progress against key areas of performance

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INTRODUCTION 1

SECTION ONE: 1Progress against Key Areas of Performance

Strategic Plan 1Best Value Performance Plan 2Outcome of External Evaluations 3Progress with Public Service Agreements 5

SECTION TWO: 6Summary of Strengths and Weaknesses

Overview 7Effective County Council 7Learning 7Social Care and Health 7Culture 8Regeneration 8Environment 9Community 9

SECTION THREE: 10Six Monthly Progress Reports:

Effective County Council 11Learning 13Social Care and Health 17Culture 21Regeneration 23Environment 25Community 28

GLOSSARY 33

C O N T E N T S

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Public services today are operating in anincreasingly performance driven environment. Thisyear the government has introduced a nationalperformance framework for local government - theComprehensive Performance Assessment - thatassesses how councils are doing in providingservices that are efficient, of a high quality andresponsive to the needs of citizens.

The County Council has already outlined itscommitment to providing high quality publicservices in our Strategic Plan ‘Building a Future’2001-05. During the last year the County Councilhas also developed its own PerformanceManagement Framework for evaluating andassessing our performance and improvement. TheFramework sets out the process for regular reportson performance, including annual and six-monthlyreports.

This report is the County Council’s first Six MonthlyPerformance Progress Report outlining ourperformance from April to September 2002. Thereport focuses primarily on those services that areevaluated by government best value performancemeasures and external evaluations and thereforenot all County Council services are assessed.

The Six Monthly Performance Progress Reportprovides the opportunity to:

● Formally review our performance as a counciland our progress in meeting performancetargets for the year

● Increase our understanding of our strengths andweaknesses as an authority

● Identify action needed to address slow, and/orfalling performance areas.

The findings outlined in this report will be used todrive forward improvements in those areas wherethere are weaknesses and celebrate the areas ofexcellence within the Council.

Councillor Mick WarnerLeader

Roger LathamChief Executive

ONEProgress against Key Areas ofPerformance

A review of progress on performance needs tofocus on the agreed outcomes for the localcommunity and to use the right indicators tomeasure their successful achievement. It alsoneeds to provide a balanced picture of services.Within this report a wide range of performanceindicators are measured and explained - these donot all carry the same importance. Some are morecrucial than others to the achievement of theambitions of the authority.

This section of the report outlines our progressagainst key areas of performance and provides asummary of our progress in meeting the StrategicPlan and Best Value Performance Plan targets forthe period April to September 2002.

1. Strategic Plan

There are 38 specific targets under the six prioritiesof the Strategic Plan and progress on achievingthese targets is similar to that presented in theAnnual Performance Report 2001/02 with:

● Over 70% of targets achieved or exceeded.

● All targets achieved or exceeded under theEnvironment and Regeneration priorities.

● Ten targets not on course under the Community,Culture, Learning and Social Care and Healththemes

● Some targets continuing to prove difficultincluding: community safety targets; reducingdrug use; reducing the number of schools withserious weaknesses; reducing surplus schoolplaces and delivering a major Robin Hoodattraction at Sherwood Forest.

In the Annual Performance Report 2001/02 it wasnot possible to report on a number of the StrategicPlan targets for the Learning theme as the datawas not available. Following the receipt of this data(some of which is awaiting final verification) five ofthe targets are on course to be achieved, with twotargets that may prove difficult to meet by 2005. Adetailed update is provided in the Learning sectionof this report.

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The table below provides an updated assessment, as atSeptember 2002, of progress towards achieving the StrategicPlan targets by 2005.

Table:Summary of Progress Towards Strategic Plan Targets

2. Best Value Performance Plan (BVPP)

The Best Value Performance Plan (BVPP) sets key indicators forcorporate performance within the national frameworkestablished by the Audit Commission. The Best ValuePerformance Indicators (BVPI’s) are now monitored on aquarterly basis through the Council’s Performance InformationManagement System (PIMS), except in instances were quarterlyreporting is not appropriate or possible. Section three of thisreport focuses primarily on an assessment of our progressagainst the BVPI’s for the first six months of this year. Theheadlines on our progress towards meeting the BVPI’s for2002/03 are:

● 65% of BVPI’s are above or on target.

● 35% of BVPI’s are below target.

● There are some areas that are performing strongly with 92%of Culture targets, 78% of Environment targets, 67% ofRegeneration targets and 60% of Social Care and Healthtargets on or above target.

● Some BVPI’s are proving difficult to meet and we are belowtarget in 56% of BVPI’s in the Effective County Councilpriority, 33% of Regeneration targets and 39% of Learningtargets.

SECTIONOne

Progress against KeyAreas of Performance

Learning 7 5 2Social Care & Health 8 6 2Culture 5 3 2Regeneration 5 5 0Environment 6 6 0Community 7 3 4Total 38 28 10

Targets noton progressto be achieved

Targets onprogress tobe achieved

Number ofMeasures

Strategic PlanPriority

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Table:Summary of Progress Towards BVPI’s –September 2002

These summary statistics provide an overview ofprogress towards the targets laid out in the BVPPbut the indicators are not all of equal value orimportance. Of particular concern is the fact thatwe are under-performing on a number of BVPI’sthat are indicators used to determine ourComprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA)score. Therefore, whilst our performance on BVPI’sfor the first six months of the year shows someimprovement our overall performance remainspoor. This is confirmed by the comparison withother County Councils below.

2.1 Comparison with Other CountyCouncils on Performance on BVPI’S in2001/02

Our progress against performance indicators for2001/02 provides the basis for comparison withother organisations. A comparison with othercounty councils has been produced by SomersetCounty Council that highlights some continuingperformance challenges. The full audited figures forall councils will be produced by the AuditCommission in December 2002.

Key points from the comparison with other countycouncils are:

● Nottinghamshire County Council has the highestnumber of lower quartile Performance Indicators(PI’s).

● Nottinghamshire County Council is joint 18th inthe ranking of upper quartile PI’s (abouthalfway).

● Nottinghamshire County Council performsparticularly poorly in Corporate and EducationPI’s.

● Nottinghamshire County Council performs wellin Social Services PI’s (one lower quartile andfive upper quartile).

● In Environment, Nottinghamshire has a highnumber of both upper and lower quartile PI’s.

● Community PI’s are a mixed picture.

Whilst our longer-term goals should includesecuring a greater range of upper quartile PI’s, inthe short-term we need to make a dramatic impacton lower quartile PI’s. Our strategy should includesome immediate and sustained activity to improveperformance in the current year (2002/03).

3. Outcome of External Evaluations

3.1 Comprehensive PerformanceAssessment (CPA)

The final Comprehensive Performance Assessment(CPA) report will be received in December 2002.The Audit Commission will ensure that the CPAjudgement is founded on the most accurateperformance information that is available by midNovember 2002 by working with otherinspectorates and auditors to update all the data.This information will come from new individualinspection scores, BVPI’s for 2001/02, as well asrevised overall assessments from Social ServicesInspectorate, Ofsted and the Benefit FraudInspectorate (BFI). We will have the opportunityto comment on any revised performanceinformation to the Commission.

The CPA score and analysis will be presented in aseparate report when this information is available.However, as things stand the Council looks oncourse to achieve an overall performance score of 3on a 1 to 4 scale. This places us in the ‘good’category. The Audit Commission will want todiscuss how our improvement plan will be shapedin January. Our progress with the NottinghamshireImprovement Plan (NIP) will place us in a goodposition for this discussion.

3.2 Learning

The Education Development Plan for 2002-2007which encompasses all the action to be undertakenby the Education Department to achieve theStrategic Plan targets on school improvement, wasagreed by the Secretary of State in April 2002. Inaddition, the quality of the plan was evaluated bythe Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and


Total Above OnTarget

Below

An Effective County Council 16 3 4 9Community 13 4 3 6Culture 12 8 3 1Environment 27 8 13 6Learning 18 5 6 7Regeneration 6 2 2 2Social Care and Health 25 10 5 10Grand Totals 117 40 36 41

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by Ofsted. A written evaluation was received in which the planwas evaluated as good and given a grade two on a seven-pointscale (with seven being very poor). The written evaluationindicated that the audit was “impressive”, that the target settingprocess was thorough and that targets for 2004 are“appropriately challenging”. The DfES evaluation alsocommented on the good linkages to local authority plans.

3.3 Social Care and Health

A spring position statement covering key performance indicatorsand national priorities for Social Services was submitted to theSocial Services Inspectorate (SSI) in June and evaluated in July.There are five overall categories in the evaluation in relation toadult and children’s services and resources. We were awarded afive for children’s services and resources, meaning that theimprovement targets fully address the issues set out in theannual letter from the SSI. On adults’ services we received afour, indicating that the targets mostly address the issues in theannual performance letter from last year.

The evaluation notes particular strengths, namely:

● The way in which the impact of corporate initiatives on theSocial Services Department are understood.

● That the Department is building a very good base in termsof resource management of finance and people.

● The profile of the Social Services Department in the widercontext of Nottinghamshire.

Areas for further attention are:

● The strategic capacity in achieving a far-reaching changeprogramme.

