These notes are drawn from the Council's Direction of Travel statement, presented to the Audit Commission in September 2005.
1. SETTING THE SCENE
This section describes the City Council’s view of its progress over the last twelve months. Subsequent sections focus more on the evidence for improvements in outcomes, and how better planning and performance management frameworks are driving these improvements.
2005 has been the year that the Council has seized its role as a confident leader of the community that wants to work as an agent for change, in partnership with people and organisations, to develop a modern European city for the benefit of its citizens. It has been a year of delivery - when the ambition we set out in 2003 has begun to have an impact on our organisation and the lives of local people. We are confident that this will provide a sound foundation for bigger improvements in the quality of life in future years.
In the last year, the city’s offer and the Council’s services have shown significant improvement. Three programmes stand out as indicators of this:
§ Choose Nottingham captures the pride we have in our city, our communities and our people – celebrating its vitality and the progress it is making - and how these influence the decisions people take about investing, living, working in and visiting a city that looks out to the wider world. Our city centre (now the 4th best shopping centre in the country) is being transformed, with new construction and an extended pedestrianised zone, served by a younger bus fleet and the best light rail system in the country – exceeding the highest first year’s patronage predictions. Better partnership working is attracting visitors (Experience Nottinghamshire) and driving inward investment.
§ Respect for Nottingham is our drive to tackle the public’s desire for safer, friendlier and cleaner neighbourhoods. As a result we have seen an 85% reduction in begging, 80% reduction in street prostitution, 40% reduction in the number of residents affected by anti-social behaviour, 14% reduction in residents reporting litter to be a problem and 18% reduction in the number of residents reporting graffiti to be a problem;
§ Team Nottingham shows the way we are building capacity in our organisation to tackle areas of under performance identified in our Strategic Plan - transforming our Housing Benefits service; raising educational attainment; and improving our services generally (with 60% of key indicators improved over the year, for the second year); improved financial planning and discipline in a challenging year, re-directing £4 million to priority areas;
We are ambitious to achieve more for Nottingham, being actively involved in the development of better shopping, further improvements to transport, creating an ALMO to enable increased investment in housing, working with Government to renew schools and create new academies, enhancing our Respect for Nottingham campaign, completing the re-organisation and re-focussing of our most senior managers and re-directing even more money this year, on improved customer focus and access in particular. We are taking our responsibility as a community leader seriously, building on several years’ constructive partnership working, engaging with our partners and communities in developing new forms of governance, in planning and delivering services, and by raising pride in Nottingham.
More specifically we are now seeing the benefits of:
§ New investment in services, the local economy and the environment, building on the growth in GVA in recent years leading to designation as a Science City, and long-term improvement plans for community safety, schools and housing
§ Developing the right skills for the local economy leading to the ring-fencing of jobs in new developments for schemes targeted at local people and new training opportunities focused on the needs of local employers
§ The Respect for Nottingham programme leading to a fall in the number of local people affected by anti-social behaviour
§ Developing our tradition of effective partnerships leading to strengthened joint working with neighbouring councils, with partners across the city on Integrated Children’s Services, Health Inequalities Shared Priority Pathfinder, and in the new Crime and Disorder Partnership
§ Investing in our capacity for engaging in partnerships is leading to a fresh start for our local strategic partnership (One City Partnership Nottingham) and a focus on a tighter set of objectives that are more widely shared and owned led by a new Board
§ A new Strategic Management Team, led by a strong Chief Executive, and the Strategic Leadership and Management Group programme (SLMG) leading to all our top three tiers of managers being assessed against competencies focused on leadership, the customer, partnership development and improving performance
§ The 2nd year of the ‘Gearing Up’ programme recognised leading to significant progress in organisational development and culture change
§ A strengthened planning and monitoring framework for performance, along with a rolling medium term financial plan leading to improved performance in 60% of our BVPIs over the last two years
§ Taking difficult decisions and directing resources to priority areas (£4m redirected in 2004, and a further £5m in 2005) leading to additional investment in neighbourhood level services, tackling anti-social behaviour, cultural facilities and leisure centres, and opening up opportunities for investment in housing and schools
§ A stronger Overview and Scrutiny function leading to improved strategic working and service development
In making this progress, we can see the continuing significant challenges and opportunities in the areas identified as priorities in our Strategic Plan, and are developing plans to address them (see Section 3 for further evidence):
Developing the City
§ Developing Nottingham’s ‘city regions’ leading to a new opportunity for dialogue and delivery with key partners in Nottingham and with the Government
§ Closing the gap in quality of life for people (as shown in NRF floor target data) for less prosperous communities leading to healthier lives, safer neighbourhoods and more job opportunities
§ Setting an example as one of the largest local employers leading to more local people obtaining local jobs and support for a healthier workforce
§ Remodelling in line with programmes like New Vision for Social Care and Integrated Children’s Services, including partnerships that are consistent with emerging commissioning arrangements leading to improved service delivery
Neighbourhood Focus
§ Following a summer conference of over 80 Area Representatives we are developing neighbourhood management as a focussed approach to reducing the gap leading toimproved quality of life, reductions in crime and boost to regeneration in local areas
§ Reviewing our capital and asset management plans as part of ambitious plans for transforming neighbourhoods leading to balanced and sustainable communities for families including decent, affordable housing and accessible services.
