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Overall assessment of performance

This plan is a detailed account of the Council's performance over the last year and of our plans and priorities for the forthcoming year. The next few pages pull together and summarise key points from the document to provide you with an overall assessment of our performance. It is intended to be an "executive summary" of the detail contained in the rest of the document.

In general terms the year 2000/01 has been a year of progress, building upon the success of the first years of the Council.

Achieving planned targets

This time last year we used our new medium term planning process to set out our plans for the year and we have made progress against the targets we set ourselves.

Inevitably with an organisation of this size it is not possible to pick out all of our achievements in a short summary but this year we are particularly proud that we have:

• Increased the percentage of children in the County achieving level 4 and above at key stage 2 in maths from 56% in 1998 to 67% in 1999 and to 68% in 2000.
• Increased the percentage of children in the County achieving level 4 and above at key stage 2 in English from 66% in 1998 to 70% in 1999 and to 74% in 2000.
• Improved road safety by limiting speed to 30mph in villages and communities throughout the County.
• Provided the first phase of a park and ride scheme to ease congestion and traffic impact in Worcester.
• Worked with partners to minimise the impact of flooding in the County, to clean up after the flooding and to represent the views of the people of Worcestershire to the Prime Minister about what needs to be done to reduce this problem in future.
• Secured additional funding which will result in the building of Wyre Piddle Bypass and greater investment in safer routes to schools, public transport, bridge strengthening, road safety schemes and the maintenance of local roads.
• Been awarded Investors In People status in the Environmental Services and Educational Services Directorates as recognition that we value our staff. This achievement covers 40% of the Council's total workforce.
• Improved school efficiency by reducing surplus space in secondary schools.
• Worked as a member of the Rover Task Force to attract substantial additional funding into the County to support automotive companies and also to establish a 'technology corridor' between Birmingham and Worcestershire.
• Reduced class sizes in primary schools by employing more teachers and by providing additional classroom space.
• Worked with partners to establish, at short notice, a team of professionals whose target is to reduce the number of offences committed by persistent young offenders and to reduce overall recorded crime by young people.

(Further details of our achievements during the year are set out in the following pages under the headings "Progress against key priorities" and "Other publications".)

Performance indicators

Last year, in our first Best Value Performance Plan, we told you that in 1998/99 there had been nine areas where our performance was weak. During 1999/2000 we worked hard to improve and in all but two areas we improved our performance. Examples include:

• the number of children's residential homes that we inspected rose from 62.5% to 100%.
• the percentage of footpaths and other rights of way that were easy to use by the public rose from 50% to 69%.
• the percentage of invoices paid promptly rose from 71% to 86%.

Last year we also told you that 1999/2000 had been a year of steady progress for us. We based this view on the fact that we had achieved many of our planned targets and that our projections for the year anticipated that we would improve against many of the national performance indicators.

At the end of 1999/2000 when we published end of year results it turned out that our projections had been accurate in about forty percent of the cases and in many our actual performance was better than we had anticipated.

We recognise that we must improve the way in which we project our performance and we will work on this during the forthcoming year. In seeking to do this we recognise that projecting performance from part year data is not an exact science and that it may take a number of years to get it right.

So how did we do in 1999/2000?

This year it has been difficult to assess our progress against performance indicators because the definition of over twenty five percent of the Audit Commission Performance Indicators that we used to measure our progress changed.

Of one hundred and twelve Audit Commission Performance Indicators for 1999/2000:

• We maintained or improved our performance against fifty-seven indicators.
• No direct comparison was possible in respect of twenty-nine indicators.
• We did not maintain or improve our performance against twenty-six indicators.

Overall we think this is a commendable performance and we would like to thank our staff for all their efforts in helping us to improve over the year.

So where were we good?

Our performance in Educational Services was good. Where comparisons are possible we maintained or improved our performance in seventy-two percent of those performance indicators but there were also good performances in other areas of the Council.

In comparison with other county councils in 1999/2000 we performed well in a number of areas, for example:

• We had no findings of maladministation against us by the independent local government ombudsman.
• We had only 1.1% of our pupils in secondary schools in excess of school capacity compared to the county council average of 3.5%.
• Almost 69% of primary school classes contained 21 - 30 pupils compared to the county council average of 63%.
• The price of a primary school meal in Worcestershire was the lowest in the country £0.90p compared to the county council average of £1.26p.
• We inspected all residential homes for adults in the County.
• We inspected all residential homes for children in the County.
• 89% of library users said they were satisfied with library staff and opening hours compared to a county council average of 80%.
• Only 4.2% of principal roads in the County have reached the point at which repairs to prolong their future life should be considered compared to the national average of 11%.

Where did we get better last year?

By comparing our performance against Audit Commission performance indicators for 1999/2000 with our performance in 1998/99, we improved in many areas. Examples include:

• The percentage of invoices we paid promptly rose from 71% to 86%.
• We undertook more consumer protection visits to high and medium risk premises than previously.
• The percentage of all four-year-olds in nursery places funded by the Council through a government approved plan increased by almost five percent to 99%.
• The percentage of pupils achieving levels 2 and above in key stage one tests rose from 80% to 82%.
• The percentage of pupils achieving levels 4 and above in key stage two tests rose from 62% to 75%.
• The percentage of pupils in local authority schools achieving five or more GCSEs at A-C rose from 46% to 49%.
• We increased the percentage of single adults going into residential care who were allocated single rooms from 76% to 85%.
• We increased the percentage of new social care services for which a start date was provided to the client.
• We cut the number of days on which major council roadworks were in place per mile of busy road.
• We increased the percentage of pedestrian crossings with facilities available for disabled people from 74% to 76%.
• We increased the percentage of footpaths and other rights of way, which were sign-posted, where they leave the road.

