Minutes:
The Head of Economic Development and Tourism answered concerns relating to Performance Indicators which had been highlighted at the last meeting on 5th July, 2005. Members were advised that there had been 4 ‘double glums’ originally but one, with revised figures, had been changed to a ‘single’ glum. The first two ‘double glums’ related to customer satisfaction and it was suggested that the Service had been somewhat optimistic aspiring to a figure of 99% when in reality there would always be cases where you could not satisfy people because you could not deliver what they wanted. The Head of Economic Development and Tourism suggested that this figure should more realistically be revised to 90%. However, it was noted that the percentage of customers ‘very satisfied’ had risen from 52% to 56%.
With regard to the Grant Scheme it was reported that the level of take up had reduced with projects seeking European funding and only 12.5 of the target of 30 jobs had been created. It was hoped that the situation would improve when the Dalton Square office space was completed. Concerns relating to the Best Centres were also addressed. It was reported that targets had been achieved on 3 main contracts last year but there had been some difficulties with the eligibility criteria being changed and therefore a target figure of 80% would be more realistic.
The Head of Economic Development and Tourism explained that the Service was also involved in running regeneration programmes, which also had targets to achieve. These included the SRB programme and specific projects including Dalton Square. One staff member was on a benchmarking group considering economic development figures and the introduction of meaningful indicators to allow authorities to make comparisons. Members asked whether it would be possible to obtain a list of programmes and operations undertaken by the Service and a possible table to illustrate all the City Council’s activities relating to job creation, protection and retention. The Service Head agreed that it would not be a problem to produce such a table.
The Best Value Officer reported that she was currently working with the Head of Economic Development and Tourism as it would be one of the first Services to undergo the escendency process. They were currently investigating the usefulness of Audit Commission indicators. It would be possible to use the action planning module in escendency and consistently measure job creation. The Principal Democratic Support Officer maintained that the new system provided the ability to enter data via perspective, e.g. job creation, which would provide an overview on cross-cutting schemes.
Members were informed that the Lancaster SRB was due to finish in March and that most revenue projects would finish this year. Moreover, most projects knew SRB’s were coming to an end.
The Corporate Director (Central Services) referred to the reconsideration of base targets and PI’s to go into the Best Value Performance Plan, which had been earlier suggested by the Head of Economic Development and Tourism. The Best Value Officer maintained that the Plan was currently reviewed in June but that possibly this should be reviewed quarterly. Concerns were expressed as to whether this could only be changed by Council and that a system needed to be in place whereby changes could be made within the year without returning to Council. The Best Value Officer agreed that in a situation where improvements could not be made it was right that targets could be changed to reflect performance levels in certain circumstances. The Head of Economic Development and Tourism suggested that it was necessary to look more intelligently at the local area and use Escendency to find a framework to enable the regular reporting of meaningful local performance indicators.
Resolved:
(1) That the report be noted.
(2) That the Head of Economic Development and Tourism prepare a list to be circulated to Panel members of programmes and operations undertaken by the Service and a table to illustrate all the City Council’s activities relating to job creation, protection and retention.