● Further development of our commissioning strategies.

The areas for development are already being addressed in somepart through the recruitment of a new temporary AssistantDirector specialising in Mental Health and Learning Disability.The capacity to deliver on the Commissioning Strategy will bedependent in part on the effective use of additionalGovernment funds in subsequent years.

3.4 Environment

The Audit Commission’s Inspection Service reported on theoutcome of its inspection of Waste Management in July 2002.

The County Council has been assessed as providing a ‘good’,two-star service that has excellent prospects for improvement.This assessment places the County Council in the top 4% out ofover 650 environmental reviews conducted to date.

SECTIONOne

Progress against KeyAreas of Performance

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In reaching this conclusion the inspectors madespecific reference to the following:

● The Council has clear corporate priorities relatingto the environment and a joint wastemanagement strategy is in place to achieveGovernment targets for minimising waste andincreasing recycling.

● There is good and improving joint working withother councils in the area to minimise wasteand increase re-use and recycling.

● The public receives a good service that performsabove average on waste disposal in terms ofcost, energy recovered, reduced waste sent tolandfill, good provision of Household Waste andRecycling Centres and increased recycling ofwaste. Staff are well motivated and deliver aservice that responds to the needs of the public.

● The Council is working to engage the localcommunity on environmental and recyclingissues.

3.5 Community

A number of external evaluations have beenundertaken in this area including:

● The Adult Learning Inspectorate assessment ofAcorn took place in the autumn of 2001. Asatisfactory report was received for all aspectsof the assessment.

● Reporting on progress in delivering serviceselectronically for Government is by selfassessment. This will be incorporated in theCouncil’s revised Implementing ElectronicGovernment (IEG) statement to be submitted bythe end of October 2002.

● The Teenage Pregnancy Unit PerformanceEvaluation of the Revised Action Plan for2002/3 states:

“The 2002/3 Action Plan has clearly been revisedand developed in line with learning from this year.Focus on Ashfield is particularly appropriate in linewith local data… There are challenges of engagingpartners. Engagement with voluntary sector mayprovide added value, funding and resources.”

3.6 Awards

As well as securing validation for the quality of ourservices through external evaluations the CountyCouncil has over the last six months been

successful in achieving a number of awardsincluding the Charter Mark for Trading Standards,Beacon Council Status for our public transportservices and a Professional Pensions Annual Award- Society Responsible Investment Pension.

4. Progress with Public ServiceAgreement (PSA)

The Council submitted its draft PSA to Governmenton 23 September 2002 following extensivediscussions between the Council’s lead officers andexperts in government departments. Thenegotiation period to firm up the targets associatedwith the PSA bids will conclude on 15 Novemberand a final selection of 12 bids with stretch targetswill be determined.

Members have been involved in the processthrough discussions with the Lead Officer from theOffice of the Deputy Prime Minister, together withour district colleagues, Fire and Police partners. Thelatter two authorities are leading on a fire safetyand burglary reduction target and all DistrictCouncils have signed up to the principle of theirinvolvement in at least three of the stretch targets,together with the cost efficiency target. ThePerformance Reward Grant will be shared on thebasis of ‘equal pain equal gain’ as a product ofeach Council’s net budget.

Guidance on the treatment of performanceindicators attached to the cost efficiency target hasrecently been received. This guidance has beeninterpreted for all partners and districts anddepartments are now deciding on the choice ofperformance indicators to measure performanceimprovement over the period of the PSA, i.e. overthe next three financial years.

Negotiations to date with lead experts indepartments and government officials have beenrelatively slow, but are expected to accelerate overthe course of October leading up to the middle ofNovember deadline. Lead Officers are reportingback on progress fortnightly to the PSA ProjectManager.

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SECTIONTwo

Summary of Strengthsand Weaknesses

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TWOSummary of Strengths andWeaknesses

1. Overview

Strengths

● The Council has received positive externalevaluations

● Good progress is being made on the PublicService Agreement

● Over 70% of Strategic Plan targets areprogressing on course

● The number of BVPI’s on or above target ishigher than at the end of 2001/02

● Culture, Environment, Social Care and Healthand Regeneration are above or on target in overtwo thirds of BVPI’s

Weaknesses

● Performance against BVPI’s remains a majorarea of weakness for the council

● A number of key CPA performance indicatorsare below target for this year and appear in thelower performance quartile for 2001/02 againstother county councils. Action to achieve adramatic improvement in these lower quartileperformance indicators is needed

2. Effective County Council

Strengths

● Sound progress with Strategic Plan targets.

● Good progress over the last six months indeveloping a countywide Community Strategyand Local Strategic Partnership and towardsdelivery of 100% of relevant serviceselectronically by 2005.

Weaknesses

● Underperformance in over 50% of corporateBVPI’s.

● Sickness absence showing no significantreduction.

● Well below target on ’invoices paid within 30days’, a key CPA indicator.

3. Learning

Strengths

● Good grade awarded for the LEA’s EducationDevelopment Plan for 2002-2007 (grade 2).

● Good progress on delivering the actions withinthe Education Development Plan that willcontribute directly to the Strategic Plan targets.

● Positive 2002 test results with regard to thepercentage of 11-year olds reaching level 4 andabove in English and Maths, withNottinghamshire achieving over the nationalaverage for the first time.

● Sound progress towards the target to reduce thenumber of schools in special measures.

● Good progress towards reducing the proportionof classes with more than thirty pupils.

● Good progress towards the target for increasingthe take up of Adult and Community Learningopportunities.

Weaknesses

● Slow progress towards the target to reduce thenumber of schools with serious weaknesses.

● Slow progress currently on reducing surplusplaces. Actions already taken will not impacton the figures immediately.

4. Social Care and Health

Strengths

● Sound progress on achieving the targets in theStrategic Plan.

● Good practice in adult commissioning teams,involving more detailed performance monitoringand management action, resulting inencouraging results in BVPI’s.

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● Reduction in the number of children looked after despite anational upward trend.

Weaknesses

● 40% of BVPI’s below target, however, information in asubstantial number of these BVPI’s is based on 2001/02figures as the results of the next count were not availablefor this report

● The number of children on the child protection register andreducing timescales in achieving adoption remain belowtarget

● The number of PI’s below target at this stage should be seenin the context of overall good performance under Social Careand Health and that the aspirations of the service have beenreflected in particularly “stretching” targets in some areas

5. Culture

Strengths

● Plans to increase library opening hours on target

● Rufford Country Park project is currently on schedule and hasstrong support of main funding organisation, statutorypartners and stakeholders

● Number of people (including young people) participating inarts and sport is above the Strategic Plan target and thisarea has continued success in achieving external funding tosupport this work.

Weaknesses

● Development at Rufford Country Park relies heavily onexternal providers some of whom will not guarantee timescales.

● Viability of securing a Robin Hood attraction in SherwoodForest is in doubt given the poor performance of majorattractions in the country at present.

● Some targets need reviewing and revising

6. Regeneration

Strengths

● Continued strong performance at linking unemployed peopleto the local economy through County Council initiatives.

● Sector based initiatives such as the CONNECT project wherecall centres are proving popular with businesses andindividuals.

● Job creation and safeguarding measures performing well.

● The good start made on innovation and high value activitiesis continuing.

SECTIONTwo

Summary of Strengthsand Weaknesses

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Weaknesses

● Meeting future targets relies on successfultender winning and securing contracts andexternal funding

● There is a variable time gap between actiontaken and results achieved, so performancetrends will be “lumpy”.

● Some definitions still need refining.

● Provider capacity – the ability of externalpartners to deliver programmes on the CountyCouncil’s behalf – is a constraint.

● The wider economic climate with factors atregional, national and increasingly global level –significantly impinges on the business climatewithin Nottinghamshire

● A revised Nottinghamshire County CouncilStrategic Framework for Economic Developmentnow places an increased emphasis on quality ofjobs rather than simple job numbers.

● Strategic plan and BVPP targets need to beharmonised.

7. Environment

Strengths

● All six Strategic Plan targets contained withinthe Environment priority are on target.

● Good performance against those BVPI’s whichcan be reported quarterly

● CPA indicators are on target in all but one case.

Weaknesses

● A high number (27) of BVPI’s within this prioritycannot be reported on a quarterly basis. Thismakes it difficult to assess overall progress thisyear towards meeting BVPP targets

8. Community

Three points made in the 2001/02 Annual Reporton this priority need reiterating:

● Delivery on most of the Community targets ishighly dependent on working with partners andtherefore less within the Council’s directinfluence to change.

● There may well be an issue with time-lag on anumber of these targets; actions taken nowmay not show impact on measures for someconsiderable time.

● Establishing reliable statistical baselines andaccurate measuring processes is difficult. This isa national issue for work on substance misuseand is also a problem for reporting up to dateprogress on teenage pregnancies.

Strengths

● Good evidence of strong focus and positiveactions on all targets despite difficulties inproviding robust statistics and performance data.

● Well on course to achieve our 2002/03 and2005 targets in childcare places, young peoplemoving on, active citizenship and deliveringservices electronically.

