Annual Report on Council Performance 2010

Part one – Performance summary

Annual Report on Council Performance 2010 1 CONTENTS Part one – Performance summary

Page

Introduction 3

Purpose of the report 4

Achieving our priorities – our successes 5

What our residents have said about the council 34

What our staff have said about the council 41

External assessment 43

Annual progress against performance indicators 50

Financial information and value for money 54

Progress against other key areas 57

Standards Committee Annual Report 59

Glossary 60

Part two – Performance annexes

Annex 1 – Progress against the Community Strategy and Council Plan priorities

Annex 2 – Annual progress against performance indicators

Annex 3 – Financial information

Annex 4 – Environmental Sustainability Annual Progress Summary

Annex 5 – Standards Committee Annual Report

Annual Report on Council Performance 2009 2

INTRODUCTION We are pleased to introduce our Annual Report on Council Performance for 2010. This report sets out many of the things we have achieved over the past twelve months, and highlights our performance against the priorities set out in the Council Plan as well as a range of statutory and local perfomance indicators. Once again this has been an extremely successful year. We have continued to make considerable progress and remain a low spending council with high performing services and high levels of customer satisfaction. We are recognised both nationally and locally as an excellent council, something we are all very proud of. Our external inspection results remain strong and resident satisfaction with the way the council runs things is amongst the best in the country. Of course, we are not complacent. We want to do even better to ensure we deliver high quality services for our residents and use our resources as efficiently and effectively as possible. We have already embarked on a major programme of service reviews that is starting to deliver significant efficiency savings across the council without impacting upon frontline services. And our work to improve the way we manage and use our accommodation will also see substantial savings in the future. These are very challenging times across the whole public sector with the ever increasing need to achieve significant savings and greater efficiencies. However, as a top performing authority that already provides excellent value for money for our residents, this is a challenge that we are well placed to rise to and is something that we will continue to work towards over the coming year. We hope you find the report informative. Please contact the council’s Performance Management Team on 01454 863846 for further information about any of its contents.

Amanda Deeks Cllr John Calway Chief Executive Leader of the Council

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PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

Who the report is for: The Annual Performance Report is primarily an internal document, approved by Cabinet, to be used by members, chief officers and staff.

How the report is structured: The report is structured in two: Part one - The first part contains a summary of our performance, including our key achievements and progress throughout the year. Part two – The second part of the report contains the detailed annexes, which include progress against the council’s priorities and financial information. Both parts of the report will be available on our website www.southglos.gov.uk

Each year we also publish a summary performance report to residents ‘Council Spending and Performance 2010’, which all households received in March 2010.

Annual Report on Council Performance 2010 4 ACHIEVING OUR PRIORITIES - OUR SUCCESSSES

The Community Strategy and Council Plan The Sustainable Community Strategy was developed with our key partners and sets out a vision for the area – ‘for everyone who lives and works in South to fulfil their potential, enjoy an excellent quality of life and support others in their communities whilst protecting the environment.’ Put simply, to ensure that continues to be: ‘A great place to live and work’ This vision translates into realistic and achievable ambitions which are set out our key plans and strategies. The ambitions for our communities which will be delivered by us and our partners are: • Investing in children and young people; • Being healthier; • Modernising community care and health services; • Managing future development; • Promoting safer and stronger communities; • Valuing the environment; • Maintaining economic prosperity. These ambitions have been shaped by our residents and partners and are based on an underlying assessment of the needs of the area. They have been derived from extensive public and partnership consultation including Viewpoint (our residents’ panel) together with ‘on the ground’ knowledge of our Members and partners. They are also based on annual customer surveys and shared performance and community information. The Council Plan sets out the council’s contribution to the Community Strategy including our aims, priorities and actions. With the council being a major contributor to the Community Strategy, there is a very strong alignment between the two plans with the priorities in the Council Plan mirroring those in the Community Strategy. However, the Council Plan also includes the council’s own improvement programme – fit for our future – which will help ensure that we continue to be a well-managed and effective council. Further information on the Community Strategy and Council Plan can be found on the council’s public website.

Areas of special focus Whilst all of the areas detailed in the Council Plan are important to us, with finite resources we are acutely aware of the importance of careful prioritisation. Consequently the council has decided to place special emphasis on four key areas. Key achievements in these areas is summarised below.

Excellent standards of achievement for all our young people Performance of primary schools continues to be good. The number of pupils making two levels of progress over Key Stage 2 in both English and mathematics has increased and both are above our statistical neighbours’ averages. We have no primary schools in Ofsted inadequate category and an

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improvement in the proportion of good and better schools since September 2009. GSCE results show good improvement over the 3 years from 2007 to 2009 for 5A*-C, satisfactory improvement over the same period including English and mathematics, with this measure moving from 3rd to 2nd quartile, and no school below the floor target. The general trend in Ofsted outcomes has been improving, with two out of six schools inspected during 2009 receiving overall outstanding judgements, despite the recent Notice To Improve categorisation of one of our secondary schools. The Personalisation Project began in three schools and analysis of early data shows that each has seen good improvements in the rates of progress of pupils. There is improved employer engagement with vocational and Diploma courses.

Our older people experiencing good health and well-being with a focus on sustaining independence and personalised care in later years A First Contact scheme pilot was launched in September 2009 for a 6 month period. The First Contact Scheme provides a streamlined way of accessing a range of services, where by talking to just one person, older people can access advice, information and services which they may not have been aware of or may not have known how to contact. It enables and encourages take up of services through trusted and known professionals and volunteers who can explain the positive side of seeking support to maintain independence. The scheme uses a clear, quick and easy checklist of 12 questions, enabling staff and volunteers to ascertain the needs of the person they are working with, and provide an integrated and seamless service. Between 1 September 2009 and 28 February 2010 (the agreed pilot period) 181 checklists have been completed which have resulted in 544 referrals to the 12 partner organisations, 81% were dealt with by partners within the agreed timescale. The scheme which is making a real difference to people’s lives is currently being rolled out across South Gloucestershire. The Council continues to provide for demographic growth and is maintaining its support for low level and preventative services. There has been a determination to support increasing numbers of people living in their own homes to ensure they enjoy lives that are rich and active - contributing to communities and having opportunities for activities which are important for quality of life and health and wellbeing. There was an unprecedented response from older people and carers to the Better Support for Older People consultation with approximately 650 individual responses in total and overwhelming support for the approach proposed recognising the shared local priority of personalised and modern services for older people. The programme is well in hand and demonstrates learning from our experience of service change from learning difficulties and mental health services. Adequately resourcing the programme, which is a genuine co- production with older people and carers from start to finish has given us a solid basis to implement plans for extra care housing to make a substantial contribution to improving quality of life and health and well being of older

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people. With three developments on site, we are seeing the realisation of a long held ambition for South Gloucestershire.

Future housing development which is vibrant, cohesive, sustainable and well integrated with our existing communities and provides an adequate supply of affordable homes South Gloucestershire continued to face considerable development pressure. While the economic downturn had the effect of reducing housing construction in the short term, there is every real indication that the development industry is continuing to identify and promote major housing development locations in the District, including sites in the Green Belt. This is against a backdrop of a draft Regional Spatial Strategy, opposed by this Council, which identified high levels of growth in the District. As a result, the Council decided to accelerate its Core Strategy timetable and published a consultation draft on 8th March 2010. By publishing the draft Core Strategy, the Council has set out with some certainty, its approach to managing growth over the next fifteen years or so. The draft Core Strategy has involved widespread public engagement to ensure that the communities of South Gloucestershire have had a say in shaping its proposals. As a result, the draft Core Strategy plans for lower, and more sustainable, levels of growth than those proposed in the draft Regional Spatial Strategy. It also contains a suite of up to date planning policies which will replace the relevant policies in the Local Plan. Public consultation started on 8th March and will run until August. Since the end of the 2009/10 the Council’s approach has been supported and strengthened by the decision of the new government to rapidly abolish the Regional Spatial Strategy. Affordable housing completions remained high and, in 2009/10, 281 homes were completed, mostly for social rent. Over 100 intermediate homes were built and of these, over 40 dwellings were delivered as part of the Government's Home Buy Direct (HBD) programme. The number of affordable homes delivered is above target performance for NI155. Whilst this outturn is encouraging, there are a number of large sites in the “development pipeline” which, for a variety of reasons will not reach their peak construction phase for some time. Development on some of these sites has stalled as developers are claiming that, due to the current market downturn, the development is not viable. This is on a range of sites – from those that are yet to gain planning consent through to developments that are already on site. The Council has worked actively with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) to try to unlock these stalled sites. As a result of this work, more than £20 million of HCA and SWRDA funding has been approved over the past year to support the provision of major highway infrastructure and over 200 affordable dwellings on sites such as Charlton Hayes ( Northfield). The Council has also maximised opportunities to gain additional affordable housing units on

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smaller sites and has supported the conversion of the tenure of other dwellings to ensure that they have not been left void or unsold. In addition, together with the other West of Councils and the Homes and Communities Agency, we have developed a local investment plan through the Single Conversation. This sets out the key investment priorities for the next five to ten years, in order to focus funding where it will have the most impact in a range of priority places in South Gloucestershire and across the sub-region, including the provision of affordable housing, transport infrastructure and other social and community infrastructure. As part of the commitment set out in the MAA to develop a sub regional approach to the assessment of the five year land supply, work has started on a Supplementary Planning Document for the West of England. This takes forward and develops the approach to development and infrastructure and delivery set out in the Infrastructure Delivery and Investment Plan approved by Council Cabinets in March/April 2010. The Council has also continued its commitment to working with developers to prepare concept statements for our key development sites. We are also actively working with our communities and other stakeholders to ensure that the new neighbourhoods proposed in the Core Strategy are properly planned and deliver well designed, sustainable communities which are well integrated with adjoining neighbourhoods. Innovative developments such as Hall – which is one of the first zero carbon developments in the country – are helping to show what can be achieved in tackling climate change issues through new development. Our aim is to extend the lessons learnt from that development to other sites in South Gloucestershire. The Council’s proactive approach to the delivery of sustainable new development was recognised by the award of a “Green Flag” by the Audit Commission in the Comprehensive Area Assessment. This was the only Green Flag awarded in the sub-region and one of only a handful awarded in the South West.

Through innovative partnership working, a transport infrastructure in the West of England, that rivals any major European City We are continuing to make significant progress towards our medium to long term aim of delivering substantial improvements to the local transport infrastructure. We have worked closely with our partners in the West of England to secure regional prioritisation for the West of England for £450 million government investment in transport infrastructure, a significant proportion of the £1.1 billion available for the South West of England from the Regional Funding Allocation (RFA2) for transport initiatives up to 2019. In the summer of 2009, the Government accepted the advice from the region. This will allow bids to be made to government for the specific projects in the programme. Together with our partners across the West of England we have been delivering the £70m Greater Bristol Bus Network project, supported by £42m funding from the DfT, £20m funding from First Bus and the remainder of the

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funding being met from local developer contributions. The scheme is currently on programme and due to be completed by 2011/12. A number of bus priority measures have been completed, including at Lysander Road West roundabout, the New Road Bus link, the Abbey Wood roundabout signalisation, the Filton Avenue north bound bus lane, the Cross Roads West bound road widening and the M32 Junction 1 roundabout improvements. In addition the programme of new bus shelters and raised kerbs at bus stops (to allow easier access) has been substantially completed. South Gloucestershire, jointly with Bristol City Council, was awarded a grant of £11.4 million towards implementation of the Cycling City project. £3.2 million of this grant will be used to improve cycling facilities and increase cycling in South Gloucestershire. The project aims to double the number of cycling trips and those receiving training by March 2011. Eight new cycle routes are being constructed, the level of cycle training in schools is more than double the usual 1,000 pupils undertaking the bikeability training and we are providing advice to a number of major employers on how to make cycling a realistic travel to work option for their staff. Following public consultation, we have submitted a major transport scheme bid for the North Fringe to Hengrove Package (one of the RFA programme schemes) to the DfT in March 2010. This £196m scheme was prepared jointly with West of England partners would provide a Rapid Transport service between the North and East Fringe, the City Centre and Hengrove in the South of Bristol; it includes the Transport Link and would also link with other Rapid Transit services to Ashton Vale. The scheme is part of a pilot approach to scheme development with DfT aimed at reducing the cost and time taken to develop major transport schemes. We hope to get initial approval from DfT later in 2010, that being so, scheme construction is programmed to start in 2013/14. The schemes delivered through the RFA2 will meet the transport needs of existing and new communities connecting people to jobs and services through sustainable modes of transport. We continue to work with partners and residents to provide sustainable and accessible modes of transport. Congestion has fallen across the West of England with the DfT estimating the average journey time across the area being 13% less than in 2005/06. As a result of the economic downturn, the number of passengers using public transport in South Gloucestershire has declined this year. However the Council continues to work with bus operators to try and boost patronage with support and promotions such as on the X27 service, where we have increased patronage by up to 30% since the start of the Council’s support. Community transport patronage, however, continues to increase, with 20% more journeys undertaken this year and five new vehicles being made available for the development of social car schemes. The number of schools with travel plans has also increased to 92% and we have plans to ensure all schools have an operational school travel plan by April 2011. Alongside this; the total number of casualties amongst all road users remains the lowest since the council became a Unitary Authority in 1996 and DfT have

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recently announced that the casualty rate on South Gloucestershire Roads is the second lowest nationally out of 87 Local Authorities.

