SECTION 2:

DEPARTMENTAL SUMMARIES OF PERFORMANCE

COUNTY TREASURER'S:

Overall Performance Statement

Departmental performance is good. Direct provision to the public is limited and the positive trend and good position on prompt payment to suppliers is being maintained, the Pensions Services innovation project has been completed with employer self service being piloted with two organisations and the new Financial Assessments and Benefits (FAB) charging policy has been implemented successfully.

Other services are generally in support of the County Council corporately and other departments. The accounts were closed to the earlier deadline of 30 June successfully, along with earlier internal control statements. The first annual Governance report gave an unqualified opinion. Regular budget monitoring reports are being developed for all Executive Members and Cabinet including key activity data to help inform budget trends.

Statement on Value for Money

The Treasurer's department demonstrates value for money in three main ways:

1. Benchmarking of individual services with the aim of combining top quartile performance with lower quartile cost compared to other comparator authorities, details are given in individual service plans

2. Trends in the cost of the finance function as an overhead on total County Council spending. the current position and anticipated trends are summarised below:

£m £m

1997/98 854 10.6 1.24

2002/03 1,169 13.2 1.13

2003/04 1,293 14.1 1.10

2004/05 1,335 14.4 1.08

2005/06 1,415 14.3 1.01

2006/07 1,488 14.9 1.00

2007/08 1,547 15.4 1.00

The programme of SAP Benefits Realisation which is tied to business process innovation. The department has so far delivered £500,000 savings, and are on course for a further £100,000 in 2006/07 with a target of £480,000 in the following two years.

Major Achievements

The following are reported:

· First annual Governance report from the Audit Commission with an unqualified opinion

· Accounts closed by 30 June 2006 to meet new statutory deadline for the first time

· Regular budget monitoring reports for Cabinet developed to include activity data

· Implementation of Pensions Services innovation project with pilot of Employers' Self Service

· Further progress towards target of 95% for prompt payment to suppliers

· Internal control statements delivered to earlier deadline

· On target to deliver the further SAP benefits realisation savings of £100,000 for 2006/07

· Implementation of the new FAB charging policy including joint working with DWP

ADULT SERVICES:

Overall Performance Statement

The vision for the Adult Services department is to 'support the development of thriving communities in which all people have real life opportunities, to make their own choices and contribute to their communities'. In order to achieve this the department works with partner agencies and leads on promoting independence for vulnerable adults, supporting them to live at home wherever possible, so maximising wellbeing and helping to make Hampshire safer and more secure for all.

Performance targets for the first half of 2006/07 have remained flat, or have taken a dip, as a consequence of the department's focus on implementing the financial recovery plan. Whilst some performance targets may not have improved or have remained static in the short term as a result, it is hoped that the procedures and processes that are now in place will help deliver improved performance in the medium term.

The new structure for Adult Services has now been established and is currently being implemented, starting with the appointment of two new Assistant Directors, and ensures that the department is structured to best deliver the aims and objectives of the new White Paper and improve performance.

Statement on Value for Money

The department has introduced some robust measures to manage its current financial pressures. As well as close monitoring of the £6.4m savings and service reductions incorporated into the budget to ensure they are achieved, it has identified £4.5m of additional savings to be achieved through its financial recovery plan. These ensure VfM by managing demand, reducing unit costs, maximising income and ensuring staff have the correct skills mix.

The following steps have also been taken:

· A new Business Management Unit has now been established to ensure that performance and business management is embedded in the department, including service planning.

· Care Management Activity (CMA) Statistics are now produced on a weekly basis to monitor the purchasing budget spend.

· A Care Governance Strategy has been established in the department that embraces risk management.

· Managements audits are produced on a regular basis, including adult protection and quality practice

· In-house services delivered by the department continue to be modernised, with particular focus on right sizing the domiciliary care that we provide.

· Grant money continues to be used in the most effective manner to reduce the dependency on statutory services.

· Adult Services is undertaking a Corporate Procurement Review, that is focussing on 4 priorities:

o Analysis of residential rates and costs

o Independent sector residential sector non-pay costs

o Use of assessment matrix for Learning Difficulties residential services

o Domiciliary care market analysis and negotiation

· Supporting People have undertaken a strategic review of all homelessness services.

Major Achievements

The following are reported:

· Re-structuring the department and appointing to two of the new Assistant Directors posts

· The modernisation of home care - short term rehabilitation model now operating across the county

· Staff training in Adult Protection, including recording practice, jointly with partner organisations

· Supporting more service users to use personalised budgets

· Supporting People achieved 7.2% savings in the homeless cluster, without removing needed services

· Community Mental Health Teams received an 'Excellent' rating, one of only 10 local authorities to reach this standard

PROPERTY, BUILDING AND REGULATORY SERVICES:

Overall Performance Statement

The department has made steady progress against corporate and departmental priorities between April and September 2006: the redevelopment of Ashburton Court, the Strategic Property Review, development of the Community Safety Service and delivery of the County Council's capital programme.

Although PBRS is directly responsible for only 2 Best Value Performance Indicators, annual targets have already been achieved in both. In relation to the National Procurement Strategy, 90% of milestones have been achieved, ahead of the target set for the year.

In terms of awards and accreditations, the department successfully achieved a further 5 awards for innovative design and conservation, and the 'Buy with Confidence' scheme was the first to achieve the Office of Fair Trading Local Authority Assured Trader Scheme Network accreditation.

Although complaints across the department indicated a slight rise from the same period the previous year, compliments have nearly doubled to outnumber complaints by over 2:1. Similarly, client feedback on Property Services project performance indicates an average of over 84% satisfaction with the completed project, and 83% with the service provided, representing a slight improvement in both areas. Over 90% of projects were completed on or below budget, a 10% improvement from the previous year. In terms of feedback from staff, the MORI Survey in April indicated that, across all departments of the County Council, staff in PBRS have the highest level of job satisfaction with 79% of staff feeling fairly or very satisfied with their present jobs.