● Structures, staff and approaches being put inplace to tackle teenage conception rates.

Weaknesses

● A mechanism for reporting progress in statisticalterms for teenage conception rates still needs tobe found.

● Reducing domestic burglary is a priority for allpartners in Crime and Reduction Partnershipsaround the County and is the preferred keycrime reduction target in the Council’s PSA bid.However, achieving both this year’s milestoneand the long -term 2005 target will bechallenging.

● The Council is implementing its Prevention ofSubstance Misuse Strategy, working closely withthe Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) butthis is within a changing national pictureregarding both the organisational approach totackling substance misuse and associatedpriorities and targets. This target may wellneed to be reconsidered.

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SECTIONThree

Six MonthlyProgress Reports

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THREESix Monthly Progress Report

1. Effective County Council

We want to deliver efficient, effective localgovernment in Nottinghamshire and like othercouncils and public sector services we faceparticular challenges in achieving this. This sectionof the report outlines how we are progressing withthe improvement challenges we set ourselves.

1.1 Strategic Plan

With regard to the four Strategic Plan targets underthis priority, all are on target to be delivered by2005, specifically:

● Progress towards Nottinghamshire being inthe top 20 local authorities by 2005. Theestimate of our current position is 29th out ofall local authorities. This assessment is basedon the results of external audits, best valueinspections and performance against Best ValuePerformance Indicators (BVPI’s).

● Progress towards delivery of 100% of relevantservices electronically by 2005. The Councilcurrently provides 42.4% of its serviceselectronically. Although this is slightly belowtarget for the period covered by this report, thecentral Government and local target of 45% isexpected to be achieved by March 2003.

● Progress towards developing a countywideCommunity Strategy and Local StrategicPartnership. A Nottinghamshire StakeholderConference is planned for 19 November 2002 todiscuss the outcomes of a MORI survey ofcitizens, debate the key strategic issues facingthe County and consider how we might developa Community Strategy for Nottinghamshire. Adraft of the Community Strategy is currentlybeing prepared.

● Progress towards seeking Investors in People(IIP) reassessment as a whole Council inOctober 2002. The IIP assessment was carriedout week commencing 18 November 2002 andthe Council has been successfully reassessed.

1.2 Best Value Performance Indicators(BVPI’s)

The table below demonstrates the progress at theend of the second quarter on meeting BVPI’s for2002/03.

It is of particular concern that we are below targetwith a number of the indicators used in theComprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) todetermine our score. Progress with the outcometarget for the year and with the actions to achievethis for key BVPI’s within this area are highlightedbelow:

● BV008 - Percentage of undisputed invoices forcommercial goods and services which werepaid within 30 days

Substantial effort is planned between now andMarch to make a significant improvement in thisarea. This may include:

● Greater use of purchase cards● Changing procedures (e.g. around second

signatories)● Identifying where ‘hotspots’ exist and

setting local targets for the reduction ofpayment times

● Alternatives to invoices for small amounts.

The intention is to deliver significant changes in thisarea and to raise the Council’s performance out ofthe bottom quartile in the shortest possible time.

● BV012 - Sickness Absence

The six-month performance level is 13.33 days – amarginal improvement on last year’s performanceof 14.06 days but still behind our target for2002/03 of 11.5 days. The implementation of apolicy on sickness absence and appropriate traininghas done little to impact on performance which isthe worst of all county councils and more thandouble the rate of Derbyshire.

Progress on securing an improvement in the currentyear’s performance is an issue of key corporateconcern. Our current target of 11.5 days would, ifachieved, still mean we remain as a poorperforming and lower-quartile council.

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Below

An Effective County Council 16 3 4 9

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● BV 015 - Retirement due to ill-health

Actual performance at the mid-year point is running at 0.71% -well above our target of 0.41%. Immediate action is requiredto ensure that clear, consistent and tightly defined criteria areexercised in these cases.

● BV156 - Access to buildings for people with a disability

Performance remains lower quartile and has not improved.Current targets have not been set to drive improvement, withno second quarter target set. An urgent review needs to beundertaken to identify where the problems exist, whether themeasurement of current performance is accurate and consistentwith the approach taken elsewhere and what plans exist toimprove performance.

● BVLCO01 - Aim to answer all calls within 10 seconds orfour rings

It has only recently been agreed to collect this informationquarterly. The target for the year is for 85% of all calls to beanswered within 10 seconds or 4 rings - the outcome targetachieved in quarter two was 82%. Data is available from theATEL system. However, this does not cover all premises andsampling takes place outside the ATEL framework. Customerservice training has been included in the Strategic Training andDevelopment Plan to take place over the next six months. Thisshould help raise awareness of the standards and impact onperformance. Departmental representatives of the CustomerServices Network will be reporting this quarter’s performanceback to management teams and putting strategies in place toimprove performance for the third and fourth quarters.

1.3 Impact of Training and Development

The Investors in People standards require organisations toevaluate the contribution of training and development to theachievement of its goals and targets. The targets also state thatthis must be evidenced at three levels:

● Individual● Team● Organisational

As an Effective County Council we understand the impact ofinvestment in people on its performance. The development ofpeople improves the performance of the organisation, teamsand individuals. Managers must be effective in supporting thedevelopment of people to enable people to learn and developeffectively. People need to understand how they contribute toachieving the organisation’s aims and objectives.

It is important to remember that there are all types of trainingand development:

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● Events(course/seminar/conference/workshop/programme)

● Supported Learning(shadowing/mentoring/coaching/on-the-job)

● Individual Learning (learningpack/book/video/e-learning/tape)

Following the recent Development andPerformance Review (DPR) Audit it was identifiedthat DPR skills training for managers and DPRawareness training for employees must becommissioned to improve their level ofunderstanding of the process and individualresponsibilities. Training has been arranged to takeplace in October.

A number of people have attended a range ofexternal seminars to extend their knowledge andunderstanding of developments in areas such asPSA’s, PFI deals, Procurement and the White Paperon local government finance. This enables theCouncil to maintain an appropriate level ofknowledge and understanding of nationaldevelopments.

Following the recent audit of business planning itwas decided that the revised business planningstandards and guidance should be launched at atraining event in November 2002, prior to the nextround of business planning (December to March).Business planning is an important part of theCouncil’s performance management framework andwill enable members, managers and staff todevelop a better understanding of all its activities,their outcomes and cost.

As outlined in the Strategic Plan 2002-2005 we arerunning health and safety awareness training, withthe aim of ensuring competency across thedepartments. This will meet the corporateobjectives of all third tier officers and aboveattending and obtaining certification. The trainingis scheduled for December 2002.

The Council also aims to effectively implement thenew personnel strategy package across alldepartments by holding ‘Hearing and ChairingAppeals’ training. The training was targeted at 297identified officers under the new constitution tohear disciplinary action and/or dismissal. This hasenabled all identified officers to be fully trainedbefore the new committee cycle.

As a result of the ‘Managing Employee Stress’training, managers were given knowledge aboutthe causes of stress and its affect on individuals. Itenabled managers to recognise signs of stress,therefore heightening their awareness of stress inthe workplace and enabling work to improve.

Following the recent ‘Managing CapabilityPerformance’ workshop, managers are now able tounderstand the Corporate Capability PerformanceProcedure. It has also enabled them to understandtheir responsibility in relation to dealing withcapability and performance issues. This hasresulted in managers now being able to takepreventative measures.

All departments of the Council support a number ofemployees in pursuing qualification training thatwill help them to develop their careers within theauthority. We are also moving towards a situationwhere every employee within the Councilunderstands and can use the full capacity of theirPC.

An effective and efficient council will continue toevaluate training and development to ensure allour employees and managers have the necessaryskills to sustain quality customer service to thepublic.

2. Learning: Six Monthly Progress Report

2.1 Strategic Plan

There are five targets for learning set out in theStrategic Plan and progress against each isevaluated below.

There are a number of learning targets where theinformation presented relates to the 2002examination and test results. Whilst thisinformation is presented here and is used by theDfES, at this stage it remains unvalidated and couldbe subject to change when the national finalresults come from the DfES in January. However,changes are mainly minor and will not affect theoverall rounded up figures.

● Progress towards increasing the percentage of11-year-olds achieving level 4 and above innational tests.

The 2002 tests show very positive results withregard to this target. In English, 76% of pupilsachieved level 4 – a rise of 3% from last year - andfor the first time Nottinghamshire is above the

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national average by 1%. In maths, Nottinghamshire achieved75% of pupils at level 4 and above – again a rise from last yearof 4.5% -and above the national average for the first time by2%.

● Progress towards increasing the percentage of 16-year-olds achieving at least one good GCSE pass grade to 96.5%and towards increasing the percentage of pupils achievingfive good passes at GCSE to 51%.

The data for this is not yet available nationally, nor do we havea confirmed figure from the DfES, but the provisional figure forincreasing the percentage of 16-year olds achieving at least onegood GCSE pass grade A*-G is 94.9% which continues to bebelow target. With regard to increasing the percentage ofpupils achieving 5+ grade A*-C, this has risen to 47%, whichshows an increase from last year of 1.5% but is below thetarget – again this is a provisional figure.