§ Developing our Building Schools for the Future programme with local and stakeholder involvement leading to schools fit for the 21st century
Customer Focus
§ Improving access to our services leading to people getting through on the telephone more quickly and being more satisfied with the service they receive
§ Demonstrating our commitment to mainstreaming equality and diversity issues leading to on the ground improvements for communities, customers and employees
Improving Performance
§ Integrating our planning, performance and financial management more effectively leading to better value for money
§ Managing major projects in an integrated way leading to improved services on the ground that deliver a better quality of life for residents
§ Successfully completing and embedding the learning from the Gearing Up programme leading to a much more effective organisation
2. THE COUNCIL’S TRACK RECORD IN IMPROVING OUTCOMES
2.1 Are services improving in areas the Council has identified as priorities and areas the public say are important to their communities?
Our Strategic Plan Refresh provided a clear set of priorities driven by the consistent messages we hear from local people and partners in democratic engagement, consultation and other dialogue. 62% of our national performance indicators have improved since 2002/03 (Audit Commission: Context + Information Profile), with particular progression seen in priority areas (see below). Improvement plans for Strategic Plan priorities are well in hand. Progress is being reported and monitored to SMT and Members on a quarterly basis. Areas of under-performance have been identified in the Strategic Plan Refresh with plans in place to deliver improvements in those areas. The impact of high levels of deprivation on this performance must be recognised, but this does not detract from our determination to continue the improvement trend. Local data shows that the gap between different parts of the city on key indicators such as life expectancy between different parts of the city is as great as 13% and needs to close. Our proposals for the Local Area Agreement clearly indicate where the priority for our work with partners rests.
Achievements and Challenges
§ Educational attainment: GCSE results (5+ A-Cs) have significantly increased since 1998 and this year exceeded Government targets
§ Cleaner City: 20% increase in funding for street cleansing; 20% improvement in customer perception of cleanliness in the city and an actual improvement in the cleanliness of relevant land and highways since 2003/04; Six Green Flag Awards for parks – the highest number in the East Midlands
§ Housing: The Council is making progress to ensure that all our homes are ‘decent’ by 2010, to secure up to a further £165 million pounds for Council House improvements. Greater individual attention is now given to tenants and homes, by reorganising housing area managers and vastly reducing the number of homes for which they are responsible
§ Health: promoting healthier communities through Health Development Officer programme connecting with Area Committees and service deliverers
§ Debt recovery: the improvement shown in 2004/05 is continuing in the current year
§ Enviro-crime: Another successful 100 Day Clean Up campaign, issuing of over 300 Fixed Penalty Notices for litter and waste offences and the removal of over 4000 square metres of graffiti
§ Crime reduction: The recent high profile launch of the anti-social behaviour hotline; 32% increase in convictions for Class A drug supply; over 130 arrests for kerb crawling and double the capacity of the prostitute outreach workers service to assist and support prostitutes exit street prostitution
§ Benefits: Transforming benefits into a service that delivers for our residents, and a system we believe will be labelled among the best in the country when the results of the recent inspection are announced
§ Community Safety: Investing and building capacity in resources, information systems and a strong partnership, with a new independent chair of the CDP leading to further reductions in crime, anti-social behaviour and drug-related activity.
§ A joined up approach to anti-social behaviour – neighbourhood wardens on the street report to our new Anti-Social Behaviour Unit, ensuring integrated working between those services that make the difference to local communities.
§ Transport: Nottingham continues to be recognised for its excellence by achieving Centre of Excellence status for Local Transport Delivery; awarded LGA/Department for Transport Public Transport Pathfinder status; short listed for Transport Authority of the Year and also for the National Transport award(Travel, Information & Marketing); introduced a new series of branded bus services (The Links) serving park and rides, major sites of employment and the hospitals
2.2 What contribution is the Council making towards wider Community Outcomes?
The Council is taking an active role to ensure that the inter-relationship between economic and social regeneration that is vital for the health and well-being of the city and its residents. Through the Fresh Start of OCPN, the development of the Local Area Agreement, and the City Development Strategy of the Greater Nottingham Partnership, the Council is showing its determination to build strong partnerships that deliver benefits for the wider community. We have re-directed resources to provide capacity to develop and deliver this agenda at every level of the organisation.
