Annual Improvement Report Cardiff Council Issued: January 2012 Document reference: 673A2011 About the Auditor General for Wales The Auditor General is independent of government and is appointed by Her Majesty the Queen. He leads the Wales Audit Office and is held accountable by the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly for the Wales Audit Office’s work. The Auditor General is the external auditor of the Welsh Government and its sponsored and related public bodies, the Assembly Commission and National Health Service bodies in Wales. He also appoints the external auditors of Welsh local government bodies, including unitary authorities, police, probation, fire and rescue authorities, national parks and community Councils. The Auditor General’s appointed auditors are responsible for the annual audit of the majority of public money spent in Wales, including the £15 billion of funds that are voted to Wales annually by the Westminster Parliament. Nearly £5.5 billion of this funding is passed by the Welsh Government to local government in the form of general and specific grants. Local government, in turn, raises a further £2.1 billion through Council tax and business rates. As well as carrying out financial audit, the Auditor General’s role is to examine how public bodies manage and spend public money, including achieving value in the delivery of public services. The Wales Audit Office aims to make public money count, by promoting improvement, so that people in Wales benefit from accountable, well-managed public services that offer the best possible value for money. It is also committed to identifying and spreading good practice across the Welsh public sector. Huw Vaughan Thomas, Auditor General for Wales, was supported by Steve Barry, Janet Villars and colleagues under the direction of Jane Holownia in conducting the Improvement Assessment and producing this report. 2 Annual Improvement Report - Cardiff Council Contents Summary and proposals for improvement 4 Detailed report Introduction 7 The Council’s political and streamlined officer leadership is driving efficiencies through strong financial leadership, improved management of people and assets and through the good use of technology 9 Improvements are emerging in waste, highways, and neighbourhood management, the Council is on track to meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard but weaknesses in some aspects of social services and education are delaying the achievement of Council aims 13 Weaknesses in some aspects of social services mean that the Council is not fully meeting its aim for people in Cardiff to be safe and feel safe 13 Weaknesses in some aspects of education mean that the Council is not fully meeting its aim for people in Cardiff to achieve their full potential 15 The Council is helping to provide a clean, attractive and sustainable environment by delivering the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, beginning the improvement of highways maintenance and through improvements in waste management 17 Significant progress has been made in establishing strong partnerships to support improvement of service delivery to neighbourhoods 19 The Council has good arrangements for monitoring performance and is making progress in developing the ways it evaluates the impact of what it is doing 22 Appendices Appendix 1 Status of this report 23 Appendix 2 Useful information about Cardiff and Cardiff Council 24 Appendix 3 Cardiff Council’s accounts and use of resources 26 Appendix 4 Cardiff Council’s improvement objectives and self-assessment 29 3 Annual Improvement Report - Cardiff Council Summary report 1 Each year, the Auditor General must report on • Weaknesses in some aspects of education how well Welsh councils, fire and rescue mean that the Council is not fully meeting authorities, and national parks are planning its aim for people in Cardiff to achieve their for improvement and delivering their services. full potential, although an inspection by Drawing on the work of the relevant Welsh Estyn in January 2011 judged the inspectorates, and the audit work of the education service to be ‘adequate’. Wales Audit Office and the Appointed Auditor, Schools performance is average and the this report presents a picture of improvement rate of fixed-term exclusions is among the over the last year. The report is in three main worst in Wales. sections which cover the planning, delivery • The Council is helping to provide a clean, and evaluation of improvement by Cardiff attractive and sustainable environment by Council (the Council). delivering the Welsh Housing Quality 2 We found that the Council’s streamlined Standard, beginning the improvement of officer leadership is driving efficiencies highways maintenance and through through strong financial leadership, improved improvements in waste management. management of people and assets and The Council is one of a small number of through the good use of technology. councils likely to meet the target of improving its homes to the Welsh Housing 3 Improvements are emerging in waste, Quality Standard by 2012. Waste highways, and neighbourhood management. management performance has improved The Council is on track to meet the Welsh significantly in recent years helped by the Housing Quality Standard but weaknesses in introduction of new collection methods. some aspects of social services and • Significant progress has been made in education are delaying the achievement of establishing strong partnerships to support Council aims. We based this conclusion on the improvement of service delivery to the following: neighbourhoods. • Weaknesses in some aspects of social 4 Finally, the report sets out our views on the services mean that the Council is not fully Council’s own assessment of its performance meeting its aim for people in Cardiff to be and arrangements. We concluded that the safe and feel safe. The evaluation of the Council has good arrangements in place for Care and Social Services Inspectorate monitoring performance and, with its key Wales (CSSIW) considered that the partners, is making progress in developing Council had made limited progress in the ways in which it evaluates the impact of tackling issues it had identified last year what it is doing. and some aspects of service had deteriorated. 4 Annual Improvement Report - Cardiff Council Proposals for improvement Proposals for improvement Drive service improvement by: P1 For social services • Addressing the issues in social services identified by the CSSIW. P2 For education • Implementing the Estyn recommendations arising from the inspection of the education service. P3 For the highways service • Ensure member endorsement of highway standards and implement work to develop and achieve those standards. • Identify responsibility for the management, operation and improvement of the highways asset (an ‘asset owner’) at senior management level and introduce consideration of consistent standards and future maintenance costs into decision making. P4 For the waste management service • Develop waste prevention initiatives and actions to support the Council’s waste strategy. • Work in partnership with communities to support delivery of the waste strategy. • Establish a clear understanding with the Welsh Government about the main components of a longer-term waste strategy for Cardiff for the next 10 years. 5 Annual Improvement Report - Cardiff Council Proposals for improvement (continued) P5 For neighbourhood management • Further develop the arrangements for performance monitoring and reporting for neighbourhoods to ensure that the Integrated Partnership Board and the Programme Board have the evidence to both monitor delivery of actions but also assess if improved outcomes for citizens/the public have been delivered: ‒ complete and implement the 2011-12 Annual Action Plans; ‒ ensure that Annual Action Plans for 2012-13 are produced and ready for the start of the financial year; and ‒ complete Annual Reports for 2011-12 for each neighbourhood. • Ensure that Service Redesign projects across the Council consider the resource requirements and implications of working with the Neighbourhood Management Delivery Model adopted by the Council and Partners. • Ensure managers responsible for service delivery understand the concept of neighbourhood management, collaborative working and how their service can respond to the agenda. • Ensure that staff within the Council know about the Neighbourhood Management Delivery Model adopted by the Council and Partners and that they understand the role they play in its implementation. 6 Annual Improvement Report - Cardiff Council Detailed report Introduction 5 This report was prepared by the Wales Audit • make proposals for improvement – if we Office on behalf of the Auditor General. make proposals to the Council, we would On page 2 you can find a brief explanation of expect it to do something about them and what the Auditor General does. we will follow up what happens. 6 Under the Local Government (Wales) 8 We want to find out if this report gives you the Measure 2009 (the Measure), the Auditor information you need and whether it is easy to General must report each year on how well understand. You can let us know your views Welsh councils, fire and rescue authorities, by e-mailing us at [email protected] or writing and national parks are planning for to us at 24 Cathedral Road, Cardiff, CF11 9LJ. improvement and delivering their services. 9 The Council has undertaken a wide range of Appendix 1 provides more information about activity in respect of the eight main outcomes