Agenda item

To consider a report by the Chief Executive copy attached as item 8

The Committee had a report before it attached as item 8, which had been circulated to all Members, a copy of which is attached to a signed copy of these minutes. 

In 2022 the Chief Executive, the Corporate Leadership Team and the wider staff leadership team, worked collaboratively to design a new corporate plan for the organisation. This plan, which came to be known as ‘Our Plan’, was agreed and adopted at the Joint Strategic Committee and both Councils in October 2022 and was launched to staff over the course of November 2022.

A Member asked, “How much progress has been made with The Growth Deal and is the project progressing, functioning and providing results in line with expectations?”

Members were informed the Growth Deal was a partnership with West Sussex County Council, therefore Adur District was dependent on decisions made by WSCC in terms of level of investment through the ‘Deal’. 

The Chief Executive was pleased to say that a number of projects had been delivered, under the Growth Deal banner, including flood defence as part of the Sussex Yacht Club works and also the delivery of Focus House. Most recently, they had worked in partnership with WSCC to deliver improvements at Southwick Square. This opened on time (in October) and on budget and was great to see the new space being enjoyed over the festive period. 

The Council was in dialogue with WSCC regarding future projects across Adur, which followed the preceding 12 months where preparatory work had been undertaken on a number of projects, including as a result of the Lancing ‘Now and into the Future’ work.”

A Member asked, “In Appendix 1 it informs that the section on Freedom of Information, Environmental Information Regulations and Data Subject Access Requests are not achieving targets. Has there been a particular rise in these requests and, if so, through greater transparency with our communities could that reduce the volume the council are receiving?”

Members were informed that there was a relative rise in requests and capacity to effectively deal with these represented a challenge. That digitising records should make data more transparent and make it easier to serve these requests.

A Member asked, “In June 2022 the council declared a Cost of Living Emergency. 18 months later and many of our residents are still experiencing these challenges. It could be argued that it's not so much an emergency situation any more, but has become a status quo for many. How do you prioritise the delivery times of Our Plan whilst a higher level of support is required to get some people through week to week living?”

Members were informed many of the residents continued to struggle as a result of the cost of living crisis. To help provide the support needed, much of the cost of living work had been mainstreamed into the core work. This meant front line services were better able to give the right help at the right time to more residents.  Through ongoing support of Citizens Advice and investments in online support tools such as Telljo, they had also been able to extend support and advice to those in need. In addition, they were continuing to deliver a proactive programme where data was used to reach out to people and help them to access help and support before they were in significant difficulties. This focus on prevention and early intervention ensured residents got the help they needed and furthermore costly assistance was less likely to be required later on from the councils.  They continued to work with partners and communities to deliver other interventions (for example low cost loans from community banking) and provide support in places and the organisational design work sought to develop this further. In working closer to  communities and neighbourhoods the intention was to increase the focus on prevention and further build the capacity and resilience of residents and communities.

Members also asked about the analysis of long term fluidity; equal pay data; interaction with unions and work of social prescribers; money advice services and employment advisers.

Members were informed that the focus was on building a resilient system with the ability to reprioritise; that they were still digging into data regarding fluctuations of equal pay and the leadership team was very conscious of the issue; that regular meetings were held with union representatives and that there were staffing challenges but design work was looking at a neighbourhood model that maintained consistency.

Resolved:

The Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

• Noted the  progress made by the Corporate Leadership Team in developing a new draft performance framework for Our Plan.
• Noted the measures outlined in Appendices 1 and 2 as the first iteration of measures for discussion with the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee in January 2024 
• Reviewed and noted the progress made against performance measures where they were available
• Requested an annual performance reporting for Our Plan be brought to the committee to monitor progress and support performance improvement
• Agreed to refer these performance arrangements, including feedback from JOSC, onto the respective Joint Strategic Subcommittees for Adur and Worthing Councils.