● Progress towards the target to reduce the number ofschools in special measures and with serious weaknessesto 1% of schools by 2004/05.

Sound progress has been made since April 2002 towardsachieving this target in relation to schools in special measures.The LEA now has three schools in special measures which is areduction by one school since the previous reporting period.The BVPI milestone target (BV048) for 2003 relates only toschools in special measures and current performance is judgedby Ofsted in the CPA profile as 0.7% which meets the target of0.75%.

There are currently nine schools with serious weaknesses(2.4%). This is an increase by two schools in the last sixth-month period. However, one school is scheduled to beremoved from the category in autumn 2002. A range of newand rigorous procedures are now in place that will enableinspectors and officers to gain an earlier view of theeffectiveness of a school and help prevent it going into the‘serious weakness’ or ‘special measures’ category.

● Progress towards reducing the percentage of classes withmore than 30 pupils.

Progress with this target is good - the proportion of schools withmore than 30 pupils per class declined in the last year and thetarget was exceeded. It is somewhat difficult to measure thistarget because, at any one time, a class is allowed to havemore than 30 pupils if there have been exceptional admissions(such as pupils applying late to a school or being admitted intothe school through the appeal process). In these circumstancesthe class may have more than 30 pupils for a period of timewhilst the LEA resolves the problem. Schools are fundedthrough a formula to address the issue of class size and to datethe LEA has an effective record of supporting schools to reduceclass size.

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● Progress towards the target to increase thenumber of learning opportunities taken upthough Adult and Community Learning from10,000 to 11,000.

The major funding for Adult and CommunityLearning (ACL) comes from the Learning & SkillsCouncil, which funds on an academic year basis(August to July). The County Council’s Adult andCommunity Learning Service is currently negotiatingdemanding contracts with providers for the deliveryof ACL courses in this new academic year andconsequently there have been no enrolments todate. However, these contracts are expected toresult in the ACLS achieving the requisite target of11,000 learning opportunities in the period August2002 to July 2003.



Progress against BVPI’s that contribute to theachievement of the learning targets:

● BV030: the percentage of three-year-oldsreceiving a good quality free early yearseducation place. No outcome data is availableyet. The target set for 2003 is 74% and theactual achieved for 2001/02 was 72.6% whichwas below the 2001/02 target of 73.10%. Thistarget is, therefore, quite challenging.

● BV043a and BV043b: the percentage of primaryschools and the percentage of secondaryschools with 25% or more (at least 30) of theirplaces unfilled. No data is yet available tomeasure this indicator (collected January eachyear). The target for 2002/03 is 18.0%.

● Both BV32 and BV42 have been removed fromthe national list and will be added to the locallist. Work is currently underway to re-definethese.

● BV158: percentage of adult education hoursattended. The target set for 2002/03 is 79%and the actual achieved for 2001/02 wasreported as being 72.25%. This target is,therefore, quite challenging.

● BVLCS13: Number of adult and communitylearning opportunities taken up inNottinghamshire. The target set for 2002/03 is11,000 and the actual achieved for 2001/02was reported as being 10,366. This bodes wellfor the future and every effort is being madenot only to maintain but also to improve uponthis performance.

Progress with the actions designed to achievethese outcome targets

● The actions for the first three targets forlearning are delivered through the EducationDevelopment Plan (EDP). They particularlyrelate to EDP Priority 1 (raising attainment inthe early years and in primary schools,especially in literacy and numeracy) and EDPPriority 2 (raising attainment in Key Stage 3,Key Stage 4 and post-16). Actions in all otherpriorities also contribute to raising standards andimproving the quality of education inNottinghamshire schools. Priority 4 of the EDPcontains actions to improve schools causingconcern including those in special measures andserious weaknesses.

● Progress with the actions referred to above hasbeen good. A full review of progress was heldin July when the departmental seniormanagement team reviewed the progressagainst each activity and the related set ofactions in the EDP. In Priority 1, 88% of theactions are on schedule and in Priority 2, 87%are on schedule for delivery within theidentified timeline. 84% of actions in Priority 4are on schedule for completion within theagreed timeline. The reasons for slippage areeither to do with staffing absence and workloador, as in the majority of cases, changes as aresult of local or national initiatives. Theoutcomes for the EDP activities include thetargets in the County Council’s Strategic Plan aswell as additional targets set by thedepartment. The additional targets cover suchthings as rates of progress for specific groups ofpupils, the quality of teaching, leadership andmanagement of schools and the use schoolsmake of performance data.



Below

Learning 18 5 6 7

15

● The action related to delivering the target about classes ofover 30 pupils is located in the Education DepartmentStrategic Plan. The departmental senior team reviewedprogress against the plan and the actions for this particulartarget in June 2002. A full report of the progress has beencirculated to all departmental staff and is due to be sharedwith elected members through the Education Select andLifelong Learning Committee in September 2002. Progresswith actions to deliver this target was judged to be good.Further actions continue to be planned as part of theEducation Department's work within the departmentalstrategic plan for 2002/03.

● Adult & Community Learning Service are working towardsputting in place demanding contracts with providers for thedelivery of ACL courses as well as developing reportingprocedures and the necessary infrastructure to bothquantitatively and qualitatively analyse the outcomes. Inthis way it is hoped that best value for money provision canbecome the norm amongst providers.




The training plans for all services in the Education Departmentare linked to the delivery of the County Council’s Strategic Planand the Department’s own strategic three-year plan. Eachservice is required to produce an annual training plan and toevaluate its effectiveness in relation to key objectives andtargets. Below are examples of these evaluations from a rangeof services. It should also be noted that the delivery of theStrategic Plan objectives is, in addition, dependent on thequality of education provided by schools. The LEA has aresponsibility to support schools in developing the necessaryskills and the Education Department provides an extensivetraining programme for teachers and support staff in schools.This training contributes towards the achievement of the CountyCouncil’s Strategic Plan targets and is evaluated against theindicators identified in Nottinghamshire’s EducationDevelopment Plan (EDP) 2002–2007. This report does not,therefore, deal with training for schools but only for centralEducation Department staff.

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Examples:

Advisory and Inspection Service (AIS)

Training issues: Improve the effectiveness of linkinspectors in their day to day work in supportingschool improvement, in particular, in working withschools to set targets and carry out self-evaluation.

Action: training and development activities wereprovided for all inspectors including a two-dayprogramme.

Outcomes: The evaluation of the SchoolImprovement Report returns from schools shows anincreased satisfaction rate from schools and agreater measure of consistency across the AIS indelivering link inspector visits to schools than inprevious years. This improvement is confirmed byschools’ responses to the Audit Commissionquestionnaire about the quality of LEA services.There has been an improvement in the averagegrade given to the work of link inspectors from2001 to 2002. So, for example, a question relatingto the work of the LEA in supporting school self-evaluation was graded 2.39 in 2001 and 1.97 in2002. This is an improvement of 0.42 and a gradethat is well above the national average and in thetop quartile of performance across all LEAs in thecountry.

Research and Development Division

Training issues: As part of the collection of schoolimprovement and performance data, a newnational system was introduced in 2002.

Action: All staff received training, even those notdirectly involved in delivering the work. This wasdone because the entire team field phone calls andqueries from schools and needed to be aware ofthe issues.

Outcome: The new system was introduced withminimum problems and schools indicated theywere well supported. Feedback from theDepartment for Education and Skills indicates thatNottinghamshire performed well in the introductionof the new system. Individual staff responses tothe annual training plan evaluation show that stafffelt the training had significantly contributed totheir understanding and enabled them to respondto schools with confidence.

Student Support Administration Team

Training issue: A major concern arose when, over a12-month period, 16,000 telephone calls weremissed.

Action: Changes to systems were introduced butmore significantly a full staff-training programmewas undertaken.

Outcome: As a result there was a 16%improvement in the response rate to calls and thenumber of missed calls dropped significantly from16,000 to 2,000.

3. Social Care and Health: Six MonthlyProgress Report

3.1 Strategic Plan

Progress is in line with that outlined in the AnnualPerformance Report 2001/02.



Children’s Services

● We will reduce the average length of stay ofchildren looked after who have been in localauthority care for over three months by 1.25%(11days).

The average length of stay of care leavers wasreduced by over 8% from 2000/01 to 2002. Arange of actions have been agreed and put intoplace as part of the Best Value Improvement Planfor Adoption Services to reduce timescales forachieving adoption. Work is also underway toensure all children in long-term care have identifiedexit plans.

● We will improve the stability of placementsfor children looked after by reducing thepercentage of children looked afterexperiencing more than three placementchanges to 16%.



Below

Social Care and Health 25 10 5 10

17

The proportion of looked after children having three or moreplacements during the year reduced from 18% in 2000/01 to11% in 2000/02. We are on target for the second quarter witha percentage of 11% achieved.

This has been achieved through a range of activities aimed atimproving placement support, avoiding unnecessary moves andidentifying and responding pro-actively to potential placementdifficulties earlier.

● We will seek to support more children in family settingsand reduce the number of children looked after.