The department continues to manage the procurement agenda, including taking a lead role in the South East Centre of Excellence (SECE), with a framework for major projects now in place and available for all public authorities in the South East. A new Corporate Procurement Strategy has also been launched with a view to bringing further efficiencies for the County Council.

Statement on Value for Money

The department already contributes in a significant way to achieving better value for money for the County Council as a whole and key examples of this work are listed below. All these areas of work are ongoing and have either already contributed or are anticipated to contribute significantly to both cashable and non-cashable efficiency gains.

· Procurement: Construction procurement & work on behalf of SECE.

Corporate procurement including major work with other departments.

· Strategic Property Review: Office accommodation and operational building requirements.

· Redevelopment of Ashburton Court

· Rates revaluation team.

· Capital receipts.

In addition to this, a number of initiatives are in progress to continue to achieve efficiency savings such as:

· Senior management restructure within Regulatory Services.

· Co-location of Trading Standards staff and streamlining of administrative support functions.

· Property Services: Review of agency staff requirements & more efficient use of consultants.

Major Achievements

The following are reported:

· Good progress made against key tasks established for the redevelopment of Ashburton Court project: planning application submitted in August; temporary park and ride substantially complete; and IT Services relocated to Capital House.

· Framework for major projects established on behalf of the South East Centre of Excellence (SECE) and now available for all public authorities in the South East.

· Nursing Care Accommodation (Enhance): completion of the 10^th and final new build nursing home, providing the total 500 beds required by the project, with the last 2 refurbishment schemes due to be completed by Jan 2007

· Development of the Community Safety Service, with plans for expansion including a new central team of 8, and 2 sponsored ACSOs in Totton. This, alongside the ongoing work of the Protecting Older People project, the Quick Response Team, the Safety and Standards Team and Consumer Direct South East ensure a continued drive to protect the vulnerable residents of Hampshire.

· Implementation of 1^st phases of the Strategic Property Review involving assessments of performance and suitability of over 200 properties comprising the Recreation and Heritage, Older Persons Homes and Office Accommodation portfolios.

· New Corporate Procurement Strategy launched aimed at bringing further savings and efficiencies for the County Council (annualised purchasing savings from the Central Buying Consortium contracts for 05/06 reached £946k, with total savings to date on all buying contracts standing at 13.5%).

· Design Services achieved a further 5 awards for innovative design and conservation, and successfully delivered 91% of projects on cost.

· Merton Rise - Phase I Infrastructure Works completed on time and within budget, commencement of Phase 2 Infrastructure Works underway. Everest Community School contract, the largest single building construction contract let by the County Council, is currently on cost and on programme.

· Continued commercial success and effective trading across Business Services, including £½m contribution to Adult Services.

· Within the Resources Team:

· Efficiency Group established to review specific areas of business and identify efficiency savings;

· Development of the Apprenticeship scheme to incorporate new disciplines (Hampshire Transport Management, Quantity Surveying, Finance), with successful conversion to permanent contracts in many cases;

· Work to progress the implementation of the outcomes of the Pay and Benefits project including finalising staff role profiles, market pay benchmarking, and coordination of roadshows and communication materials.

· Progress with the Property Systems Replacement Project and the Digitisation of Terrier maps - `go live' dates have been re-aligned so that the projects run in tandem and will deliver improved access to land and property information for the County Council.

CHILDREN'S SERVICES:

Overall Performance Statement

The 2006 Annual Performance Assessment (APA) judged that Children's Services, overall, made a good contribution to maintaining and improving outcomes for children and young people with an excellent capacity to improve. Judgements against the six outcomes were either good or excellent.

The following paragraphs are extracts from the APA outcomes letter from Ofsted to the Audit Commission together with our commentaries on Children's Services' performance against national indicators.

1. Being Healthy. We are making an excellent contribution to improving the health of children and young people with national targets being met in most areas and exceeded in some. We have work to do with our partners to address the health inequalities between different wards in Hampshire.

2. Staying Safe. We make a good contribution to ensure that children and young people stay safe and can demonstrate examples of excellent joint working. More vulnerable children are now living in Family and Friends placements. With the number of children placed for adoption remaining steady, there has been an overall increase in the number of children achieving permanence (a total of 525 compared with 446 during the previous 12 month period). Some of our children who are looked after, are still experiencing too many placement moves with 16.9% experiencing more than three moves in 2005/2006 (falling short of our target of 15%). An action plan is now in place to tackle this and to ensure greater stability for these children. We have succeeded in contacting a greater percentage of Care Leavers in the first 4 months after their 19th birthday. The percentage contacted has increased from 57.7% in 2004/2005 to 72.3% in 2005/2006 (60 out of a cohort of 83); exceeding the LPSA2 target of 70% by 2008/2009.

3. Enjoying and achieving. We make an excellent contribution to ensuring that children and young people enjoy life and achieve from the start with excellent child caring facilities, good nursery and day care provision and strong early years education. Achievement for all groups of pupils is good with continued improvements.

