Summary of vision, priorities
and performance
his document, Ealing Council’s
Best Value Performance Plan,
describes the services the
council delivers, how effectively we
deliver them and how we monitor our
performance. It reviews the progress
of our best value review programme,
setting out our achievements to date
and our priorities for improvement in
the year ahead.
T
The goals the council set out in last
year’s plan ranged from improving
school exam results and safety in the
community to investing more in our
housing stock and boosting leisure
facilities. We have achieved many
of our objectives. Details of these
achievements
are
covered
throughout the plan and we outline
our plans for the year ahead, which
build on this success.
Council support helped provide carnival fun in Acton, Greenford and Hanwell.
The vision for
Ealing Council
In last year’s Best Value Performance
Plan, we explained the two-year
vision for Ealing to be ‘an excellent
example of modern local government’
by 2003. Four core themes lie behind
this vision:
Our customers are at the core of this vision.
Everything we do is focused on improving our
capacity and competence in order to deliver
improved services to our customers
The priorities for action
promoting diversity;
ensuring equality of opportunity;
working for social inclusion;
promoting sustainability.
We are one year further on in
achieving this vision, many activities
have commenced, and many
councillors, staff and customers of
Ealing’s services are involved in
projects that build our capability for
excellence, for example our wide
consultation for our race equalities
scheme.
In support of this vision the council has
identified four priority areas for
action and defined key objectives
within each of these.
Priority 1:
Achieve excellence in service
delivery (Excellent services)
Priority 2:
Create effective partnerships to
deliver high-value and high-quality
services (Effective partnerships)
Priority 3:
Enhance the reputation of Ealing
Council and its ability to attract
funds, partners and staff (Enhanced
reputation)
Priority 4:
Become an employer of choice that
respects the diverse skills of our
population (Employer of choice).
Known as the ‘four E’s’, these
priorities set the focus for all service
planning and development. In the
pages that follow, all targets for the
year ahead are identified in relation
to these priorities.
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Our achievements include:
better exam results. Average GCSE
points score improved to 39.7 from
39.2 and the percentage of pupils
achieving five or more GCSEs at
grades A* to C increased from
46.1% to 47%;
£600,000 of additional funding from
central government for a new CCTV
control centre and to introduce
CCTV in Acton and Southall town
centres;
a new housing allocation system
for West London, which will provide
greater choice of accommodation
for existing tenants;
improvements to the library
service, in particular an online
system for enquiries and renewals
and extended opening hours;
our first customer service centre in
Southall, offering more convenient
access to a wide range of services;
our customer contact centre
achieved a Charter Mark, the
government’s customer service
award, for the first time, while our
Revenues service and Home
Improvement Agency retained
theirs, meaning that we now hold
seven Charter Marks;
formal accreditation for our
cemeteries and burial service from
the Institute of Burials and
Cemeteries.
In the coming year we will:
further improve access to council
services and information;
continue to help older people
become more independent;
increase the percentage of lookedafter children in family placements;
ensure that food safety inspections
of all medium-risk premises are
undertaken;
build on our success in raising
standards in schools;
work to implement the
recommendations of external
inspections;
work to achieve the Equality
Standard for Local Government.
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Award-winning Ealing - a new project to encourage young women, especially from
minority ethnic communities, to take up cycling
Four key priorities
Excellent services
Key objectives:
better access to, and faster
delivery of, services through
technology;
best value services;
maximise the safety and
independence of all our service
users;
raise standards in and access to
education;
review the quality and range of
housing in Ealing, in consultation
with our tenants;
provide access to affordable
housing for those who need it in
the borough;
improve the quality of our street
services.
Effective partnerships
Key objectives:
Create effective partnerships for
delivering high-quality and
inclusive services in:
health and social care;
education;
community safety;
leisure facilities for children and
young people;
renewal of town and
neighbourhood centres;
integrated transport;
a better and more sustainable
environment;
promotion, in partnership with
others, of economic
sustainability and social
inclusion.
Enhanced reputation
Key objectives:
improve Ealing’s reputation at the
same time as improving services;
increase residents’ satisfaction.
Employer of choice
Key objectives:
match the diversity of the
workforce to the diversity of the
population;
enable people to develop in their
roles.
The core values of
Ealing Council
Underpinning the vision and all that
we do are the core values of Ealing
Council:
One council
Sharing knowledge by working
together across our departments and
divisions, enables us to provide a
better, more customer-focused
service to our residents and users.
