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Minutes of PPRN 4 February 2005

POLICY AND PERFORMANCE REVIEW NETWORK

 MEETING NOTES AND ACTIONS - 4^th FEBRUARY 2005  

Host: Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council

 1.      CPA Consultation

 Janice Brill gave an outline of the main points arising from the LGC Conference on CPA held on 27th January 2005. The general consensus amongst those District Councils who had attended was that the conference offered little information or clarity on how CPA would affect them.    

The main message was that the new CPA framework would be a much more challenging and stringent test, and that councils would need to perform better under the new system to retain their current position. Movement between categories was expected and inevitable.  The full presentation given by Frances Done, Managing Director of Local Government at the Audit Commission has been circulated to PPRN with the meeting notes.

          Discussion at the meeting focused on:  

§        Achieving shared priorities - It was hoped that more emphasis would be placed on the local context and local priorities as the shared priorities did not all directly apply at District level. Nevertheless there was agreement that LSP’s could focus on shared priorities outcomes in developing their performance management frameworks, and that Districts could input through LPSA2. Havant had recently reviewed its Community Strategy to give a clearer performance focus, with health- check PI’s included     

 §     User focus and equality - This would be a theme throughout the new assessment. East Dorset and Hart had recently had Audit Commission inspections around customer focus. Basingstoke was using the Employers Organisation equality impact assessment tool, whilst New Forest had developed an impact needs assessment within their service plans.

§         Partnership working - CPA will evaluate how we lead and influence the community through partnerships, and whether they are effective. Winchester were to have an Audit inspection on partnership working      

 2.   The Gershon Review  

There was a general discussion on the Gershon Review and the need to produce annual efficiency statements. Rob Chambers advised that a Hampshire Group had recently been set up to look at efficiencies, led by the Chief Executive at East Hampshire. This would look at services across Hampshire, explore opportunities for joint working and develop a work programme. It was agreed that the PPRN should not duplicate the role of the Hampshire Group, but could perhaps lend support in certain areas. On this basis Gershon would be kept as a standing item on future agendas to allow a quick report back on any relevant issues.

The following reported particular activities to support the efficiency agenda -

§         Fareham - have appointed an interim manager to assist with efficiency work, in particular reviewing processes and procedures, developing an organisational transformation strategy, and focusing on opportunities for quality, time, and cash savings  

§         Havant - have developed business process reengineering (BPR) and supporting metrics to identify cost and time savings. A similar approach had been adopted by Basingstoke , based on the Havant toolkit. A website had been set up by Salford City Council - Salford Process Reengineering Involving New Technology (SPRINT) which gave a toolkit and case studies on using BPR to good effect

§       Hampshire County - are looking to amalgamate the annual efficiency statements into existing published documents - the backward looking statement into the annual Performance Plan, and the forward looking statement into the Corporate Strategy

        §         Basingstoke - as well as adopting BPR, a Project Team has been set up to coordinate all  activity relating to Gershon and all Service Managers are to report in June and July on how they will apply the Gershon principles in their business units.  

 3.      Performance Management

 Brief updates on progress with performance management were given. In particular -

 §      Fareham - are using QPR scorecard as a system, and could arrange a demonstration

§      Hart - are working with the Audit Commission on the culture of performance management. The first phase is to establish the current position, barriers and solutions. This could be an item for future report back

 §      New Forest - have recently had an audit of performance management systems as a quality control check, information on which can be shared. Isle of Wight are undergoing a similar review  

§      Basingstoke - have adopted a Performance Board which meets quarterly to discuss any performance related issues. All service managers have to submit annual performance review statements to the Board in April

§      St Helens - have developed a free performance monitoring database. Basingstoke were seeking further information, and would circulate on receipt  

There was general consensus that it would be useful to set up a quarterly BVPI monitoring system via the web for PPRN use, to give more timely comparison data on BVPI’s. At present comparisons were limited to the data published annually by the Audit Commission, which was always out-of-date.

 4.      PPRN Forward Plan

The following items were raised for discussion at a future meeting -

 §      Equality assessment - New Forest model

§      Performance monitoring systems - opportunities for collaboration in procurement

§      Feedback from various audits on customer focus, partnership working, performance management culture, and performance monitoring system

§      LPSA2 - consistent data collection and monitoring

 5.      Date and Venue of Next Meeting  

Friday 10^th June 2005 - Co hosted by Fareham and Gosport  
Friday 23^rd September 2005 - Hart  
January 2006 - East Hampshire  

 6.      And last but not least...  

After many years of supporting PPRN this was Bill Cook’s final meeting before a well earned retirement. He was thanked for his work on the steering group and his ‘back to reality’ contributions and presented with something suitably alcoholic to ease him into a life of relaxation on board his boat. Best wishes from all.

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