Progress against our priorities Over the past year we have made significant progress against all our priorities, examples of which are given below. Further information, including a summary of progress against each priority is provided in Annex 1.

Investing in Children and Young People

Enjoy and Achieve Performance in relation to this outcome is good but the continuing focus is rightly on that in the Early Years and at secondary. There are some early signs of improvements at both these stages. No Early Years provision in schools has been deemed inadequate by Ofsted, although two private, voluntary and independent (PVI) settings have been and the quality of childcare, whilst improving, remains below the national average. The support structure to drive improvements is in place, and already we are seeing a closing of the gap between the lower 20% of children’s achievements and the Local Authority average outcome for the Early Years profile. At primary the profile of schools as judged by Ofsted show an increase in those judged good or better. At secondary there has been good progress in improving the GCSE 5+ A*-C performance, by 5 percentage points and a two percentage point improvement in GCSE 5+ A*-C including English and maths. The focus on vulnerable groups remains a priority, particularly children in care and those entitled to free school meals (FSM) who are all priority pupils to participate in the one-to-one tuition programme. The achievement gap for pupils entitled to Free School Meals has reduced to around the national average at Key Stage 4 but remains above the national average at Key Stage 2 where the gap has widened. The attainment of Black and minority ethnic pupils, white other and mixed heritage improved at Key Stage 2. Youth Café development is on target although funding is still to be agreed for the Youth Centre.

Economic Wellbeing Outcomes in this area are good overall. South Gloucestershire’s profile of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), an LAA priority, and those in learning compares very favourably with that nationally and with similar authorities. This is impressive given the low number of ‘not known’ destinations of young people in the authority, due to a rigorous tracking system. The proportion of young people ‘In Learning’ is high – 95.9% at January 2010, when compared to both last year and statistical neighbours. This is a result of multi-agency focus to discuss individual young people and how best to prevent them becoming NEET. Vulnerable groups represented in NEET have also improved, with fewer teenage mothers and care leavers represented and

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more learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD) young people in employment, education and training than last year. There is an increase in the number of young people from under-represented groups moving on to higher education, with more students from low-income groups making the transition. Education outcomes at post 16 remain a priority to improve, with comparative at A level and equivalent putting South Gloucestershire in the 4th quartile nationally last year. Significant work continues in priority neighbourhood areas to raise aspirations and address family poverty. Recently, families were surveyed for their response to the work to ensure they could access benefit, childcare and employment advice with a positive response of 94%. High quality information, advice and guidance is supporting young people through transitions and extending the range of courses available is increasingly enabling them to make informed and appropriate choices. Supporting and extending childcare provision has been a focus, with an additional 25 childminders registered with Ofsted and family learning provision boosted so that 250 family learners can attend courses.

Be Healthy Within this outcome there is much that is going well. The JSNA identified issues in relation to transitions for children and young people moving into adult services. Promoting and developing healthy lifestyles and healthy schools has been strong. Whilst the levels of obesity in older children and young people are rising the rates compare favourably with statistical neighbours and nationally. However prevalence is now highest in Kingswood and in rural areas. A range of joint initiatives will continue to address this priority. Teenage pregnancy reduction (LAA) remains a priority, although there was a substantial decrease in the rate of conceptions in 2008 compared to 2007. Emotional wellbeing will continue to be a priority, South Gloucestershire has fully commissioned for the four proxies demonstrating effectiveness of a comprehensive Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Recruitment has been an issue and good progress has been made although recruitment to the Learning Difficulty Psychiatrist post remains unsuccessful, which is restricting the work in developing care pathways and progressing the model for short breaks. Additional resources are being targeted at early intervention services both through CAMHS and through the SEAL programme in schools.

Stay Safe The South Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children Board continues to work effectively to promote the broad safeguarding agenda across partners with high levels of commitment evident. The focus on multi-agency preventative support has been strengthened through a well attended event to embed joint approaches and raise awareness still further of thresholds for services across

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agencies, and systematic training. Joint approaches in communities for children and families at an early age are better promoted now that the full service offer is available from each children’s centre. Judgements by Ofsted about safeguarding practice in South Gloucestershire schools have been very strong. This is a result of the careful undertaking of a South Gloucestershire Audit Tool of Practice by schools in all phases, and targeted support where needed to address any identified issues. Our processes for analysis and action when things go seriously wrong for children have improved: the Serious Case Review was judged to be good with outstanding features by Ofsted. South Gloucestershire has experienced a significant rise in the number of contacts and referrals to social care teams. This increase has put pressure on performance for the timeliness of both initial and core assessments. This has been compounded by issues relating to workforce stability and recruitment in one team and issues relating to the introduction of a common integrated information technology system. However, recruitment recently has been successful and with continued attention to improving the IT we are beginning to see improvement in performance. There is an increase in the numbers of children with child protection plans and in expenditure relating to children in care, which are causing pressures. Additional resourcing has been agreed although we are reducing the numbers in out of authority placements through the targeting of resources to keep more children within their local communities and needs met locally. No children have been subject to a child protection plan for more than two years during the past year. There has been good performance in relation to children in care, a lower percentage with three or more placement moves and improvement in long term stability. There is a focus to improve the performance relating to completing their reviews within the required timescale. Improving their attainment at school also remains a focus for us.

Positive Contribution Progress with the priorities in this outcome area is good, with more access being made by young people to information about opportunities and marketing of the Youth Unltd website to maximise its use. More young people from a range of vulnerable groups are accessing youth provision through targeted work to support their involvement and enjoyment. The already excellent youth provision for disabled young people in one locality has been extended to a second, with plans in hand to extend to the third soon. Engagement structures to ensure young people influence decision making are working well with increased opportunities for them to have their say in a wider range of national, regional and locally, including the development of three Locality Youth Fora. Young people themselves remain very engaged with the initiative to improve their access to affordable transport, with a pilot of the preferred scheme underway. The youth offending team remains one of the best performing in the country, with a reduction of first time entrants to the youth justice system.

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Improving health and modernising community care and health services Against a backdrop of financial restraint and increasing demand, it is positive to note that once again this year we have made substantial progress on our twin ambitions of assuring a prompt and personalised response to acute need and developing low level support and preventative services. Championed by the Health and Well-being Strategic Partnership, the 2010 Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) supplement has served to draw attention at a strategic level to the needs and issues facing our communities, and provides a narrative which makes sense to the members of the local strategic partnership which has agreed to ensure that strategic plans are designed to support the aspirations and meet the needs expressed in the JSNA. Working in a partnership with the NHS locally, we have seen improvements in community services which have lead to a reduction in the numbers of inappropriate admissions to hospital and reducing numbers of people delayed unnecessarily in hospital. The partnership story of the year has been working hard together to do more with the resources available. This has involved innovative and cost effective solutions to care between hospital and home; and interim changes to the focus of our in house home care by prioritising hospital discharge, pending the outcome of the review of the service and its role in Reablement. Linked to this is the implementation of the Dementia Strategy, with clear priorities identified by the multi-agency dementia board. Included in these are the introduction of Liaison workers in Primary Care and Acute hospitals as well as support for carers and discharge. The Council continues to provide for demographic growth and is maintaining its support for low level and preventative services. There is a determination to support increasing numbers of people living in their own homes to ensure they enjoy lives that are rich and active - contributing to communities and having opportunities for activities which are important for quality of live and health and wellbeing. Examples of this include new Advocacy services, cross council intergenerational work and services to support carers in employment. The unprecedented response from older people and carers to our Better Support for Older People consultation demonstrates not only leadership, but a very keen interest in ensuring the Council’s priority of personalised and modern services for older people. The programme is well in hand and demonstrates learning from our experience of service change from learning difficulties and mental health services. Adequately resourcing the programme, which is a genuine co-production with older people and carers from start to finish has given us a solid basis to implement our plans for extra care housing to make a substantial contribution to improving quality of life and health and well being of older people. With three developments on site, we are seeing the realisation of a long held ambition of this council. The consultation and agreement to integrate services for people with Mental Health needs is a positive step and provides a firm platform to do more to personalise services for people with Mental Health needs. The significant increase in the number of people with Mental Health needs using a Direct

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Payment also provides a foundation for further work and we are seeking regional support with this work. The strong Annual Report of the Learning Disability Partnership Board (LDPB) demonstrates improvement across a range of areas including choice and control, improved access to Health care and the appointment of a GP Champion and many more people enjoying the benefit of their own front door! Managing expectations and costs will be important this year, as will a focus on employment and shifting the offer from leisure and other day services to employment and work. During 2009 we commissioned an independent review of adult safeguarding practice. The subsequent report, while broadly encouraging, also pointed towards a focus for improvement and this has formed the basis for an action plan to drive further improvement. The adult safeguarding board was strengthened during the course of the year by additional representation and more explicit links to domestic violence and hate crime. Also during the course of the year, all Councillors were reminded of their safeguarding responsibilities by a presentation at Council to all Members.

Managing future development South Gloucestershire continued to face considerable development pressure. While the economic down turn had the effect of reducing housing construction in the short term, there is every real indication that the development industry is continuing to identify and promote major housing development locations in the District, including sites in the Green Belt. This is against a backdrop of a draft Regional Spatial Strategy, opposed by this Council, which identified high levels of growth in the District. As a result, the Council accelerated its Core Strategy timetable and published a consultation draft on 8th March 2010. By publishing the draft Core Strategy, the Council has set out with some certainty, our approach to managing growth over the next fifteen years or so. The draft Core Strategy has involved widespread public engagement to ensure that the communities of South Gloucestershire have had a say in shaping its proposals. As a result, the draft Core Strategy plans for lower, and more sustainable, levels of growth than those proposed in the draft Regional Spatial Strategy. It also contains a suite of up to date planning policies which will replace the relevant policies in the Local Plan. Public consultation started on 8th March and will run until August. Since the end of the 2009/10 the Council’s approach has been supported and strengthened by the decision of the new government to rapidly abolish the Regional Spatial Strategy. Affordable housing completions remained high in 2009/10. In total, 281 affordable dwellings were completed, of which 164 were for social rent, 73 for intermediate and 44 have been delivered as part of the Government's Home Buy Direct (HBD) programme. The 2009/10 performance is above the target of 200 dwellings. As part our efforts to support the delivery of new homes in the current market downturn, the Council has worked with the Homes and Communities Agency and the Regional Development Agency to lever in funding for infrastructure

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and affordable housing. In the past year, over £20 million has been approved for investment on sites in South Gloucestershire. This will finance a new link road between the A38 and , as part of the Filton Northfield development, and enable developers to bring forward an additional 214 affordable homes. For the longer term, we have prepared a local investment plan under the “Single Conversation” initiative which identifies investment priorities for the next ten years, in order to focus funding where it will have the most impact, including the provision of affordable housing as a key objective. The recent work on concept statements for Barnhill Quay, the University of the West of England and Stover Road, Yate demonstrate the Council’s commitment to work with the local community and the development industry to foster a shared vision and development objectives for important sites. However, this process can only be successful where developers recognise our procedures and collaborate with us. Unfortunately not all developers support this and some have chosen to pursue speculative planning applications without an initial concept statement process/outcome agreed. At the end of 2009 the Government announced that Oldbury was to be a site for a new nuclear power station. The Council continues to work with Horizon - promoters of the site - to identify how this national infrastructure project can be brought forward and a clear framework identified to deal with the key challenges involved. The Council is committed to secure the resources via Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) to deal with key issues and challenges for Oldbury Power Station. We have continued to monitor closely other national infrastructure projects such as proposals for new electricity transmission lines and Severn Estuary Tidal Energy, and have made our views known to government. Construction of the infrastructure for the Greater Bristol Bus Network has progressed. The scheme is currently on programme and due to be completed by 2011/12. A number of bus priority measures have been completed, including at Lysander Road West roundabout, the New Road Bus link, the Abbey Wood roundabout signalisation, the Filton Avenue north bound bus lane, the Hambrook Cross Roads West bound road widening and the M32 Junction 1 roundabout improvements. In addition the programme of new bus shelters and raised kerbs at bus stops (to allow easier access) has been substantially completed. Working with partners in the West of England, the Council was successful in negotiating priority within the South West region for a number of significant new local transport schemes. These included • the North Fringe to Hengrove Package a £196m scheme to create a Rapid Transit link from Cribbs Causeway and to south Bristol, via Bristol city centre. A bid for the funding for this scheme was submitted to government on March 2010 • the Greater Bristol Metro, a series of improvements to railway infrastructure in the West of England, including South Gloucestershire, to enable local rail services to be improved. • a Rapid Transit route between Emerson’s Green and Temple Meads

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South Gloucestershire, jointly with Bristol City Council, was awarded a grant of £11.4 million towards implementation of the Cycling City project. £3.2 million of this grant will be used to improve cycling facilities and increase cycling in South Gloucestershire. The project aims to double the number of cycling trips and those receiving training by March 2011. Eight new cycle routes are being constructed, the level of cycle training in schools is more than double the usual 1,000 pupils undertaking the bikeability training and we are providing advice to a number of major employers on how to make cycling a realistic travel to work option for their staff. School cycle parking facilities have been introduced in school in 2009/10 resulting in 300 parking spaces at 13 school sites being installed. The Council’s proactive approach to the delivery of sustainable new development was recognised by the award of a “Green Flag” by the Audit Commission in the Comprehensive Area Assessment.

Promoting safer and stronger communities

Be Safe and Feel Safe South Gloucestershire is a safe place to live. Crime is low and communities are strong. But we are not complacent and the Council and its partners are working to improve these areas even further. Our Aim is to reduce the level of reported crimes, particularly those types of crime that impact on community confidence, and to improve public confidence. In order to do this we: take early intervention action to prevent anti-social behaviour; target offenders; focus on violent crime; work to reduce drug or alcohol dependency; and seek to increase public trust and confidence. We also want to make our roads safer. Good progress has been made in many of these areas. Criminal damage is a notable indicator of Anti-Social Behaviour and the 7% drop in 2009/10 means this form of crime has now been reduced by 22% over the last 3 years. Significant reductions have also been achieved in serious acquisitive crime (down 21.5% in 2 years) and assault with less serious injury (down 16.7% in 2 years). However violent crime remains an issue nationally and the current national trend is of a generally increasing rate of offences. A large proportion of violent crime in South Gloucestershire is linked to the night-time economy, especially in the town centres such as Kingswood, Yate and . We have introduced Taxi Marshals in both locations on weekend evenings to ensure that no disorder happens in the taxi queue, ensure the safety of the taxi drivers and provide an additional high-visibility presence on the High Street. A series of targeted operations aimed at reducing violent crime, including a focus during Alcohol Awareness Week, have been mounted. The Council installed state-of-the-art CCTV systems in Kingswood, Staple Hill, Chipping Sodbury, Hanham, Filton, , and Thornbury.

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These actions mean that the rate of violent crime offences is reducing. Nonetheless violent crime will continue to be a priority for 2010/11. Three ‘stretch’ targets for reducing alcohol abuse had previously been agreed with the Government, where we invested additional resources in order to achieve increased performance. All three of these targets were achieved with 630 people entering treatment to help them deal with their alcohol abuse compared to 378 the previous year. 315 of these completed the programme (187 in 2008/09) and over 82% achieved a significant reduction in their alcohol abuse as measured through the Christo inventory score. At the same time we have exceeded our National Treatment Agency target for numbers of people in treatment to help with drugs abuse problems. While we have succeeded in reducing levels of crime, public trust and confidence remains to lag behind this. The Council has therefore initiated an integrated publicity plan including messages targeted at Neighbourhood level (taking account of different levels of understanding in different neighbourhoods) and for particular issues at Street level, to raise awareness of the patterns of crime in South Gloucestershire.

Promoting engagement and cohesion We are actively working to increase involvement in communities and decision- making. There are now 20 Safer and Stronger Community Groups meeting regularly across the District and making sure that more residents are actively participating by attending regularly. E-communications are also used to keep residents informed of the issues raised through these meetings and dealt with by organisations and individuals as a consequence. This has led to an 8% increase in the proportion of residents who believe they can influence the decisions affecting their local area. The Council continued to support and work with Town and Parish Councils while community led planning and planning for real activities have also increased involvement and engagement of local people. Supporting Parish Councils and the creation of community led (parish) plans has enabled residents to get actively involved in identifying local issues and priorities. Our Corporate Equalities Forum now meet regularly on quarterly basis and influence decisions and services planning by linking into views and experiences of equalities groups. We continue to work closely with partners and local communities, to bring together a common approach to dealing with the issues in our Priority Neighbourhoods of Cadbury Heath, Filton, Kingswood, Patchway, Staple Hill, and Yate/Dodington. We are supporting a Compact Monitoring Group with voluntary and community sector organisations and managing grant mechanism where funds of £185,000 (revenue) and £100,000 (capital) are distributed to community organisations though the Local Area Forums.

Cleaner & Greener

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Our aim has been to enhance our streets and open spaces. Levels of cleanliness across South Gloucestershire are generally very good (our performance measure on litter shows a score of 4% compared with the national average of 10%). Detritus levels in town centres and local shopping areas have also improved following the introduction of a dedicated resource during 2009/10. During the summer we participated in a national car litter campaign, which encouraged people to report people seen littering from their vehicles. This has been continued by formal reporting by Street Care staff of people they see littering with a view to issuing fixed penalty notices. Particular litter hot spots, such as the A4174 Avon ring road are being tackled by a concerted effort by the enforcement team to identify offending individuals and vehicles dropping litter and waste. During March 2010, 68% of lorries monitored lost waste whilst travelling along the A4174. A successful prosecution has been taken against one haulier, and evidence has been gathered against a number of other companies. We have worked jointly with partners to tackle fly tipping and other enviro- crime. Participating in multi-agency Weeks of Action, we have run Environmental Action Days, and offered amnesties for the removal of unwanted vehicles. In one area we provided a free graffiti removal service (subject to disclaimers) for a limited period when problems were identified through the Safer and Stronger group, this in effect nipped the problem in the bud when supporting Police action.

Develop Community Infrastructure Yate Library opened in October following a £1.5 million refurbishment. The new sports pavilion at Emersons Green which forms part of the new facility at Pomphrey Hill was officially opened on 27 March 2010. Valuing the environment Climate change We are making good progress on initiatives to tackle climate change. We are on target to achieve our 3 year 3% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. The introduction of the part night lighting switch offs with our street lighting has resulted in a fall in energy consumed but we are concerned about increasing energy usage in our buildings which seem to be as a result of the cold winter. There has been an increase in interest in renewable energy this year. Planning permission has been granted for a wind farm at , 124 households have installed renewables in their homes and several technologies have been installed in schools and Council buildings. Despite efforts to reduce carbon emissions, evidence is clear that our climate is changing and we need to make plans to adapt to these changes. We have carried out a comprehensive risk based assessment of vulnerabilities to weather and climate involving a wide range of stakeholders and services. We have assessed how these risks are being managed and are starting the next

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phase of work to carry out the actions to manage these risks effectively in the future. Biodiversity and natural and built environment During 2009/10 more than 1600 people took part in educational or promotional events. These included a wide range of heritage and environmental events. The National Family week events were a great success attracting 4000 people. The three year externally funded project ‘Wildways’ was officially launched in September and has already found creative ways of engaging a wide range of people in our priority neighbourhoods who would not normally access nature or benefit from the associated activities, Volunteers have been active once again this year in a diverse range of activities including winter management works of our sites, hedge laying, organising community orchard events, managing heritage sites and events and developing the bat audio trail. Over 10,600 volunteer hours were recorded in 2009/10. There has been huge community involvement in the provision of the Grimsbury Farm open events, attracting 3,000 visitors. The fifth local food festival held in Autumn 2009 was another successful Partnership event with nine new producers taking part making a total of 38 events. There were record levels of attendance at open events and overall attendance of 9,000 people. Increased sales of 300% were reported and over 110 new public enquiries have been received by 10 businesses, representing a large increase over last year. Nine sites were brought into active management to encourage biodiversity during the course of the year by working with the Highways Agency and through the Woodland Grant scheme run by the Forestry Authority. The Council has exceeded its target for this year and additional sites may also be brought into active management through the Environmental Stewardship Scheme run by Natural England. Good progress was made with the Green Infrastructure Strategy and a wide range of stakeholders attended the consultation event to inform the development of policies and strategic priorities. Parks and Open Spaces In 2009, we secured £1.1 million of funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families’, for a two year “PlayBuilder” programme to enhance 24 play spaces across the district. We have been working with partner agencies on the design, consultation and delivery of the new schemes, which have focussed extensively on community and youth input. Despite the poor weather conditions during winter 2009/2010, twelve schemes have been completed (Blenheim Drive/Canberra Grove in Filton, King George V Play area in , Gorse Covert and Scott Park in Patchway, Brimsham Park and Woodchester Park in Yate, Page Park in Staple Hill, Chapel Lane in , Townwell in , Jubilee Green in

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Bradley Stoke, Park and Court Road Playing Fields in Kingswood). Consultation for the 12 Year 2 sites has already started and the sites will include Eastland Avenue play area and Lime Kiln play area in Thornbury; Barrs Court play area in , Aitchinson play area in Common, Lincombe Barn play area in Downend, play area in Soundwell, play area in Severn Beach, Springfield Park in , Vicarage Road play area in Hanham, St Aldams Drive play space in and Woodstock play area and Southey Park play area, both in Kingswood. Thornbury continues to set high standards with respect to Britain in Bloom and we are now working with Yate Town Council and the associated town centre regeneration group to enhance the town centre and corridors into the town over the next couple of years.

Waste We have seen an overall reduction of 4% in the total amount of household waste generated, with the quantity of residual household waste dropping from 719kg per household to 672 kg/household. We achieved a recycling rate of just under 41%. We introduced mixed wood recycling at SORT IT!* Centres, having secured an outlet for recycling composite and treated wood. Waste wood now contributes around 3% to our recycling rates. Dedicated facilities for collecting old electrical goods resulted in 757 tonnes of additional materials being collected last year, for recycling. During the year, council officers and SITA have undertaken a comprehensive review of how we can further improve the operation and further recycling at SORT IT!* Centres. A report of the findings will be completed in 2010, and improvements and changes to site operations will be introduced later in the year. The food waste testing project collecting food waste in green bin commenced in February 2009 covering 16,000 households. The volumes of food waste were lower than expected. Lesson learnt from this and from national pilot projects has resulted in the council reviewing its strategy for collecting food waste. As a result a new collection service of segregated food waste in caddies is planned for late 2010. The SITA & Council waste minimisation team has taken the SORT IT!* road show to many events across the district, with the main focus being the “Love Food – Hate Waste” campaign.

Maintaining economic prosperity Despite the downturn in the economy South Gloucestershire has maintained the highest level of employment amongst unitary and county authorities (82% of the working age population, Sept 2009 – ONS population survey). The area also records one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the country (4.9% of the economically active population aged 16+, Sept 2009 – ONS population survey).

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Throughout the recession and into recovery the work of the South Gloucestershire Economy and Skills Partnership has been focussed on the principal aims identified in the Economic Development Strategy: • Improve business competitiveness and safeguard jobs in key sectors • Support small and starter enterprises • Raise skill levels to meet future workforce needs • Ensure the availability of employment land and premises • Share the benefits of economic growth • Sustain the vibrancy of key town and district centres

Business competitiveness and economic growth Work on the Science Park has been slow to start but infrastructure works have commenced and the tender process for the contract for the SPark One building is well advanced. Work on the 54-acre site in Emersons Green could take up to a decade to be completed but will provide opportunity for in the region of six thousand jobs at the 14 planned buildings. It will house test-bed facilities, laboratories, office space and workspace for semi-industrial and science and technology businesses. The UK National Composites Strategy identified the need to create a National Composites Centre (NCC) to house industrial-scale manufacturing facilities for the research and design of new technologies. This centre will be located at the Science Park, and it is envisaged that it will be fully operational in 2011. The Centre will be funded with a grant of £12m from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills and £4m from the South West Regional Development Agency, as well as significant contributions from industry.

Business development In 2009, there were 10,170 enterprises in South Gloucestershire. The largest percentage of these (67%) had 0 - 4 employees. This is slightly less than the proportion in the South West region (68.4%) and less than in England (68.6%). The percentage of enterprises with 20-49 employees (6.1%), 50-99 employees (2.2%) and 100+ employees (1.9%) are all proportionally higher than the South West and England. Together with our partners Business Link we have continued to develop and deliver programmes that support new and established businesses in South Gloucestershire. New locations for clinics have been provided to enable advice and guidance to be delivered more locally. In the year to April 2010 a total of 3,183 businesses were supported through business link programmes. After securing South West Regional Improvement and Efficient Partnership (RIEP) funding, we worked in partnership with GWE Business West to deliver a business support and improvement programme – Adapt to Survive, which combined free workshops, free mentoring, and vouchers of up to £250 to go towards implementing the action plans created in the workshops. A new South Gloucestershire Business Directory was published and distributed to businesses across South Gloucestershire in October 2009.

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Skills and workforce development In 2008, 74.5% of our working age the population had at least a Level 2 qualification, higher than the South West and across England. We have exceeded the target set in the Local Area Agreement (LAA) which was to reach 72.1% by the year 2011/12. In 2008, the proportion of working age population in South Gloucestershire with at least a Level 3 qualification was 50.8%, which is not significantly different from South West and England. However, only 27.2% of the working age population had at least a Level 4 qualification, which is significantly lower than the England figure of 30.5%. In 2009 around one in four employers (24.6%) in South Gloucestershire reported that they employed staff whom they considered not fully proficient. This increase from 17.4% in 2007 is much higher than the national trend. Across the West of England all the other authorities also saw increases. Together with the other authorities in the West of England we have been developing a Work and Skills Plan which will inform Local Economic Assessments, provide a better understanding of business skills needs and will form part of the case made by the West of England Competitiveness and Skills Boards for the devolution of skills strategy setting powers (Section 24 powers) for adult skills funding (Section 24 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009).

Employment land and premises The authority continues to support the provision of a self service portal for businesses looking to locate or relocate to premises in South Gloucestershire. This is done in partnership with the other authorities across the West of England through www.investwest.org. In March 2010 there were 210 properties available through the portal compared to only 81 the previous year. The number of enquires made however stayed relatively the same across the year averaging 15 per month. The draft Core Strategy was published in March 2010. Taking into consideration the latest information from the emerging employment land study the strategy picked up the following key issues: • We must provide for the land and transport infrastructure needs of existing and new businesses to ensure the continuation of this economic prosperity. This is a key priority given the importance of supporting economic growth and job creation in response to the recent recession. • The need to achieve a more balanced mix of development in the North Fringe of Bristol by focusing major new housing development in the area and restraining major employment development. However, long lead-in times in bringing forward the housing development and continued strong employment growth is threatening to undermine this restructuring. In the East Fringe of Bristol the loss of employment from the existing urban area has led to significant out commuting and there is a need to protect jobs, as well as create jobs (e.g. the Science Park),

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and improve access to major employment locations in the centre of Bristol and the North Fringe. • In the Severnside area, along with Avonmouth in Bristol, there are significant constraints, most notably flood risk, ecology, archaeology and transport infrastructure, and these need to be addressed if the area’s economic potential is to be realised.

Sharing the benefits of economic growth One of the core objectives of the West of England Work & Skills Plan is to reduce the number of people without work, including in particular young people and those in poorer neighbourhoods. We have seen a slight reduction in the Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) claimant count in March 2010 at 3,525 (or 2.2% of the working age population) from 3,736 claimants (or 2.3% of the working age population) at the same time last year. This pattern is also seen nationally, although the rate is much lower than the sub region (3%) and nationally (4.2%). Claimant numbers have risen sharply amongst those aged 24 and under. Profiles have been developed for each of the defined priority neighbourhoods, and have been used to inform the development of the Priority Neighbourhoods Strategy.

Town and district centres A town centre strategy has been developed by the Thornbury Town Centre Partnership, supported by Council officers. Officers continue to support this Partnership in the actions needed to deliver this ten year Strategy. The Community Projects service is currently working to establish chambers of commerce / business associations to lead local business involvement in Kingswood; Staple Hill; Downend; Yate; and Chipping Sodbury. The intention is for these associations to develop their own solutions to local issues in order to: • Increase footfall • create a greater awareness of the benefits of shopping locally “Local shops and businesses for local people” • Revitalise local economies • Promote among local residents the importance of using local businesses to ensure their long term sustainability. • Reduce number of empty shops • Re-establish Town Centres as a hub for the local community • Help people see how shopping locally benefits the environment. e.g. Reduces carbon footprint, reduce traffic congestion.

Fit for our future

Think Customer We are working hard to make it easier for customers to access our services. Our main contact centres have been brought together on one site enabling us

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to provide an improved service particularly during busy periods. Following best practice from the private sector we are developing a Customer Relationship Management system which will give our customer services staff access to better and more joined up information about our customers. This will improve the service they can provide, enable us to achieve a ‘one and done’ approach with the first person contacted answering more enquiries without having to ask other staff for information, and ultimately offering a better customer experience. We have also started work to revamp our website and increase the number of services which are available online. This will include the ability for customers to track and monitor their enquiries online via personal accounts. In consultation with our staff and customers we have updated our customer care charter to make sure that we are focussing on what is important to our customers. The new charter sets out the targets we work to when responding to customer enquires. Recent place survey results have also shown that customer satisfaction with the South Gloucestershire area and with the council as a whole has improved over the last year, and our customers are more aware of how to complain to the council. We are seeing improvements to how we deal with feedback and complaints with more customer complaints being resolved internally and in a timely manner without the need for Local Government Ombudsman involvement. The Think Customer! Programme has also improved the way we measure and use customer satisfaction information at the individual service level. We have established a corporate approach to all our customer facing services working towards accreditation to the Customer Service Excellence Standard which will ensure we are consistently delivering high levels of customer care, and have contributed towards the council’s achievement of level 4 of the Equalities Standard.

Inspirational leadership The Council's Values continue to be promoted through improvement programme schemes including the Pride Awards, Eureka themed promotions, Evolution launch - all of which reinforce customer excellence, partnership working and valuing staff contributions to the Council's Priorities. We have continued to focus on improving change management through combining project and change management guidance and launching the Evolution toolkit with Senior Manager Briefings and Manager Conferences for all 1st to 4th tier officers. This has raised the awareness of a common language for leading and managing change, and introduced tools to support good change leadership and change management which have been embedded in the approach for the Service Review Programme. Managers have been further supported with line manager workshops to build confidence and capability to lead change within the Service Review programme. An extensive and targeted programme of member development events has taken place including briefings, workshops and training courses, all supported by regular newsletters, political group away days and the Councillor development intranet site. This area has again been recognised by the Municipal Journal awards.

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The most recent cohort of Experiencing Leadership participants have completed projects supporting smarter working, delivery through partnership and reducing the amount of paper we use across the organisation. The Corporate Learning Programme continues to be developed around the needs of the organisation with a new website being launched which enhances the accessibility of the many resources and training options available for staff. We have also received the highest number of candidates put forward for Introduction to Management and Institute of management programmes.

Delivery through partnership We have worked closely with partners to strengthen links and improve joint working arrangements with workshops, newsletters and briefings in preparation for the Comprehensive Area Assessment. The Local Strategic Partnership was also supported in revising and implementing its new governance structure designed to improve the effectiveness of the Partnership by providing more opportunities for the Partnership to think about and shape the long term future of the area. New arrangements also introduced a Chief Officers’ Group that focuses on performance and delivery of services. We also completed the first survey of the local strategic partnership to assess the current position and inform the future direction of the partnership. The South Gloucestershire Partnership hosted a very successful Partners’ Conference focusing on the Council and partners’ readiness to improve the area’s economy, as the recession comes to an end. Keynote speeches from Chris Evans, Director of the Marchmont Observatory and Nigel Eagers, Vice Principle of Filton College set the scene for lively workshop debate. The annual review and refresh of the Local Area Agreement has been completed and the multi-area agreement is now in place. A quarterly newsletter of the South Gloucestershire Partnership has been introduced to keep partners and the general public informed of the benefits and successes of partnership working. It also highlights the performance of Local Area Agreement targets.

Investing in our staff The second PRIDE awards saw 235 staff receiving nominations from across the organisation, improving on last year and demonstrating once again the remarkable talents and achievements of all council employees. The MyView computer system is now being used widely, making many HR and management processes easier, paper-free, and more efficient including recording PDPRs, training, sickness reporting, travel claims and maintaining personal information. The employee survey also clearly endorsed the positive work being done to engage staff. It again received a high response rate and showed that the council remains among the best council’s to work for. Lots of work has also been completed to support the Service Review programme with HR policies and guidance as well as individual project support and advice. Managers are being supported in applying the workforce change procedure and with ensuring staff and Trade Unions are engaged in effective consultation

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throughout the process. Staff are also being supported with redeployment and re-training as well as sessions to help deal with change and manage stress. This year there has also been a focus on supporting young people into employment, with the council supporting 63 Future Job Fund placements for long term young unemployed and completing a business administration apprenticeship scheme in partnership with Filton College. The quality and effectiveness of polices and practices to support and enable staff to perform well was re-enforced in the council being awarded GOLD IIP and IIP Champion status, in its first council wide assessment.

Smarter Working Many staff are now settling into the new offices at Badminton Road. The desk target savings agreed by Chief Officers are on track to be realised by all Departments. We are on target to achieve 25% desk reductions by 2010, releasing £1.3m each year. The cultural shift to smarter working has been successfully implemented due to the extensive staff engagement that has been carried out throughout the smarter working programme. Throughout the course of the year approximately 900 staff have attended tailored implementation staff workshops, focused on helping teams agree the smarter working solutions they will implement together to help them move locations and reduce desk use. These have been supported with wider engagement workshops, drop in sessions, site tours of Badminton Road offices and other events to ensure staff are aware of how the changes will affect them and the options they have available, that they are comfortable with the new technology that is enabling home and mobile working and are familiar with the offices they are moving to. Communication of accommodation and smarter working information continues for those officers due to be affected by the next planned office moves, further engagement work is planned and support will be provided as needed. The vast majority of staff have their smarter working ICT requirements in place and are using the technology to work in new ways and the new telephony system has been implemented successfully, providing a much improved flexible working environment.

Value for money South Gloucestershire Council is amongst the top performing authorities in the country and the council offers excellent value for money. At £1,521 per head of population our total service expenditure was the 5th lowest of all 46 unitary authorities. Overall satisfaction with the council has improved from the previous year. Despite having the 5th lowest expenditure of any unitary authority, we achieved the 6th highest score for satisfaction with services. The council continues to maintain a focus on value for money, achieving the forecast efficiency savings for 2009/10 of £6.8m. This equated to 4% of annual spending, thus exceeding the nationally set target of 3%. In 2008/09 the council was ranked as joint third best out of the 46 unitary authorities for our use of resources.

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Over the last three years we have achieved £2.9m savings through individual service reviews. The new service review programme for the whole council builds on this experience and is a transformational programme, saving £13m over the next three years. The first two releases of service reviews are going to deliver around 50 fte staff saving each, amounting to £3m; release three is about to start and is targeted to deliver 80 fte staff saving of £2.4m. The transformational programme will also generate the following benefits: • improving the experience and service to our customers over the medium term • delivering efficiency savings from strategic and support services • avoiding reductions to front line service delivery The Council’s new offices at Badminton Road have been completed, on budget. Our current rental liability will be reduced by £1.1m each year and we will also achieve substantial savings in rates and running costs.

Reviewing our priorities Our priorities have been shaped by our residents and partners and are based on extensive consultation and knowledge of the local area. However, we recognise that circumstances change and we must ensure that our priorities continue to reflect the needs of the communities that we serve. We will therefore be refreshing both the Council Plan and Community Strategy to ensure our priorities remain relevant to our communities during these changing times.

Partnership Working

The South Gloucestershire Partnership Partnership working continues to be judged a strength by the Audit Commission. Comments such as: “Partnership working is very good and resulting in good outcomes for local residents” “The Local Strategic Partnership is effective, is developing well and is well led and supported” “The Council works well with partners from the public, private and third sectors to improve services” We recognise the effort put in by all partners in enabling South Gloucestershire to realise its aspirations. The South Gloucestershire Partnership, comprising the Council, other key partners such as the Police Authority, Primary Care Trust, Fire and Rescue Service, representatives from the voluntary, equalities and further and higher education sectors, along with the thematic strategic partnerships, continues to work towards delivery of the Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS). This strategy defines the area’s vision and priorities and gives the business of partners’ strategic direction.

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Implementation of the outcomes of the recent review of the South Gloucestershire Partnership gives increased confidence that the South Gloucestershire Partnership continues to be fit for purpose and will adapt positively to achieve its vision. The resulting revised governance structure has: • Tightened the role and responsibilities of the Partnership Board to allow it more opportunities to consider the longer term future of the Area and set strategic direction. • Introduced an Executive who can drive forward delivery of the Partnership’s vision, focussing on performance, delivery and resources. • Improved linkages between the Partnership Board and the delivery partnerships. • Enhanced the role for support groups that monitor performance and contribute to the co-ordination and delivery of the Sustainable Community Strategy, Local Area Agreement and Multi Area Agreement. • Gained support for the establishment of senior officer groups across all thematic partnerships to support co-ordination and delivery of priorities and outcomes. Delivery of challenging Local Area Agreement (LAA) targets agreed between partners and government, progress in finalising the Multi Area Agreement for the sub-region and the closer collaboration brought by the move towards the new Comprehensive Area Assessment have all helped strengthen the partnership and its working practices. Good progress has been made against all the the SCS priorities and LAA targets. The first set of LAA targets is now complete and pre audited performance suggests that around £4.5million reward will be achieved. The second set of LAA targets run from 2008-11 and will attract a reward grant of c. £1.5million if all targets are achieved, the use of which will be debated by the Partnership. To date, 66% of the LAA 2008-11 targets are on track for succeeding. In addition, the South Gloucestershire Partnership continues to address the needs of communities and customers. Some of the achievements over the past 12 months include: • Introduction of a quarterly newsletter to celebrate partnership working and promote an understanding of the work of the South Gloucestershire Partnership and thematic strategic partnerships to a wider audience. • Hosting a very successful Partners’ Conference focussing on the Council and partners’ readiness to respond to the economic upturn as the recession comes to an end. • Participation in the development of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and revised South Gloucestershire Compact. Both documents will be launched by the Partnership during 2010.

