Meeting documents

1. Cost-effectiveness

Benefit of reaching the PSA stretch target:

Increasing an 93index of cost effectiveness94 which is intended to show our performance improvement in relation to cost. Further details on the 34 indicators used to calculate the 93index94 score are available on request.

Issues and Actions

The updated figures show that we remain well ahead of target.

2. Increasing bus usage / public satisfaction with transport information

Benefit of reaching the PSA stretch target:

· An additional 125,000 bus journeys (over the last 2 years of the PSA)

· Increase in satisfaction with public transport information (DETR survey 2000 was 34%)

Issues and Actions

Actions undertaken to improve `satisfaction with public transport information' have included:

- 100,000 copies of the new 2005/06 Public Transport Maps were produced and distributed to every B&NES residential address

- Further timetable leaflets for supported bus services have been produced. We now have promo leaflets for virtually all services that we financially support.

- The information on our web pages has continued to improve. Web information is checked at least monthly to ensure it is up to date.

- Subsequent to the software purchased to automate the production and presentation of roadside timetable information displays, 80% of our roadside displays are now in the new enhanced format. We believe the new format is much more user-friendly for passengers.

- All timetables are now laminated before being put out in the displays to stop fading and water damage. This increases the clarity and longevity of the information displayed and reduces costs.

- Currently in production are redesigned stickers to go on bus stop flags. These incorporate the Traveline logo and Traveline contact details and will be particularly useful at stops where there is no physical timetable display.

- New Solar bus stops have been ordered to further improve at-stop information. The illuminated displays are solar powered and the exact locations to have these new Solar stops are currently being identified.

Actions undertaken to increase bus usage:

- Work on the A37 Joint Quality Partnership bus route has been finished. Every single bus stop on the route that is within B&NES has been improved and all these stops now have timetable displays. 7 new bus shelters have gone in on the route.

- Subsequent to the purchase of handheld data capture equipment, a programme of punctuality and reliability surveys of both commercial and supported bus services has been commenced. We are now seeing the first results of these surveys. Some of these surveys will be periodically sent to bus operators to help them improve their services.

- Raised kerbs will be put in place at Wagon & Horses, Batheaston, and London Road Safeway, to improve the accessibility on the number 13 Showcase route.

- First now have in operation most of the 116 new buses that were ordered for their Bath fleet, with the last batch of buses due to arrive in October.

- We are currently working in partnership with First Group on a joint ticket promotion.

3. Older people's quality of life and independence

Benefit of reaching the PSA stretch target:

2.5 more households (per 1,000 population over 65) receiving intensive home care

64 more people over 65 receiving 5 or more hours of home care (6 visits per week minimum) for 4 or more continuous weeks during the year

An additional 14 people aged 65 or over receiving a Direct Payment to spend directly on the service they want

2 fewer supported admissions of older people to permanent residential/nursing care per 1,000 population aged 65 or over

Note: This part of the PSA has interim targets for the year-ending March 2005 which will result in payment of 20% of the performance reward grant when achieved

Issues and Actions to be taken

After a steady increase over the past few years, the number of people receiving intensive home care has reduced. Ongoing investigations have revealed irregularities in last year's reporting which led in part to over ambitious estimates in previous reports.

Recent changes to our eligibility criteria have also impacted on the numbers of people receiving home care. As reported previously, a substantial number of older people are able to purchase their own services, while others are willingly provided for by carers with relatively small levels of support from the Council.

While we have seen an encouraging increase in the number of Older People to take up the option of Direct Payments, there is still an understandable reluctance for older clients to take on the burden of managing their own care, with the responsibility of directly employing staff.

4. Improving secondary school attendance

Benefit of reaching the PSA target:

· 0.2% fewer half days missed due to authorised absence

· 0.1% half days missed due to unauthorised absence

Issues and Actions

A rise in unauthorised absence at both local and national level, due to increased rigour in the marking of registers, fewer absences authorised for the purpose of family holidays in tern time and an increase in the number of LEA prosecutions (for which unauthorised absence is a pre-requisite

Support to secondary schools to promote high attendance using Attendance Award programmes, which will feed into Authority wide scheme to celebrate full and improved attendance.

The addition of Penalty Notices to the range of strategies available for tackling poor school attendance has led to a rise in the number of cases in which some form of legal action is taken to secure good attendance. Training in the prosecution process has been provided to staff from the Education Welfare Service and Legal Services.

The secondary school absence rate for 2004/05 is 7.58%. This is an improvement of 0.2% on the 2003/4 return. Within this figure, the unauthorised absence rate is 0.96%, a rise of 0.13%.

