved Level 5 or above in mathematics - an increase of 2% on last year, higher than the national figure of 77%. In science 77% achieved level 5 or above representing a 1% increase, nationally the figure was 72%. Meanwhile as with last year 77% of pupils achieved level 5 or above in English, compared to the national figure which has dropped from 74% to 72%.

Hampshire pupils have also been excelling at Key Stage 3 level 6. The percentage of pupils attaining the level in maths has risen by 4% from 58% last year to 62% this year and those achieving the level in science has risen from 42% last year to 47% this year. That compares to a national figure of 57% for maths and 41% for science. As with level 5 the numbers achieving level 6 at English have remained the same as last year at 38%. Nationally the figures have dropped 1% from 35% to 34%.

Aalborg Commitments

The Aalborg Commitments provide a framework for local authorities to embed sustainability throughout all areas of their work. The County Council signed up to the Commitments when they were launched in June 2004, replacing the 12-themed Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy in the process. During 2005/06 the Council undertook a Baseline Review under the Aalborg Commitments which audits the current sustainability performance across a suite of 50 commitments. Using a CPA style scoring system it concluded that the Council currently has an overall sustainability score of 1.96 out of 4. A target of 2.0 out of 4 has been agreed to be achieved by the end of 2008/9.²⁵

4. The plans the Council has for the future

Hampshire's Local Area Agreement (LAA) was developed for the second round pilot which was a very fast process which allowed little time for longer term planning. The LAA is due for it annual refresh which will be with GOSE in December to take effect from next April. The partners are taking this opportunity to assess their performance and revisit some of their targets²⁶

At the same time the Hampshire Community Strategy is being reviewed in order to develop much closer links with the LAA three year delivery plan and stronger links with District Community Strategies. Partners are being encouraged to consider their priorities and align with the Hampshire LSP and LAA. Governance arrangements for the LAA and the Hampshire Strategic Partnership (HSP) will also be reviewed.

In order to promote and support partnership working, a Partnership Portal is being developed which will not only house the partnership database but offer essential guidance about engaging in partnerships such as roles and responsibilities, measuring performance and governance arrangements. A feasibility study for the development of a Hampshire Observatory is also being undertaken which will also facilitate working in partnership.

Seven Hampshire Action Teams (HATS) are being formed which will be groups of County Councillors working together on district boundaries or clusters of them and they are being supported by HATS Co-ordinators. The main role of HATS will be to provide co-ordinated support to Members in carrying out their community leadership and local representation roles. In particular, ensuring that services are meeting local needs effectively, collaborating with partnerships in the area and promoting action on issues which are not being picked up elsewhere.

Preparation has begun with both Cabinet and CMT for the impending publication of the White Paper on Local Government plus the Lyons review and the implications that they may have on the neighbourhoods context, the Comprehensive Spending Review 07; both governance and service implications as well as working with partners.

The Council will be continuing to undergo further change in the forthcoming year together with the introduction of the new pay and benefits scheme, the implementation of the Contact Centre²⁷and the refurbishment of Ashburton Court.²⁸ With the increasing financial pressures the Council is facing however, innovative ways of working will continue to be considered not only within services, but also organisational design, behaviours, skills, and working in partnerships.

Hampshire County Council is also preparing for its Corporate Assessment and Joint Area Review which will be taking place in May 2007 and the Supporting People Team submitted their self assessment on 10 October in readiness for their inspection in December 2006.

Appendix A

External Recognition of Achievements

The following are some examples of external awards awarded to the Council during the past year, October 2005 to October 2006.

In December 2005 the Occupation Therapy Service - OT Direct won the Government's national Health and Social Care Award for Technology. This was the third award the service won last year. They were also winners of the Government to Citizen category ig the Government Computing BT Awards and regional winner of the Health and Social Care Awards.²⁹

A bronze award for the International Green Apple Award for the Built Environment and Architectural Heritage was awarded to the Council last December for its flagship Lanterns Children's Centre which is an early years centre for pre-school children. The centre was designed through the eyes of a child, and includes features specifically aimed at making the building a better environment for the children such as low windows so they easily see out³⁰

The Lanterns was also a joint winner for the Sure Start Partners in Excellence Building Award 2005 and has also been shortlisted for the Society of Chief Architects of Local Authorities (SCALA) Civic Building of the Year Award 2006 and a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) award³¹ Watch out for update!

In February The Council was awarded an e-Government National Award for Efficiency³²for demonstrating IT Savings of over £4million a year. The award was for the Hantsnet service which connects over 1,000 sites across the County with over 13,000 workstations. The County relies on `thin client' technology rather than using more expensive PCs throughout the organisation. Hantsnet saves over £2million a year compared with best practice public and private sector networks of a similar size and a further £2million a year is being saved with the introduction of integrated Hantsnet systems finance, property management, procurement and HR.

The Public Sector People Managers' Association awarded the County Council the Wellbeing Award for the steps being taken to improve the well-being and health of its employees and the wider community. In particular the development of actions to help identify health risks and way to tackle them, raise awareness about health, encourage physical activity, improve and support the environment and support a work/life balance³³

The Royal Institute of Charted Surveyors (RICS) awarded Hampshire County Council in May as a runner up in the Community Benefit award category for the South East for the building work of the ENHANCE project and the great care taken in the internal design to meet the needs of the elderly and infirm.³⁴

Hampshire's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee was selected in July 2006 as a national example of how scrutiny can work to improve health services. The Centre for Public Scrutiny have selected Hampshire as one of eight case studies nationally that has shown how an established formal partnership with the Healthcare Commission, the national regulator for health and health service trusts can have an impact on the service the public receive from health³⁵

In August 2006, both Staunton Country Park near Havant and Queen Elizabeth Country Park near Petersfield were awarded Green Flag status by the Civic Trust for the second year running. The awards recognise those sites which have been judged to be welcoming, safe and well maintained with strong involvement of the community.³⁶