Covid 'is not affecting council performance'
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Powys County Council has maintained good performance during the second quarter of 2020/21.
At a meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday, November 3, the Quarter Two performance report, from July to September, was discussed.
The report provides an overview of the achievements and challenges during the three month period and covers the pandemic response and recovery efforts as well as re-starting some of it’s normal activities.
It’s split into sections which includes a Corporate Improvement Plan Vision 2025 and Public Accountability Measures - a set of performance indicators used by the Welsh Government to compare performance in key areas across the 22 local authorities in Wales.
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Director of Transformation and Resources, Vanessa Young, said: “There are 17 measures that relate to the PAMs in quarter two.
“Unfortunately for 43 per cent of those measures we were unable to obtain data because of Covid or because they are annual indicators and the data isn’t available.
“For those that were available we can see we have achieved 24 per cent of our PAM which is a similar performance to this time last year, and shows we are maintaining our performance despite the significant extra work we had in respect to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The only PAM measure in the red comes from Children’s Social Services and is for the percentage of assessments for children.
Councils are supposed to complete 90 per cent of these within a legal timescale of 42 days. Powys had completed 76 per cent on time,
Ms Young, explained: “That’s because in that quarter we’ve had 50 more referrals than at the same time last year.
“So we’re dealing with that and recruiting more staff to enable us to do the assessments.”
Council Leader, Councillor Rosemarie Harris said: “There’s some very good results in there given that we have Covid trotting along beside us and 10 years of austerity.”
Portfolio holder for Adult Social Services and the Welsh language, Councillor Myfanwy Alexander added that the report showed a “depth of statistical information” which allows the cabinet members to challenge senior staff.
The report added that number of outcomes the Council measures itself against from Vision 2025 will be cut down from 40 to five.
They are economy, health and care, learning and skills and residents and communities.
The report and the changes to future monitoring and reporting was approved by cabinet.