The number of children looked after was reduced from 516 on31 March 2001 to 507 on 31 March 2002. This small reductionshould be set against a national upward trend in numbers beinglooked after. This has been achieved primarily by reducing thenumber of admissions to care through the development ofeffective family support and a more consistent approach todecision-making. This will be further enhanced by theintroduction of Family Group Conferences. Work to speed up theprocess and in particular reduce delays in achieving a returnhome or adoption for some children will also impact on theoverall number of children looked after. 89% of looked afterchildren receive family-based care.

● We will increase the number of adoptions from 66 in2001/02 to 78 in 2002/03.

This target has been revised to reflect the findings of the BestValue Review of Adoption that emphasis should be on reducingtimescales in achieving adoption rather than increasing theoverall number of children adopted. The current target for2002/03 is 10% of the overall looked after population i.e.around 50 children, and is below target for the second quarterof this year.

Business Plan Targets (not covered above)

● Increase the percentage of reviews of looked after childrenthat are held within timescales to 100% by 2002/03

In the first quarter of 2002/03 65% of looked after reviewswere held within timescales which compares with 65% in2000/02. Management action has been taken to address thisand in particular the numbers of cancelled reviews. No reviewcan now be cancelled unless a firm alternative date withintimescales can be agreed.

● Increase the number of disabled children receivingservices through the Social Services Department

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A number of initiatives are driving performance inthis area stemming from the Best ValueImprovement Plan. These include the developmentof a Direct Payments Scheme, expansion of HomeCare Services and increasing the number of breaksprovided for carers. Firm evidence of increasingnumbers of children supported should be availableby the end of 2002/03 as a result of thesemeasures.

● Reduce the percentage of children on theChild Protection Register that are re-registeredto 16% by 2002/03

This performance indicator is subject to quarterlyvariation but the overall trend is downward. Thishas been achieved through greater consistency inperformance across the County and more effectivechild protection planning.

ADULT COMMISSIONING

There are a total of 19 BVPI’s covering adultcommissioning activities. Three of them are onlyreported annually. One of these is a unit costindicator (BV052, the cost of intensive social care)and the other two are new indicators (BV182, 190)that will be derived from an annual survey, the firstof which will be carried out in February 2003.

There are also six other indicators where reportingis currently six-monthly and, therefore, up-dateinformation is not available for this report. Four ofthese (BV054, BVLSS01, 09, 10) concern thenumber of people helped to live at home and tocalculate those indicators currently requires a majordata collection and matching process using a datawarehouse. A fifth (BV058 – users receiving astatement of needs) requires information from thedata warehouse for its calculation and we haveincluded a surrogate measure of this (BVLSS07) inthe Best Value Performance Plan to allow closertracking of current practice. Finally, BV053(intensive home care) also requires a major datacollection and the next will be in October, to meetDepartment of Health statutory reportingrequirements. The good news is that a new home-care reporting system is being implemented andwill provide a regular flow of information from nextJanuary. For these six indicators, the March 2002figure has been used and they are not included inthe comments below.

Indicators on or above target

There are several very encouraging results so farthis year and they are nearly all to do with goodpractice in adult commissioning teams. Thepercentage of community care assessmentsachieving the time standard of seven days(BVLSS08) is considerably over the quarterly target,as is the number of carers’ assessments (BVLSS06).Current practice on giving users statements of need(BVLSS07) almost hit the annual improvementtarget in the first quarter, though this has fallenslightly in the second quarter. Reviews completed(BV055) are on target and the delivery ofoccupational therapy equipment within six weeks(BV056) also reached the annual target.

These results reflect the impact of more detailedperformance monitoring (at team level) andconsequent management action within thedepartment over the last six months.

One final indicator on target concerns the numberof adults under 65 years of age supported in longterm residential care (BVLSS04). The aim is toavoid an increase, and so far this has beenachieved.

Indicators below target

These are generally indicators concerning anincreasing or decreasing use of service.

Admissions of older people to residential andnursing care (BVLSS02) are just over target for thesecond quarter and there has been a slight increasein the numbers supported at any one time(BVLSS04), which is also affected by dischargesfrom homes. (NB. The figure for BVLSS04 could beslightly inflated due to late reporting from homesof discharges.) The main strategy is to preventadmission through more intensive home support,occupational therapy equipment, respite care andthe use of intermediate care, all of which haveadditional resources for this year. Respite care(BVLSS05) is slightly below a target that has beenspread equally between the four quarters of theyear.

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In Social Services the amount of funding allocated to training is£2,108,299.00. All the training commissioned is linked to theDepartmental Business Plan.

119 Child Carers, 113 Foster Carers, 522 Adult Carers have beentrained and 660 staff have attended management and staffdevelopment courses.

Introduction to Social Services courses are held bi-monthly.These courses are for all new members of staff to theDepartment and ensure that they have an overview of both theCounty Council and the Department. In addition, 100 staff haveattended Induction Training within Direct Services (Adults) whichcover all the induction standards set by the national trainingorganisation, TOPSS. The evaluation from these regular eventsdemonstrates that the induction programme is having abeneficial effect on new starters, ensuring that they are clearabout the business objectives.

275 staff have received ‘Moving and Handling’ training. By theend of March 2003, 900 staff will have been trained. Improvedmonitoring of these courses is taking place to measure thenumber of days absent from work due to back injuries.Information from the insurance section indicates that there hasbeen a reduction in claims for back injuries.

In Residential Child Care 80% of staff are now qualified to atleast NVQ Level 3. Progress in Adult Care is slower but hasincreased due to the employment of peripatetic assessors inresidential services. The use of peripatetic assessors will also beextended to include Home Care.

The Department continues to provide extensive managementtraining. Thirteen staff members completed their Certificate inPublic Services Management. Staff are also being supported onthe NVQ Management course. A range of shorter courses inmanagement are also run for both new and more experiencedmanagers.

Ten staff are being supported on qualifying courses in socialwork and two staff to complete Occupational Therapy training.

In Post Qualifying training, 17 Child Care Practitioners and 20Adult Care Practitioners have been supported on PQ1. Fourcandidates are being supported on the full national postqualifying child care award.

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A new Development and Performance ReviewProcess is being piloted to ensure that there arecloser links between the Business Plan, individualobjectives and the training needs analysis. Thisnew process will be implemented for all staff from1 April 2003.

4. Culture: Six Monthly Progress Report

4.1 Strategic Plan

● To increase library opening hours from 125.5annual hours per 1,000population to 128 hours per 1,000 population

Progress has been made towards the outcometarget of 128.0 hours of access per 1,000 population – second quarter performance wasabove target, with 126.1 hours against a target of126. On 15 June 2002 four major libraries(Mansfield, Newark, Retford and West Bridgford)increased their Saturday afternoon opening from1.00pm - 4.00pm.

The main investment, however, to enable increasesin opening hours does not start until April 2003.Opening hour developments for 2003/04 havebeen included in the Annual Library Plan. Thesewill be supported by allocations in the MediumTerm Financial Strategy.

● To deliver a £7 million project to develop thehistoric landscape at Rufford Country Park

Consultation has taken place with key partners inthe project including Heritage Lottery Fund, EnglishHeritage, Environment Department, EnvironmentAgency, District and Parish Council and visitors.

Positive feedback has been received from partnersand funders and a customer forum is planned.

Archaeological, architectural and landscape analysishas been carried out to support the initial bid to theHeritage Lottery Fund. A draft Stage 1 biddocument was produced for consultation andsubmitted in September 2002. Phased capitalfunding has been secured within the Capital AssetManagement Plan to match fund the project.

The current timetable has a start date on site inApril 2005 with a two-year contract to completeworks, which means that this target will not beachieved until spring 2007. However, this is subjectto the Heritage Lottery Fund and delays on thistimetable are possible.

● To construct a new Robin Hood attraction atSherwood Forest

Research has been carried out with the privatesector to assess the viability and support for theproject. The Tourism Strategy for Nottinghamincludes an assessment of the County as a visitordestination and the potential of the Robin Hood‘brand’. District and parish councils, members andstakeholders have been consulted.

Research involving the private sector andconsultants is indicating that the project may notbe viable for the Council within the currenttimescale of the Strategic Plan. This is due tochanges in leisure trends and available investmentfrom the private sector for this type ofdevelopment. The potential will be reviewed as anextension of the Tourism Strategy.

The project may need to be modified to develop analternative location for the visitor centre and carparks. Alternatively it may be put on hold for theforeseeable future with this Council taking on afacilitating role if the private sector wishes topursue the project at a later date.

● To increase the number of people, includingyoung people of school age,participating in the arts from 9,600 in 2001 to17,600 in 2005

The September 2002 target has been exceeded.The number of young people having instrumentaland music tuition as well as participating in 11thSession Workshops is 24% above the originalbaseline to be achieved by this period.

Factors that are affecting participant numbers in2002/03:

● The withdrawal of the City Council from Countyprovision of instrumental and musical tuitionand the transfer of the hours of work intoCounty schools.

● The emergence of new dance and dramaworkshop provision in 11th Session.

