To consider the progress made on actions within the Corporate Improvement Plan at Appendix A of the report of the Head of Change and Scrutiny.

1.  That the progress against the objectives set in the Corporate Improvement Plan be noted.

2.  That the actions which are out of date and the reasons for this be noted.

3.  That criterion for extending target dates in exceptional circumstances be put in place.

4.  That the responses to the recommendations made by the Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee at the meeting on 01 March 2011(attached at Appendix A) be agreed.

The purpose of the Corporate Improvement Plan (CIP) is to identify and monitor progress on key areas for improvement. The way the plan is laid out makes it easy to see where work is not progressing in a timely manner.

Appendix A of the report of the Head of Change and Scrutiny shows the current status of the CIP. There are 31 completed actions, 10 that are ongoing and have not yet reached their target date and 8 that are out of target.

 It was noted that the number of actions contained in the plan is variable as it is a living document and new actions will be added as they are identified from service reviews, peer reviews and any other source.

In areas of poor performance there are often instances where this is due to policies awaiting approval or information being needed from partners. In some cases it would be reasonable for the target date of the action to be extended.

Areas of strong performance

The vast majority of actions are either completed or on target to be completed within the timescale.

One of the key actions identified in the IdEA peer review was that the Council’s priorities should be streamlined and used to inform strategies and policies as well as staff learning and development. An exercise has recently been undertaken to reduce the priorities to 3. Staff and residents were consulted on these priorities and they will be used to inform next year’s staff learning and development programme.

Another area that was identified as part of the peer review was that complaints should be analysed for trends to enable the Council to learn from them. This work is now being undertaken by the Policy and Performance Team and is reported to Maidstone Borough Council’s Corporate Management Team meeting and to the Standards Committee.

The Waste and Recycling Strategy has been approved and implementation has begun. Various aspects of the strategy will be implemented over the next five years such as the food waste collection that is currently being implemented.

Areas of poor performance 

CIP 003.01 Create action plan of outstanding L&D issues to be implemented before reassessment; this has been completed and MBC remains accredited.

CIP 010.01Carry out assessments of key partnerships; it has proved problematic getting responses from partners as many of them are going through significant structural and organisational change. This action has been escalated to the Director of Regeneration and Communities.

CIP 011.01 Work with KCC to co-ordinate the effects of savings on inter-organisations; this action has been started. The financial information from KCC has been considered but was judged to be somewhat out of date. This information will therefore be updated and returned to the Kent Finance Officers meeting in March.

CIP 011.02 Expand the consultation on the budget strategy and the MTFS to include the impact of the identification savings with partners; consultation with the voluntary sector and the LSP has proved successful. However, MKIP partners do not yet have a protocol for considering the impact that MBC savings would have on them. The Head of Finance will continue working with partners to agree a way forward.

A decision could be made not to produce a CIP or consider its progress but not considering progress against the plan could mean improvement work is not progressed.  This would have a detrimental impact upon service delivery and the reputation of the Council.