Achievements and Challenges
§ Health: Working closely with the PCT to develop joint approaches which tackle health inequalities leading to a decline in heart disease and disincentives to smoking; Scrutiny report on teenage conceptions leading to re-focused programmes delivered by Leisure and Community Services and City Development
§ Economy: Through Core Cities and City Region partnerships we have taken significant steps to support the local economy leading to developments such as Toyota deciding to locate their European Training Academy in the city, schemes to enable local people to find local jobs; £2.9 million to combat crime against businesses, short listing for Government relocation, designation as a Science City – a lever for expansion and integration of the city’s universities and science-related industries
§ Regeneration: The City Development Strategy is now leading to major regeneration schemes and development such as the Old Market Square; Trinity Square; Eastside; improvements to Maid Marian Way; Turning Point city centre transport management scheme; plans for the Broadmarsh Centre and the Rail Station;
§ Community Safety: Our leadership of the Respect for Nottingham strategy is leading to less begging, street prostitution, litter and graffiti. Our partnership with the police is leading to reductions in some types of crime that buck the national trend. Nottingham Stands Together, a reaction to high profile incidents, is leading to a new commitment from organisations and communities to reject violent crime – all those high profile incidents are going to court.
§ Investment in Strategic Partnerships and Chief Executive of OCPN roles at Services Director level leading to a closer inter-relationship between the Council and OCPN
2.3 To what degree is the Council improving both access and the quality of service for all its Citizens, focusing on those who have been ‘hard to reach’ or previously excluded?
We have shown a commitment at the highest level to ‘improving our customer focus,’ and we are pleased to have seen a reduction in the number of complaints received. This year’s ‘Access to Services’ inspection assessed the Council as providing a fair service with promising prospects for improvement. In response, the Council has resolved issues of accountability for the customer focus agenda, and approved a Customer Services Transformation Strategy that sets out our approach to improve both speed of access and the quality of customer services. The focus is now on delivery of better and faster and more consistent access to services.
Achievements and Challenges
§ As a response to the Access to Services Inspection, a Customer Services Transformation Strategy has been agreed by Executive Board leading to improvements in access and quality of service
§ Benefits has been transformed from a service regarded as poor to what we believe will be top-rated service in two years leading to government standards being exceeded in all performance areas (eg 44% improvement in the speed of notifying customers of their entitlement is enabling more people to stay in their home.
§ We have seen a sharp rise in debt collection rates (Council Tax and sundry debtors) and have agreed a debt strategy leading to the active pursuit of outstanding payments while providing support for those falling into a spiral of debt.
§ We have developed partnerships to draw together local services leading to the construction of LIFT/Joint Service Centres in Clifton and Hyson Green, and the development of Children’s Centres
§ We are working hard to achieve Level 3 of the Equalities Standard by March 2006 leading to more effective engagement with and recognition of the needs of minority communities earlier in our work
§ We have developed neighbourhood management proposals that build on our devolved use of NRF through area working leading to a stronger programme for reducing the gap in quality of life between different communities
§ We have taken steps to improve our communication with residents leading to a more effective two-way engagement including a more effective ‘Arrow,’ a re-design of our website, and a re-design of our annual satisfaction survey that will enable variations between parts of the city to be shown. Our new Constitution allows more access/participation in Council meetings
§ A focus on our corporate parenting responsibilities leading to overall numbers being maintained at target level and 6-10 looked after children appointed to apprenticeships in the Council
§ We have improved our support for vulnerable adults in some areas leading toimprovements in waiting times for aids and adaptations, and the specialist dementia home care was recognised in national awards
§ With a significant population of asylum seekers we have developed a cross-agency response leading to innovative services from libraries, schools, leisure centres, housing, and social services.
§ Our organisation development programme is leading to new competencies for senior managers with a particular focus on improving services for customers – it was the theme for our annual Managers’ Conference in September
2.4 Is value for money improving as well as quality of services?
We recognise the vital importance of demonstrating good value for money for residents and refer you to our recent Use of Resources self assessment document to provide evidence in this area.