● New audition and recruitment procedure forperformance activity.

21

The Community Services actual for 2001/02 was 8,691 (thisfigure is a combination of Next Stage, Rufford Ceramic CentreOutreach and Literature Development programmes). Much ofthis work has been carried out with support of external fundingfrom the ERDF and the Learning and Skills Council.

The original target was not ambitious enough and did not allowfor the full range of education participation programmes. Wepropose to take the base year of 2001/02, with an agreedachievement of 16,000 participants and will now target a figureof 24,500 participants by 2005.

● Increase the number of people and clubs participating andcoaching in key sports from 5,000 in 2001 to 12,000 in2005 through the sports development programme

In order to meet the long term increases in participation andcoach development a number of strategic objectives continue tobe the focus of the core development staff within the SportsService.

These strategic building blocks will ensure that the infrastructureis in place to make the necessary incremental increases towardsthe overall target outcomes. They include:

● Appointment of staff to develop the “Active Sports” Lotterybid, which will result in a £1.2m investment into sportsdevelopment across the County.

● Completion of phase 1 of the North Nottinghamshire/NorthDerbyshire “Sport Action Zone” plan aimed at improvingsporting opportunities in former coalfield areas. Since 1 April2002 a needs assessment has been completed across thefour Nottinghamshire districts involved in the project.

● Revision of the service’s Sports Development Plan to refocusareas of priority. Since 1 April 2002 an implementation planhas been the focus of this area of work.

● Continued ongoing detailed consultation with partners andstakeholders to ensure maximum efficiency of servicedelivery and the avoidance of duplication.

Performance in 2001/02 was successful in meeting themilestone improvement figure and it is anticipated that thetarget figure for 2002/03 of 9,400 people participating andcoaching in key sports will be reached.

It is worth noting that the Sports Service continues to review allservice provision to establish a wider range of performanceindicators which reflect more accurately the contribution madeto the development of sport across Nottinghamshire.

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4.2 Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI’s)

The table below outlines performance againstBVPI’s for the period April to September 2002.


The Investors in People standards requireorganisations to evaluate the contribution oftraining and development to the achievement of itsgoals and targets. The targets also state that thismust be evidenced at three levels:


Training and development investment continues tocontribute to a number of the outcome targetsrelating to Culture. The overall aim of the trainingactivity is to support the delivery of targets. Sometraining activity has been tailored to specific targetsfor Culture and delivered by the service areasthemselves, whilst generic departmental trainingsupported a wider range of targets across theCulture spectrum.

The following generic training courses weredelivered specifically supporting the servicedelivery components of the strategic targets forCulture:

● Customer Service Standards ● Domestic Violence Awareness

Specific training and development supportingincreases in library opening hours included:

● Induction programmes for newly recruited staff

● Technical skills training in computerised librarymanagement systems (UNICORN & NEWLiNC)

● Risk assessment training for new librarypremises

Specific training for the Rufford Country Park projecthas included:

● Management of projects

● Familiarisation with Heritage Lottery Funding(HLF) bidding processes and award regimes

● Customer consultation process to support theproposed customer forum

Specific training in participation and coaching in keysports included:

● Familiarisation with funding applicationprocesses and award regimes

● Sports specific coaching and development

● Familiarisation with partnership working

5. Regeneration: Six Monthly ProgressReport

The broad aim of this theme is to contribute towork to help build an economy where skills, wagelevels and enterprise match or exceed nationalaverages. Action includes helping to stimulate newforms of economic activity that create new jobsand to help people gain access to the employmentopportunities being created in Nottinghamshire.

Target areas specified in the Strategic Plan arebroadly similar to those contained within the BestValue Performance Plan. However, there are somesignificant differences in definition, focus andtargets set. There would be sense in harmonisingthem for 2003/04 where feasible.

In general terms, progress towards the StrategicPlan targets remains good, building upon successfulfirst year activities. Some of the Strategic Plantargets are to be achieved over the life of theStrategy whilst others are annual.

5.1 Strategic Plan and Best ValuePerformance Indicators (BVPI’s)

The table below summarises the position withregard to the achievement of BVPI’s for this priority.



Below

Culture 12 8 3 1



Below

Regeneration 6 2 2 2

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● Help 1 800 unemployed people obtain jobs, including 250through a transitional employment programme and 60New Deal clients gaining employment with the CountyCouncil.

● Develop sector based employment programmes in areasincluding care, call centres and the gas industry, to resultin the recruitment of 300 people.

● BVLCS 28 – number of people helped into the LabourMarket through vocational and employability skillsdevelopment (target 1,571).

● BVLCS 29 – Percentage of people placed into work throughlabour market vocational and employability skillsdevelopment (target 60%).

Progress under this theme continues to be positive with 541people supported into the Labour Market which is on target forthe second quarter profile and 83% placed into work, wellahead of the target of 60%.

● Support the creation of 2,000 jobs each year.

● BVLRG 01 - Number of Jobs Created or Preserved(target 5,112).

● BVLRG 02 - Direct Cost per Job Created or Preserved.

● BVLRG 03 - Number of Businesses Advised or Assisted(target 2,704).

During the first quarter work was finished on clarifying andtightening definitions of when jobs are “created”, “safeguarded”and “preserved” and this has resulted in different numericaltargets being established. In future, these will be piloted tohelp create nationally agreed definitions that will help withbetter comparisons and benchmarking.

By the end of the second quarter, 2,758 jobs were created orsupported, above the quarter target, with the number ofbusinesses advised or assisted below target with 1,180businesses advised against a target of 1,352. Cost per job iscalculated on an annual basis once the costs of the service isfinalised at the end of the year.

Work to create a “competitive” local economy may not beentirely consistent with targets that focus on job creation.

● Support business innovation that promotes high valueadded activity and the creation of at least 10 knowledge-based businesses

There is no equivalent BVPI.

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This is a long term process, not suited to a quarterby quarter assessment, but the performance of theMansfield I-Centre continues to be impressive andthe Strategic Plan target is likely to be exceededagain this year.

● Help to reduce the unemployment rate for theCounty to the region’s average

There is no equivalent BVPI.

This is an aspirational target for the period of theStrategic Plan. As Nottinghamshire’sunemployment rate falls, so can the regionalaverage. Unemployment rates in June were:County 4.0%, Region 3.3% and United Kingdom3.6%. The unemployment rate for the Countyshowed a decline of 0.5% in the period to June2002. Whereas in June 2001 the Countyunemployment rate exceeded that of the EastMidlands by 0.9%, 12 months later the differencehad lessened to 0.7%. The 4.0% unemploymentrate in Bassetlaw now exceeds that of Mansfieldand Ashfield after a period of significant job lossesin manufacturing industries. Within GreaterNottingham the Districts all record lower rates.


Additional BVPI’s within this theme are:

● BVLRG 05 - Percentage of Strategic PlanningObservations made within 14 days (target72.5%)

Performance for the second quarter fell belowtarget, with 54.4% of observations made withinthe 14 day period. This is due to resource pressurebecause of work on the Structure Plan. This is adifficult indicator to manage, with a number ofvariables influencing the ability to meet the target.


Training and Development has focussed on anumber of areas critical to delivering the targets inthe Strategic Plan. Management Developmentactivity has been strengthened and providingleadership to manage change effectively hasfeatured strongly. Managing performance has beenan important dimension in all this. As a result,clarity has been achieved in definitions of keyperformance information with common reportinglines established.

Significant investment has been made indeveloping the skills to support successfulpartnership work as this is an important feature indelivering outcomes across the Regenerationtheme. A number of managers have participatedin developmental activity to explore the needs ofthe knowledge economy within Nottinghamshireand this has contributed to a more sharply definedfocus on work to understand how to establish aninnovation network within the county.

Within Community Training and Education Divisioninvestment was prioritised to prepare for the newcontracting environment. This was successfullynegotiated with increased funds flowing from theLearning and Skills Council.

6. Environment: Six Monthly ProgressReport

6.1 Strategic Plan

All Strategic Plan targets under the Environmentpriority are on target to be achieved. Performancedata is not yet available for the first two quartersfor the reduction in the number of children killed orseriously injured in road accidents, however ourperformance in 2001/02 was in excess of theStrategic Plan target. (This data is obtained fromthe Police Authority and although usually availableone quarter in arrears is currently running twoquarters behind as a number of Road Traffic PoliceOfficers who collect the data have been diverted toother duties to progress the Home Office StreetCrime initiative. We expect figures to be availableat the end of December.)


Quarterly reporting is carried out against the sevenBVPI’s for Environment used within theComprehensive Performance Assessment. We areon target for six indicators and below target for oneindicator in Waste Management. (The paragraphbelow on best value waste management indicatorsoutlines the reasons for this.)

The table below summarises the position withregard to the achievement of BVPI’s for this priority.



Below

Environment 27 8 13 6

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The following indicators are below target:

● Waste Management BV82c BV82d – the percentage tonnageof household waste used to recover heat and power and thepercentage of household waste landfilled. These indicatorshave been below target for both the first and secondquarters due to the closure of the Eastcroft incinerator forthree weeks during June for maintenance work. However, itis anticipated that performance will improve during the thirdquarter.