An example is housing and social
services teams working together to
solve individual cases of social
deprivation and homelessness.
Leadership
Encouraging staff at all levels to take
opportunities to lead their colleagues
and find better ways to improve the
service they provide.
Taking and making opportunities for
Ealing Council to lead the development
of the borough. For example, Ealing is
leading a consortium of West London
boroughs on housing allocations,
offering greater choice.
Further, the leader of Ealing Council
and the chief executive are driving
the development of Ealing’s local
strategic partnership, which includes
many of the most influential and
important organisations in the
community.
Respect
Recognising the different needs and
requirements of all the customers we
serve and treating all with equal
regard. Specifically, acknowledging
the diverse nature and make up of
our community and ensuring that
none of the services we deliver
inadvertently
or
deliberately
disadvantage individuals or groups in
the community.
For example, Ealing Council is
implementing our race equalities
scheme, which means that all our
services and employment practices
are examined to assure equality in
operation and results.
Ealing mourns. Residents and office workers gather for three-minute silence in
remembrance of the lives lost in New York on September 11, 2001
Can do/will do
Instilling an attitude in all staff and
contractors that takes a positive
approach to customers’ and
colleagues’ requests. We continue
to assess and challenge our service
delivery methods and targets to
ensure we aim for the best service
and we achieve it.
An example is the opening of the first
customer service centre in Southall,
which provides the local community
with much improved access to
information and council services.
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Our programme to
achieve our vision
(Ealing for
excellence)
Aiming for excellence is an ambitious
and challenging goal. We are not
taking this challenge lightly and have
invested considerable effort in
focusing our management and staff
resources towards this goal. In
addition to setting demanding
improvement targets in our service
delivery units, we have developed a
cross-council programme to deliver
improvements in our service
capability. Known as Ealing for
excellence (E4e) the programme
includes seven streams of work
sponsored by key members of the
senior management team, which will
intensify this year and deliver real
benefits to staff and thus to users of
our services.
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Managing for improved
performance
A focused and intensive system
of performance planning and
review, which ensures that a
consistent, high-quality service
is delivered to customers.
Management practice and people
development
Improving the way that we
manage and develop our staff
and contractors, focusing on
personal skills development and
continual improvement.
Valuing diversity and ensuring
equality in employment and
service delivery
Assessing all our services and
working practices to insist on
equality of service delivery and
achievement of standards, for all
individuals and groups in our
community and for our staff.
Recruiting and retaining the best
Enhancing the council’s
capability to recruit the best
employees from its local
community and to develop
rewarding and challenging roles
and careers that keep them
within the council.
Customer contact and
e-Government
Accelerating the rate at which
Ealing Council uses new ways to
reach its customers, making it
easier and faster to get
information and services
from the council.
Enhancing our reputation
In order to attract the future
employees and partners that
Ealing needs to deliver excellent
services into a thriving
community, we will build a
credible and attractive
reputation, based on proven
service delivery.
Partnerships
Developing our ability to operate
as partners internally and with
external agencies.
Managing our
performance
There are four active approaches
to managing and improving our
performance in Ealing:
performance indicators;
performance management
framework;
best value review programme;
external inspection.
Performance indicators
Ealing Council measures its
performance using performance
indicators to identify progress against
specific targets. There are a number of
types of performance indicators,
including:
best value indicators - set by the
government. We are legally
required to collect and report on
these indicators;
local corporate indicators - these
are mainly based on corporate
standards such as telephone
answering and complaint handling;
local service indicators - these are
service specific and have been
developed to address areas not
measured by other indicators.
The tables in each section of this plan
bring together all the indicators that we
are required to collect by the
government and also a selection of
those developed locally.
Since some of the indicators are set by
government and are collected by all
councils, the London average has been
included where available, so
comparisons can be drawn. However,
it should be recognised that each
council has different priorities and
needs, and this is reflected in
performance. Targets have been
included for all indicators where
baseline information was available for
previous years.
The performance tables contain the
following information:
our performance in 1999/00 and
2000/01 - where we have trend data
and the indicators have remained
the same;
our performance in 2001/02 - this
is the final performance for the
2001/02 financial year, unless
otherwise stated;
targets for 2001/02;
targets for 2002/03;
London averages for 2000/01.
The tables include explanations of
significant differences in the following:
final performance and target;
year-on-year performance;
London averages for 2000/01.
We have also highlighted what action
we are taking where performance has
declined.
