Annual report to full council 2007
Leader of the Council
Introduction
It is the Council’s AGM and, as is customary at these meetings, it is a good time to reflect on what has turned out to be a very eventful and productive year.
This time last year, I was updating you on the annual announcement of CPA where the County Council was a one star CPA authority which was 'Improving Well'. The Council had set out its strategic priorities in Making Bedfordshire Thrive and we were working hard towards CPA corporate assessment and Joint Area Review inspections planned for the year ahead. We were talking to staff about the fact that we were in a race against time and that, to achieve, we needed to just get on and do what was necessary.
A great deal of progress has been made since then. Services have been improved and a number of demanding challenges have been overcome. Space limits me from covering everything that happened in the last year, but I hope this report will give you a flavour what has been achieved in the last twelve months.
Achievements
The Council has made tremendous strides towards achieving its objectives. In particular, the last year has seen significant improvements to the services the Council delivers to the public:
(a) Adult social care is ranked first among statistical neighbours and 29 nationally.
(b) Last autumn, Children’s Social Services was judged to be 'good', with ‘a good capacity to improve its services further’.
(c) Children’s exam results have improved. Key Stage 1 results continue to be excellent whilst the Council exceeded the national average for the first time for five years at Key Stage 2 and was at the national average for Key Stage 3. GCSE exam results have improved by 2.3% with 56.2% of pupils achieving 5 A*-C GCSEs. However, this is still below the national average of 59.2%.
(d) Key steps have been made to effectively manage the growth coming to the County and ensuring this is supported with appropriate infrastructure. The Council continues to work closely with Renaissance Bedford in Bedford and the Marston Vale and with South Bedfordshire District Council and Luton Borough Council through the Joint Planning and Transportation Committee in the south of the County.
(e) The Council is helping to create new jobs. The favourability and familiarity of Bedfordshire with businesses outside of the county has improved and the Council has continued to champion key projects such as NIRAH and Center Parcs. Our residents who face the most difficulty in accessing training and employment also continue to be supported by the County Council by matched funding through the European Social Fund. Between January 2005 and March 2007, 1,707 gained employment and 2,834 accessed training opportunities.
(f) Recycling has improved considerably. The final data on the Council’s performance for 2006-07 is yet to be received but we are hopeful that the 2006-07 target of 32% has been exceeded. To further reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and increase recycling rates the Council has also re-negotiated the contract for household waste recycling centres to make it performance based. The totally refurbished Barkers Lane Household Waste Recycling Centre re-opened in December, a month ahead of schedule, and work is progressing on the Energy from Waste project.
(g) The Great Barford Bypass was opened in August, bypasses for Leighton Linslade and Ridgmont are currently under construction and just this month a deal has been agreed and contracts exchanged with a number of landowners to pave the way for the Bedford Western bypass.
(h) The Council invested an extra £4.2 million into highway repairs last year - meaning that instead of repairing an average of 40 miles of road a year, the Council has repaired 109 miles.
(i) In December, the Council had to move swiftly to replace a number of services previously provided by Stagecoach when they decided to dramatically reduce the routes they would offer across the County. A county wide review of our supported services is now under way to ensure that the Council makes the best use of the tight financial resources available to support the County’s bus network.
(j) Bedfordshire became the first county in the country to become a no cold calling county. No Cold Calling Zones across the county have saved residents over £100,000 that would otherwise have been pocketed by criminals. Distraction burglaries have a dropped by 21%.
The Council has worked hard on partnership working. It has built upon the successful negotiation of Bedfordshire’s Local Area Agreement (LAA) last year by establishing the Countywide Partnership and Countywide Assembly to both oversee the development of the LAA and to give strategic direction to the County. The Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership continues strongly, new partnerships covering adult care and cultural services have been formed and a new countywide community safety executive has been established. The first six-monthly Government review of our LAA concluded that progress to date has been encouraging.
The Council has invested significantly over the last year in its financial recovery. The Council received an improved score of 2 (out of 4) in its annual Use of Resources judgement last year, confirming the improvements the Council has made in re-establishing sound financial management processes and controls. Work is now under way to improve this score even further.