The secondment of an Education Welfare Officer to develop parenting support and the appointment of administrative staff to support the monitoring and analysis of attendance.

The development of a School Attendance - Self Assessment tool.

5. Young people leaving care - education and employment

Benefit of reaching the PSA target:

· 2 additional care leavers obtaining 5 or more GCSEs at A*-C

· An additional 15% of looked after children still in education, training or employment at 19

· 4 additional care leavers with at least 1 GCSE at A*-G or a GNVQ

Issues and Actions

Continue work to identify options to mainstream dedicated support for looked after children's education from April 2006 when pump priming comes to an end in a context of tight budgets.

Maintain focus on education plans within Pathway Plans for care leavers aged 16+ to ensure consistent high quality and continuity of education planning and support to age 21.

Maintain specific focus on promoting participation up to and beyond age 19, which is the highest risk area of the three selected targets.

Continue monitoring and quality assurance activity.

Audit performance of all individual young people in the target cohorts to identify what has worked and what has not.

6. Reducing vehicle crime

Benefit of reaching the PSA target:

· 135 fewer vehicle crimes

Issues and Actions

· CCTV is in full working order in Newbridge Park and Ride.

· The CCTV in Lansdown Park and Ride will be fully commissioned or 7^th October 2005.

· Car crime is still at low levels in car parks.

· Schools have been invited to produce A3 posters for a competition to increase crime prevention awareness.

7. Improving our local environment

Benefit of reaching the PSA target:

· Increasing the trade waste recycling rate from 0.56% to 3%

· Increasing the recycling rate at Household Waste and Recycling Centres to 38%

· Ensuring 95% of graffiti is cleared from public buildings within 2 days of reporting

· Improving visitor score for availability of public conveniences to 3.37 out of 5

· Improving visitor score for cleanliness of public conveniences to 3.70 out of 5

Issues and Actions

· Review of trade waste collection function being undertaken with a view to divesting and increasing the rate of collected materials.

· 41.5% of tonnage recycled in our recycling centres in the first quarter, and new initiatives and staff resources introduced at the centres have reduced total waste throughput by 18%, whilst waste disposed to landfill is down 25.6% on the first quarter 2004/05.

· Further analysis of the potential for the introduction of differential charging at the transfer stations (to financially incentivise traders to recycle) has been undertaken to assess viability with plans to introduce in November 2005.

· Future resource and funding plans in development for graffiti removal operations.

· Automatic Public Conveniences introduced at Charlotte Street & Shaftesbury Road and are receiving high usage. A comprehensive 14 point Public Convenience Improvement Strategy in progress; proposals for facilities in Guildhall / Orange Grove area in development with Executive Member.

· Proposals have been developed for public realm improvements in Walcot Street and for a `legibility' initiative across the City to improve the provision of pedestrian orientation and interpretation information. It has now received Executive Member approval and the work is being taken forward by a cross Service project team. Consultant interviews are now being undertaken.

8. Reducing fire-related deaths and injuries in the home

Benefit of reaching the PSA target:

· Reducing deaths and injuries in accidental domestic fires to 13.1 per 100,000

Issues and Actions

· Secondment of fire safety officer to the Housing Standards team within Housing & Supported Living is in place and working well.

· 93Chip-pan amnesty94. This scheme has resulted in chip pans, a significant factor in many house fires, being replaced with safer thermostatically controlled deep fat fryers - this is an ongoing exercise with about 54 deep fat fryers being given to vulnerable households.

· Spot testing of second hand furniture sold at retail outlets has been completed. Results are now being implemented upon.

· Publicise issues - this is ongoing. The Chip Pan Demonstration Unit will be visiting other areas within Bath and North East Somerset including Radstock and Keynsham. It is anticipated this will encourage further chip pans to be surrendered. Over 20 group talks have already been conducted and further talks are planned over the winter. A bus advertising campaign, backed up with posters displayed in GP surgeries and sport centres etc has been organised. The campaign will start in November and is the next phase of the campaign to promote working smoke alarms in the home. The start of this campaign was launched by an article in the Council News which also helped emphasise our partnership with Avon Fire and Rescue.

· The spend of pump-priming funds is currently below expectations because landlords have been slow to take up the offer of a sprinkler system.

9. Improving disabled access to sustained employment

Benefit of reaching the PSA target:

· 70 more disabled people helped into sustained employment

· 68 more disabled people helped into voluntary work

· 6 additional employers holding the Positive About Disabled People Award

Issues and Actions

Employment Development Service and JobCentre Plus are now actively engaged as delivery partners.