● Planning BVLEN 14 and BV107 – percentage of Planningenquiries responded to in line with the Enforcement Protocol isbelow target due to a general increase in the number ofcomplaints received during the second quarter and Planning costper head of population is below target due to slightly higherthan expected printing costs for the Minerals Local Planconsultation document.

● Highways BVLEN 07– percentage of utility road worksinspected during work is below target due to seasonalvariations. (More staff take annual leave during the summermonths, therefore, fewer inspections take place.)

● Rights of Way BVLEN01 – Number of kilometres of Rights ofWay designated as recreational routes by the County Councileach year is below target as the publication of cycle routes hasbeen delayed. Consultation with the Accident Investigation Uniton the intended inclusion of minor roads has highlightedproblems with the use of some of these roads and theproposed cycle routes will now be altered.

6.3 Training and Development



In the Environment Department each of the five divisionsproduces its own budgeted training plan derived from EmployeeDevelopment Review meetings held annually between linemanagers and employees.

The training year runs from the beginning of September to theend of August each year. From January 2002 the Departmentdecided to place more emphasis on the co-ordination anddelivery of training and development activity and invested in asmall training team and a lead Training and DevelopmentOfficer.

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From the beginning of the training year 2002 anew approach to training and development activitywas taken in the Department. In addition to thewell-established Employee Development Reviewsand the creation of Divisional Training andDevelopment Plans, a Departmental Training Planwas established for the first time.

This training and development plan covered trainingneeds that had arisen by the following means:

● Strategic training and development priorities,e.g. Customer Service Training.

● Training and development needs that wereidentified on Employee Development Reviewsthat covered a significant number of theDepartment’s employees, e.g. Health and SafetyTraining, Recruitment and Selection Training.

● Training and development needs that havearisen from changes in corporate policy, e.g.Absence Management Training, Capability/Performance Training, Equalities Training.

The total budget for training for 2002/03 was£733,469. This is an approximate spend per headof £140.83.

The range of training offered varies from jobspecific training for all employees to more generictraining and development that is intended to meeta specific corporate or departmental need.

Some examples of training events and impact onperformance during 2002/2003 are:

Managing Sickness Absence Courses

In response to the introduction of a new CorporateSickness Absence Policy in autumn 2001, theDepartmental Training Team designed appropriatetraining. Every manager in the Department who isinvolved in managing sickness absence was trainedby attending a practical course. As a result of theimplementation of this new procedure there hasbeen a small but significant improvement in thereported short-term absence statistics of office-based employees in the Department. Thisimprovement in absence statistics is detailedbelow:

Average number of Days Sickness per Employee

1.01.01 to 31.12.01 – 5.0 Days1.04.01 to 31.03.02 – 4.6 Days1.07.01 to 30.06.02 – 4.4 Days

These statistics are produced quarterly looking backover the last year.

Improvements to Waste Management andRecycling

One of the key business plan targets for theEnvironment Department in 2002/03 was makingimprovements to waste management andrecycling.

During June 2002 the Waste and Recycling Servicein the Environment Department was subject to aBest Value Inspection. Prior to this Best ValueInspection, the Assistant Director responsible forwaste management and recycling and two of histeam received a series of detailed coachingsessions from one other Assistant Director in theDepartment who had considerable experience ofthe Best Value Inspection process. These sessionscovered best practice in terms of Best ValueInspections and how to manage the inspectionprocess. There were three coaching sessionsdelivered at a cost of £1,500.

This detailed coaching resulted in a Best ValueInspection result for the waste management andrecycling services that was in the top 4% ofreviews undertaken in the country.

Improvements to Accident Statistics

The Department has implemented a series oftraining events covering Health and Safety in thelast training year at both departmental anddivisional level, as follows:

● Safety for Senior Executives

● Health and Safety Awareness Training (CentralWorkshops & Building DLO)

● Manual Handling Training

● Safe use of Scaffold

● Asbestos Awareness Training

As a result of all of these training and developmentevents conducted over the last training year therehas been a significant downward trend in theaccident rate.

The accident rate per 100 employees has beentracked over the last three quarters as follows:

January to March 2002 2.43April to June 2002 1.70July to September 2002 1.64

27

7. Community: Six Monthly Progress Report

7.1 Strategic Plan

● To work with partners to reduce the proportion of youngpeople using the most harmful drugs by 25%.

This target was imposed by the Government’s ten year strategy.It is unfortunately meaningless since there is no data about thebaseline number of class ‘A’ drug users from which thereduction must be made.

Analysis of data presented by all the Drug and Alcohol ActionTeam (DAAT) partnership services working with young peopleunder the age of 19 for the first six months of the 2002/03period indicates that a total of 1,948 young people were incontact with drug and alcohol service providers. Extrapolation ofthis figure suggests that, overall, contacts may be down in2002/03 compared with 2001/02 by approximately 300 ormore.

This cannot be taken as a reliable way of measuring progress,being subject to many distorting factors such as service capacity,what proportion of class ‘A’ drug users are accessing servicesetc. But it appears to be all that is currently available whilstfurther work to establish realistic measures and targets bothnationally and locally takes place.

The Council’s Prevention of Substance Misuse Strategy 2002-2005 has been launched and an officer group, chaired by theDeputy Leader, set up to ensure delivery of the action plan,monitor progress and identify and discuss key drugs issues forthe County Council. This will work very closely with theNottinghamshire DAAT, which has recently put forward YoungPeople’s Substance Misuse Plans for 2002/03.

● Increase new childcare places by 7,686 by 2003/04

The Early Years and Development Childcare Partnership (EYDCP)Implementation Plan for 2002/03 revised the target for2003/04 from 7,686 to 7,477 places.

The target for 2002/03 is 2,562 places. At the end of the firstquarter, 538 places had been achieved against a target of 616.This shortfall has been caused by difficulties with new childminding and private pre-school provision.

A number of pending child minder applications will bring thiswork back on target.

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A strong mix of staff resources committed by theEYDCP to delivering this target include Out of SchoolCare Co-ordinators (Community ServicesDepartment), Pre-School Co-ordinators (Pre-SchoolLearning Alliance), and Childminding Developmentstaff (National Childminding Association). A‘consortium route’ has been established for moreeffective accessing of New Opportunities Fundgrants for starting up out of school childcare places.

● Ensure that an additional 400 young peopleaged between 15 and 18 and at risk of socialexclusion move into education, training orwork.

For the period 1st April - mid September 2002, 183young people have moved from Youth Serviceprogrammes into continuing education, training orwork.

Young people aged 15-18 years are participating in16+ Summer Initiative programmes at Acorn LifeSkills bases. The latter is a roll-on roll-offprogramme with numbers altering as participantsprogress.

With three-year funding secured for SummerInitiatives, a team has been appointed which willensure greater planning and co-ordination for futureyears.

Changes in the emphasis of programmes forunemployed 16 to18 year olds should enable moreto make a positive transition to education, trainingor work.

● Engage young people in active citizenship byestablishing seven active district assembliesand a youth parliament for the County.

The milestone for 2002/03 is to set up two furtherdistrict youth assemblies and these are planned forGedling and Bassetlaw.

Discussions are being held with Gedling Boroughand Bassetlaw District Councils and funding hasbeen identified to enable both assemblies to beestablished. Both are, therefore, on course forbeing in action by March 2003.

Working towards establishing a youth parliamentwill be a priority for the new Youth Engagementteam being set up in the Youth, Community andPlay service.

● With partners, aim to reduce the number ofburglaries in the county by 20%(also BV126).

The target for 2002/03 is to limit the number ofdomestic burglaries to 17.6 per 1,000 households,with the target 20% reduction (on 2000/01figures) leading to a total of 15.1 per 1,000households by 2005.

The second quarter’s target, a maximum of 8.8burglaries per 1,000 households, has been met.The actual for this period was 6.36 burglaries per 1,000 households.

All Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships(CDRPs) are implementing their action plans for2002/3, as part of their new three-year crime anddisorder reduction strategies. Reducing domesticburglary is prioritised in all the strategies and workis being taken forward in each of the sevenpartnerships to address the rise in rate experiencedduring 2001/02.

The CDRPs, Police and County Council wish toinclude reducing domestic burglary as the keycrime reduction target in the Nottinghamshire PSAbid. Negotiations are on-going with the HomeOffice, who at present would prefer a vehicle crimereduction target.

● Deliver 100% of relevant serviceselectronically by 2005 (also BV157).

The Council currently provides 42.4% of its serviceselectronically. This is against a central Governmentand local target of 45% by March 2003.

The Access to Services Programme Board will beconsidering next steps, likely to comprise 20 plusprojects with associated funding. A key feature willbe the development of a framework to evaluateand assess user take-up and marketing plans toencourage electronic access.

● To work with partners to reduce the rate ofconceptions among under 18’s inNottinghamshire and achieve a reduction inthe risk of social exclusion for teenage parentsand their children.

