The Performance Plan 2006

The following strengths and areas for improvement were identified as a result of the corporate programme of audit and inspection in the last year.

The main Strengths identified were: -

• Clear Council objectives, with plans to develop closer links between the Community Strategy and Council priorities.
• Strengthening links between Council objectives, service plans and staff appraisals.
• Effective action and prioritisation in response to capping.
• The Service First project, including development of service standards and better handling of complaints.
• Facing up to difficult traveller issue.
• Production of accounts within timetable.
• Development of the Medium Term Financial Strategy and regular reviews of the strategy.
• Good performance on PIs, above the national median in a number of cases – e.g. recycling.
• Examples of raising external funding – e.g. for the Contact Centre, government funding for recycling and Section 106 Agreements.
• Contact Centre – progress in developing the range and quality of services and in linking the Centre with back office services through monthly meetings with service officers.
• Good examples of effective partnership work.
• Good links with parish councils and responsive to local concerns.

The main Issues to be Addressed were identified as: -

• Strengthen the corporate planning and prioritisation processes by greater Member involvement; better links between financial planning and corporate planning; and a clearer and better-documented annual process.
• Improve consultation by less emphasis on the South Cambs Magazine, more emphasis on qualitative data; and actively seeking views of all sections of the community.
• Strengthen performance management. It needs to be better integrated with financial planning; better integrated into the culture and processes of the organisation; greater Member involvement and leadership. Move from performance monitoring to management. A more even approach to performance management and service quality are needed across the Council.
• Improve the quality of PI data and improvements to and more use of the PIMMS system.
• Strengthen risk management  - for example training for Members and more regular reporting to Members.
• Strengthen financial control systems to avoid under/over spends. Improve budget monitoring so that it is predictive rather than backward looking; more based on risk assessment and the services which most affect spending patterns; more linked to PI performance.
• Increase the use of comparative costs and Value for Money (VfM) targets.
• Introduce partnership agreements with major partners to improve the effectiveness of strategic partnerships. The LSP requires greater focus and support.
• Consider strengthening internal financial systems where only limited assurance is currently given.
• Review counter fraud work which is currently limited because of budget constraints and further response required to BFI recommendations.