Provisional results against national performance indicators for 2005/2006 show continued high levels of educational attainment with pupils achieving best ever scores in some core subjects. At Key Stage 3: 80% pupils achieved Level 5 or above in mathematics (a 2% increase on last year); 77% achieved Level 5 or above in Science (1% increase); 77% pupils achieved Level 5 or above in English (on a par with last year's results). At Key Stage 3 Level 6, the percentage of pupils attaining the level in Maths rose by 4% from 58% last year to 62% this year; the percentage attaining the level in Science rose by 5% from 42% last year to 47% this year. The percentage attaining Level 6 English remained at 38%. Key Stage 3 results were higher than the national average in all three core subjects. Our pupils continue to perform above the national average in Key Stage 2 tests. Provisional results indicate a 1% reduction in the percentage of pupils achieving Level 4 or above in both English and Maths. However, the percentage achieving Key Stage 2 Level 5 or above in English has risen substantially from 30% last year to 35% this year. The percentage achieving Level 5 in Maths has increased by one percentage point from 34% to 35%. At GCSE, our pupils continued to do well with 61.1 % attaining 5A*-C grades in 2005/2006, compared with 60.7% last year.

We anticipate that finalised results will show a further increase. While we believe that our national ranking against this indicator will have fallen (from 25 to 39) we do rank more highly in terms of the percentage of pupils achieving 5= A*-C grades including English and Maths; showing continued improvement in these core subjects.

While the educational attainment of our children looked after remains below that of their peers, indications are that their performance in English, Maths and Science at Key Stage 3 and at GCSE will hold steady.

School attendance levels. Provisional data for the academic year 2005/06 indicates a rise in the percentage of overall absence (i.e. both authorised and unauthorised absence) in both primary schools (from 4.95% in 2004/05 to 5.27% in 2005/06) and secondary schools (from 7.47% in 2004/05 to 7.57% in 2005/06). This reflects the national trend which saw levels increase from 5.43% to 5.76% in primary schools and from 7.82% to 7.92% in secondary schools. Despite these increases, the level of unauthorised absence in Hampshire secondary schools was reduced from 1.24 % to 1.20%. Revised figures show a fall in the average level of overall absence in the 11 secondary schools selected by the DfES (from 9.40% to 9.03%), despite the increases at both county and national levels. The levels of overall absence at both primary and secondary schools in Hampshire both remain well below the national averages.

4. Making a positive contribution. We make an excellent contribution to this outcome through working with young people in schools and youth projects. The Youth Service is on track to meet and exceed targets for the numbers of young people reached by and actively participating in youth services. From April-October 2006, 17,312 13-19 year olds (15.77%) have had contact with youth services. During this period, a total of 11,032 (10.05%) were active participants. There has been a continued upward trend in the percentage of participants gaining a recorded outcome (21.91% so far this year compared with 17% in 2005/2006). The percentage of participants with an accredited outcome does fall short of the 7.5% target but 2006/2007 half year figures do show a marginal increase compared with last year's half year return.

5. Achieving economic well being. We make a good contribution to ensuring children and young people achieve economic well being through close working with partners including early years providers. Child care arrangements 'are one of the best in the country' and further development in this area is ensuring good provision for more children with 1518 new child care places established during April-October 2006. A higher percentage of managers in early education and childcare settings are now qualified at level 4 or above (28.9% in this half year compared with 26% in 2005/2006).

6. Management of services. Our management of children's services is judged in the APA to be excellent with excellent capacity to improve them further. The Children's Services Department Management team was completed in Spring 2006 and we have restructured the department. Staff briefings took place in the Autumn and we will be continuing a programme of briefings to ensure that staff are informed of future changes and how they affect them. Despite the degree of change taking place in the newly created department, the results of the MORI staff survey showed that, overall, the department ranks highly for job satisfaction and that staff rate some aspects of their jobs very highly when compared with other departments and against national data. We are setting up a staff group to explore staff satisfaction in greater depth and to address areas for concern.

Statement on Value for Money

We have a strategic focus on securing value for money and are improving value for money in services through partnership arrangements. Together we are prioritising the development of preventive services to address the needs of children and young people before problems escalate. This is being achieved by pooling and aligning our budgets.

The roll out of 53 Children's Centres, an important element of the Children and Young People's Plan, is underway and will lead to an expansion of school-based services without additional resources. Commissioning arrangements with partners, including with the Primary Care Trust are under review.

The proposed revisions to the scheme for Financial Management of Schools should improve the value for money of spending by schools. There is a greater emphasis on strategic financial planning and its link to school improvement plans. Schools will also have to identify the intended uses of their balances, with excess surplus balances being clawed back and used for higher schools' budget priorities.

Value for money in services will be sought through multi-agency working that is now underway to develop locality teams. While locality teams will essentially provide a new resource, this will be achieved through existing staff working in new ways with new frameworks, principally the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). The CAF does not replace specialist assessments, but by practitioners sharing information to identify needs and possible resources, a specialist assessment may not be necessary.

Major Achievements

The following are reported:

· APA 2006 judged Children's Services overall as 'good' with excellent capacity to improve

· The launch and publication of the Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP)

· Provisional education results for the academic year 2005/2006-best ever Key Stage 3 results

· Annual CSCI inspection of HCC Fostering Services -judged 'good' against all five outcomes

· Commencement of phase two of the Children's Centre Strategy in April 2006

· Awarded £500,000 by DFES to pilot 'Triple Positive' parenting programme

· The opening of Firvale respite facility in Basingstoke (June 2006)

· New management structure in place

RECREATION AND HERITAGE:

Overall Performance Statement

The Recreation and Heritage services are actively pursuing the key aims of the Cultural Strategy adopted by the County Council in June 2003 as one of its core strategic documents. These articulate cultural policy objectives that complement those of the Corporate Strategy and the priorities of Looking after Hampshire: Looking out for You. They are:

· stewardship of the county's cultural heritage

· promoting access, inclusion and participation

· supporting lifelong learning

· achieving economic benefits

· reinforcing sense of place and community identity

A review of the Cultural Strategy is currently underway with stakeholders. It is intended that a revised Cultural Strategy and Action Plan will be presented for approval by Cabinet in January 2007. These will take into account the outcome of the review and fully reflect current corporate aims, objectives and priorities.

