Issue - meetings

Report number CEX298 by the Chief Executive.       (attached)

[A copy of the Council’s Value for Money Self-Assessment

submission to the Audit Commission follows this report.]

DECISION:

(1)     To note the Audit Commission’s study of value for money and that it has been incorporated into the recently submitted Council’s self-assessment;

(2)     Given the Council’s ranking as 11^th lowest authority in terms of expenditure per head of population and whose residents pay the second lowest Council Tax in the whole country, strong emphasis be given in publicity to residents about what the Council has actually achieved within its limited resources;

(3)     Report CEX298 be used as a discussion document at the forthcoming SKDC Stakeholders’ Conference on 8^th December 2005.

Considerations/Reasons for Decision:

(1)     Report number CEX298 by the Chief Executive (and subsequently circulated Value for Money Self-Assessment submission completed by the Director of Finance and Strategic Resources) regarding data obtained from the Audit Commission’s website that enables Council’s to compare the relative value for money they provide to their residents;

(2)     Value for Money is one of the Key Lines of Enquiry in the test of resources element of CPA2005.  Detailed evidence-based performance will be necessary to achieve a good score for this element;

(3)     Noting the Chief Executive’s proposal to adopt a value for money categorisation based on quartile comparisons into which SKDCs services can be assigned based on the information contained in Commission’s profile.  Allocating a service to a particular category would then determine the components of the subsequent action plan.  These actions will be taken into account in the formulation of service plans for 2006/07;

(4)     Noting that South Kesteven has the eleventh lowest expenditure per head of population of all District Councils.  When service quality is examined as the component most closely related to the perceptions of residents, the score for South Kesteven is considerably above all the other comparators.  This provides support for the perception that this authority is delivering a fair quality of service for a low rate of expenditure.  However, this poses limitations on service provision and how the authority assesses value for money in its services;

(5)     Noting an overview of this authority’s expenditure categories compared with other authorities together with an output based assessment to arrive at a category of VFM where 1 represents excellent and 5 very poor.  This information and perspective derived from this data gives the authority the foundation stones for the development of a detailed picture of service costs and quality. Further analysis of the local context of service provision needs developing for the VFM submission to the Audit Commission;

(6)     The service categorisation presented in the report needs to be tested and moderated by service managers to ensure that it properly reflects the situation of the Council.  This process may uncover evidence that results in a particular service being re-categorised.  Following completion of this process, actions and improvement plans will be prepared as appropriate and included in the service plans which will be reviewed by the relevant DSPs;

(7)     The report supports the Council’s overall value for money position given its comparative low rate of expenditure per head of population.  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72