Latest figures show that most council services in Wales have improved during the past year. Data published by the Local Government Data Unit this week shows that 68% of council performance indicators improved during 2010-11.
Cllr Russell Roberts (Rhondda Cynon Taf), WLGA Improvement Spokesperson, said:
“Local authorities should be proud of the progress made over the past year. We are in challenging times and it is to councils and council workers’ credit that we have continued to improve despite the wider pressures faced.”
“The First Minister published his Programme for Government earlier this week. His major focus was on delivery; the positive performance data published today shows that councils are already delivering.”
“It is important to stress that there has been an overall year-on-year improvement for the past five years as well as a narrowing of the gap between the best and worst performing services during recent years.”
“Clearly there are areas where we would like to see further improvement and some services have seen a dip in performance. There also remains variation in performance across Wales, and whilst some is due to local prioritisation in response to local challenges, there is always scope for some services to close the gap further.”
Key areas of performance in 2010-11 include:
- Waste data show significant improvements, with the percentage of waste sent to landfill continuing to fall; 44% of the municipal waste collected was reused or recycled compared to 39% the year before.
- Sickness absence fell to the lowest level for 9 years. An average 10.3 days were lost per employee shows an improvement of over half a day compared to the previous year; this represents a return of around 88,000 additional working days. Managing and further reducing sickness absence however remains a priority for local authorities.
- 70% of environment and transport indicators show improvement, including the percentage of fly-tipping incidents cleared within five working days. However, road conditions have generally worsened largely as a result of the severe weather experienced over the last 2 winters. Some authorities have recently announced plans to make substantial capital allocations to undertake programmes of highway repairs.
- 72% of social care indicators have improved since last year. The indicators show high demand for services, with authorities receiving 47,500 referrals relating to children in 2010-11. The percentage of initial assessments of children’s referrals completed within seven working days rose to 66.6% across Wales, whilst the percentage of adults due a review of their care plan that had a review rose to 75.5%. The indicators also reveal improved arrangements across social services and health which have seen bed-blocking rates (where discharge from hospital is delayed because of lack of available social care support) continuing to improve, falling to 5.76 per 1000 of the population.
- Education performance indicators show that the general direction of travel is positive, however, there is consensus that the pace of improvement needs to increase. Average point scores for 15-16 year old pupils continued to rise (for the fourth successive year) and the average point score for children in care increased significantly. Less than 1% of 15-16 year olds left compulsory education without a recognised qualification, the fifth successive improvement since 2005-06.
- 60% of housing performance indicators have shown an improvement, including an increase in the percentage of affordable homes. Some homelessness performance indicators have however fallen compared to the previous year, but this is set in the context of an 11% increase in homelessness presentations in 2010-11. The time taken to process Disabled
- Facilities Grant (DFG) has increased compared to 2009-10. There are also wide variations in the figures, however, this can be partly attributed to changes in the way authorities manage and measure Disabled Facilities Grant performance.
Full details are available in the Data Unit’s Performance Bulletin, available at www.dataunitwales.gov.uk