The two critical performance measures for the Recreation and Heritage services are:

_ Participation - the number of people making use of the services

_ Satisfaction - with the quality of the service provided

There are only national indicators for visits to museums and libraries, but a more comprehensive set of performance indicators are reported by the Recreation and Heritage services to capture visits and participation. The Countryside service has invested in technology to count visits to countryside sites with direct data stream. The results of this initiative are significant providing visit data for the first time to inform the management of sites and allocation of resources.

In 2005/06 there was a steady increase in use and broadening of the user base across the range of our services. In the first half of 2006/07 the reported physical visits to museums, Hampshire Record Office, Outdoor Centres and Arts Centres all show increase over the same period last year. However, there is a predicted fall in library visits. Recorded visits to country parks and other countryside sites in the first six months are also down on the same period last year. The weather is likely to be a major factor here. There were significantly more "wet" days in the April to September period this year than in 2005.

Reversing the long term decline in the use of public libraries remains a key objective for the Department. There was a 1.5% increase in visits in 2005/06 with the new and refurbished libraries performing well. In the first half of 2006/07 there has been a fall off in visits. Based on a sample of libraries with continuous counting, this is estimated at 4.5% over the first six months of the year. The position has been significantly affected by the continuing library refurbishment programme. The extended Romsey library re-opened in June and visits are recovering to pre-closure levels. Winchester lending library has been operating from temporary premises throughout the first half of the year and visits have been well down on levels experienced in the Jewry Street building. Extending the refurbishment and modernisation programme to other libraries is vital to continuing improvement in performance.

The Gosport Discovery Centre has now been open for 19 months. Visits and usage in the first year surpassed expectations with visitor numbers increased by 49% and book borrowers by 15%. A dramatic increase in the use of the Centre by young people is particularly satisfying. As part of the continuing evaluation of the Discovery Centre programme the visitor survey at Gosport will be repeated in November 2006.

The results of the MORI survey of residents' opinion carried out in 2005 show high and growing levels of satisfaction with the services provided or supported by the Department. Keeping them at these levels in the future represents a considerable challenge. The results of the residents' survey taking place at the end of November 2006 will be reported at year end.

Hampshire's track record of investment in Recreation and Heritage and the performance in these services enabled it to achieve the top score of 4 in the CPA service assessment for culture in 2005. The quality of the services provided by the Department has been extensively validated against best practice benchmarks through a variety of external assessment processes. The whole department is now achieved Charter Mark accreditation for excellent customer service after nine individual service assessments over the last year. The first Continuous Compliance Review in October 2006 confirmed that these high standards are being maintained and that progress is being made on the improvement actions identified in the assessments. The Charter Mark process has provided a focus on customer service which will be developed through the Departmental Customer Focus Team. This general quality standard is, in several instances, backed up by service specific quality accreditations such as the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council's Museum Accreditation scheme and the Sports Council's "Towards an Excellent Service" assessment for the county sports partnership.

The Department has a good track record of generating efficiency and other savings over a number of years. The 2005/06 budget set tough targets for further savings. The financial outturn (net £14,000 overspend) and performance figures for the year show that these were met without detriment to the level and quality of service. The requirement to generate savings has continued in 2006/07 budget, but current indications are that the level and quality of service standards are being maintained.

Statement on Value for Money

The total budget for the Recreation and Heritage Department is £40.5 million in 2006/07- or just 62p per Hampshire resident per week. In 2005/06 there were nearly 8.5 million recorded visits to our main sites and facilities.

The Audit Commission value for money profiles show that the spend per head on Hampshire's library service, which accounts for 53% of the Departmental budget, is in the middle of the second quartile when compared with other County Councils. Library usage is in the high second quartile. Residents' satisfaction with the service remains in the top quartile - a clear demonstration of value for money. For other cultural services spending is in the top quartile, but this is matched by top quartile satisfaction.

The performance improvements in the Recreation and Heritage services have been made possible by a major redirection of resources over the last three years totalling £2.64 million. These include cashable efficiency gains over the last two years of £0.69 million (2.3% of budget). The budget for 2006/07 requires further savings of £530,000 to be made, bringing the cumulative redirection of resources in the revenue budget over the four years to £3.17 million - equivalent to just over 10% of the base budget. Efficiency savings have been reinvested in service developments, supplemented to some extent by new resources made available in the budget allocations.

The suite of quality cross check indicators showed all round improvement in performance in 2005/06, demonstrating that efficiency gains are not being made at the expense of service levels and quality. At this stage, only museum visits show an increase in the first six months of 2006/07 compared with the same period last year.

Major Achievements

The following are reported:

· Charter Mark Award for Customer Service Excellence for the whole Department

· New £300,000 extension opened at the Welsh Mountain Centre extending capacity for young people to learn in an outdoor setting with dining space, kitchen and indoor multi-activity space expanded

· Romsey Library re-opened in June on completion of the £820,000 extension and refurbishment

· Silver Surfer Council of the Year Award (Age Concern, MS and BT). 101 activities during Silver Surfer Week in May. Each activity was designed to help older people get to grips with the complex and ever changing world of the internet, from the basics like sending emails to more specialised sessions such as booking a holiday. Workshops took place at friendly, informal locations around the county, including libraries, community centres and schools

· First Re-act 50 plus Games organised by the Sport Hants & IOW partnership to encourage adults to return to sport

· Launch of the prototype museum exhibition bus - BackTrack - taking displays, museum artefacts, objects for handling and using out to communities which are distant from a museum e.g. Copythorne, New Forest - bus visited for 3 days this summer

· Green Flag Awards for customer care, maintenance and community engagement for Staunton and Queen Elizabeth Country Parks