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The West of England Partnership South Gloucestershire is an integral part of the West of England, the most strategically significant sub-region within the South West. It is seen as one of the key centres for growth, with Bristol being designated as a ‘core city’ and the West of England as the ‘city region’. Rapid growth within a city region presents a number of cross boundary opportunities and challenges that we cannot deal with alone. In order to respond to these challenges and maximise opportunities, the West of England Partnership was formed. The Partnership, consisting of the four neighbouring unitary authorities - South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and Bristol - as well as key social, economic and environmental partners, was formed as a means of developing effective partnership working arrangements to tackle strategic issues such as housing, transport, waste and economic and social regeneration. Each of the four local authorities is represented by the Leader of the Council, the other two party leaders and the Chief Executive in an advisory capacity, reflecting the importance given to the West of England Partnership. The Partnership has facilitated the strengthening of sub-regional governance with the establishment of a number of joint sub committees such as the Joint Transport and Joint Waste committees. In addition, a Joint Scrutiny Committee has been set up to ensure public accountability and challenge. South Gloucestershire Council is particularly active within the Partnership and has been highly effective, acting as champions and providing both leadership and direction. The Leader of the Council currently chairs the Partnership and the Council is the lead body on a number of key initiatives such as Waste Management and the Greater Bristol Bus Network. One of the key projects during the past year has been the development of the West of England MAA which was finalised during summer 2009. The MAA is an agreement between the sub-region and central government and looks at strategic cross boundary issues that need to be tackled in partnership. The MAA will increase the outcomes from sub-regional working by further joining up the priorities and programmes of the authorities, their strategic partners and Government. Some of the issues and challenges to be addressed in the MAA are to mitigate the impact of the current economic recession and be proactive in supporting early upturn; to plan and manage the growth in homes and jobs in order to build mixed and sustainable communities; to improve access and reduce traffic congestion to improve quality of life; to attract and grow business investment to increase economic growth and competitiveness; and, to improve skills and reduce worklessness and regenerate communities. Progress against the MAA will be closely monitored by each local authority and by the West of England Partnership and reported regularly over the coming year. The West of England Partnership continues to make a significant difference to the region. This is illustrated by the achievements made against four key

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programmes of the Partnership – waste management; the 14-19 agenda; housing; and transport.

Waste Management The 4 local unitary authorities have jointly procured a contract with New Earth Solutions for mechanical biological treatment of residual waste (i.e. waste that cannot be recycled). This will process around 80% of the council’s black bin waste, diverting it from landfill disposal, and producing materials for recycling and land remediation compost, with possible future production of a fuel source for renewable energy. . The contractor has secured planning permission, acquired a site for the facility, and construction is due to start during 2010, with a view to the facility being operational in spring 2011. The partners also worked together in the “Love Food – Hate Waste” campaign through joint radio advertising and other promotions including a successful recipe competition for using leftover food.

Education and training for young people From 1st April 2010, the responsibility for securing suitable education and training provision for all young people, including those aged 16-18, and young people up to age 25 where a learning difficulty assessment is in place, as well as young offenders in youth custody, was transferred from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to local authorities. Given the wider skills and economic development agenda across the whole sub-region, the four local authorities in the West of England (Bristol, Bath and N.E Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire) agreed to establish a shared commissioning service to undertake the function. The Shared Commissioning Services (SCS) came into effect in April 2010 and is a branch of Learning Partnership West. The SCS will provide day to day contract management support (on behalf of the four local authorities) to post 16 providers operating within and across the sub-region, including School Sixth Forms, FE Colleges, School 6th Form Colleges and Work Based Learning Providers.

Transport As mentioned above in relation to the area of special focus relating to transport, we have worked closely with our partners in the West of England to start to deliver and to secure substantial additional funding for major transport improvements in the area.

Housing

West of England Affordable Housing Delivery Vehicle. Notable starts on site during 2009/10 included the Filton Northfield development of 2,200 homes which attracted Regional Infrastructure Funding from the South-West Regional Development Agency and both Kick-Start funding and grant from National Affordable Programme via the Homes and Communities Agency. Two further new Extra Care Housing schemes also started on site during the year.

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A commissioning approach has been developed to the replacement of the current HomesWest Partnership from April 2011. Detailed negotiations have taken place with the Home and Communities Agency (HCA) to ensure that a new broader and yet simplified Delivery Vehicle complements the HCA’s strategic development partnerships. Our revised NI155 LAA target for 2009/10 was 200. During the year our current Affordable housing development partners delivered 237 new affordable homes in South Gloucestershire. In addition the Home and Communities Agency supported developers to deliver 44 shared ownership homes via HomeBuy Direct. Hanham Hall, England’s first large scale zero carbon development started on site and will deliver up to 195 new homes to Code for Sustainable Homes level 6 (the highest level possible) - 65 of which are affordable.

The Single Conversation The objective is to define agencies’ sub-regional investment plans over 10 years, with the first 3 years firm, years 4 and 5 flexible and years 6 to 10 provisional. The West of England sub-region was the first in the Region and second in the UK to achieve sign-off by the Homes and Communities Agency for its Local Investment Plan – an output from the Single Conversation. The Local Investment Plan sets out investment streams to support the delivery of infrastructure, homes and jobs across the West of England with a focus on Priority Places, Rural settlements and Older and Vulnerable People. Five Priority Places were identified for South Gloucestershire – Filton/Patchway; Sites around the top of the M32; Emersons Green East and the Communities of the East Fringe; Yate & Chipping Sodbury and Thornbury. These Priority locations within the Local Investment Plan also incorporate all of South Gloucestershire’s six Priority Neighbourhoods.

HomeChoice West Launched on 22 March 2010 this West of England sub-regional initiative has given sub-regional mobility a boost. The scheme helps those who wish or need to move within the sub-region. This enhancement to HomeChoice has opened up 5% of all lettings, equivalent to circa 300 affordable homes, across the WoE each year where there will be no local connection barrier to moving from one council area to another. The first successful HomeChoice West application was achieved in April 2010.

WoE Private Sector Housing funding Bid Government funding of £300,000.00 was achieved for South Gloucestershire’s Warm and Well scheme through this successful WoE bid along with approximately £300,000 from fuel suppliers energy efficiency commitments, providing energy efficiency measures in around homes in South Gloucestershire during 2010/11. This is forecast to achieve around 570 cavity wall insulations, 700 loft insulations and 30 full central heating systems. These measures will continue to go to older (over 65) households and those

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with incomes in a band just above benefit levels, many of whom will be in fuel poverty.

Awards In addition to the significant achievements made across its priority areas, the council has also achieved a number of national and regional awards: In the Comprehensive Area Assessment, the Council was awarded a “Green Flag” by the Audit Commission for its approach to managing development in a sustainable manner. This was the only Green Flag awarded in sub-region and one of only a handful awarded in the South West. The Council was awarded the Investors in People Gold standard. This demonstrated the effective people management in place across the organisation. We were the first Local Authority to be awarded the Gold standard and are one of only five organisations across the South West region to receive it. The Badminton Road offices had achieved the British Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) excellence rating from the construction industry’s top watchdog. This was the highest rating that could be awarded and was given for the environmental features of the building and for the high percentage of recycling of building materials during construction. The Planning Aid and the Royal Town Planning Institute in the South West has recognised the Council’s innovative programme of Community Involvement for work in planning for the provision of sites for Gypsies and Travellers. The Council was awarded overall winner in the category ‘Best practice community involvement in a development plan by a local authority or government agency’. In Community Services, our Transport Services team won the Association for Public Service Excellence “top performer” award for the best nationally performing service. The Finance and Support Service, Community Sports and Leisure Service and the Library Service, within the Community Services department, and Chief Executive and Corporate Resources Customer and Revenue Services, have all retained their Charter Mark assessment. This is a quality improvement scheme for customer services. The Community Sports and Leisure service within Community Services have been awarded the Mackenzie Prize by the Golf foundation for the breakthrough work undertaken in partnership using the positive power of sport to help young people. The Community Care and Housing Department complaints system has achieved compliance with the British Standards Institute for complaints management. In his report the assessor recorded that “A creditable complaints management system is in operation within the Community Care & Housing Department in South Gloucestershire Council where enthusiasm was evident to do the right thing for customers by trained and competent staff.”

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The Council had been awarded Fair Trade status which represented a large number of shops and retail outlets across the area selling Fair Trade products. The Council was awarded the Good Egg Award by an organisation of the same name. The award recognises the Council’s commitment to source eggs from cage free chickens. The Great Western Ambulance Service Joint Scrutiny Committee, which South Gloucestershire was a member of, won the Centre for Public Scrutiny’s national annual Health Scrutiny award. The joint project between the Red Cross and South Gloucestershire Drug and Alcohol Service formed to provide training on how to avoid overdosing for injecting drug users won the award for partnership working from the Red Cross national assembly. A total of 76 partnership projects had been nominated. Over 70 people had been trained and it was know that at least 2 lives had been saved through this project. The Health Care Commission Review had ranked the South Gloucestershire Drug & Alcohol Service the best in the country in regard to how well the treatment service understood the diverse needs of the local community and delivered services to meet those needs. The Council was shortlisted in the ‘Municipal Journal’ awards for: • The Festival of Youth Sport, run with Airbus, in the Public Private Partnership Category. • The Breakthrough Project in Service Innovations in Health and Social Care in the achievement of the Year category. • The Unitary Authority Member Development Partnership led by the council. The Council’s Comprehensive Councillor Development Programme was awarded the South West Councillor Development Charter. Rhiannon Holder, Teenage pregnancy Project Worker, was recognised in the New year’s honours list and received an MBE for her work connected to young people’s health and in particular her work to reduce teenage pregnancies. Amanda Deeks, Chief Executive, received an OBE in the New Year’s honours list which recognised the leadership Amanda had provided to South Gloucestershire Council and the West of England Partnership.

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WHAT OUR RESIDENTS HAVE SAID ABOUT THE COUNCIL

Listening to local people The council maintains its commitment to work with, listen to and involve local people in decision making and action. It does this in a variety of ways and uses many different methods to consult with local people and gather their views, including surveys, focus groups, and road shows. To find out more about taking part in a consultation please visit our website www.southglos.gov.uk/consultation and register with our online consultation system. Alternatively you can email [email protected] or telephone 01454 864903.

Viewpoint Viewpoint, the council’s citizen panel, continues to be an important part of this process. The panel is randomly selected from the electoral role and panellists take part in surveys three times a year. Viewpoint surveys over the last year have focused on a number of issues including anti-social behaviour and crime, planning services, adult social care, value for money and the sustainable community strategy. Some of the key messages are: • South Gloucestershire is seen as a good place to live. One in eight (12%) panel members felt that South Gloucestershire has become a better place to live in the last two years. 10% felt it has worsened, while the majority (75%) think it has remained the same. • Residents’ perceptions on the level anti-social behaviour have improved. 19% of panel members felt that anti-social behaviour had increased (compared to 26% in 2008). 22% of panel members felt that crime had increased over the past year. This is the same as the result in 2007 but a rise compared to 16% in 2008. The media and word of mouth were identified as key influencers on perceptions of crime. • 59% agree that South Gloucestershire Council provides value for money. With 25% of panel members neutral on this issue, only 11% disagree that the council provides value for money. • The environmental quality in South Gloucestershire Council has improved or remained the same. Panellists were asked whether 5 aspects of the environment in South Gloucestershire had changed in the period they had been a resident. Notably, 61% felt the quality of the built environment had improved or remained the same and 63% felt the quality of local amenities has improved or remained the same. • Choice and control in adult social care social services is reasonable. 43% of respondents felt that there was reasonable choice and control over their adult social care services and a further 4% felt there was good choice and control. 41%, however, felt it was limited. Interestingly 89% of respondents do not personally receive social care support, or know an adult who does.

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• Nearly 80% agree with the vision set out in the Sustainable Community Strategy - that South Gloucestershire is a great place to live and work. 93% of the panellists also felt the vision described by the seven themes within the Community Strategy captured their aspirations for the future of South Gloucestershire.

