Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Head of Service Children and Families.

The Committee considered a report of the Quality Assurance Manager, Children and Family Services providing an update on the reporting of performance across Children and Family Services.

            Significant work had been undertaken within Children & Families Extended Leadership Team to evaluate performance following the Quarter 4 period and to establish performance targets for 2010-11. The establishment of the exception reports for High Risk indicators had continued and was now being integrated into Service planning procedures.

            The report had been submitted to Scrutiny at a time of considerable change at a national level in terms of education policy and the role and function of national agencies. Recent announcements had already influenced performance reporting, in particular with the demise of the Comprehensive Area Assessment process.

There was positive progress to report since the presentation of the report card at the end of Quarter 3. These included:

·        16 National Indicators (20%) now had data added for Quarter 4 which was not available earlier in the year.

·        There had been a reduction in the number of High Risk Indicators from 13 to 11 with an increased rigour in the interrogation of data for other NI’s. This had resulted in clear actions being taken to address areas of concern within other High Risk Indicators which as yet had not necessarily resulted in a measurable improvement over a sustained period.

·        The report card now included named service teams/managers who would have direct accountability for identified National Indicators.

            The report card now included a comparison of performance against the Audit Commission ratings which enabled the Council to compare Cheshire East performance against the national picture.

            The Quality Assurance Manager circulated a supplementary sheet detailing recent National changes to the performance reporting structure for Children’s and Families including the cessation of the process to report on a quarterly basis an Ofsted profile which summarised the performance of all schools and services assessed by Ofsted. Also the ‘Tell us’ Survey had also ceased as part of national changes.

            The paper also explained the current position in connection with the 2009/2010 outturn and outlined proposals to link performance with service planning.

            In addition the paper provided information on progress with the 13 high risk indicators reported upon in quarter 3.

RESOLVED – (a) That he performance report as shown within Appendix A outlining the latest position of performance reporting at Quarter 4 be noted.

(b) That the planning process as outlined in Appendix B in order to address potential areas of underperformance be endorsed.

(c) That the Quality Assurance Manager be requested to submit a report on the full outturn picture for Children and Families to the September meeting of this Committee.