Annual Self-Assessment 2022-23

SA1- Strategy and Performance

SA1.1 Strategic, corporate and service planning

Assessment of current performance- how well are we doing?

• Two major improvement activities identified in last year’s self-assessment report were the production of Cabinet’s new Programme for the Administration and a new multi-year Council Corporate Strategy.  Both of these actions have been successfully delivered.
• The new Programme for the Administration 2022-27 was approved by Cabinet in January 2023.  The document establishes the political direction and collective priorities for Cabinet through this administrative term. 
• The production of this document was led by Cabinet and developed following a series of key engagement events, such as a Cabinet away day facilitated by the Chief Executive and Assistant Chief Executive to identify emerging priorities in May 2022, Cabinet members working with respective Directors, Heads of Service and key stakeholders to develop these further, and a visioning session held for the Extended Leadership Team which provided an internal perspective to support Cabinet’s work.
• The Programme for the Administration is structured around the portfolio areas of each respective Cabinet Member and is designed to deliver positive and lasting change for Pembrokeshire. 
• The Council articulated in last year’s self-assessment the need to move its forward corporate planning arrangements from an annual process to one which focussed more over the medium term.  It also expressed the need to reinvigorate and relaunch the process following the pause which had taken place during the Covid-19 pandemic.  The Programme for the Administration therefore provided a clear framework and direction for a new multi-year Corporate Strategy.
• Building on the collective aims and aspirations expressed by Cabinet, a new Corporate Strategy 2023-2028 was agreed by Council in May 2023.  The Strategy covers a five-year rolling period and will be reviewed annually.
• The Corporate Strategy is the vehicle through which the authority sets its statutory Well-being Objectives.  Following a period of development and engagement to ensure these objectives aligned with Cabinet’s political direction, the Public Services Board’s new Well-being Plan (see section 4.1) and taking into account the views of Pembrokeshire’s citizens and stakeholders, the Council agreed 12 new Well-being Objectives that provide the strategic framework for Council activity moving forward.
• Nine of these Well-being Objectives are focussed externally on the delivery of key services to residents, built around the following thematic priority areas – education, social care, housing, economy, decarbonisation and the nature emergency, sustainable communities, welsh language, core services and reducing poverty.
• The remaining three Well-being Objectives provide an inner focus, targeted at strengthening fundamental issues where the Council must improve to enable it to deliver the services which Pembrokeshire residents deserve.  These are good governance, financial resilience and tackling issues related to our workforce such as recruitment and retention.
• The Corporate Strategy sets out clearly the contribution each of the Council’s Well-being Objectives will make to deliver the seven national Well-being Goals for Wales, as required under the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
• There has also been a greater effort to ensure the Corporate Strategy is aligned with the Council’s medium term financial planning process, though it is fair to say that there is more work required in this regard.
• The Corporate Strategy is the organisation’s lead document and top of the hierarchy in its ‘golden thread’ of strategies and plans.  All Council activity – at directorate, service, team and individual level – filter down from the direction set out in the Strategy.
• The Council approved the first iteration of this report, an annual corporate self-assessment, at its meeting in December 2022 in line with statutory requirements under the Local Government and Elections Act. 
• The Council has continued to embed its new approach to service planning, shifting from an annual (short term) focus to plans which look over a rolling four-year period (medium term), as highlighted in last year’s report.  The standard templates which all Heads of Service follow continues to be reviewed on an annual basis.  This is to ensure that they are effective and that opportunities to align service activity with the organisational direction set out in the Corporate Strategy, our approach to medium term financial planning, and the financial challenges facing the Council, are optimised.
• All service plans were completed between January – April 2023 and will be considered and signed-off by the Senior Leadership Team.

 

Evidence- how do we know?

• Cabinet approval of the Programme for the Administration 2022-2027, 9 January 2023
• Council approval of the Corporate Strategy 2023-2028, 11 May 2023

 

Improvement actions- what can we do better and how?

