Agenda item

(Deputy Chief Executive) To consider the attached report (FPM-013-1012/13).

The Deputy Chief Executive presented a progress report on the application of the Value for Money and Data Quality Strategies in 2011/12.

The Deputy Chief Executive reminded that Cabinet Committee that, pursuant to the Local Government Act 1999, the Council was required to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which its functions and services were exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. This was often defined as ‘Value For Money’, and the Council’s Value For Money Strategy had set out its overall approach to ensuring the provision of value for money services. The majority of actions contained within the Value For Money Strategy were intended to be completed during 2010/11, and it was not anticipated that further actions would be adopted for the remaining two years of the Strategy. It was not currently considered necessary to identify further specific actions, although progress against outstanding or ongoing actions would be reported at the end of the current year. The Value For Money Strategy itself would be reviewed again in 2012/13.

In addition, as part of the duty to secure continuous improvement, the Council had to ensure that all data and information used to plan and deliver services was accurate, valid, reliable, timely, relevant and complete, in order to inform its decision-making. Performance information was increasinglyused for the assessment of local authority performance, and the Council’s Data Quality Strategy set out the arrangements for ensuring that the quality of key data met the highest standards. Value For Money and Data Quality had traditionally formed essential components of local authority assessment and inspection frameworks. As with the Value For Money Strategy, the majority of actions contained within the Data Quality Strategy were intended to be completed during 2010/11, and it was not anticipated that further actions would be adopted for the remaining two years of the Strategy. Similarly, it was not currently considered necessary to identify further specific Data Quality actions, although progress against outstanding or ongoing actions would be reported at the end of 2012/13.

The Deputy Chief Executive stated that work would shortly commence on the revision and update of the Value For Money and Data Quality Strategies to take these forward from 2013/14. The Chairman of the Finance & Performance Management Scrutiny Panel commented that there was a lot of detail in the report, and perhaps this data needed to analysed so that it could be presented as a few simple indicators for comparison and benchmarking purposes.

Resolved:

(1)        That the progress made against the Council’s Value for Money and Data Quality Strategies during 2011/12 be noted.

Reasons for Decision:

The two Strategies built upon previous work to address issues arising from former assessment and inspection frameworks, and to highlight areas of best practice.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

None, as failure to identify arrangements for securing and improving Value For Money and Data Quality could mean that opportunities for improvement were lost, and might adversely affect the reputation of the authority.