The Place Survey All English local authorities are statutorily required to undertake Place Surveys every two years to collect data for a number of performance measures. The council decided to undertake a survey each year to ensure residents views are provided annual. This year an interim Place Survey tracker took place. The survey contains a standard set of questions which were developed by the Audit Commission and Department of Communities and Local Government. The survey is designed to capture local people’s views, experiences and perceptions of services in their area. Some of the key messages are. • Overall satisfaction with the area is high. 85% of respondents said they were satisfied with their local area as a place to live. Only 5% were dissatisfied with their local area. This is an increase in the number of people satisfied compared to last year and would put South Gloucestershire in the top 25% of similar areas across the country. In addition, 93% of respondents said that they were satisfied with their home as a place to live and 85% of residents who are aged 65 or over were both satisfied with their home and neighbourhood. These are both slight increases on last year’s survey. • Overall satisfaction with the council is high. 54% of respondents said they were satisfied with the council runs things with only 11% dissatisfied. This is an improvement since last year when the authority was ranked 6th best of all unitary authorities. This year our result would currently place us second best unitary authority. • South Gloucestershire Council and its partner organisations are performing well in the areas considered important to local residents. Respondents identified five factors which were important to them about making somewhere a good place to live. These were: the level of crime; health services; clean streets; parks and open spaces; and shopping. Of these five, only the level of crime was considered to be one of the top five factors they felt was most in need of improvement locally. • Residents feel they belong in their area. Nearly three in five respondents (57%) said that they feel that they belong to their neighbourhood. This is a slight decrease on last year’s result. A sense of belonging is an important factor in satisfaction with their local area. It is also a key indicator of a cohesive society where there is a shared set of values and a shared sense of purpose. • Residents feel that people from different backgrounds get on. Four out of five respondents (80%) believed that people from different backgrounds in their local area get on well together. Females, and people

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aged over 65 were the most likely to feel this way. There were no significant differences between ethnic groups. • Local services in South Gloucestershire are fair. Nearly three quarters of respondents (77%) said that they were treated fairly by their local public services. This is a 3% increase on last year’s result . • Local services are seen as working to improve South Gloucestershire. 67% of respondents felt that local public services were working to make the area cleaner and greener and 65% felt they were working to make the area safer. This is an increase from 2008. • People generally feel safe in South Gloucestershire. 92% of residents felt safe in South Gloucestershire during the day and 58% at night. This is an increase from 2008. • Satisfaction with waste services remains high. 77% were satisfied with our local tips/household waste recycling centres, 74% with doorstep recycling and 74% with the refuse collections. The Place Survey Tracker results identified some significant positive changes from 2008 to 2009 in areas of public safety; local transport information; local bus services; providing value for money; running the council large scale emergencies; influencing decisions; and being informed about local public services. There were no significant negative changes in the results. We recognise the importance on building on these results to continue to improve services as well as increase community engagement and involvement.

TellUs 4 Survey The TellUs surveys investigate the views of children and young people across England, asking their views about their local area, and includes questions covering the five ‘every child matters’ outcomes. A representative sample of schools is selected within each local authority and the surveys are carried out in the Autumn term. Pupils from years 6, 8 and 10 take part in the survey. Overall South Gloucestershire children and young people’s responses to the TellUs 4 survey (2009) were broadly in line with the comparator percentages available from the national sample. Positively, significantly fewer pupils in South Gloucestershire felt their ideas had only been listened to a little or not at all. Significantly fewer pupils reported barriers to participation in activities they would like to participate in and significantly more pupils reported having ‘good friends’. For years 8 and 10, significantly more pupils than nationally said they had received helpful information and advice on alcohol, smoking and drugs. Significantly fewer pupils than nationally or statistical neighbours said they had, ‘ever had a whole alcoholic drink’. However, significantly more pupils reported worrying about friendships though less were worried about being ‘a victim of crime’ than national or statistical neighbours. Fewer pupils than national and statistical neighbours reported using public transport. For years 8 and 10 a statistically lower percentage than national said they wanted to do a college course or Sixth Form after year 11 although positively, more pupils said they wanted to do an apprenticeship.

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All the issues identified in the survey are being fed back to all head teachers. Where schools took part, the head teachers are working with their individual school reports this year and addressing issues through their school improvement plans as appropriate. In addition, the Department of Children and Young People Plan for 2009-2012 carries priorities that deal with the specific survey issues identified.

Other key surveys

Development Services Development Services survey customer satisfaction through the issue of questionnaires with all planning and building regulation decision notices, building regulation completion notices and upon closure of a planning enforcement cases. They also hold regular ‘Agent Forum’ events where regular users of their services are invited to a technical session and feedback is requested. These mechanisms provide them with continuous feedback on the quality of their services. They set a customer satisfaction target of 85% for 2009/10, and achieved results of: 85% for building control, 88% for development control and 65% for enforcement. Feedback is monitored on a quarterly basis and performance discussed. Development Services endeavour to learn from the feedback and where possible implement service improvements as a result, comments made by customers are published on the Council website along with details of the changes that have been made to the service delivery as a result. Comments are also cascaded back to the staff involved and to individuals particularly where praise has been given. Development Services also commissioned a study to be carried out by University of the West of England (UWE) students in 2009. The survey focussed on a number of recently completed housing sites in the South Gloucestershire area and the occupants of the new dwellings were asked a series of questions relating to their perceptions of the quality of the building and the local environment. The outputs from this survey are useful as they give an alternative ‘end user’ satisfaction rating and tells us what matters most to these residents.

Adult social services Councils with adult social service responsibilities (CASSRs) are required to conduct an annual user experience survey (UES). This year, the report, ‘User Experience Survey for People Receiving Home Care, 2009’ was produced by The Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU). The PSSRU has branches in three UK universities, carrying out independent research aimed at improving the equity and efficiency of social and health care. South Gloucestershire is being rated well by customers in a number of areas and is rated as the 28th of 149 Councils for overall satisfaction with home care. For care workers doing what you want and not rushing, rated 16th and 21st respectively.

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Of those surveyed in South Gloucestershire, 93.3% said they had a ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ relationship with their care worker, with nobody saying it was ‘Bad’. The average in the report was 91.7%, To demonstrate our commitment to stable working relationships, 93.6% of respondents said they ‘Always’ or ‘Nearly Always’ had the same care worker, against an average of 91.8%.

Better Support for Older People During summer 2009 the Council unveiled proposals to transform services for older people in South Gloucestershire. The proposals, entitled “Better Support for Older People” were fully supported by Age Concern South Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire Senior Citizens’ Forum. Better Support for Older People would enable a greater number of older people to be more directly helped and supported to live at home in comfort and safety, alongside the Council procuring 700 extra care housing places across the district and building a new generation of residential care homes. The Council carried out consultation on these plans during August, September and October 2009. There was widespread interest in the consultation; almost 650 people responded with their views and 90% of the respondents backed the proposals. The Better Support for Older People proposals in detail and the full consultation results were presented to the Council’s Cabinet meeting held on 1st February 2010. The Cabinet approved the proposals, which means we are now moving ahead with the phased de-commissioning of our care homes and the building of new top quality care homes in Yate and Kingswood. We received a total of 647 responses to the consultation via the various methods of response. Most of the questions were not mandatory so the percentages given are a percentage of the total number of responses. • 91% agreed that the Council should focus on helping more older people live at home and provide support when needed to make this possible. • 87% agreed that the Council should begin to gradually replace the existing elderly persons' homes as better local facilities are provided such as investment in Extra Care housing, more community support and new residential care homes. • Key areas where people wanted to see the Council doing to provide better support for older people include help with paperwork and applying for benefits, alleviating loneliness, adequate, well trained staff, helping people to remain at home for as long as possible, making services affordable. • The most critical support that people felt is required by carers is information and advice. • The most important thing when looking for a care home for oneself or a family member is having well trained, caring staff.

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• 90% preferred the option of decommission the existing care homes and provide new care homes to modern, high quality standards (approximately 110 beds) in the options set out by the Council.

Street Care User satisfaction with Street Care, Waste and Recycling services (Sita customer satisfaction) were carried out in February 2010. The key results were as follows: • 81% of respondents rated the maintenance of our street lights as good or very good • 85% of respondents were satisfied with their recycling collections • 87% or respondents were satisfied with their black bin collections • 94% of respondents were satisfied with the recycling banks • 94% of respondents were satisfied with the Sort-it centres

Libraries During the year a survey of parents / carers attending storytime and bounce and rhyme sessions in libraries was undertaken. The key results were as follows: • 80% of parents responded that they had sung songs learnt in the library at home and read to their children. Research has shown a clear relationship between how well children know nursery rhymes before they go to school and the progress that they make later on when learning to read and to spell. Reading with pre school children has been shown to have significant impact on the child’s relationship with their parents in addition to them gaining key literacy and numeracy skills prior to starting school. In addition parents reported their children’s development had been helped by the sessions in terms of social skills and learning new words. • The survey also found that the sessions were of great benefit to the parents, and help support community cohesion. 64% of parents reported that they had met new people through attending the events and 36% had maintained contact with them outside the sessions. • Action taken as a result of the surveys include o Ensuring parents are aware of schemes to support their children such as Bookstart o Encouraging parents to register their children as members o Piloting the provision of refreshments at the sessions o Promoting books on parenting at the sessions o Reviewing the times of some of the sessions In November 2009 the library service also carried out a survey of adult users of the library, there was an excellent response with over 4,000 users completing the survey. The aim was to find out their views about the service, identify improvements for the service and gain a more in depth knowledge of the users background which is not available on the membership database (employment, health record).

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The key results were: • 99% of users rated the staff helpfulness highly • 98% regard libraries as safe places to visit • Customers were also asked about their knowledge of various services, whilst there was a good awareness that libraries provided free internet. Customers were not aware of the online services or the support for reading groups.

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WHAT OUR STAFF HAVE SAID ABOUT THE COUNCIL

Listening to our staff The council conducted its third ‘What Makes You Tick’ staff survey in September. The response rate for 2009 was 64% which equals the response rate for the 2007 survey and is notably higher than the Local Government benchmark group average of 48%. There were 76 questions grouped into themes and, in light of the large changes and pressures on the organisation, showed some excellent results. The survey highlighted some key areas of particular strength • Satisfaction with the work itself is high - staff have good role clarity and understand how their work contributes to the success of the team; • Customer focus/commitment to service delivery - Scores have improved and the council is performing notably above benchmark; in particular for staff receiving and acting on customer feedback; • Engagement levels are high - overall engagement levels are high across all departments, 82% of employees indicate they intend to stay working at the council; • Staff supported by line manager and colleagues - staff perceptions of line managers are relatively high, especially in terms of managers being aware of the daily issues faced by employees, recognising good job performance, being supportive and listening to staff; • Adherence to Core Values - majority of respondents believe that the Core Values are regularly demonstrated by people in their team; • Frequency and effectiveness of inductions - The frequency of inductions taking place remains high; 82% agree that their manager or supervisor ensured they were inducted for their current job; • Equality and diversity - Overall, 83% of employees feel they are treated with fairness and respect at work. There has also been an increase in employees’ confidence in reporting bullying/harassment without worrying about potential negative consequences, to 80%. (Scored highly in HSE Stress Management report). Departments have reviewed their results and shared these with staff. Results have also been shared with Trade Unions, Programme Board, Senior Managers Network and COMT have developed areas for corporate focus. A joint action plan has been produced incorporating Employee Survey, Investors In People and HSE Stress Management findings. There are three focused themes for 2010/11: 1. Leading and Managing in times of uncertainty - confident and visible leaders, able to have straight conversations and take timely decisions.

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2. Managing Change with confidence - deploying Evolution (Council approach to Change Management) intelligently, tailored to requirements of each change event. 3. Involving Staff and Engaging Communication - clear and coherent messages, targeted to what we need and when we need it. Through an innovative, engaging, multi media, multi-channel approach.

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EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT

Comprehensive Area Assessment The Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) was introduced in 2009 as a means of assessing local public services in England – including local authorities, Police, Fire and Health. The CAA replaced the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) which had been in existence for the previous decade and which was primarily focused on the performance of local authorities. Under the CPA South Gloucestershire Council was assessed as a 4 star council that was improving strongly. In the first national CAA report released in December 2009, South Gloucestershire was described as ‘…an area of strong growth – in housing, business, jobs and transport. The Council and other local public services are now better at planning for this growth. The health of most people is above average and most of them can expect to live longer than those in similar areas. Vulnerable people are getting better support and older people have more control over their care. More people with learning difficulties are supported to live at home. Schools do well in helping to achieve good results to age 11. However, children do worse in GCSEs than other similar areas. South Gloucestershire is a safe place and most residents think people from different backgrounds get on well together.’ In recognising the considerable achievement in meeting and planning for the challenges posed by growth across the area, South Gloucestershire was awarded a Green Flag. This was the only Green Flag awarded in sub-region and one of only a handful awarded in the South West. As part of the CAA, the Council itself received a scored assessment reflecting how well it manages performance and uses its resources. Overall, the Council scored 3 (out of four) and was ranked as the third best performing unitary authority in the country and the best performing in the South West. The life of the CAA has, however, been short-lived. The new Government has recently announced that the CAA will be abolished. There will not be an assessment in 2010 and the Council will not receive any scored assessment. At this stage the further impact of this decision on any future external assessment arrangements is not known. For further information on the CAA please visit the Audit Commission website (www.audit-commission.gov.uk).