Advice from the Department of Health’s TeenagePregnancy Unit (TPU) is that annual targets shouldnot be set since it is not possible to access data forthe current year. Data is supplied by the Office forNational Statistics to the TPU but is always twoyears out of date.

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The local Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinator and TeenagePregnancy Board will be considering the issue of progressreporting.

A Local Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinator for the county wasappointed in May 2002 and took up post in July 2002.

Recruitment for the Ashfield Teenage Pregnancy Team is inhand and interviews for the Co-ordinator and Advisors wereheld in early September 2002.

The Regional Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinator is due to meetwith the local co-ordinator and members of the TeenagePregnancy Board to provide more detailed feedback on theAnnual Report 2001/02.

7.2 Best Value Performance Indicators(not covered above)

● Crime and Disorder - BV127 (violent crime), 128 (vehiclecrime) and 173 (producing a crime and disorder strategy)

Both second quarter BVPI’s regarding crimes of violence andvehicle crime have not been met. This raises some concernabout whether either target for 2002/03 will be achieved.

The trend on violent crime follows the national picture.Government has implemented a range of high profile initiativesaccompanied by substantial funding for the Youth OffendingTeams and Police, particularly to tackle street crime.Unfortunately, the County’s Police do not appear likely toachieve the impact in tackling this expected (by September2002) by Government.

The County’s statistics on vehicle crime are out of line withnational trends and this reinforces concern. Although this issignificant, the Crime and Disorder Partnerships’ focus willcontinue to be on the higher priorities of cutting domesticburglary rates and violent crime.

As regards BV173, a crime and disorder strategy is not yet inplace but will be by the end of the third quarter.

● Equality and Race - BV002 (Council for Racial Equalitystandard), 174 (recording number of racial incidents) and175 (percentage of racial incidents resulting in furtheraction).



Below

Community 13 4 3 6

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The Council is now working to the LocalGovernment Authority standard which has replacedthe Council for Racial Equality standard. Currentjudgement is that we are on course to achieve ourtarget of Level 2 plus 30% of Level 3 by March2003.

The second quarter target for recording racialincidents has not been met. Concerns are thatsome racial incidents may not be being reportedand that the recording system is not capturing theinformation either quickly or fully enough. Work isin hand to improve the accuracy and timeliness ofthe figures.

All reported and recorded incidents are acted upon.

● Community Legal Service - BV177 (QualityMark)

Services meeting priority Community Legal Serviceneed which have achieved the Quality Markexceeded the second quarter percentage target.Good progress continues to be made.

● County Contact - BVLCS9 (number of enquiries)and 10 (customer satisfaction)

Retford and Mansfield County Contact points haveexceeded their second quarter target for number ofenquiries handled.

Customer surveys are undertaken two or threetimes per year at each County Contact Point.Customers are asked: ‘How would you rate theservice that you received?’ The percentage ofcustomers answering ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ tothis question has exceeded the second quartertarget.

● BVLCS8 (young people annual number ofattendances), 14 (young people 13-19contacted), 15 (cost per visits 11 to 24), 16(number young people gaining awards andqualifications).

There is a mixed bag of achievement over thesecond quarter with two indicators below target,one on target and one above target. The belowtarget indicators are close to the target and it isestimated that they will be achieved by year end.

● Trading Standards - BV166 (Enforcement BestPractice)

The indicator is a checklist with a maximum scoreof 10, which involves authorities meeting a certainset of criteria. In the main this relates toenforcement policies and procedures. The secondquarter score is on target. A timetable forintroducing the required policies and procedures isscheduled.

● BVLCS 22, 23, 26 and 27- Registration,complaints, routine inspections

A survey is done annually in the final quarter; nofigures are therefore available for a six-monthprogress report.

7.3 Training and Development

A number of training and development activitieshave taken place during the last six months thathave contributed to work on meeting the StrategicPlan and best value performance targets.

● Community Legal Services

A number of small group training sessions havebeen held with organisations that are required togain the Quality Mark for Community LegalServices. This has involved training and support bystaff within Nottinghamshire County Council andthe Legal Services Commission in identifying whatorganisations need to have in place to pass theaudit e.g. advising on developing a business plan ora casework recording system.

A Training Consortium, including NCC, is beingestablished in Nottinghamshire to meet identifiedtraining needs of providers of civil legal advice andinformation. This links into the Quality Mark targetas on-going training is an element of the QualityMark audit for providers of services.

A Seminar was also held by the Legal ServicesResearch Team outlining recent research on needsfor types of advice linked to socio-economiccriteria. This work will eventually enable us todevelop Quality Marked services that will mostclosely reflect likely need in a given area.

● Teenage Pregnancy

The first session was held during this period of anew rolling programme of training and awarenesssessions with foster carers. Participants in this initialevent improved their understanding of the issuesaffecting the lives of teenagers in care andavailable services. There is evidence that the

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training improved foster carers' ability to advise and support theyoung people in their care and to signpost them to appropriateservices such as teenage clinics. The successful rollingprogramme of family planning/sexual health training for youthworkers, provided by family planning colleagues, continued andreceived positive evaluation.

● Childcare

Developments to increase the number of childcare places are allunderpinned with a comprehensive training programme fundedby childcare grants and the European Social Fund. EYDCP alsohas a long-term strategy and target of getting 40% of provisionacross the board accredited under a national accreditationscheme, supplementary to the minimum standards of theirOFSTED registration. Major benefits from this approach shouldemerge during 2002/03.

The training delivered by the Nottinghamshire Early YearsDevelopment and Childcare Partnership covers both training forearly years education practitioners of the “Foundation Stage” inthe LEA and non-school sectors, and a range of courses aimedat childcare providers, including childminders, day nurseries,playgroups and out of school care groups. All of our training isaimed at ensuring that early years and childcare provisionmeets national standards set by Ofsted. In this period we haverun 39 early education foundation stage courses and 180 childcare courses.

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Annual Performance Report – the County Council’sAnnual Performance Report which outlinesperformance of the organisation against the targetsestablished in the Strategic Plan and Best ValuePerformance Plan

Audit Commission - The Audit Commission is anindependent body responsible for ensuring thatpublic money is used economically, efficiently andeffectively.

BFI – Benefit Fraud Inspectorate is part of theDepartment for Work and Pensions and aims tomaximise counter fraud performance and minimisethe risk of fraud throughout the social securitysystem.

Best Value – Best Value is a framework for localgovernment services aimed at securing continuousimprovement through a combination of economy,efficiency and effectiveness.

BVPI’s - Best Value Performance Indicators arestandards used to measure a Council’s performanceto drive continuous improvement in local services.Performance information is captured quarterly,hence the reference to first, second, third andfourth quarters.

BVPP – A Best Value Performance Plan is producedannually by the Council to report our performanceagainst national and locally-defined standards andoutcomes arising from best value service reviews.A BVPP also sets out future priorities and targets forimprovement. Our current BVPP is for the period2002 – 2003.

CPA - Comprehensive Performance Assessment is akey element of the Government's performanceframework for local government. It will supportimprovement planning in local authorities and leadto co-ordinated audit and inspection. The AuditCommission's role in CPA is to form a judgement onthe performance and proven corporate capacity ofevery council in England by the end of 2002.

DfES – Department for Education and Skills

DPR – Development and Performance Reviews areundertaken between line managers and employeesto ensure that each individual’s tasks and objectivesrelate to corporate, divisional and team priorities.

EDP – All Local Education Authorities are required toproduce an Education Development Plan setting outpriorities for school improvement and targets forpupils’ attainment. Nottinghamshire’s current EDPis for the period 2002 – 2007.

IEG – Councils had to submit ImplementingElectronic Government statements in July 2001setting out how they plan to meet theGovernment’s deadline for getting local authorityservices online by 2005.

IiP - Investors in People is the national standardwhich sets a level of good practice for training anddevelopment of people to achieve business goals.LEA – Local Education Authority

Ofsted – Office for Standards in Education. Ofstedis a non-ministerial government department whosemain aim is to help improve the quality andstandards of education and childcare throughindependent inspection and regulation.

PIMS – Performance Information ManagementSystem is a computerised system used byNottinghamshire County Council to captureperformance information data.

PSA – A Public Service Agreements is anagreement between an individual local authorityand the Government. It sets out the authority'scommitment to deliver specific improvements inperformance and the Government's commitment toreward these improvements. The agreement alsorecords what the Government will do to help theauthority achieve the improved performance.

Quartile – If the number of values of ranked datais divided into four equal parts, then the linemarking each division are quartiles

Strategic Plan – this refers to the County Council’sStrategic Plan for 2001-2005 ‘Building a Future’which sets out the Council’s vision and targets forthe period of the current administration.

G L O S S A R Y

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Strategic Training and Development Plan - This plan aims toprovide a framework to ensure that employees, managers andelected Members have access to appropriate training anddevelopment to support the work of the Council and contributeto the meeting of Strategic Plan targets.

SSI – The Social Services Inspectorate is part of the Directoratefor Children, Older People and Social Care Services in theDepartment of Health. SSI assists Ministers in carrying out theirresponsibilities for personal social services and exercisesstatutory powers on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health.

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progress against key areas of performance

Documents