· Sport Hampshire and IoW (the County Sports Partnership) achieved excellent status in Sports Council's "Towards and Excellent Service" quality assessment

· Building work started on "Making Space", a new facility at Leigh Park due to open in 2007 and substantially funded by SEEDA and the Arts Council, which will provide workshop space for craftspeople and provide a base for education and outreach work in the local community

· Further programmes run by the Arts and Outdoor Services aimed at supporting children looked after by the County Council and improving motivation and self esteem of children attending Education Centres in Andover and Basingstoke

· "Trailblazer" a joint project with Children's Services which uses outdoor education to enhance curriculum based learning and environmental awareness, now extended to over 200 schools and youth groups

HUMAN RESOURCES:

Overall Performance Statement

Further development of the Human Resources (HR) departmental structure continues to result in service level improvement confirmed through significant levels of positive feedback from HCC customers. This is a year of further change with the merger of HR into the Chief Executives Department, recruitment of a new Deputy Director of HR and the need to meet SAP realisation savings demanding tight budgetary control against a background of HR continuing to support major projects and departmental reviews / reorganisations throughout the council, including Children's , Adults, the Ashburton Court refurbishment and the corporate contact centre. In addition, the HR service is heavily involved in and is committed to providing significant resources to the Remuneration and Benefits project, which continues to move forward with the proposals for a revised pay and grading framework.

Health and Wellbeing across the council has been supported by HR, who won the SOCPO award for 2005/6 and have also launched the Vie Life pilot across its staff. Throughout the year policies required to meet the demands of employment legislation have been prepared and published by HR, including TUPE regulations and Age Discrimination.

HLC have delivered the first phase of IPP rollout, delivering briefings to managers, e-learning to all staff and performance management training to those identified as needing it. HLC have also delivered a Futures leaders and Graduate Development programme under the headline of Hampshire's Own Grown. The Learning Zone, a single portal for learning and development in Hampshire County Council has been launched, increasing access to learning and development activities across the authority and providing a framework for centralising training administration.

The Employment Practice Centre, through the HR legal team, continues to successfully manage tribunal cases on behalf of the council. Organisational Development and the management structures of both Children's and Adult Services continue to be supported by the whole of HR. The National school workforce agreement, incorporating redefinition of teacher and support staff roles, has been implemented across Hampshire. The SAP Master Data records system has been rolled out to schools and new staffing structures have been implemented in 540 schools.

Statement on Value for Money

HR continues to achieve Value for Money through a number of mechanisms that include delivery of SAP realisation savings, effective budget management, development of effective working practices, investment in alternative training methods (such as e-learning) and efficient use of offices through flexible working, hot desking and sharing work space, thereby reducing the requirements for electronic equipment, heating, lighting and other facilities.

The continuous development of key performance indicators and other key people measures has been a critical part of improving performance through data reporting and trend analysis. Benchmarking our service provision against both other public sector organisations and the private sector is being expanded. This is a mechanism by which we strive to ensure our processes and the outcomes from them are best in class.

HCC has taken the lead on two major cross cutting authority projects. This is part of the HIOWLA Capacity Funding Bid in terms of the Regional Recruitment Portal and the Regional Training Portal which will deliver both cashable and non-cashable efficiencies within HCC and across HIOWLA.

The HR Resourcing Centre continues to deliver cashable savings from the advertising budget and the aim is to consolidate this with a new recruitment system which will further the efficiency and savings agenda.

HR has completed the first draft of its Annual Service Level Agreement which is being developed with support from the HR Focus Group. This is to ensure service is focussed where applicable and quality is measurable.

Major Achievements

The following are reported:

1. Remunerations and Benefits

Link to HR Strategy - Performance Management

Link to Corporate Management Plan - Improving Value for Money + Behaviours and Developing Capacity

Remunerations and Benefits have achieved acceptance of moving forward to briefing and ballot on implementation of a new pay framework, that represents significant cost, performance and productivity benefits compared with implementation of the outcome of job evaluations within the current pay framework. Implementation will draw a line under any potential future equal pay liability.

2. Individual Performance Planning

Link to HR Strategy - Performance Management

Link to Corporate Management Plan - Improving Value for Money + Behaviours and Developing Capacity

Rolled out the briefing on the new performance appraisal process to 1184 managers and delivered e-learning to 1581 managers and staff. The delivery of this type of training is rarely received well, however the level one evaluation undertaken with all delegates demonstrates that:

93% of managers felt that the training achieved its learning outcomes

90% were able to put the learning in to practice

99% of managers felt that the trainer's style and approach was effective in supporting their learning.

3. Hampshire Learning Centre

Link to HR Strategy - Building Capacity and Capability

Link to Corporate Management Plan - Improving Value for Money, Resources Follow Priorities, Behaviours and Developing Capacity

Hampshire's Own Grown

Between Apr - Jul 06 a pilot took place for the Hampshire Own Grown Future Leaders and Graduates programme. 23 members of staff participated in what has been described in evaluation as a very successful and valuable programme. A recruitment process for the programme is currently being developed, with the programme scheduled to commence Apr 07. The work experience element of Hampshire Own Grown is currently undergoing development - focusing on the new 14-19 agenda for schools.

The Learning Zone

A single web portal for accessing all learning and development in Hampshire County Council was launched, which enabled fully automated booking for the 3 largest training providers in Hampshire. In addition to it becoming the single training management system for all training providers in Hampshire, it forms part of the HIOWLA capacity building fund to roll the system out across the region.

4. EPS and Shared Service Centre

Achievements within Education Personnel Services and the HR ( Payroll ) Shared Service Centre include:

Link to HR Strategy - Delivering Core Services

Link to Corporate Management Plan - Improving Value for Money

Revised and implemented child protection and safer recruitment procedures in schools.

