The Chief Executive drew Members attention to the latest round of performance statistics issued by the Welsh Government and Local Government Data Unit.  He stated that the statistics cover the period 2013/14 and had highlighted some significant improvements across six of the seven indicators for Adult Social Care Services,  including one, the number of local adult protection referrals where risks had been  successfully managed, which had moved from 19^th place to 1^st place in Wales.

He stated that overall, there had been performance improvement in 86% in Adult Social Care Services against an all Wales rate of 57% and the South East Wales rate of 71%.  He congratulated staff for their help in delivering these performance improvements.

He also informed Members that the Council had performed well in a number of other areas too, where the Council had risen from 17^th place to 1^st place for reducing the rate of pupils in care who leave school, higher education or training without any qualifications.  The Council had also held 1^st place of the second year running for completing a 100% of young carer assessments.

The Chief Executive also announced that Recycling and Waste Services continued to perform well with a value for money approach, keeping the Authority among the top six ranked Councils in Wales.  The Council had moved from 9^th place into the top 5 for improvements in road conditions, whilst making 6^th place for the cleanliness of its local highways and other relevant land.  He stated that the approach to how leisure services were being provided had also seen an increase in the number of the visiting the library or undertaking physical exercise.

He stated that the statistics had also highlighted indicators where performance needs to be improved, which include the number of private sector dwellings which had remained vacant for longer than six months, the amount of fly tipping cleared within five days, the average point score for 15 year old pupils and the number of affordable housing units provided during 2013/14.

He informed Members that it was particularly pleasing that the Council had performed better than the Wales average across 50% of the 44 indicators and better than the average for South East Wales in 55% of the indicators.  He stated that performance statistics such as these were useful in that they highlighted services which are doing well whilst also providing a picture of services which need more attention, which would be looked at carefully to see how further improvements across all areas of the Council business could be made.

            The Chief Executive stated that significant improvements in performance in two service areas, namely in SEN Assessments which had been outsourced and the Architectural Design and Building Services Team which had been transformed in that it could deal with all construction work directly or commission it, thereby producing significant savings on the Council’s Capital Programme.  He stated that the SEN Assessment and Architectural Design and Building Services had transformed their approaches, with the first service being outsourced and the latter service being delivered in-house.  The Chief Executive informed Members that the Medium Term Financial Strategy had a requirement to produce savings of £50m and in order to meet the significant savings the Council services would need to be re-modelled and changed.