Latest figures show council services improve, but challenges ahead
01 October 2009
Latest figures show that council services in Wales have continued to improve during the past year. The national performance indicator bulletin published today shows that 64% of local government’s performance indicators showed improvement during 2008-09.
Cllr Russell Roberts (Rhondda Cynon Taf), WLGA Improvement Spokesperson said:
“This picture of improvement is a remarkable achievement, particularly given it has been achieved during the early stages of the recession and despite increased financial and public pressures on council services.”
“We have seen improvements in waste management, social services, education, affordable housing and benefits services. The figures also demonstrate the increasing public demand for certain services, in particular social services.”
“Council staff should be congratulated for their continued commitment and real achievements in a very difficult period for public services.”
“Given the financial penalties we face, councils’ performance around waste has been impressive and councils are already a year ahead of meeting EU waste targets. Other major achievements have been significant improvements in the delivery time of benefits, disabled facilities grants and a reduction in bed-blocking which is at its lowest level in six years.”
“Clearly there are areas where we would like to see further improvements, notably around staff sickness levels, and we face some major challenges if we are to continue to deliver improved public services during the recession with tougher finance settlements. Although councils are more efficient than ever before and we have outstripped Assembly Government targets, saving £196m last year alone, the performance of key services will be under increasing pressure given the difficult programmes of staff redundancies many councils are now facing.”
“Ahead of next week’s Welsh Assembly Government draft budget announcement, the WLGA is continuing to press for a realistic finance settlement which prioritises front-line services.”
Key areas of improvement within the performance indicators include:
• The amount of waste being sent to landfill has fallen to the lowest ever figure of 60%. Also, the amount of waste recycled and composted has increased by 4% compared to last year (an all-Wales rate of 35.9%). Every Welsh local authority has met the EU waste target for 2008- 2009 for the amount of biodegradable waste they send to landfill;
• Local authorities are becoming much more effective at delivering affordable housing. 1,366 new affordable housing units were provided in Wales during 2008-09, up from 744 in 2007-08
• 99% of high risk premises were inspected for food hygiene and health and safety, this is on a par with last year. 17 authorities inspected 100% of food premises
• There are some clear signs of improvement across social care service delivery, for example, during 2008-09 the vast majority of social care referrals were processed within one working day (95%). This is an increase from 93% for 2007-08. Furthermore, the number of children that are looked after by a local authority who leave school with no qualification has fallen to 12.1% from 14% in 2006-07 and 18.1% in 2005-06, thus demonstrating local government’s continuing commitment to its corporate parenting role;
• There has been a continued reduction in the number of pupils leaving education at 16 without any formal qualifications with this figure falling to 1.5% in 2008-09;
• ‘Bed blocking’ has fallen to the lowest level in 6 years;
• There has been an improvement in the turnaround time to process new benefits claims and changes to housing and council tax benefit (this figure now stands at 11.1 days compared to the separate figures for 2007-08 of 25 days to process news claims and 11 days to process change of circumstances);
• There has been a significant improvement in the delivery of Disabled Facilities Grants with a 78 day reduction in turnaround time. In 2007-08 delivery was an average of 375 days average and 453 days in 2006-07.
Today’s figures compare to a 71% improvement record from last year and 72% from the previous year.
Ends
Notes for Editors:
Whilst authorities’ names have been included on graphs and individual tables for in order to aid public interpretation, it is not possible to create ‘league tables’. The WLGA advises against compiling league tables based on baskets of indicators – many of the indicators are not comparable, as they reflect performance in processes and outcomes across vastly different service areas, which have differing impacts on citizens.
For further information, commentary and context behind the performance indicators see the WLGA's full statement in response to the Data Unit bulletin at www.wlga.gov.uk . The Data Unit's bulletin is available at www.dataunitwales.gov.uk