Achieved the first phase of implementation for the integrated HR (Payroll) Service Centre, whilst maintaining customer expectations.

5. HR Resourcing Centre

Link to HR Strategy - Delivering Core Services

Link to Corporate Management Plan - Improving Value for Money

Continued to deliver the expected volumes of corporate recruitment for less budget, with the current half year position being that volumes that have been delivered are 10% higher than would have been expected, and the associated spend on recruitment advertising is 20% below the budgeted levels. Efficiencies within the Resourcing Centre are also translated against staffing costs, with the increased volumes of 10% being delivered with 5% less than the budgeted staffing costs.

6. Regional Recruitment Portal

Link to HR Strategy - Delivering Core Services

Link to Corporate Management Plan - Improving Value for Money

Resourcing Centre has taken a lead role in the conceptual development of the proposed Regional Recruitment Portal, with the project expected to be tendered formally at the end of 2006. This project is anticipated to deliver annual net recruitment advertising savings of over £300,000 (i.e. all other annual costs being taken into account) representing a repeatable net saving of approx 9% of the total annual spend on recruitment advertising.

7. HIOWLA Capacity Funding Bid

Link to HR Strategy - Delivering Core Services

Link to Corporate Management Plan - Improving Value for Money

HCC's HR Dept has played a key part in helping to secure £600,000 funding for investment over the next 2 years on cross authority initiatives in relation to organisational development. HR has also successfully secured a significant amount of external funds which can be used to develop cross cutting solutions across HIOW local authorities which will enable cashable and non-cashable savings in parallel to the increased collaboration to solve and address capacity and capability issues in a single framework across all authorities. The funds have been successfully secured but the projects will deliver their results over a 2 year period with payback over variable lengths of time.

8. Employment Practice

Link to HR Strategy - Delivering Core Services

Link to Corporate Management Plan - Improving Value for Money + Resources follow Priorities

The Employment Practice Centre has successfully:

Developed and implemented the Council's policy response to the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, thus ensuring that the Council now has the appropriate policy and procedures in place to ensure legal compliance with this new area of law.

Won or had struck out 29 Employment Tribunal cases which has resulted in an estimated saving to the Council of approximately £200,000 of liability.

9. HR Strategic Support

Link to HR Strategy - Delivering Core Services

Link to Corporate Management Plan - Improving Value for Money + Behaviours and Developing Capacity

The overall restructure of Human Resources has ensured that departments are supported with strategic HR input at a local level.

HR Business Partners have now become an integral part of Departmental Management Teams and have facilitated and supported the councils significant change agenda.

10. Health and Wellbeing (Employee Support Line and Occupational Health Unit)

Link to HR Strategy - Delivering Core Services

Link to Corporate Management Plan - Improving Value for Money + Behaviours and Developing Capacity

HR won an AXA PPP award which included a membership scheme for wellbeing. This is being rolled out to over 13,000 staff to help encourage healthy living, increase health awareness and knowledge and provide on line support 365 days per year on health issues for employees and their families. This will support the corporate drive on management of absence.

Employee Support Line have:

Reviewed, redesigned, streamlined, piloted and implemented a client records system, maintaining adherence to the Data Protection Act (1998) with particular regard to "personal sensitive information". This has resulted in the service improving its generation of reports on levels and type of activity, assigning cases to Councillors more effectively and facilitating forward planning.

Implemented a 1 year pilot scheme whereby a peripatetic 0.5 fte counsellor is delivering sessions county wide by responding to clients who have difficulty travelling. This has reduced waiting list & response times and improved access to the service.

Occupational Health Unit have:

Developed procedures and carried out training for clinical assessments in line with NICE (Mental Health):

Standards for clinical practice equip OHA staff with tools based on medical evidence for professional practice to manage clinical risk and enable cost effective use of OHA staff time and skills. This also allows faster OH response times and work throughput as the requirement for doctors decisions are minimised.

Delivered a back care programme in conjunction with Hampshire Learning Centre to deliver health education.

Emphasis on the management of back care and rehabilitation back to work - a key reason for absence. OH involvement helps sustain attendance with reasonable adjustments, thus reducing the cost of absence and litigation.

Presented a health programme (cholesterol/healthy heart) to a Head Teachers conference which included the use of active health checks which enable baseline screening thus alerting employees to take preventative steps regarding their own health. This approach is in line with both HCC Wellbeing policy and government health strategy which emphasises individual responsibility over health matters and targets increased capacity and productivity. This supports identification of early signs of illness thus enabling early intervention and cure and it will help reduce both absence in HCC and costs to the NHS.

IT SERVICES:

Overall Performance Statement

The half year position to report for IT Services focuses on two major areas:

· The volume of take up of domestic Broadband by households throughout the County has increased from 31% in 2005/06 to an estimated 38% now with an expectation that it will increase to 40% by March 2007. A key milestone will be reached in January 2007 when, by working in partnership with other organisations e.g. BT, every Exchange will be enabled. The option for more householders to take up Broadband will improve as there is expected to be 100% availability across the County.

· Improving Services: The priority has been to develop a range of channels by which people can access services such as websites, Hantsdirect by telephone and e-mail, receptions points, information centres etc. Current performance has improved from 99% to 100% of services that are electronically enabled. The challenge now is to exploit all of these channels to their full potential.

There is some difficulty in matching the wide range of projects and initiatives that are underway in IT Services with the New Corporate Strategy. The general service improvement theme underpins all services. The Hantsweb improvement programme is perhaps the best example of a customer facing service improvement and this is showing real improvement.

Statement on Value for Money

With respect to value for money, there is a large amount of external benchmarking data which has been recently received, e.g. of the HPSN service, which demonstrates very good value in relation to similar services in other organisations. We have recently submitted data for the bi-annual benchmarking review of the whole of IT Services and results are due back in December.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S:

Purpose

The purpose of the Chief Executive's department is to lead, influence, co-ordinate and drive the delivery of corporate and strategic priorities to meet the community's needs.

