Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member for Corporate Affairs and HR is attached.

Councillor Rafiq, Cabinet Member, Corporate Affairs and HR, attended the meeting and provided members with an overview of the Corporate Plan Performance and Delivery Report Quarter 4.

An accompanying report had been circulated to members in advance of the meeting and the following issues and comments were raised:

Responding to a question in relation to life expectancy in Radcliffe, Councillor Rafiq reported that the neighborhood profiles tell us that cancer and circulatory disease are the highest causes of mortality in the Radcliffe area.  This is significantly worse than the Bury and England averages.  The latest Index of Multiple Deprivation for Bury shows that this relationship between deprivation and ill health has become stronger in recent years.

Tailored people and community plans for each neighborhood will drive the public service response based on particular needs for each area – this will tackle not only particular health conditions but also the wider determinants which will drive improvements in life expectancy and balance out the inequalities in the Borough.

Members discussed what is meant by the term ‘getting the basics right’.  Councillor Rafiq reported that a ten-point action plan has been developed and although many of the actions in the plan are already included in larger programmes of work, they will benefit from being grouped together and focused on the overall challenge of getting the basics right.  Actions include, improving internal processes, members casework and developing better ways of managing performance.

Responding to a Member’s question in relation to the effect of the pandemic on school attendance, Councillor Rafiq reported that

·         Overall absence rates have increased in Autumn 21 compared to Autumn 19 across all school phases, with special schools and the PRU reporting the largest increase.

·         Persistent absence rates have increased between Autumn 19 and Autumn 21 across all school phases except the PRU.

·         All pupil groups have reported an increase in overall absence rates with EAL pupils at primary schools having the lowest increase at 0.9% and EHCP pupils at secondary schools having the greatest at 7.6%.

·         Persistent absence rates have also increased across all pupil groups with EAL pupils at primary schools seeing the lowest rate increase of 3.8% and EHCP at secondary schools seeing the greatest increase of 22.2%.

Councillor Rafiq reported that for Quarter 4 2021-22 the breakdown for missed bin collections were as follows:              

Blue bins - 49 Missed Bins per 100,000 Collections (12%)

Brown Bins – 84 Missed Bins per 100,000 Collections (31%)

Green Bins – 56 Missed Bins per 100,000 Collections (14%)

Grey – 87 Missed Bins per 100,000 Collections (22%)

Communal bins (all Colours) – 92 Missed Bins per 100,000 Collections (21%).

Members discussed the problems resulting from the pandemic in relation to  rough sleepers and homelessness.  Councillor Rafiq reported additional Government funding has meant the Council has been able to access funding to be able to increase accommodation options for this complex co-hort of people.  In the last 3 years rough sleeper supported accommodation units have increased from 10 to 40.

There has been an increase in the number of residents in temporary accommodation; this is due to numerous factors and adds further pressures on homelessness services and the need to place more people and families into temporary accommodation. The other main factor is the lack of affordable, suitable and sustainable “move on” accommodation that is causing blockages which means people and families are having to stay in temporary accommodation longer than expected.

It was agreed

The content of the Quarter 4 performance report be noted and further quarterly reports will be considered at future meetings.