Agenda item

(To receive a report by Katy Thomas, County Manager – Performance & Intelligence, which presents performance against Council Business Plan targets for the directorate as at the end of Quarter 2 2018/19)

Consideration was given to a report which presented the performance against the Council Business Plan targets for the Directorate as at the end of Quarter 2 2018/19. 

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·       It was noted that the majority of targets were being achieved or exceeded.  Therefore the report focused on exceptions and it was reported that there were only four of the indicators that were not reaching target.

·       It was noted that there was a lot of discussion around mental health services nationally and locally, and how public health services linked into primary care.  One issue that would need to be addressed was that some people may not want to engage with their GP and work would need to be done on how to target those people who were traditionally hard to reach.

·       It was queried what the impact was of not achieving the target in relation to direct payments (per cent of clients in receipt of long term support who received a direct payment ASCO F1C (2a)).  It was noted that this measure had been in place for a long time, and there were a lot of older people in particular who did not want the complications that came with direct payments.  Work was continuing on the take up of pre pay cards and the authority was trying to make this as simple as possible. 

·       There were an increasing number of younger people with physical disabilities who were choosing to take direct payments.

·       There were about 2000 people who chose to take direct payments, which was a sizeable number when compared to other areas of the country.

·       Concluded enquiries where the desired outcomes were achieved – it was noted that the measure was 5% down on the previous quarter, and it was queried whether there was any reasoning for this.  It was noted that this was likely to be due to the measure only relating to a small number of people.  It was also noted that safeguarding had changed a bit in terms of Making Safeguarding Personal, and so people may be choosing a different outcome.

·       It was queried if a target was deemed to be not appropriate, did that mean it was not achievable.  It was intended that some of the measures would have stretch targets, but if there was a capacity issue, it may not be possible to achieve.  It was for a service to decide if a target was inappropriate and would then need to go through official routes to change that target.  

·       It was clarified that the substance mis-use service was for those people with severe problems, and the integrated lifestyle service which was coming online in summer 2019, would be for people to be referred into that service at an early point before issues developed.

·       Carers supported in the last 12 months – it was noted that Cumbria's performance had exceeded all its other comparators, and it was suggested it may be useful to highlight some of the activities that were being carried out.  However, caution was advised that Lincolnshire was very specific about what was termed 'carers support', and that performance would be very much dependent on definition.  It was felt that good practice should be highlighted.

RESOLVED

          That the comments made in relation to the performance information for Quarter 2 be noted.