Where do we need to improve further?

We were concerned about our performance in Social Services. Where comparisons are possible we maintained or improved our performance in only 36% of those performance indicators.

There are, however, a number of areas where we must do better. We are working to bring our performance into line with other county councils by:

• Reducing the number of children who are "looked after" by the Council.
• Increasing the number of items (excluding books) issued by our libraries.
• Increasing the number of older people whom we help to live at home.
• Cutting the number of pupils permanently excluded from our schools.
• Improving educational achievement at all key stages.
• Increasing the percentage of items of equipment (mobility aids and similar items) costing less than £1,000 that we provide within 3 weeks of assessment.
• Increasing the amount of respite care to adults that we provide or fund.

What are we going to do to get better in future years?

We are committed to continuous improvement. In order to achieve this we have now set new targets for improvement against our performance indicators. In many cases we aim to improve our performance year on year and to equal the performance of the top performing twenty-five percent of county councils within five years.

In some cases, however, this will not be possible because of lack of finance, or because of a policy decision or because of the way in which we provide a service. In those cases we have set our own targets for improvement which we consider to be more realistic.

We particularly want to improve against those performance indicators where we have identified that there is considerable scope for improvement. Details of the targets we have set ourselves against all our performance indicators are set out in the following pages under the heading "Performance indicators".

Last year

For last year (2000/01) we will not be able to tell you with absolute certainty how we have performed against most of the indicators until the summer. We have estimated our performance for the year and we anticipate that, where comparisons are possible, we have improved in seventy-five percent of the indicators against which we measure ourselves.

Again we consider this to be a commendable performance and we thank our staff for their efforts in sustaining improvement.

In a limited number of cases we already have the results of our performance this year. In the main these relate to satisfaction surveys of the services we provide. We are particularly pleased that our satisfaction survey this year revealed that sixty-seven percent of those surveyed were satisfied with the Council. This compares with a national independent survey that showed a county council average level of satisfaction of fifty-four percent.

How do we compare with other County Councils?

Each year an independent assessment of the performance of local authorities is published in "The Independent on Sunday". Last year the published article showed that Worcestershire was ranked 31 out of 34 county councils in the country but a preliminary assessment of our performance during 1999/2000 against the same basket of indicators shows that our performance has improved against many of the indicators. Our overall ranking has also improved so that we are now ranked 28 out of 34.

Areas for improvement

During 1999/2000 we had an unplanned and unexpected overspend of £2.4m on our Social Services budget. As a result, services had to be reduced to contain the overspend. Also, money was transferred from other parts of the budget to assist the action plan adopted by the Council. The Council's overall budget was kept within the limits originally planned.

We asked our Specific Issues Scrutiny Panel to investigate what had gone wrong. They told us that in their opinion there had been a lack of strategic direction and management control and they made a number of recommendations to improve performance in this year and future years.

We have put in place an Action Plan and Recovery Plan and our Specific Issues Scrutiny Panel will report in April with further recommendations of the action necessary. We will consider that report and ask for appropriate action to be taken.

In the long-term absence of the Director of Social Services the Chief Executive appointed interim consultants to guide the directorate through the initial crisis and at the beginning of 2001 the Council appointed an Interim Director.

We recognise that the problems in Social Services will take some time to resolve; we have an action plan in place and we are committed to improving the position. We will report progress further in next year's plan.

Resources An assessment of the performance of the Council would not be complete without some reference to the level of resources available. Over the years the Council has had a succession of low financial settlements from central government. During the last five years the proportion of people in the County over the age of 75 years has increased by 8%. These are the most vulnerable adults in the community and have extensive and costly social and health care needs, which have had a significant impact on our own budget.

This year the settlement was one of the lowest possible for county councils. Whilst the average increase in government funding to county councils was 4.7%, the Worcestershire settlement was only 3.3%. This creates pressure to increase the level of council tax.

The Council currently charges the second lowest council tax of any county in England. It is inevitable in these circumstances that the level of resources available to it will affect the level and quality of service that the Council can offer.

In their management letter to us both this year and last year, our auditors recognised the link between low funding and performance. They acknowledged that achieving performance that matches that of other county councils will "present a significant challenge". Whilst we are prepared to accept the challenge that the government has set us we need to be realistic in our expectations about what can be achieved with the resources available to us.

Conclusion

This year we have continued to make progress in many areas. Our funding position means that we have to be realistic about what we can achieve. There are areas where we need to improve but we have made significant progress towards achieving continuous improvement in the services we provide on your behalf.


In the following pages we set out:

• a little about the Council, what it does, its proposals for changing the way in which decisions are taken and its proposals to draw up a community strategy for Worcestershire.
• details of Worcestershire and the facilities we enjoy in the County.

We then provide the detailed information upon which this overall assessment of performance is based.