Agenda item

The item was introduced by the Area Council Manager.  Members were provided with an aggregate picture of how all the North Council contracted services contribute to the achievement of each of the North Area Council’s agreed outcomes and social value objectives (Part A) together with a summary performance management report for each of the contracted services for 2016/17 Quarter 3 (October – December 2016) – (Part B). 

Regarding the C & K Careers contract, Members were informed that a meeting with the provider is due to take place later this week.  Members will be informed as to the outcome of the meeting.  It was highlighted that the young people involved in the programme will continue to be in contact until after they have sat their GCSEs.

With respect to the Kingdom Security contract, it was highlighted that there are some challenges, particularly around officer visibility and dog fouling.  Members emphasised that they have not observed a marked improvement since the contract commenced and residents have continued to complain about these issues.  Members were also concerned about the low number of parking PCNs issued – whilst acknowledging it would not be appropriate to set a target for this.  It was pointed out that Members have local intelligence which could be useful to Kingdom but performance remains inadequate.   The Kingdom Security contract has just been renewed  and will run until the end of March next year.  Advice will be needed from the Council’s Procurement/Legal section if Members are considering termination of the contract prior to March 2018 but it may be difficult to do this due to poor performance as the issues are largely perception based and will be difficult to justify.

In terms of littering, planned educational programmes for schools have not yet taken off although restorative justice litter picks with young people have already taken place.  However, the issue seems not to be just due to young people.    

The Forge Community Partnership report was in a different format for this quarter and contained visuals and case studies with visuals.  A discussion took place regarding health and safety risk assessments prior to community clean- up work as a syringe had been found in an area.  Provision of PPE equipment and risk assessments are crucial as young people are involved in the clean-up operations. 

Performance seems to be mixed, with some evidence of improvements in some areas whilst other areas are not satisfactory such as the Stocks Lane and Canal Street footpaths.  Concerns were also raised regarding work done for private landowners - this is a grey area as although they are not public open spaces they do impact on the community. 

It was reported that the CAB/DIAL contract is performing very well.  Benefit gains amounted to £245,225 per quarter, with £1,687,545 reported benefit gains for the project so far, which is a substantial contribution to the area.

The Area Council Manager highlighted that all four Community Grants projects (delivered by Ad Astra, Emmanuel Church, Fit Reds and RVS) were performing well against targets.

RESOLVED:-

(i)         that Members note the contents of the Performance Management Report; and furthermore

(ii)        that all Ward Councillors provide the Area Council Manager with their  top 3 hotspots for dog fouling so that these areas can be targeted by Kingdom and

(iii)       the Area Council Manager be tasked with making enquiries around how poor contract performance can be challenged when hard contract performance targets have not been set