To consider progress in delivery the Sustainable Community Strategy adopted in April 2009.

1.  That the variation in performance be noted and referred to the Local Strategic Partnership Board and its sub-groups for further action.

2.  That, although the performance of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Hospital Trust appears to be improving, considering its pivotal role in the community, the Hospital Trust be invited to join the LSP Board.

3.  That a summary or report card highlighting good and poor performance be published in Borough Update.

In August the Cabinet agreed the process by which the newly adopted Sustainable Community Strategy (“SCS”) Maidstone 2020 would be implemented and performance managed. This stated that the performance management would be based upon the following principles or objectives:

·  Utilise a single universal performance management system (Excelsis) to monitor the objectives, actions and targets in the SCS

·  Utilize the sub-groups of the LSP to monitor and manage performance utilizing the council’s RAG system.

Currently the council is in the process of purchasing an improved performance management system Covalent, but in the interim Appendix A to the report of the Assistant Director of Development and Community Strategy has been produced using the existing Excelsis system which is also utilised by the borough council for its own performance reporting.

With the exception of the Safer Maidstone Partnership, it has not yet been possible to utilise the sub-groups of the LSP to monitor and manage performance in the themes. This will be developed as the sub-groups are established. In the interim, all Red, Lower Median and Bottom Quartile performance are highlighted.

Where possible, the intention has been to report progress utilising the National Indicator (“NI”) set developed by the Audit Commission. However, it should be noted, that the majority of these are available only on an annual basis (59), while only a small number are currently available quarterly (12).  Where no NI is available, some other measure of performance is utilised, for instance, for performance of the hospital and Primary Care Trust the Care Quality Commission’s assessment. There are some gaps in reporting where data is not yet available at the district level – generally where the responsibility is with the county council – and processes are not yet in place to disaggregate the data to district boundaries.

There is some duplication of reporting with the council’s own Strategic Plan, for instance Park and Ride. Where this is dealt with in the report on the strategic plan, an explanation is not given here.

While the Maidstone Hospital has reported improvements in performance, compared to the last publicly available report available from the Care Quality Commission, given the recent poor performance and its pivotal role in the well being of residents of Maidstone Borough, it is felt that further engagement is sought with this important service provider by inviting them to join the LSP Board.

Annual figures

A copy of the Annual figures were circulated to Members.  Of the NIs where data is only available annually, the following are in the bottom quartile:

·  Satisfaction with local bus services,

·  People killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents,

·  Tackling fuel poverty,

·  Use of public libraries

·  Residual household waste per household

·  Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting

The following reported in the top quartile:

·  Percentage of people who think that drug use or drug dealing a problem in their local area

·  Children killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents (3 year rolling average) – as opposed to the adult figures

·  Visits to museums and galleries

·  Flood (and coastal) management

·  Congestion – average journey time per mile during the morning peak (although comparable data with other authorities isn’t available, the 19% reduction is noteworthy).

·  Improved street and environmental cleanliness for litter, graffiti and fly-posting.

·  Percentage of development of brown-field sites as a percentage of all development

Quarterly figures

Of the performance indicators where data is available quarterly, there are no reds.

Performance is particularly strong for:

·  Number of schools in the borough with school travel plans

·  Reduction in all recorded crime in the borough

·  Percentage of residents feeling safe walking in the area where they live after dark

·  Number of affordable homes delivered (gross)

·  Number of energy efficiency surveys

·  Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting

·  Improvements to the accessibility of parks, gardens, recreations grounds and other open spaces as measured by footfall

An alternative approach to the one advocated is to enter into dialogue with the agencies that are leading on the indicators where performance is poor. However, the advantage of taking the information to the LSP Board, the approach that was agreed in the report to Cabinet in August 2009, is that the agencies around the table will be able bring to bear collectively a greater range of experience and resources than the bi-lateral approach.

While it is not yet possible to report on all of the indicators and on some of them only the annual results, it could be argued that it is premature to take this information to the public in the form of a report card. However, it is considered good practice to report back to the public on progress on the Sustainable Community Strategy through the media on information that is mostly in any case within the public domain. This was last done in September when a summary of the adopted SCS was published.