• Continue to ensure alignment between strategic objectives set out in the Corporate Strategy and the Council’s Medium Term Service Plan.
• Strengthen monitoring arrangements of the Corporate Strategy through ensuring appropriate measures to evaluate our progress are integrated into the Corporate Scorecard (links with SA1.2).
• Undertake an annual review of the Corporate Strategy and Well-being Objectives to ensure that the Council continues to focus on the right things and emerging issues are captured.
• Continue to embed the discipline of multi-year service planning in the culture of the organisation and forward planning cycle, undertaking an annual review of the service plan guidance and templates to ensure these are fit for purpose.
• Review methodology and approach to undertaking the annual corporate self-assessment report to ensure arrangements are robust, particularly in view of the approval of the new Corporate Strategy and the setting of new Well-being Objectives.

 

Current performance - 2

Improvement phase - 2

2021-22 performance - 3

2021-22 improvement phase - 3

 

SA1.2 Corporate Performance Management

Assessment of current performance- how well are we doing?

• As reported in last year’s annual self-assessment, the Council continues to invest in strengthening its arrangements around corporate performance management and monitoring of key measures.  While progress has been made over the past 12 months, further work is required to ensure that these arrangements are fit for purpose.
• The Corporate Scorecard continues to be developed.  The purpose of this document is to ensure that elected members and senior leaders are sighted on key performance measures which provide a broad overview of organisational and corporate health.  As a result the scorecard is reviewed frequently to make sure that the measures reported on provide sufficient coverage across key corporate and service areas.
• As highlighted in section SA1.1, the Council has recently approved a new Corporate Strategy.  There is a need to better align the Corporate Scorecard with the high level objectives set out in the Strategy (and in particular our Well-being Objectives), so that progress to deliver the Strategy can be monitored in a more integrated way.  This will be a key piece of work over the next year.
• The Scorecard is currently considered by Cabinet and Senior Leadership team on a quarterly basis in a space which allows for constructive challenge and oversight between the Executive and senior leadership on matters relating to organisational performance.  In particular, this forum is used as a driver to target improvement activity.  Some of the key areas of focus over the past 12 months have centred on planning, housing and social care related data.
• The Scorecard is formally considered in the public domain by Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee have also received data extracted from the Scorecard to provide oversight of measures within its specific remit and similarly, Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee has been presented with data relevant to its remit.
• The data management/Power BI project has made progress over the past 12 months, led by officers in the transformation team (see SA5.6).  This has involved using the software for the collation and presentation of information rather than purely using a spreadsheet based approach.  This is a complex piece of work and it is likely that it will take a considerable period of time before the approach is fully embedded.  Nevertheless some of the benefits of using Power BI are already being realised, in particular in regards to the presentation of information, the opportunity to see trends over time, and the ability to use the data in a more interactive way.
• The Council’s Internal Audit service undertook a review of the approach to corporate performance management over the past year.  Recommendations from the review resonated with what was already understood to be necessary in terms of strengthening and improving our processes.  These feature as part of the improvement actions in the section below.
• Audit Wales have recently undertaken a piece of work looking at how the Council uses customer-related measures to understand how its services are received by the public.  While a final report and recommendations have not been received it is likely that the Council will need to ensure the Scorecard is amended to provide a greater sense of customer satisfaction and citizen perspective measures.
• Work to produce a new corporate performance management framework has continued over the past year.  However, given the broad range of related improvement activity highlighted above, approval of this document is currently pending to allow for this developmental work to be completed so that the final framework provides an accurate and holistic overview of the Council’s approach to managing performance.  It is currently anticipated that the final document will be approved in early autumn.

 

Evidence- how do we know?

• Meetings of Cabinet and Senior Leadership Team to consider the Corporate Scorecard.
• Meetings of Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee
• Internal audit report on the Council’s performance management arrangements.

 

Improvement actions- what can we do better and how?

• Review and amend the Corporate Scorecard to ensure better alignment with the Corporate Strategy which enables elected members and senior officers to monitor the delivery of the Strategy in an integrated way.
• Consider if the current list of performance measures reported in the Scorecard provides sufficient coverage of metrics which provide a citizen perspective on Council performance.
• Continue to roll-out the use of Power BI in the collection and reporting of performance information.
• Produce a new Performance Management Framework which sets out the Council’s approach to managing performance information.

 

Current performance - 3

Improvement phase - 3

2021-22 performance - 3

2021-22 improvement phase - 3