3. PROGRESS MADE IN DEVELOPING ROBUST PLANS FOR IMPROVEMENT AND DELIVERING AGAINST THEM
3.1 Does the Council have robust plans for improving?
The Strategic Plan Refresh (agreed in January 2005) is the Council’s own plan, and this has driven the Council’s priorities and improvements into service plans and the work of individual staff. In the last year, the Council has recognised the need to develop wider ownership of its strategic direction, and a stronger alignment with the plans of our partners. The OCPN is re-focusing and is developing a new Community Strategy and Local Area Agreement. The Greater Nottingham Partnership has reported progress on the City Development Strategy in its ‘Drawing Together’ document. These, along with activity such as ‘Painting the Picture’ to develop a vision for Nottingham, will inform the development of the successor to the Strategic Plan. This new Corporate Plan will demonstrate the alignment between our local priorities and those shared with national government and our partners. Our medium term financial plan has shown how we have re-directed even more money to our priorities. A summary of our refreshed Strategic Plan was delivered to every household as part of a special edition of the ‘Arrow.’ Our draft planning and performance framework draws all of these together to demonstrate the alignment between them all. We recognise that some of this is work in progress but we believe that the foundations are in place and the framework is taking shape and is robust.
Achievements and Challenges
§ Strategic Plan Refresh leading to a wide range of specific commitments under the priority themes
§ Preparation of new Corporate Plan leading to a stronger alignment of priorities between partners and, in turn, to more effective joint working
§ OCPN Fresh Start includes the preparation of new Community Strategy leading to a new 3 year vision for improved quality of life in Nottingham
§ A medium term financial plan that continues to support the Strategic Plan priorities leading to a demonstrable and greater shift of resources to those priorities
§ The Gearing Up organisation development programme is reporting that it is on track to deliver over 80% of its targets leading to a significant improvement in the culture of the Council
§ An Inspection Protocol has been put in place to improve the Council’s management and response to inspections will be leading to the development of more robust improvement plans that arise from future inspections and reports
§ Developing a Children and Young People’s Plan leading to a shared vision and a strategic direction for the delivery of integrated children’s services – the model has been agreed by the Strategic Partnership and is now out for consultation
3.2 How well is improvement planning being implemented; are key milestones being achieved?
In areas like finance, planning and performance Members have given a strong lead on driving real improvement in both the frameworks and outcomes. For example, the BVPP and Statement of Accounts were considered together by Council in June – having produced the Statement of Accounts a month earlier than actually required. As a result, these issues are now being seen as part of the ‘day job,’ a key role for Members, managers and staff at all levels. These issues are managed regularly and challenge is given where the results are not achieving the expected level. The new frameworks clarify roles and responsibilities and the use of individual performance and development reviews to recognise success and tackle under-performance has been a particular focus this year. Performance reporting, monitoring and management are becoming embedded, and good practice is spreading more widely.
We are now working on further improvements in areas such as target setting, identifying a smaller number of indicators that measure what matters, and linking performance management to financial management. We have taken a positive role in encouraging effective linkages between these frameworks and those of our partners.
Achievements and Challenges
§ A stronger focus for performance management by Executive Board and SMT on the priorities and commitments set out in the Strategic Plan Refresh leading to satisfactory progress on the priority actions, and to 67% of the PIs that support those priorities being on track with management actions to address those that are not
§ New planning guidance developed, implemented and evaluated leading to service plans more clearly aligned to corporate priorities
§ Acquisition of performance management software is leading to a move away from observing performance to managing it effectively.
§ Sharing access to data is leading to OCPN and other partners using the system as well in the coming year
§ Gearing Up programme
§ Mandatory training in managing performance through people is leading to active steps to address poor performance and, in time to a stronger Performance and Development Review process
§ An ‘Inspections Protocol’ has been made available to managers leading to more robust preparations for, and improvement planning after external inspections
§ A programme of training and quality assurance of performance indicators are leading to more robust performance data being managed and greater understanding of its importance among key staff
3.3 Are there significant weaknesses or failures in corporate governance?
The Annual Audit Letter (2004) found no major weaknesses in our governance arrangements. Recommendations for improvement under Section 11 of the Audit Commission Act were made on one issue and this has now been fully addressed to the satisfaction of our Auditor. Other issues raised in the AAL have been acted upon, many of which have been picked up in this self-assessment. Similarly, the Council’s Statement of Internal Control (SIC) did not raise any significant issues regarding corporate governance. It did however identify 5 control issues for noting. We believe that the SIC will be accepted without any formal auditor concern, but we do await confirmation. The Monitoring Officer has not had to exercise his powers within this period to prevent an illegal action or decision.
4. THE SCENE UNFOLDING
This is a Council delivering its programme of improvement. The last year has seen us deliver on the ambitions we set out in 2003, but we recognise that there is further to travel yet before we can be confident of the excellence to which we aspire. 2005 has been the year when our ambition has had an impact on the organisation, when we have achieved a sense of direction with our partners, and when improvements in service performance have emerged. We expect 2006 to be a year in which these improvements are converted into a real culture change at all levels that has a perceived impact on the quality of life of all those who experience Nottingham.
[Last reviewed 2006-01-28; based on notes from 2005-09-30]
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