Cardiff Council Improvement Plan 2010/11 A Proud Capital Cardiff Council Improvement Plan 2010/11 Contents Foreword – Leader of Council 3 Context – Chief Executive 4 Introduction 5 Cardiff Council’s Budget 2010/11 6 Efficiency Savings 7 People in Cardiff are safe and feel safe 8 Cardiff has a thriving and prosperous economy 11 People in Cardiff achieve their full potential 15 Cardiff is a great place to live, work and play 20 People in Cardiff have a clean, attractive and sustainable environment 25 People in Cardiff are healthy 33 Cardiff is a fair, just and inclusive society 37 The Council delivers positive outcomes for the city and its citizens 43 through strong partnerships PAGE 2 Cardiff Council Improvement Plan 2010/11 Foreword During this challenging economic period we • successfully taking over parking enforcement have continued to help support people which has improved the flow of traffic communities and business and make access to around the city services easier. We are continuing to work with our partners across the public, voluntary and • opening the Cardiff International White private sectors to deliver creative solutions to Water centre which welcomed over 24,000 local problems. visitors during its first year. The Centre was awarded the Best Visitor Experience in Wales This Improvement Plan demonstrates the at the 2010 National Tourism Awards progress that we made during 2010/11. Some • reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill key highlights being:- by over 3.5% in 2010/11. We composted 18.79% and recycled 23.12% of waste • working with our partners to effectively during the year tackle Anti Social Behaviour, focussing on how we can all work together to solve We have made significant improvements to the problems way that we manage the performance of the • creating the Cardiff Business Partnership council, specifically in relation to the way that (CBP) which will represent leading businesses senior managers, the Executive and Scrutiny Cardiff, ensuring that the views of enterprise members engage with a range of performance are at the heart of the development of information to help us set out priorities and Cardiff and Wales as a competitive business improve service delivery. location We have also introduced clearer mechanism for • supporting the City Region economy ensuring responsibility for achieving targets is through the announcement of the allocated appropriately to managers and that development of the Cardiff Business District they are in turn held accountable for delivering on those targets. • working with cities along the Great Western Corridor to make the case for electrification of the railway line through to Cardiff • supporting targeted improvements in literacy to improve the life chances of the citizens of the future Councillor Rodney Berman Leader of Cardiff Council PAGE 3 Cardiff Council Improvement Plan 2010/11 Context Over the next 3 to 4 years we aim to deliver • delivering a sustainable and improved savings of £100 million. A number of key projects Highways service by looking at new methods as part of our Transformation Programme have such as improved technology to enable mobile generated major savings, eliminated unnecessary working, and rationalising current processes waste and provided better services to our customers. By putting the citizen at the centre of • focussing on short term interventions to help our improvement agenda, and making our older people (aged 65+) and people who have systems leaner and more responsive we will be a physical and/or sensory impairment to able to redirect valuable resources towards regain and maintain their independence while frontline services. To achieve this we are:- safeguarding standards in the long term • delivering significant improvements to parks • delivering savings through improved and sport through the consolidation of Sports commissioning and procurement arrange- facilities and promotion of Parks & Sports ments facilities • improving the way that business • developing a new model for delivering administration is delivered across the Council improved Transport and Traffic Management • working towards using our office accom- services including; Civil Parking Enforcement, modation and buildings through the ‘Our local traffic management (including cycling Space’ project facilities), road safety, and public transport • establishing an Integrated Partnership Board • delivering a cost effective, customer-focused to replace the Children and Young People’s and efficient waste management and street Partnership, Health Alliance, Safer Capital and cleansing service which encourages waste the Cardiff Local Service Board minimisation and achieves much higher recycling rates • implementing a new streamlined manage- ment structure • delivering an improved housing repairs service, based around customer needs and priorities • redesigning services which is supported by modern technology Protecting front line services is vital, especially those services that matter most to the citizens, and communities we serve. It is therefore essential that we build on the Programme to take forward more fundamental transformation, concentrating on: • delivering services through ‘Citizen Hubs'. This approach will be piloted to test the concept of delivering more than one service, including those services provided by external partners. from a single location making it easier to access services Jon House Chief Executive PAGE 4 Cardiff Council Improvement Plan 2010/11 Introduction The Corporate Plan 2010/13 set out a more • What Matters Integrated Partnership Strategy outcome focussed approach across the public • Service Area Business Plans services in Cardiff and as a result is structured around the agreed outcomes and our priorities for • Wales Audit Office Assessments under the achieving these outcomes over the 3 years of the Local Plan. • Government (Wales) Measure This Improvement Plan presents our progress • The Council’s Outcome Agreement with the during 2010/11 in delivering these Outcomes. Welsh Government We are continuing to strive towards an integrated These documents can be accessed via the performance management framework that links Council’s website, www.cardiff.gov.uk or by the Policy, Performance, Risk and Budgetary contacting the Council’s Improvement and frameworks together. Information Team on 029 2087 3340. Further detailed information is contained within a number of key documents including:- • ‘Proud Capital’ Community Strategy • Corporate Plan 2010/13 • Health, Social Care and Well Being Strategy • Children & Young People’s Framework PAGE 5 Cardiff Council Improvement Plan 2010/11 Cardiff Council’s Budget 2010/11 As part of the ongoing alignment of the policy, The Council approved a General Fund Capital performance and budgetary processes the Council Programme for 2010/11 of £123.4 million. The continued to implement a budget strategy that outturn position shows capital expenditure of highlights the need to maximise opportunities for £73.3 million against the programme. The cost reductions and efficiencies, and to target variance of £50.1 million is due to slippage of £45 resources on core services. The final financial million and a net underspend of £5.1 million. outturn position for 2010/11 indicates that the Council has maintained its spending within its The capital programme budgeted for £2.6 million overall net Revenue Budget of £533 million. general fund capital receipts during 2010/11. However, due to a challenging market and delays As part of the monitoring process during the year, in the disposal of some sites, receipts totalled several issues were identified and this provided an £1.02 million. Should receipts fail to materialise opportunity for management to address the next year, there could be a significant impact on difficulties and to try to offset any in-year the level of additional borrowing that would be overspends. However the impact on some service required for currently approved schemes to areas has been such that it was not possible to progress. achieve this. The areas particularly affected include Adults and Children’s Services, and Schools & Lifelong Learning. The difficulties faced in these areas are the increasing complexity and demand for services in relation to • domiciliary care packages for older people • looked after children • special educational needs PAGE 6 Cardiff Council Improvement Plan 2010/11 Efficiency Savings As part of our ongoing response to making the For 2011/12 the transformation agenda has been Council more efficient and maintaining realigned and refocused to deliver more savings in improvement in services we have continued to the short and medium term and building on our investigate ways of releasing cashable and non- internal capacity in order to ensure the new ways cashable efficiencies. During 2010/11 we saved of working are sustainable in the long term. We nearly £2,400,000 combining both efficiency established a ‘Transformation Portfolio’, with savings and cost avoidance over a number of seven programmes prioritising projects that projects including: forecast to deliver savings and efficiencies and aim to maintain or improve services. • £1,243,000 in Central Transport Services. The Centralised Transport Services Project has The seven programme areas are: resulted in the more efficient management and a reduction in the number of vehicles across the • Service Redesign Council. Benefits also include a reduction in • Shared Services expenditure on vehicle hire and maintenance. • Citizen Focused • £425,000 was achieved in Adult Community