Outcomes

The department aims to be an exemplar of organisational best practice through:

· Effective use of Individual Performance Plans and service plans: Development of integrated planning continues with pilots of performance planning and reporting alongside budget and workforce planning and reporting underway.

· Use of training to improve performance: Work continues on developing 'Success thro People' events to strengthen the relationship between Chief Officers and Senior Managers.

· Encouraging use of flexible working to improve performance: Many senior staff work the 9 day fortnight, staff work from home and/or hot-desk in the workplace. A toolkit is being developed following the Mobile and Teleworking Initiative for a Sustainable South East (MATISSE) project pilot.

· Effective management of resources: The staff survey has been completed and the findings fed into the preparations for the authority's Investors in People assessment next year and is informing the drafting of a organisational development strategy for the authority.

The department delivers corporate and strategic priorities:

· Implement the outcomes of the Democratic Review: A member training programme has been developed to support the democratic review, addressing new roles and responsibilities for Members in Scrutiny and Hampshire Action Teams, assisted by a communications plan.

· Delivery of the Corporate Strategy and associated Business Plan: The vision for the Corporate Strategy was agreed by Cabinet in July 2006 resulting in a set of corporate priorities which direct everything the county council does. A Corporate Business Plan is being developed in consultation with departments to identify key targets in relation to both the priorities and the management of daily business operations. A strong communications campaign is promoting the new priorities to staff, the public and partners.

· Delivery of the Local Area Agreement (LAA) outcomes: The LAA and Local Public Service Agreement 2 have been further developed and discussions continue with Partnership for Urban South Hampshire partners in support of the Economic Development block. Plans to review the community strategy have been agreed with the Hampshire Strategic Partnership (HSP). The Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership review is underway to set up an appropriate strategic body at county level to link to HSP and LAA.

· Successful outcome of Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA): The 2006 refresh of the CPA is underway with assessments of value for money and data quality already completed and on target for maintaining the current score. The direction of travel self-assessment will be completed in time for submission in November. The next CPA corporate assessment is due in May 2007 and planning has begun for this.

· Effectiveness of Hampshire's External Relations: There has been significant progress in establishing an e-consultation database and developing actions following the community engagement best value review. HCC emergency planning staff were major contributors to the successful evacuation of residents around the former HMS Daedalus airfield in Lee-on-Solent to permit the safe clearance of World War 2 underground pipe mines found at the airfield. HCC's national profile has also been successfully developed through several major pieces in national quality newspapers, local government press, awards for our services and our hosting of Waste Summit linked to the South East Plan which involved leaders from local government, the packaging industry, supermarkets and construction companies, resulting in coverage both regionally and nationally.

· Delivery of Customer Services Strategy and Interface with the Community: The location of the new HCC contact centre and the communications software to be used in it have been selected and work is progressing to bring the centre into existence in 2007.

· Effective corporate and internal communications: A multi-media website has also been established to provide audio/video sound bites for the media to use and a more sophisticated media evaluation system is now in use.

· Leading support for a successful Hampshire economy: Support for Hampshire's rural economy has come from organising the second farming conference and the continuing success of the Hampshire Fare events. The Segensworth Business Improvement District Project was launched in July 2006, the first in Hampshire and work has been carried out with Hampshire Town Centre Managers and the Association of Town Centre Managers helping them formalise their network and link into other networks and to explore opportunities for towns to work more closely together. A bid has gone to the South East England Development Agency for funds to support this work.

Achieving Targets

Most corporate targets that the department is responsible for are not capable of producing `in year' results and are not well defined as measurable indicators of performance. It is anticipated that the new corporate business plan will address this. Where operational targets are in service plans, they enable service standards to be monitored. There has been a slight dip in performance within Democratic Services on compliance with constitutional arrangements whilst there has been improvement with the deputations process there.

Major Achievements

The following are reported:

1. Completion of the staff survey showing rating of HCC as a place to work is up 7% points and advocacy of the County Council is up 8% points on previous results (2003). These measures are directly related to our corporate strategy priorities.

2. Successful raising of our profile and sphere of influence as the Leader, Cabinet Members and Senior Officers have been appointed to European, national and regional organisations. The County also hosts support for the South East Counties Leaders and Chief Executives in their joint approach to `South East issues'.

3. Increased multi-media content on the HCC website to engage with wider audiences and provide a better interface with the community which resulted in a new, web-based media centre.

4. Review of Community Engagement resulted in the establishment of an online consultation database and initiation of group to examine ways to improve community engagement across county council activities.

5. The creation of new corporate strategy priorities supported by a robust communications campaign to staff, residents and members.

6. Successful creation of Hampshire Action Teams to assist councillors in their democratic area committee roles with constituents as well as development of scrutiny role for councillors.

7. Hosted a range of events to support the Hampshire business community, including Hampshire Ambassador company showcase visits, Business Excellence Awards, eHampshire and the Sustainable Business Partnership.

8. Major flexible working project pilot (MATISSE) incorporating staff across the County Council, partner organisations and some small businesses completed successfully, results currently being compiled and toolkit produced.

9. Sustainable Business Network new quarterly e-magazine developed and distribution list expanded by 50% to September 2006.

10. Hampshire Food Festival attracted over 52,500 visitors and over £1,200,000 to the local economy.

Statement On Value For Money

The department continues to achieve Value for Money through a range of different mechanisms. These include delivering on efficiency savings targets, re-allocating resources to new priority areas, absorbing budget pressures such as increments and taking opportunities to generate income from external sources.