ELDP was selected through a tendering process to deliver a recruitment service to support disabled people into employment. This organisation has significant knowledge of local issues and specialisms in supporting people with mental health related disabilities.

ELDP have been contracted on an SLA basis to deliver the day-to-day programme. They have been operating since mid-December 2004.

The £8,000 (100%) budgeted pump-priming funds were unspent last year due to delays initiating the project and the re-planning exercise. This will be spent in the current financial year.

The budget has been re-profiled and is now on course to be spent by the end of the PSA period.

The Service has been extensively marketed with some excellent press coverage in the Bath Chronicle (27^th January 2005) and for an employer briefing (9^th February 2005). The employer event has led to a number of employer contacts for the Two Ticks Symbol, work placements and employment.

Monitoring and evaluation procedures are being developed for full monitoring on a quarterly basis. This will commence at the end of March 2005, with the complete report available in April 2005.

ELDP are now located in the Hollies in Midsomer Norton. This has allowed ELDP to develop new client groups and offer a service throughout the District. There was some drop off in numbers following the move to the Norton Radstock area, but numbers are again picking up.

10. Improving health through sport and leisure

Benefit of reaching the PSA target:

· 100,000 more users at sports centres

1,099 more people attending sports centres for an activity twice a week or more (exc. clubs and schools)

Note: This part of the PSA has interim targets for the year-ending March 2005 which will result in payment of 20% of the performance reward grant when achieved

Issues and Actions

· The new gym in Bath continues to generate increasing users; investments into new gyms at Keynsham and South Wansdyke Sports centres have now been delayed, pending development reports, and will not be achieved through the life of this PSA.

· The Passport to Health scheme (GP referral) will commence in October in partnership with PCT.

· £20k of PSA funding has been approved towards a new youth / alternative gym at Bath Sports and Leisure Centre. This is due to open January 2006.

· £10k has been allocated towards employing a youth sports coach to work at Keynsham Leisure Centre and within Youth Centres in partnership with Youth and Community

· It is hoped to work with Aquaterra on a free swimming initiative before Christmas.

· At least £3k will be allocated towards the January edition of `Motivation' magazine distribution to 65,000 households.

· A contribution will be made towards projects supporting International Woman's Day in the New Year.

· Unallocated funding will be used to fund social inclusion and health projects.

11. Better alternatives to bed and breakfast for homeless people

Benefit of reaching the PSA target:

· No families in B & B for more than 4 weeks

· 1,223 fewer total 93household nights94 in Bed and Breakfast

· 95% of decisions on homelessness applications within 33 working days

Issues and Actions

Mediation service available for households threatened with homelessness.

Development of a Homefinder scheme is progressing well and is expected to be in place soon. A series of pilots have been undertaken to test the scheme before its launch.

Spend to save policy is currently in final stages of development and is currently being `tested'.

Implemented operational improvements in line with ODPM B&B task group guidance, such as credit referencing and increased use of home visits.

The spend of budgeted pump-priming funds is below expectation due to the delay in appointing staff and a need to concentrate on the effective use of existing resources prior to commissioning additional services.

12. Improving library popularity and encouraging reading

Benefit of reaching the PSA target:

· 35,000 more visits to public libraries

· 5% more residents satisfied with public libraries

· 33,000 more books and spoken word items issued

Issues and Actions

Visitor numbers are following seasonal patterns. New people counters have been installed in libraries to support monitoring of visitors.

People's Network activity has risen this month and was 15,000 sessions for August which is 20% of total visitor activity. The service is attempting to encourage users to make full use of all facilities by making sure where appropriate Internet users are registered for full library use.

The summer reading voyage for children attracted 1,223 registered participants, an increase of 16% on last year's event. This event is used to encourage membership.

Issue numbers are still below target; to date there is an increase over last year's totals but this is not enough to meet the target. In an attempt to encourage further take up a mailshot to customers introducing a customer loyalty scheme has been issued during September. This has been used successfully by other authorities to increase library usage.

Customer satisfaction with the library has not been measured during this period. The 3 yearly Children's Public Library user Survey is being carried out during October and a wider Customer Services survey is planned for November.

