Agenda item

With reference to article 6 of the minute of the Corporate Policy and Performance Committee of 29 April 2010, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport which presented a scorecard summary of performance data to June 2010 for the Education, Culture and Sport Service and sought agreement for future financial and performance monitoring and reporting arrangements.  

The report presented to the Corporate Policy and Performance Committee in April 2010 had set out new arrangements for financial and performance monitoring, which would ensure a round picture of performance and would address key performance indicators, progress with planned actions and management of risks.    The new arrangements would also ensure that performance indicators, actions and risks directly related to the Council’s stated objectives and that performance management was aligned throughout different levels of planning and activity such as the Single Outcome Agreement and service business plans.   This would ensure that those charged with decision-making had regular access to current, accurate and appropriate performance data.  

The report noted that the performance reporting would be undertaken where possible using the Covalent performance management tool.   This would allow performance reporting to be standardised and members would receive information which highlighted potential “hot spots” and indicators which were either not being met or were exceeding performance expectations.

Appended to the report was the Education, Culture and Sport balanced scorecard to June 2010;  the Service’s statutory performance indicators for 2009/10;  and a summary of HMIe and Care Commission inspections for the 2009/10 academic session.   The report advised that work was ongoing to develop a robust performance management framework for the Directorate using the Covalent tool.  

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)       approve the Service scorecard report for June 2010;

(b)       approve the Statutory Performance Indicators (SPIs) report for financial year 09/10; 

(c)        agree to receive performance reports on a quarterly basis showing progress and outturns in relation to:

·                    SPIs within the Education, Culture and Sports Committee remit;

·                    other Key Performance Indicators used by the Education, Culture and Sport Service to manage performance;

·                    data showing the delivery of agreed savings;

·                    progress with actions set out in the Education, Culture and Sport Service Plan;  and

·                    the risk register for the Education, Culture and Sport Service.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         in relation to the percentage of dealing with written queries and complaints within 15 working days, to note that Councillor Graham had not received a response to a particular complaint and to request that officers discuss the matter with him; 

(ii)        in relation to the SQA performance measures, to note that updated data would be available on 20 September 2010, and therefore further information on these measures would be included in the performance report submitted to the November meeting of the Committee; 

(iii)       to request that officers provide examples of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework factors to a future meeting; 

(iv)       to note that officers would be reviewing the performance targets and to request that once the new targets were known, that officers provide recommendations on how these were to be achieved;  and

(v)        to approve the recommendations contained in the report.