In the first half year the department has:

· Taken on the Legal work for the New Forest National Park

· Agreed Service Level Agreements with all the District and Borough councils in Hampshire to provide an Emergency Planning Service in line with the Civil Contingencies Act

· Sought sponsorship for activities e.g. the e-Hampshire Conference

· A number of posts funded externally e.g. in Economic development 12 out of 23 posts are funded externally

Following the amalgamation with HR the department is also reviewing all back office arrangements to maximise efficiency and value for money.

The department is also actively involved in the development of Hantsdirect which will be a key driver for achieving value for money across the whole organisation in the future.

ENVIRONMENT:

Overall Performance Statement

At the half year point the department's performance can be considered to be generally good with positive results against BVPIs, Delivery (Service) Plans and priorities. Following an audit carried out by BSI (British Standards Institute) Management Systems in early October, the Environment Department has once again achieved continuation of ISO 9001:2000 quality management standards. Previously this certification had only been achieved for parts of the department, but has now been extended to cover all sections. BSI carried out a strategic review of the department, including assessing all key service delivery sections as well as the `assessment themes' based on 8 management principals. BSI's conclusions were very positive and found that the continuing development of the department's performance approach to quality management has been beneficial and has helped to identify and promote good practice across the sections.

In addition to this accreditation the department has been shortlisted for two awards:

· The Road Safety category in the National Transport Awards (although ultimately unsuccessful)

· The sustainability transport demonstration project - MIRACLES - for the National Energy Efficiency Awards 2006 in the Public Sector category (winners to be announced Dec 2006)

The department has consistently aimed to improve facilities for disabled pedestrians and much progress has been made through an annual programme of improvements. However, the auditors have given the department a reservation on BVPI 165 (disabled pedestrian crossings) on a technicality. The reservation means the auditors were not satisfied that the BVPIs data collection and reporting was robust enough rather than any judgement on performance. It is perhaps worth noting that the credibility of this BVPI has been called into question on the national stage and there is much confusion surrounding its application. The department stated their performance in good faith and in line with the guidance, but using engineering judgement as necessary to determine whether a crossing meets the requirements for disability.

This reservation has an impact on the Environment service score within CPA and has the result of limiting the block to a three out of four; previously a four out of four was predicted. Options for the department to contest this reservation and the BVPIs inclusion within the CPA regime are being investigated. In terms of ensuring a reservation is avoided in the future, the responsible team are reviewing their data collection and will adjust their monitoring regime accordingly. It is likely this will involve inviting the auditors to help design a system which is both robust and pragmatic.

There are a number of corporate and departmental strategic projects which are coming to a head in this, or early next, financial year. These include the Contact Centre (for Passenger Transport, Highways Offices, Minerals and Waste Planning, and Waste Management), Ashburton Court remodelling (involving a decant of staff), area HQ review, performance management IT system implementation, Pay and Benefits and the CPA Corporate Assessment. Departmental performance momentum remains strong but it will be essential to maintain focus, given the number of strategic projects being implemented and ensure further progress against priorities is made by the year end. This is the key challenge.

Statement on Value for Money

Value for money remains a focus for the department and performance continues to compare well against budget levels. Integrated Planning - service, finance and workforce - is a key principle and this continues to be strengthened. Focus is increasingly turning to establishing value for money measures and benchmarking in order to further evidence good performance and to drive even greater economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

The department, as it historically has done, is proactive in identifying and delivering efficiencies. This has meant the department has contributed in excess of its allocated share of the Council's Gershon efficiency gains:

The department has previously submitted recurrent savings of just over £5 million (£5,262,800) in 2004/5 and nearly £6 million (£5,843,120) in 2005/6.

In 2006/7, it is predicted that additional savings of £4,547,329 will be achieved. The majority of these savings will be building on the success of existing efficiency measures, although it does include some new efficiency measures coming to fruition this year.

Continuing efficiency savings include improved recycling efficiency, creating savings of £224,000; also the costs of increased staff increments continue to be absorbed, resulting in a further £358,000 being saved. In addition to these, another £2,927,000 has been saved as a consequence of work in casualty reduction and involvement with the safety camera partnership.

New savings for 2006/7 include: £100,000 from the Construction Lean Improvement Programme, through closer joint working with Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services (BBIS); £100,000 saved through the introduction of the new Capital Programme process 'Gateway' as well as £112,000 saved by packaging small contracts together - in this case, two packages of bridgeworks.

As the Gershon efficiency programme becomes embedded, the department has begun to look beyond Gershon with the department's Business Efficiency Group (BEG) identifying potential cashable budget efficiency savings. Such savings will release resources which can then be invested into departmental and community priorities. A working programme has been established and Treasurer's Consultancy have been engaged to investigate potential efficiency areas.

Major Achievements

The following are reported:

· Public transport - the new £1.8 million Havant bus station (second busiest in Hampshire) opened in August with much improved facilities for the up to 5,000 passengers per day.

· Road safety - 58 less people were killed/seriously injured in 05/06 on Hampshire's roads (BVPI 99 - NB reporting performance is always delayed due to the collection mechanism).

· Environment - A closing seminar was held to mark the end of the five year Heritage Lottery Fund sponsored project which delivered £1.5 million of restoration site work across heathlands in Hampshire.

· Schools - Over 300 schools and 74,000 pupils took part in this year's National Walk to School Week.

· Security - Secured the government's support to pursue a PFI (Private Finance Initiative) which will enable 72,000 of Hampshire's ageing street lighting columns to be replaced within five years.

· Waste Management - Diverted 83% of household waste from landfill through recycling and recovery processes so far this year.

· Sustainability - Secured participation at the South East Plan Examination in Public to promote Hampshire's interests and the development of sustainable communities.

· Public engagement - Developed an e-consultation system which was later adopted corporately.