Photo credit: City & County of Swansea
The Service Improvement and Finance Scrutiny Performance Panel is meeting on Wednesday 15 October at 1.30pm (Chamber Meeting Room, Civic Centre).
On its agenda this month is a report providing details on the Flying Start Programme. This is a Welsh Government programme aimed at improving outcomes for children under the age of 4 in the most deprived areas of Wales.
The Panel identified this as an area they wish to drill down into in order to understand its performance and service delivery better. This is because they previously noted from the Council’s End of Year Performance Report that a number of targets for the Programme had not been set due to new data gathering methods and they also noted in the Corporate Improvement Plan that risks have been identified to on-going performance due to the expansion of the Programme. Therefore the Panel requested that a more detailed report be brought for their consideration in order to enable them to understand the story behind the performance data and gain a better understanding of the Programme and its overall contribution to the Council’s aims.
In order to aid their understanding several of the Panel Members carried out a site visit to Seaview Flying Start Project (in Townhill) last week. They met with a wide range of staff including the overall manager of Early Years Strategy, the Flying Start Co-ordinator, a Midwife, Health Visitor, Data Officer, a Link Teacher, Family Support Workers and a Childcare Manager. Councillors were impressed by the dedication of the staff and the success stories they were able to highlight. It provided Councillors with an insight into the deep seated problems that Flying Start is seeking to address and a better understanding of the achievements of the Programme.
Also on the Panel’s agenda this month is a presentation from the Council’s Corporate Improvement Manager on the Annual Review of Performance 2013-14 and a report on the 1st Quarter Performance Monitoring. This will provide the Panel with information to help them focus and inform their work and identify key areas of performance that may require further scrutiny.
Finally, the Panel will be asked to note the Local Government Data Unit’s 9th Annual Performance Bulletin, which compares the performance of local authorities across Wales for 2013-14. This is in preparation for a development session in November, run by the Local Government Data Unit, in order to assist scrutiny councillors make the best use of performance data. An invitation will be sent to all scrutiny councillors once the arrangements have been finalised.
If you are interested in attending this meeting, please ring the Scrutiny Team on 01792 636292.
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