The effect of these achievements can clearly be seen in the improvement to our overall satisfaction rating. We had the second highest increase of any county council in last Autumn's national survey and satisfaction is up to 57% in our own latest MORI poll.
CPA
The tremendous progress the Council has made over last year was signalled in February by the very welcome news that the Council had become a CPA 2 Star authority that is ‘improving well’. This was through improvements to key performance indicators.
As you know, the Council was recently visited by the Government’s inspectors for a CPA Corporate Assessment and Joint Area Review of Children’s Services. It was clear that the inspectors were pleasantly surprised by what they found in Bedfordshire and we expect the results of their inspections to be positive. The final reports will be published in July.
Local Government Reorganisation
Of course, the other key issue that has occupied the Council over the last six months has been local government reorganisation. Communities and Local Government (CLG) announced last month that the County Council’s proposal for a single countywide unitary authority had been included on its list for further stakeholder consultation. Bedford Borough's proposal for a new unitary authority has also been taken forward for further consultation.
I am very pleased that the Government agrees that the unitary model of local government is the best solution for Bedfordshire. All local authorities in Bedfordshire agree that the removal of two-tier structures is the right way forward - there is only disagreement on which shape this unitary governance should take. As a result, all four local authorities in the County wrote to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Ruth Kelly, on 13 April emphasising that we are unanimous in our view of the need for unitary governance in Bedfordshire.
The Government’s stakeholder consultation ends on 22 June. A final decision on which unitary proposals are to be implemented is expected to be made before Parliament rises in July.
The year ahead
I believe the Council can be rightly proud of the progress that has been made over the last year - a tremendous amount has been achieved in a short time. Which is not to say that there is not more to be done!
Over the next year, the Council will need to give greater consideration to the other proposals contained within the Local Government Bill apart from local government restructuring. This legislation promises important changes to the performance framework which central government imposes on local government. There will be fewer targets and these will all be agreed through Local Area Agreements. The Community Strategy for the county area will provide the overall vision and priorities and the LAA will effectively be the delivery vehicle across the public sector. There are other key issues covered by the Bill which relate to community leadership and councillors’ relationships with their local communities.
This Autumn the Government will publish its Comprehensive Spending Review which will decide the grant levels for local authorities for the next three years. We expect this settlement to be the tightest for some time.
The Government has announced a move towards an area-based assessment to replace CPA. This will assess public services in Bedfordshire, not just County Council services.
Given this overall context in which we must work, key challenges for the County Council for the year ahead are to:
(a) Ensure the Council improves its value for money through service innovation;
(b) Focus upon delivering excellence across all public services not just those that the Council is directly responsible for delivering;
and, we hope
(c) take the first steps towards establishing a countywide unitary authority for Bedfordshire.
The Council remains committed to delivering its strategic priorities as set out last summer in Making Bedfordshire Thrive. There will be an annual refresh in July but there is no indication at present that these priorities need to change except that we may need to consider the addition of a further long-term priority on climate change.
The Council has launched a new campaign this week, entitled We Love Bedfordshire. Designed to showcase the best of Bedfordshire, the campaign will reflect the County Council’s pride in the County and seek to raise Bedfordshire’s profile as a great place to live, work and play.
The campaign will include advertising on buses and bus shelters, a series of roadshows across the County, and an opportunity for residents to go to our website to tell us why they love Bedfordshire, with the best contributions to be included in a book to be edited by the County Council’s very own John Pilgrim. The Council has also created a special DVD to accompany the campaign.
Conclusion
The last year has been a bit of a roller coaster. It has been extremely busy and rather challenging at times but a fantastic amount has been achieved.
I would like to thank all Members of the Council for their support – indeed forbearance – in a challenging year. There has also been much good humour. It is, of course, a privilege to be Leader of the Council but I have to admit, as well, to having thoroughly enjoyed the year.
The new Council year will be equally demanding and I look forward to working with you all to achieve our ambitions for both the County and the Council.
Cllr Madeline Russell
Leader, Bedfordshire County Council