Children’s Services In September Ofsted provided their new annual performance rating for Children’s Services. This judgement is based on findings from Ofsted’s inspection and regulation of services and settings for which the Council has strategic or operational responsibilities, together with data from the relevant Every Child Matters performance indicators.

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The rating for children’s services in South Gloucestershire is that it is Performing Well. This is the second highest rating possible. Ofsted’s comments are given below. ‘In the joint area review held in the summer of 2008, provision for safeguarding was judged to be adequate and that for looked after children and children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities was judged to be good. The overall effectiveness of a majority of inspected services and settings is good or better. Within this, the quality of early years education and day care provision outside schools is below the national average, as it is for provision in nursery and primary schools. The quality of provision in secondary schools, including sixth forms, is well below the national average, albeit with no inadequate provision. The picture is much better, however, for provision for children and young people whose circumstances make them vulnerable. All special school and pupil referral unit provision is at least good and in the case of one special school it is outstanding. The local authority’s children’s home is good, as are its fostering and adoption agencies. Measures to identify and monitor private fostering arrangements are adequate. The large majority of inspected services and settings is judged to make a good or better contribution to keeping children and young people safe and helping them to achieve educationally. In terms of performance indicators, a very large majority of the local authority’s figures is at least in line with both the statistical neighbour and national averages. The same applies to those indicators in the staying safe and enjoying and achieving groupings. However, for four of the six indicators which measure the gap in outcomes for children and young people whose circumstances make them vulnerable the gap widened between the current year and the last.’

Schools A school inspection is carried out under section five of the Education Act 2005. It is a process of evidence gathering in order to provide an assessment of how well a school is performing. There is a three year cycle for the inspection of schools, and a school normally receives two clear working days' notice. Since the introduction of a new framework in September 2009 21 primary schools have been inspected. We continue to have no primary schools subject to an Ofsted category of concern. Of the 21 schools inspected 24% have been judged outstanding, including three for the first time. A further 52% have been judged good. All of the primary schools inspected this academic year have been judged good or outstanding for pupils’ behaviour; the extent to which pupils adopt healthy lifestyles and the extent to which they feel safe. All secondary schools have been inspected by Ofsted since January 2006. Five secondary schools were inspected in the academic year 2008/09. Of these one was judged outstanding overall, two good and two satisfactory. All were judged to have at least good capacity to improve further. Three schools have been inspected so far in the academic year 2009/10 under the revised inspection framework. One improved in the overall effectiveness judgement to outstanding; one remained satisfactory with good capacity to improve and one

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was given Notice to Improve. An action plan to support improvement in the latter school is in place and underway. There are no secondary schools performing below the Department for Education floor target of 30% 5 A*-C GCSEs. Ofsted also inspected 14-19 provision in the Kingswood Partnership in 2009. The Partnership is made up of six 11-19 schools and one special school. The implementation of 14-19 curriculum reforms was judged outstanding and 14- 19 Diploma development judged good. Since Sept 2009 two special schools have been inspected; one has been judged outstanding and the other good. The outstanding school has also achieved specialist school status for Communication and Interaction.

Other establishments (including Early Years settings) The purpose of these inspections is to assure children and young people, parents, the public, local authorities and government of the quality and standard of the service provided. Prior to 2006, inspections were carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Subsequent inspections are under the Childcare Act 2006. Currently there are 15 establishments which have been judged to be outstanding in their most recent inspection and 117 (59%) judged good or better.

Cotswold Education Centre Pupil Referral Unit Cotswold Education Centre is judged by Ofsted as a good PRU. ‘Given the complexity of the PRU structure, this reflects good leadership and management. The support, care and guidance given to pupils is outstanding. It is because of this that so many of the children and Young people who previously didn’t like school are now fully engaged in learning. This is leading to their achievements being good. The excellent quality of support received ensures all the children and young people are safe and their behaviour is much improved. The quality of teaching and the curriculum are both good and ensure that there is a focus on improving basic skills and personal, social and health education for their move to mainstream or special school.’

Youth Services The Ofsted inspection of Youth Services took place in February 2010. ‘The impact of integrated arrangements is good on the range and quality of young people’s learning and development through participation in youth work and positive activities in the community. This is complemented by a good progress made by the local authority and its partners in developing an integrated approach to youth support.’ The inspection identified the targeted support as good. The areas identified as requiring improvement were: the Children’s Assessment Framework (CAF) requires faster implementation, the rate of teenage conception should reduce further and finally to ensure there is sufficient expertise to support the development of good quality youth work

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Vinney Green There have been two Ofsted inspections over the last year in Vinney Green Secure Unit and the overall judgment from these inspections was ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ in Economic Wellbeing. ‘The unit has a consistent manager, senior management team and staff group who strive to provide the best service they are able.’ The evidence and findings from this inspection have resulted in the care provision at Vinney Green achieving a quality rating of good. Vinney Green was awarded a new Youth Justice Board contract commencing from July 1st 2009. This was achieved in open competition nationally.

Youth Offending Service This Core Case Inspection (CCI) of youth offending work in South Gloucestershire, undertaken by HMI of Probation, took place as part of the Independent Inspection of Youth Offending Work programme. The CCI examined a representative sample of youth offending cases from the area, and judged how often the Public Protection and the Safeguarding aspects of the work were done to a sufficiently high level of quality. The CCI judged that both the Safeguarding and the Public Protection, individual’s risk of harm to others, of the service were carried out satisfactorily in over three quarter of the cases (78%) which were higher than the averages for all the regions inspected (64% and 60% respectively). The work to reduce the rate of reoffending was done well in 86% of cases which fared very favourably against an average of 66%. The HM Chief Inspector of Probation commented: “It was pleasing to note the continued strong performance of South Gloucestershire YOS, building on previous inspection findings (from 2008). Overall, we consider this a very creditable set of findings with the YOS having good prospects for the future.”

South Gloucestershire Music Service The Federation of Music Services (FMS) evaluated the South Gloucestershire Music Service and the effectiveness of the service was judged good. The report identified that ‘the achievement and standards, support for pupils, personal development are good and this is complimented with good teaching and learning, provision, breadth and access and professional development.’

Community Care Services

Annual Performance Assessment (APA) 2008-09 2008/09 was the first year of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessing Social Care Services and it is acknowledged widely that the new assessment represents an increased inspection challenge when compared to the previous regime.

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The APA judgements are mapped against 7 delivery outcomes. The Leadership and Commissioning and Use of Resources domains are not given a performance judgement. The new CQC regime has also led to a change in grading. The new grading has done away with the star ratings for overall performance and grades each delivery outcome according to one of four descriptions: • Poorly Performing (Not delivering minimum requirements) • Performing Adequately (Only delivering minimum requirements) • Performing Well (Consistently delivering above minimum requirements) • Performing Excellently (Overall delivering well above minimum requirements)

Overall the Council was judged to be Performing Well. The judgements against each of the individual elements are shown below. Outcome 1: Improved Health and Well-being WELL Outcome 2: Improved quality of life WELL Outcome 3: Making a positive contribution WELL Outcome 4: Increased choice and control EXCELLENTLY Outcome 5: Freedom from discrimination and harassment WELL Outcome 6: Economic well-being WELL Outcome 7: Maintaining personal dignity and respect WELL

Dementia Services Peer Review NHS South West, the Alzheimer’s Society and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services across the South West agreed to a peer review of services for people with Dementia, focusing on preparedness for the National Dementia Strategy. Fourteen South West health and social care areas participated in the peer reviews which were held between May and July 2009. The South Gloucestershire review was the second in the review programme. The resulting peer review report commented that ‘South Gloucestershire has well developed partnership working and senior partnership relationships between health and social care are particularly good serving to give focus to the strategic development of dementia services.’ The report also noted a number of specific areas of good practice including: • Positive work on planning and engagement within the context of the Older People’s Mental Health Strategy and project management support for workstreams linked to the National Dementia Strategy • Safeguarding has been linked to good effect into the integrated health and social care Transformation Board • The review team were impressed by local efforts and the level of engagement and consultation on the South Gloucestershire Older People’s Mental Health Strategy which was praised by carers as being inclusive and of a high standard. • Carers praised the social care support provided. The Limes day resource facility, the Care Network and First Response Services. The Review Team saw evidence of good monitoring of the quality of domiciliary care through

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random calls to service users and carers, and in taking responsibility for managing complaints about the independent sector provision. As a result of the peer review and in response to the National Dementia Strategy a new strategic programme board dealing with dementia and older people’s mental health has been established. It is co-chaired by NHS South Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire Council and has agreed an action plan for implementation.

Review of safeguarding In January 2009 the Association of Directors and Adults Social Services (ADASS) in the South West commissioned an Audit of Safeguarding Practice and Procedures to take place within the South West Health and Social Care communities. The resulting report commented on the clear policy and procedures for staff, the range of multi agency training provided, links to the PPU, MAPPA and MARAC, as well as Domestic Abuse and Hate Crime partnerships. The report also noted that: • There was good representation from agencies on the Safeguarding Adults Committee and that the annual report goes to SOG, Select Committee and elected members. • Positive work with had been undertaken with providers to improve their CQC rating. The report made a number of recommendations, most of which have subsequently been completed, e.g. updated website information that includes translations of basic awareness leaflets into nine different languages, links to partner organisations websites. The SAC has since become a board, with wider representation of multi agency partners. Information is made more widely available through NHS premises and other organisations. Interviews with service users who have been subject to safeguarding have been started. Documentation and staff guidance have been updated.

Further information can be found at www.southglos.gov.uk/safeguardingadults

Partnership working The Audit Commission undertook a review of partnership working in South Gloucestershire in May 2009 to review the effectiveness of jointly delivered services to the public by three public sector bodies in the area (NHS South Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire Council and North Bristol NHS Trust).The review focused on services to support vulnerable people to live independently as an example of partnership working in South Gloucestershire. The resulting report identified that there was a clear commitment to working together at all organisational levels with the aim of improving outcomes for residents. It also that: • Sound governance arrangements, leadership and strategic plans are in place;

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• Formal and informal communication routes are in place; • Performance management arrangements are robust; • A good range of services are available to meet the needs of the majority of users, with no significant gaps; • Front line staff consider the level of funding to be adequate or better to delivering good services and recognise efficiencies could be made for example by eliminating duplication.

Annual Audit Letter 2009 The Annual Audit Letter provides Members with a summary of the Audit Commission’s findings from their 2008-09 Audit, which covered the Council's financial statements and work undertaken to assess the Council's arrangements to secure value for money in its use of resources. The key messages of the Letter are all positive. The Council is considered to be well prepared for the impact of the economic recession and is assessed as performing consistently above minimum standards. The report concluded that the Council performs well in all three themes in the Use of Resources assessment – Managing Finances, Governing the Business and Managing Resources. The scores use a four point score from 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest and we scored 3 for each of the three themes. This means we exceed minimum requirements and are performing well. Separate reports have been produced during the year on specific aspects of the work which the Audit Commission have carried out. These have been discussed with senior managers and an action plan produced in response to issues identified.

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ANNUAL PROGRESS AGAINST PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Introduction The council continues to be committed to improving the services provided to the people of South Gloucestershire. To do this we are continuing to develop a performance management framework that makes clear what we want to achieve, monitor how well we are doing and identifies what we need to change if we are to do better. To help judge our performance we use a set of performance indicators. Many of these have been set by the previous government but some reflect local priorities. Progress against these indicators is monitored regularly and reported quarterly to our Cabinet. Full details of progress against all these indicators is published on the council website www.southglos.gov.uk/LocalDemocracy/CouncilPerformance/Index This report provides an annual progress of performance for 2009/10 and covers the following groups of measures: • National Indicator Set • Local Area Agreement targets • Statutory Educational indicators • Corporate Health indicators Over the past year the Council has further strengthened its approach to performance management and reporting. This is based on providing a single rounded view of performance for each indicator, reflecting three specific aspects of performance: • Achievement against target • The improvement trend • Relative performance compared with other authorities This approach allows us to clearly identify those areas that are performing well and those that appear to be areas of concern and, in doing so, provides a much clearer starting point when reviewing performance and tackling the areas that matter most. This new approach has been recognised by the Audit Commission as innovative and an area of leading practice.

