Agenda item

Agenda item

Policy and Performance Priorities

Report of the Director of Policy, Performance and Reform

 

This report provides details on the priorities and performance of the Council’s Performance, Policy and Reform department for the 2020/21 Municipal Year.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Policy, Performance and Reform (PPR) that provided information on the priorities and performance of the Council’s Policy, Performance and Reform department for the 2020/21 Municipal Year.

 

The main points and themes within the report included: -

 

·                Providing a background and context to PPR;

·                A structure chart;

·                Describing the ambitions and priorities for PPR;

·                Information on the City Policy Service;

·                Information on resources and programmes;

·                An update on the activities of the Policy and Partnerships team;

·                Information on Reform and Innovation;

·                The vision for Performance, Research and Intelligence;

·                An update on the activities and vision of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Team; and

·                Equalities performance management.

 

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were: -

 

·                Further clarification was sought on the statements contained within the report that described Manchester as a particularly difficult city to enumerate;

·                Did the team have enough capacity to undertake the enumeration;

·                Was the Residential Development Tracker and the Commercial Development Tracker available at a ward level and was this available to Councillors;

·                What plans were in place to deliver the Windrush day;

·                More resources were required to implement Green and Blue Infrastructure and what was being done to secure external funding to deliver climate change activities;

·                Were the number of upheld Ombudsmen complaints comparable with other core cities; and

·                What was the approach to utilising the services of external agencies to deliver consultations.

 

Officers described that work was ongoing so that the data used to produce the reports was aligned to the methodology of the ONS (Officer for National Statistics) and additional resources had been identified to support the national census work and due to the challenges in Manchester, including the nature of the housing stock and migration, the Chief Executive was currently in discussions with the ONS to ensure the appropriate number of enumerators were available in Manchester to deliver this work. Members noted that it was anticipated that, if carried out with appropriate resource, the Census would show Manchester’s population was much higher than projected by ONS. Members commented that this could impact on Local Government funding allocations and requested that a briefing note was circulated to Members on this issue. The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer stated that population data was also a factor when Local Government funding was calculated, adding that this was also factor for health service funding.

 

The Committee was informed that the Residential Development Tracker and the Commercial Development Tracker was an analysists tool and was not available in the current format for public consumption, however the outcomes were reported into other sources of data and information that was provided to Members, such as budget forecasting.

 

In response to the specific question on Windrush day, Officers described that Local Authorities could apply for a fund from the Government to deliver such events and Manchester had submitted a bid and had prepared a delivery plan in anticipation of an award. Members were advised that the nature of the event would be determined by the scale of any funding awarded. 

 

Officers described that the Council’s Climate Change Action Plan, that included activities around tree and hedge planting was being considered at the relevant Scrutiny Committee that week prior to its submission to Executive. Members were informed that the Council was working with partners, including Transport for Greater Manchester to progress the actions to mitigate climate change. The Committee were also advised that officers within the Resources and Programmes team were actively investigating alternative sources of funding to progress climate change activities.

 

In respect to Ombudsmen complaints the Committee was informed that the Corporate Complaints Team would monitor and report on this activity, adding that targets were established.

 

In regard to Equalities and the ‘Excellent’ status of accreditation, Members were advised that work was ongoing to understand the options to ensure this status was retained in 2021. A Member suggested that consideration should be given to work with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to ensure preparations for 2021 were appropriate.

 

In response to discussion on consultations and the use of external agencies, officers stated that consideration would be given as to the scale of the required consultation and any technical requirements that were required and a corporate commissioning framework was established to appoint consultants when required.

 

Decision

 

The Committee notes the report.

 

Supporting documents: