Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report provides updated information about progress made on the Council's Public Service Agreement (PSA) which was agreed with the Government in August 03. The PSA includes 12 "stretch" targets which, if achieved by March 2006, trigger performance reward grants to the Council. The Government also provides upfront funds to assist achievement.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The Executive notes the progress reported in Appendix A.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 The agreed PSA funding is as follows:

3.2 Pump priming money is being used to enable services to meet stretch performance targets and will be used over the 3 year PSA period as a contribution towards the extra costs involved.

3.3 Unsupported Credit Approvals (UCA) have been included in our approved capital programme.

3.4 Details of the pump priming and UCA funds allocated to each individual PSA target are set out in the performance report attached.

3.5 If services achieve 100% of all the stretch targets the Council will receive an extra £3.5m in total Performance Reward Grants (PRG) after 2006. This is calculated as equivalent to 2.5% of the Council's 2002/03 net budget requirement (£143m). The total grant is divided equally amongst the 12 targets. If less than 60% of any stretch target is achieved then there will not be any PRG award for that target.

4 THE REPORT

4.1 The PSA is a contract between the Council and the Government to "stretch" performance beyond that which would be expected from "normal" improvement activities.

4.2 In order to facilitate this, the Government has agreed to provide additional funds that will allow services to develop beyond budget constraints. These funds are in the form of Pump Priming and Unsupported Credit Approvals, as set out above, under section 3 of the report.

4.3 This is the second progress report on the PSA targets. Appendix A shows the interim targets we have set for 2003/04, current progress and matters arising. As well as being reviewed by the Executive, this performance report will be reviewed by the Corporate Issues and Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

4.4 This agreement is part of the Government's first wave of PSA agreements. The Government has already started on a second wave of PSA. The Council could apply for a second PSA agreement, for which negotiations with Government would begin in approximately February 2005.

4.5 The Executive considered the first PSA report in January 2004 and resolved to (1) note the progress made and (2) to provide an incentive to those services, individually or jointly, achieving the stretch target in 2006/07, from the PSA award money

5 RISK MANAGEMENT

6 RATIONALE

6.1 The PSA is an important source of extra funding for the Council and the regular reporting of progress allows the early identification of areas of concern.

7 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

7.1 None.

8 CONSULTATION

8.1 Copies of this report have been issued to Trades Unions; any comments received will be reported to the meeting

8.2 Consultation regarding the project plans for each PSA agreement has been wide and various during the PSA agreement negotiations, and has been reported as follows:

(1) Reports to the Council Executive in February, June, September and November 2002

8.3 Reports to the Corporate Issues and Partnership Overview & Scrutiny Panel in September 2002, May, September 2003 & February 2004.