PUBLIC SERVICE AGREEMENT 2003-2006

Theme

Performance Measure

Base

line

04/05 Actual

PSA Stretch Target

2005-6

05/06 Estimate

Status against the PSA Stretch

Forecast

%age / £ Achieved

1. Improving cost-effectiveness

Cost-effectiveness index

100

106

110

110

Green

100%

£298,163

2. Increasing Bus Usage

Number of bus journeys (cumulative 2 years)

18.36m

19.60m

18.955m (set 2002 before new base

19.80m

Green

100%

£268,347

1.

Percentage of population satisfied with public transport information

34%

49%

(Voicebox 9)

55%

50%

Amber

60%

£17,890

3. Improving the quality of life and independence of older people

Households receiving intensive home care per 1,000 pop aged 65 or over

4.1

6.7

8.5

6.5

Red

0

1.

Number of people aged 65+ who receive 5 or more hours of home care over a minimum of 6 visits a week for a period of four or more continuous weeks

444

489

550

550

Green

100%

£74,541

1.

Number of people aged 65+ receiving a direct payment

3

6

26

20

Red

0

1.

Admissions of supported residents aged 65+ per 10,000 to residential/nursing care

96.2

121.7

92

100

Amber

60%

£17,890

4. Improving pupil attendance in secondary schools

Percentage of half days missed due to absence in secondary schools

8.1%

7.78%

7.1%

7.58%

Amber

60%

£89,449

1.

Percentage of half days missed due to unauthorised absence in secondary schools

1.1%

0.83%

0.7%

0.96%

Red

0

5. Improving educational attainment for young people leaving care

Number of young children leaving care aged 16+ obtaining 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C (cumulative 2004/5 and 2005/6)

0

3

(03-05)

4

(04-06)

3

(04-06)

Red

0

1.

Percentage of Children Looked After who are engaged in education, training or employment at the age of 19

30%

57%

75%

60%

Red

0

1.

Number of young people leaving care aged 16 or over with at least 1 GCSE at grade A* - G or a GNVQ (cumulative 2004/5 and 2005/6)

6

9

16

(04-06)

16

(04-06)

Green

100%

£74,541

6. Reducing vehicle crime

Theft of, or theft from, vehicles

3,766

2,892

2,520

1,639

Green

100

£298,163

7. Improving the Local Environment

Percentage of trade waste (including rubble) which is recycled

0.56%

4.4%

3%

5.1%

Green

100%

£119,265

1.

Percentage of household waste at Household Waste and Recycling Centres which is recycled

33.21%

33.7%

38%

47.6%

Green

100%

£89,449

1.

Percentage of graffiti cleared from public buildings within 2 days of reporting

30%

80%

95%

95%

Green

100%

£59,633

1.

Visitor survey score for availability of public toilets

3.03

No survey

3.37

Survey Summer 2006

n/k

-

1.

Visitor survey score for cleanliness of public toilets

3.53

No survey

3.70

Survey Summer 2006

n/k

-

8. Reducing the incidence of accidental fire-related deaths and injuries in the home

Number of deaths and injuries arising from accidental fire in dwellings per 100,000 population (mean over 2 years)

17.4

8.3

13.1

12*

Green

100%

£298,163

9. Improving access to sustained employment to people with disabilities

Number of disabled people helped by the Council into sustained employment of at least 16 hours per week lasting at least 13 weeks

7

32

93

37

Red

0

1.

Number of disabled people entering into voluntary work of 8 hours or more lasting for 13 weeks or more

6

1

88

24

Red

0

1.

Number of employers who hold the `Positive about disabled people' award given by Job Centre Plus

7

3

19

1

Red

0

10. Improving health through sport and leisure

Number of visits to sports centres to participate in physical activity (millions)

1.048m

1.104m

1.150m

1.150m

Green

100

£223,622

1.

Number of people attending sports centres, not with a club or school group, to participate in a physical activity twice a week or more

2,625

3,517

4,357

3,700

Red

0

11. Reducing stays in bed and breakfast accommodation for homeless people

Number of families with dependent children or with a member who is pregnant in Bed & Breakfast accommodation for 4 weeks or more

13

9

0

5

Amber

60

£53,669

1.

Total household nights spent in Bed & Breakfast accommodation

12,295

8,298

7,377

7,377

Green

100

£149,082

1.

Percentage of homelessness applications decisions notified within 33 days

74%

92%

95%

95%

Green

100

£59,633

12. Improving library services

Number of physical visits to public libraries

799,734

809,200

875,281

874,291

Green

100%

£99,388

Percentage of residents satisfied with libraries

64%

Not measured 04/05

80%

n/a

n/k

-

Number of books and spoken word items issued

972,842

899,514

1,035,026

902,344

Red

0