Issue - meetings

The Leader introduced a report on the corporate priority performance information for the period to 31 December 2013, which included specific details of several areas where performance had either greatly improved or deteriorated during the year as well as general information on the achievement of targets in relation to the Council’s key performance indicators.

Arising from the discussions, the following issues were raised:

·  Domestic Violence Offences - it was noted that repeat incidents of domestic violence had increased from 21% in 2012/13 to 25% in 2013/14 and the Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care questioned why the issue had not been identified as one of the selected indicators which merited a detailed narrative.  The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health commented that the Metropolitan Police may point to the proactive work they have done in the local community to encourage reporting of domestic violence as a major factor for the increase. 

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care also referred to some information that he had seen which suggested that Barking and Dagenham had the highest domestic violence figures in London.  It was noted that OFSTED may have been the source of that information, but the figures quoted were not recognised by the Council as having come from any official source.

The Cabinet Member for Crime and Enforcement advised that Barking and Dagenham was piloting a new Metropolitan Police ‘Domestic Violence Protection Order’ initiative and the first order had already been issued. 

The Cabinet was also pleased to note that the Council’s Youth Offending Service had been selected as runners-up in the Community Sentences - Young People category of the Howard League for Penal Reform’s Community Programmes Awards 2014.

·  Homeless applications - the Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care referred to the 31% increase in applications accepted during the year and asked for an explanation of the reasons.

·  Household waste recycling - in response to a question regarding the fall in recycling / composting levels, the Cabinet Member for Environment undertook to investigate the issues regarding contamination rates which were being blamed for the ‘red’ rating and also referred to new initiatives relating to the recycling of plastics and mattresses.

·  Processing of Housing / Council Tax Benefit change events - the Cabinet Member for Education and Schools commented on the significant improvement in the number of days taken to process change events, which had reduced from an average of 21 days in 2012/13 to 9 days in 2013/14.

·  Common Assessment Frameworks (CAFs) - in response to a question from the Cabinet Member for Environment, the Divisional Director of Children’s Strategic Commissioning and Safeguarding commented that the number of CAFs initiated by schools compared to children’s centres was now much closer and undertook to provide Cabinet Members with the details.

The Leader invited Cabinet Members to work with their Directorates to review and develop the performance monitoring framework in the context of the greater focus on core services and the new vision and priorities proposals.

Cabinet  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4