REPORT TO: / SCC Scrutiny Committee /
DATE OF MEETING: / 15 June 2009
AGENDA ITEM: / 4
CONFIDENTIALITY: / PublicConfidential
REPORT TITLE: / Salix Homes Improvement Programme and Performance
AUTHOR: / Alison Hill
RESPONSIBLE DIRECTOR: / N/A
PURPOSE OF THE REPORT: / To update the council’s scrutiny committee on progress against the Improvement Programme, the arrangements put in place for its on-going management and monitoring, and confirmation of progress to date in completing tasks and milestones.
The committee will also be informed of level 1 performance and the overall ‘direction of travel’ of Salix Homes.
RECOMMENDATIONS: / That the Committee
  1. Considers the progress in improving the overall performance of Salix Homes.

RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS: / The financial and staffing implications associated with this report are met from the annually negotiated Management Fee received by Salix Homes from the council.
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS: / In the improvement programme there are requirements to ensure that each tenant has a valid CP12 Gas Servicing Certificate, which requires legal documentation where access is denied to gain entrance.
CUSTOMER
IMPLICATIONS: / Improving performance and achievement of the Improvement Programme outcomes will help to ensure a positive inspection result for Salix Homes within the next 12 months and enable significant resources to be released by the government to bring all council homes up to the Decent Homes standard within the next 5 years.
COMMUNICATIONS IMPLICATIONS: / Salix Homes staff and customers are regularly informed of progress in meeting performance targets through the Salix Way and Limelight. Performance information is also available on the Salix Homes website.
Customer Scrutiny our performance through the Customer Senate and Service Specific Panels
EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT: / An EIA is not required for the production of this report.
RISK ANALYSIS: / Strategic Risk – the failure to achieve a positive inspection result for Salix Homes is a medium risk on our Risk Register. A number of actions have been put in place to mitigate this risk including the actions referred to in this report
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: / None
EXECUTIVE SUMARY:
  1. Introduction
Following this indicative inspection report from Audit Commission which identified 58 areas for improvement Salix Homes has been actively working towards achieving these recommendations which have been incorporated into an Improvement Programme (copy attached).
In addition to listing all 58 recommendations for improvement, the Improvement Programme also confirms:
  • The ‘headline’ actions and milestones associated with each individual recommendation;
  • Responsible officers;
  • Confirmation of how actions link and any interdependencies;
  • A ‘RAG’ status indicator confirming progress and allowing a quick review of milestones that are at risk of not meeting their target date etc;
  • Value for Money references;
  • Links to any strategies or projects;
  • Monitoring arrangements;
  • Expected outcomes.
Critical to the success of the Improvement Programme will be achievement of outcomes.
The Audit Commission have been very clear in discussions with Salix Homes that as well as completing the various tasks in the Improvement Programme, they will want to see evidence of the impact of the recommendations on improving services, stronger performance, better customer satisfaction and KLOE compliance – the so called ‘so what’ test.
Discussions with the Audit Commission have been on going since the beginning of the year in drawing up the Improvement Programme and in defining the expected outcomes.
  1. Management and Monitoring
The Improvement Programme is managed by a dedicated Inspection Team and constitutes additional capacity within Salix Homes from now until conclusion of the final inspection.
The Inspection Team are responsible for the following:
  • Day to day management of the Improvement Programme;
  • Leadership of the Business Transformation Project Team;
  • Support for a number of critical ‘cross cutting’ strategies and KLOE’s principally; equalities and diversity, value for money and customer access / involvement;
  • Preparation for the inspection itself including production of the Self Assessment;
  • Support for the Business Manager tier within Salix Homes and helping to prepare managers and their teams for inspection;
  • Ensuring integrated performance, business and action planning processes throughout Salix Homes.
Regular monitoring reports on delivering the Improvement Programme and expected outcomes are provided by the Inspection Team as follows:
  • Fortnightly to the Executive Management Team;
  • Fortnightly to the Inspection Project Board led by the Deputy Chair of Salix Homes;
  • Monthly to the council;
  • Bi-monthly to Performance Committee.
  • Quarterly to the Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee- City Council
In addition a weekly report will be provided for the Chief Executive.
  1. Current Progress
Current Improvement Plan progress is attached.
Each Lead Officer has responsibility for ensuring that the recommendations are met, that there is clear benefits to the customers and that the outcomes can be evidenced. This information will form part of our self assessment information that will be sent to the Audit Commission in December 2009.
The Inspection Project Board are ‘signing off’ of completed recommendations and ensuring through a scrutiny role that there is sufficient evidence and that there has been an improvement in service delivery.
  1. Performance ‘Direction of Travel’
A copy of level 1 performance indicators for year end 2008/ 2009 is attached together with a ‘direction of travel’ summary. We have adopted a 4 point rating for combined performance scoring as follows:
  • If 100% of indicators are ‘On Target’ [Green] then overall performance is ‘EXCELLENT [GREEN]’
  • If more than 50% of indicators are ‘On Target’ [Green] with less than 20% of indicators ‘Missing Target’ [Red] then overall performance is ‘GOOD [GREEN]’,
  • If more than 50% of indicators are ‘Missing Target’ [Red] with less than 20% of indicators ‘On Target’ [Green] then overall performance is ‘POOR [RED]’,
  • If Neither ‘GREEN’ or ‘RED’ then overall performance is described as ‘FAIR [AMBER]’
Of the forty-three level one indicators reported for March, twenty six are green, five amber and twelve red. This results in an overall performance rating for level one of ‘FAIR [AMBER]’.

The chart shows that the percentage of green indicators has increased from 45% in April 2008 to 60.5% in March 2009, our highest performance to date.

Performance is reported to the Board, Performance Committee, the council and the Executive Management Team on at least a monthly and/or bi-monthly basis.
It is intended to be able to report an overall ‘green’ status for level 1 performance indicators by the time of the Self Assessment. The ‘direction of travel’ confirms that Salix Homes is on track to achieving this goal.

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