Latest figures show that council services in Wales have improved during the past year. The Local Government Performance Bulletin published by the Data Unit today shows that 64% of council performance indicators showed improvement during 2009-10.
Cllr Russell Roberts (Rhondda Cynon Taf), WLGA Improvement Spokesperson, said:
“Councils should be congratulated for their achievements in what has been a very difficult period for public services.”
“We have seen improvements across the board in housing, benefits services, environment and transport, social services and education; this progress is all the more remarkable given the public finance and service pressures of the past year and the wider economic challenges being faced by our communities.”
“Not only have nearly two thirds of indicators shown improvement, but the gap in performance between the best and worst performing services has narrowed in over half the indicators, which shows that performance across the board is moving in the right direction.”
“Clearly there are areas where we would like to see further improvement and some services have seen a dip in performance compared to previous years, in particular where some local services have seen significant pressures around capacity or demand. Despite authorities’ ongoing focus on improvement, given the anticipated cuts in funding, some key services will be under mounting pressure to maintain existing levels of performance let alone make improvements.”
Areas of performance include:
- The amount of waste being sent to landfill continues to reduce with recycling, reuse and composting rates at their highest ever levels; a combined level of 39.3%, which is an improvement of nearly 4 percentage points compared to last year.
- Social service performance continues to improve. Response times for the completion of adult care plans improved and there was an increase in the percentage of care plans reviewed during the year. The time to install aids and adaptations has reduced to below 7 days and carer assessments were provided to 80.8% of all known carers. Delays in arranging an appropriate discharge (bed-blocking) fell to its lowest level in 7 years. Referrals to social services of children potentially at risk are at the highest level for the past last ten years, at 48,500, an increase of 2,300 from last year. Despite this growth, 95% were considered within one day and 65% of initial assessments were completed within seven working days. 92.3% of ‘looked after’ children had a care plan in place when entering that placement despite 500 new children being placed into care this year. 85% of young carers received an assessment of their individual needs to help them fulfil this role, an increase of 10 percentage points from the previous year.
- Less than 1% of children leave education without any formal qualifications, which is a continuation of improvement in previous years. Similarly, there have also been improvements in attainment around Key Stage 2 and 3 and attainment points scored by 15-16 year olds (378.6 points in 2009-10 compared to 355.1 points in 2008-09). Attendance at both primary and secondary schools, however, fell in 2009-10.
- Sickness absence in local authorities has fallen to the lowest level since 2005-06, with an average of 10.9 days lost per employee; however, managing and further reducing sickness absence remains a key priority area for authorities.
- 80% of housing performance indicators have shown an improvement in the past year. In tackling homelessness, progress has been made by authorities in the preventative agenda and there has been particular improvement in the amount of time people spend in temporary accommodation.
- Authorities have further reduced the turnaround times for the delivery of Disabled Facilities Grants, down to an average of 349 days from 375 days in 2008-09.
- There has been continued improvement in the turnaround time to process new benefits claims and changes to housing and council tax benefit, down to 10.1 days compared to 11.1 days in 2008-09;
- The severe winter weather has had an impact on the condition of roads in Wales during the past year with 5% of principal roads and 10.1% of non-classified roads considered in ‘poor’ condition (compared to 4.4% and 8.3% in 2008-09).
- Local authorities carried out more inspections of high risk premises for food hygiene in 2009-10 than compared to 2008-09; this remains a key priority for authorities, however there was an overall reduction in the percentage of inspections carried out, with 96.3% of the required inspections carried out in 2009-10 compared to 99.3% in the previous year. However, 20 of the 22 authorities carried out over 99% of the required inspections.
Full details are available in the Data Unit’s Performance Bulletin, available at www.dataunitwales.gov.uk
Today’s figures show a continuing trend of improvement in performance indicators, where 64% of comparable indicators improved last year, with 71% improving the previous year.
The WLGA will also be announcing the Excellence Wales awards on Friday 1st October. Shortlisted authorities were announced in June 2010 .Excellence Wales is a scheme which aims to highlight and share leading and innovative practice across Welsh local authorities and public service partners.