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Performance summary The annual performance position against the range of key indicators monitored across the Council is summarised in Table 1 below. Further details showing the individual components of performance – targets, trends and comparisons with other authorities – are included in Annex 2.

Table 1: Performance Indicator Summary

100%

80% 5 104 20

16 60% 15 Green % Amber 40% Red

4 66 13 20% 6 2 4 19 1 1 0% 0 NI LAA 1 LAA 2 CYP Corporate (End of Year) Statutory Health Indicators

Overall performance is described using the traffic light approach, indicated by green, amber and red. • Green performance. This indicates that overall performance is generally good. There are no areas of concern. In some areas performance may be regarded as exceptional, e.g. where targets have been met, performance continues to improve and where comparatively performance has been top quartile over a period of time. These are indicated in the annex by a greenÌ. • Amber performance. This indicates that overall performance is reasonable. There are some aspects that are good but other areas that may need watching. Normally, this would not be an area of concern. • Red performance. This indicates that overall performance is poor. Most aspects are below the levels expected and may indicate an area of concern. The summary shows that overall performance continues to be very good with 90% of indicators either green or amber.

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This is clearly strong performance and reflects the positive picture which continues to be highlighted as part of our national benchmarking work where we have been identified as one of the top unitary authorities in the country. In 2008-09 we were ranked 6th best performing unitary authority against the national indicators set. In 2009-10, early results show that we have maintained our strong position, as we are currently ranked 3rd best performing unitary authority. Our position as a top performer is partially a result of our strong approach to performance management which involves focusing on the areas that matter, particularly where performance is not as good as we would like. This robust approach has seen a number of significant improvements over the past year and this is something we will clearly continue with in the year ahead.

Performance against the national performance indicators The national indicator set was introduced by the previous government in 2008. It is made up of around 200 indicators, some with multiple parts. The indicators measure the outcome of services provided by South Gloucestershire Council and its partners for the South Gloucestershire area. As Table 1 illustrates, the Council continues to perform well in the second year of the NIS. Currently, 90% of indicators are showing green or amber. The position across each of the Council Plan themes is equally positive as shown in Table 2 below. It should be noted however, that the number of indicators varies across the themes – Children and Young people is heavily represented – but the picture is nevertheless positive across all themes.

Table 2: Overall Performance Score by Council Priority

Investing in children and young 5 20 24 people

Improving health, modernising CCH 4 8 7 services

Managing future 1 3 10 development Red Amber Promoting safer Green and stronger 0 11 12 communities

Valuing the 1 1 6 environment

Maintaining economic 1 0 2 prosperity

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Performance against the Local Area Agreement targets The Local Area Agreement (LAA) targets are a specific set of challenging targets agreed with Government. The targets are designed to significantly improve performance over a number of shared priority areas. In recognition of this ‘stretched’ performance, the council will receive a performance reward grant from Government. Two sets of LAA indicators have been running concurrently for the past year. The first set of LAA measures (LAA1) ran from April 2007 to March 2010 and attracted a reward grant of c. £7million if all the targets were achieved. This set of indicators has now ended with 75% of the targets met, resulting in an expected reward grant of £4.5M (subject to audit). The second set of LAA targets (LAA2) run from April 2008 to March 2011 and will attract a reward grant of c. £1.5million if all targets are achieved. This set of LAA measures are all drawn from the National Indicator Set. Currently, of those indicators for which data is available, 66% are meeting target. Detailed action plans have been developed to continue to further improve performance across all indicators in order to achieve the maximum level of reward grant at the end of the LAA period.

Performance against other indicators As part of performance management arrangements, progress is also monitored against the statutory education indicators (which are a subset of the National Indicator Set) and the Corporate Health indicators. As Table 1 shows, performance against these areas is also good. Currently 90% of the statutory education measures are achieving either green or amber performance. Performance against the Corporate Health measures is equally strong with 100% either green or amber.

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FINANCIAL INFORMATION AND VALUE FOR MONEY

Our Strong Position South Gloucestershire Council is amongst the top performing authorities in the country and the council offers excellent value for money. Overall satisfaction with the council has improved from the previous year. Despite having the 5th lowest expenditure of any of the unitary authorities, we achieved the 6th highest score for satisfaction with services.

Efficiencies The council continues to maintain a focus on value for money, achieving the forecast efficiency savings for 2009/10 of £6.8m. This equated to 4% of annual spending, thus exceeding the nationally set target of 3%. In 2008/09 the council was ranked as joint third best out of the then 46 unitary authorities for our use of resources. As a result of delivering value for money services and resources released through our efficiency programme, the council maximises its ability to deliver the council priorities set out in our community strategy. Examples of efficiencies include: • Trialling the switch off of street lights for the Ring Road. It currently costs £1.6m to power all the streetlights in the district. Switching off just 350 of the 1000 street lights along the Ring Road for a few hours, could reduce carbon emissions by 76 tonnes each year and costs by £12,000 each year without affecting safety. • Care Services Efficiency Delivery (CSED) have helped the Community Care & Housing department to start a project to implement electronic monitoring for Home Care with potential net efficiencies of up to £100,000, following full implementation.

Our Approach to Value for Money Value for Money (VfM) is one of the council’s core values and improvement priority areas in the council’s improvement programme. We continue to maintain a strong and strategic focus on VfM with excellent results: our council plan has a strong focus on VfM and we benchmark all support services in annual CIPFA VfM surveys.

Understanding Our Costs Work has been carried out in the following areas: • Looked After Children – Costs and Performance: this showed low incidence, low cost, but poor outcomes and some high individual costs; • Home Care Costs: showed external provider costs are reasonable but internal provider costs are high; • Costs of Support Services: these often beat the average but we need to get into the lowest quartile;

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• Procurement: we’ve benchmarked 90% of our procurement spend and we’re developing a plan to address the higher cost areas; • Management costs: we’ve benchmarked our management costs to highlight performance.

Service Review Programme A key strategic element to the sustained delivery of value for money services is the on-going, council-wide, service review programme. Over the last three years we have achieved £2.9m savings through individual service reviews. The new service review programme for the whole council builds on this experience and is a transformational programme, saving £13m over the next three years. The first two releases of service reviews are going to deliver around 50 fte staff saving each, amounting to £3m; release three is about to start and is targeted to deliver 80 fte staff saving of £2.4m. The programme will enable front line service departments to continue to focus their capacity and resources on delivering their priorities. Over the 6 years to 2010 our spending on community care has increased by 26% and spending on support functions and capital financing costs decreased by 16% and 13%. The transformational programme will also generate the following benefits: • improving the experience and service to our customers over the medium term • delivering efficiency savings from strategic and support services • avoiding reductions to front line service delivery The reviews of back office functions will be followed by a procurement review, looking at up to £145m of spending.

Accommodation Strategy and Smarter Working Strategy The Council’s Accommodation Strategy continues to drive forward the Smarter Working strategy. We are on target to achieve 25% desk reductions by 2010, releasing £1.3m each year. Smarter Working is already changing the council culture as more staff are enabled to work from home and space savings are realised. The Council’s new offices at Badminton Road have been completed, on budget. Our current rental liability will be reduced by £1.1m each year and we will also achieve substantial savings in rates and running costs.

Challenges for the Future As with all public sector organisations, we are in extremely challenging times. Savings targets are high and are likely to rise. The aim will be to meet these without making front line service cuts whilst at the same time improving the service received by customers. The council’s approach to achieving Value for Money will ensure that it is well placed to respond to these challenges.

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Financial Information The council underspending its revenue budget by £0.6million in 2009/10. This result was achieved despite having to absorb over £3million of extra costs and lost income as a result of the credit crunch. Detailed information on the financial performance of the council is provided in Annex 3.

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PROGRESS AGAINST OTHER KEY AREAS

Equalities The Council’s aim is to reduce disadvantage and promote equality of opportunity, community cohesion and good practice. We continue to work in partnership to increase the percentage of people who feel that their local area is a place where people of different backgrounds get on well together and reduce the percentage of people in their area who think that people in their area are victimised because of their skin colour, ethnic origin or religion. During the year the Council worked with partner organisations to provide advice which helped nearly 2,000 residents in greatest need secure an additional £1.8 million in statutory benefits. This in turn contributes to the local economy, estimated at £5.4 million. In the current economic climate this issue is considered so important that the Council has identified £95,000 additional funding for this work in 20010/11. We have achieved Level 4 of the Equality Standard for Local Government. There are five levels of the standard and we are one of few local authorities who have reached this level. The Standard has recently been replaced by the Equality Framework in Local Government and we are currently working towards achieving Excellence, the highest level.

Sustainability The Council made considerable progress in 2009/10 in improving the environmental performance of its operations and in its use of environmental resources. A brief summary of progress is given below. Further information can be found in Annex 4. Transport The Council has continued to roll out its Smarter Working programme during 2009/10 to enable more flexible working and reduce the need for staff to travel. Electronic Document Management, Video Conferencing, Tele- Conferencing, and Tablet PCs with 3G technology for field workers are all enabling staff to work more independently of location. The miles per gallon (MPG) of vehicles is being taken into account in fleet vehicle procurement, and 64 Officers from the Council’s Street Care team have conducted ‘Green Driver Training’ during 2009/10 aimed at increasing MPG achieved. Total fleet vehicle fuel consumption for 2009/10 decreased by 5.78% compared with the previous year. The first site specific Travel Plan has been developed for the new Council HQ at Badminton Road. A snapshot survey has recorded reductions in ‘car driver only’ mode share for commuting – 72.6% in March 2010 compared with 75% in 2009 and 81% in 2008. Energy The Council’s new Badminton Road office has won an ‘excellent’ rating from the construction industry’s top environmental watchdog – the Building

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Research Establishment. This was awarded for various environmental attributes of the building including the following energy efficiency and renewable energy features: • solar panels to provide hot water • natural ventilation (lots of opening windows and vents to circulate the air) • natural lighting (loads of windows flooding the place with light) • woodchip biomass boiler to provide most of the heat • heat recovery from areas like the server room The Council’s Street Lighting team has implemented a successful Part Night Lighting trial in . 178 street lights in Charfield are being switched off between approximately 12 – 5am. This is saving 21,521 KWh and 11.5 tonnes of CO2 per year. Part night lighting has now been extended to the Ring Road where 391 lights are being switched off - saving 198,760 KWh and 106 tonnes of CO2 per year. A series of Energy Seminars have been run by the Council for South Gloucestershire’s Schools during 2009/10 to provide training on energy management and reducing energy consumption. Waste The range of recyclables collected from corporate offices has been increased to include plastics and cans (in addition to paper which was already recycled). Waste collection schedules have been modified to increase recycling collections and decrease residual waste collections. As a result, residual waste (destined for landfill) collected from the Council’s corporate offices during 2009/10 has decreased by 36% compared with 2008/09, and the proportion of waste recycled has increased from 49.9% in2008/09 to 65.6% in 2009/10. Biodiversity and Land Use We are very grateful to all our volunteers and Town and Parish Councils who have continued to work in partnership with us to manage 46 of our parks and open spaces, including the following 5 new partnerships established during 2009/10: • Friends of Forty Acres (Stoke Gifford) - Set up with help from Southern Brooks Community Partnership to undertake light conservation and access improvement works, guided by a management plan written in 2009 • Ventura Farm Community Project () - Residents Association, work with Probation Service (Community Payback) to improve open space on the estate • Friends of Kingswood Heritage Museum and Warmley Gardens (Warmley) - Run Kingswood Museum and work to improve facilities at Warmley Heritage Gardens • Friends of Leap Woods (Downend) - Conservation work in the wood • Warmley and Community Gardens (Warmley) - Community gardening projects for Warmley.

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THE STANDARDS COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT

The Standards Committee The Standards Committee seeks to develop good practice and provide guidance to councillors to ensure high standards of conduct by members are maintained in line with the code of conduct. The committee consists of five district members, five parish members and five independent members. Since May 2008 the committee has had responsibility for the assessment of all complaints made against councillors and has established two statutory committees in order to enable it to discharge this function. The Standards Committee sets a work plan each year and reports annually to council. A copy of the Standards Committee Annual Report is included in Annex 5.

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GLOSSARY

CAA Comprehensive Area Assessment CAMHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service CCTV Closed Circuit Television COMT Chief Officers Management Team CPA Comprehensive Performance Assessment CSCI Commission for Social Care Inspection CSP Corporate Service Plan CYP Children and Young People DA District Auditor DCLG Department for Communities and Local Government DfT Department for Transport FOI Freedom of Information HR Human Resources LAA Local Area Agreement LEA Local Education Authority LGC Local Government Chronicle MAA Multi Area Agreement NHS National Health Service NIS National Indicator Set OFSTED Office for Standards in Education PCT Primary Care Trust PI Performance Indicator RDA Regional Development Agency SEAL Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning SEN Special Educational Needs UWE University of the West of England WoE West of England YOS Youth Offending Service

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