⌂ →
Corporate Planning, Performance and Reporting
Corporate Planning, Performance & Reporting
Corporate Planning, Performance and Reporting
Each year, councils in Wales produce many plans and performance reports, both for management purposes and to report to the public on their objectives and performance. Each council publishes a Corporate Plan that sets out their longer term corporate vision i.e. what they will do, how they will do it, and how they will monitor progress.
Councils must set and publish well-being objectives and publish an annual report on the progress they are making. The well-being objectives are typically integrated within the corporate plan and align with the Public Service Board’s wellbeing strategy. Councils must also undertake an annual self-assessment of how well it is meeting its performance duties, essentially how it is delivering its functions, how well it spends its money and resources and how well it is governed. This must be included in an annual self-assessment report.
Directors of Social Services have a statutory duty to publish an annual report on social services performance.
Your council’s performance indicators and reports will be a key source of information for you as a councillor, whether in a cabinet or scrutiny role, to measure and monitor performance in priority areas and to judge whether your council is on track to meet objectives and outcomes.
Performance Requirements
Local Government and Elections ( Wales) Act 2021
The Local Government and Elections Act (Wales) 2021 introduced a new performance framework for local authorities. At the heart of this new performance regime is a renewed emphasis on sector led self-improvement, which challenges local councils to continuously challenge the status quo, ask questions about how they are operating, and consider best practice both in Wales and further afield.
As part of this new framework Councils have a duty to keep their performance under review, and consider the extent to which they are meeting their ‘performance requirements’ through self-assessment and panel performance assessment. This involves the authority considering the extent to which it is:
- exercising its functions effectively,
- using its resources economically, efficiently and effectively, and
- governing itself.
Self-assessment of performance
Councils must conduct an annual self-assessment against the above performance requirements, publishing a report of this assessment for each financial year.
Panel Assessment of performance
In addition to annual self-assessments, the authority must also arrange an independent panel assessment of performance once per municipal term. The WLGA will work with local authorities to facilitate the delivery of panel assessments.
For further information on either the self-assessment or panel assessment process, please refer to the Welsh Government statutory guidance.
Audit Wales
Audit Wales works with the Auditor General for Wales, who is the public services ‘watchdog’. Audit Wales audits the financial accounts of councils, reports on how services are being delivered, assesses whether value for money is being achieved and checks how they are planning and delivering improvements.
Audit Wales also produces Annual Improvement Reports for each council which comment on their governance, improvement and performance planning and reporting arrangements.
Social Care Wales
Social Care Wales is responsible for leading work to improve care and support for people in Wales. Social Care Wales provides workforce support, sets standards to protect the public, leads on improvement and provides research and information. Care Inspectorate Wales provides assurance on the quality and safety of services, inspects and drives improvement of regulated services and local authority social services and undertakes national reviews of social care services.
Estyn
Estyn is the education and training inspectorate for Wales. They are inspecting all education and training providers in Wales at least once during the seven-year cycle that began on 1st September 2016. Estyn give three weeks’ notice of inspection, except for local government education services (10 weeks’ notice) and initial teacher education (8 weeks’ notice) and consultation on arrangements for the next cycle is well underway.
Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales has legal powers to look into complaints about public services and independent care providers in Wales. The Ombudsman also investigates complaints that members of local government bodies have breached the code of conduct. The Ombudsman has also established a Complaints Handling Authority to support improvement in complaints handling in order to lead to service improvements through collecting and publishing of data and providing guidance and training.