Performance management
framework
Ealing is implementing a robust
system of performance management
and review, which will ensure that
progress towards our goals is
properly planned and achieved and
that the council can respond rapidly to
changes in service demands.
Integrated planning and budgeting
Ensuring that service plans are
developed in accordance with
council priorities and that actions and
outcomes are reviewed throughout
the year. All targets for our services
are set with councillors in support of
the council’s stated priorities. By
integrating the planning and
budgeting processes, Ealing is able
to ensure that its priority areas are
appropriately resourced.
Council scorecard
The scorecard draws the attention of
management to the key areas, that
will affect the capacity of the
organisation to deliver the service to
the target levels agreed, as well as
measuring the actual levels of service
delivered. The scorecard is currently
under development and is due to be
completed in July 2002.
The scorecard is expected to review
against specific targets from four
perspectives:
customer perspective - measures
of the satisfaction of our customers;
financial perspective - agreed
service delivered at agreed costs;
process perspective - efficiency
and use of assets;
development perspective learning and adding new skills
and capabilities.
The performance against each of
these perspectives will be
reviewed monthly in departmental
management meetings and at
quarterly business reviews by senior
management. All business reviews
will follow the same format and the
first such review is scheduled for
June 2002.
Service scorecards
By the end of 2002 all customer-facing
service units will have developed
service scorecards, which measure
their delivery performance, as well as
their development of the capacity to
improve. Actual improvement will
continue to be measured by
performance indicators, published
quarterly.
Accountability
In implementing this formal
performance management system
Ealing Council is keen to make sure
that it works well and provides early
warning of service problems. To
support the adoption of the formal
process Ealing is also providing
education and support to managers
and staff to promote a culture of
accountability. Clarity of personal
accountability
and
personal
objectives for all staff is a critical part
of the performance management
framework.
Best value - reviewing our
services
What is best value?
Best value is about providing the best
possible services at an affordable
price. All councils have to carry out
best value reviews of their services,
and publish an annual Best Value
Performance Plan. Ealing Council
started its review programme in 1999,
a year earlier than required by the
government.
What does it mean to you?
In Ealing, our best value objective is:
‘To provide good-quality services that
match needs, are assessed regularly
against those needs through
consultation and are delivered cost
effectively’.
differences. We look at our
performance over previous years
and set out how much the service
needs to improve to be among the
best providers;
consulting our residents,
community groups, businesses
and other interested groups about
what they think about the services
we currently provide, and if the
services meet their needs. We
also investigate why people do not
use services - this may be due to
problems with access, or the type
or level of service offered;
competitive on value for money.
Could the work be done better or
more cost effectively if it was
delivered in a different way or by
another provider? Do opportunities
exist for partnerships?
The council’s best value
review programme
The programme is determined by the
following factors:
the relative performance of
services;
linking common services and
activities across the council, so
that some reviews are themed;
spreading the reviews across the
council;
taking into consideration expiry
dates of existing contracts;
the timing of any planned external
review or inspection.
The programme is revised each year
to ensure that, by combining or
repackaging some smaller reviews,
the resources invested are more likely
to address the big issues and have the
most impact on local people.
In reviewing services we are:
challenging why a service exists,
looking at current working
practices;
comparing the service with those
of the best local authorities and
other organisations (public,
private and voluntary sectors),
and establishing why there are
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External inspection
Once our best value reviews are complete, they are each subject to inspection by independent government inspectors, from
the Audit Commission, Social Services Inspectorate, Benefit Fraud Inspectorate or the Office for Standards in Education
(OFSTED). The inspections are designed to:
allow the public to see if best value is being delivered;
show the council how well it is doing;
help the government to judge the effectiveness of its policies;
identify services where further action may be necessary;
identify and spread best practice.
The inspectors will make a number of recommendations based on their findings. They provide a rating based on ‘how good is
the service?’ and ‘prospects for improvement’. In some cases, the council does not always agree with these recommendations
and ratings. Although poor ratings can be disappointing, it increases the resolve of the service to demonstrate that
improvements will be delivered in the future.
Audit Commission inspection - how have we done so far?
The diagram below represents the outcome of the eleven inspections that have been completed in Ealing Council, using the
scoring system used by the Audit Commission. In seven of the eleven inspections completed, Ealing Council services have
been rated as ‘likely to improve’.
How good is the service?
Prospects for improvement
poor
fair
uncertain
prospects for
improvement
excellent
Promoting and
enabling active
lifestyles
Building control
WP and graphics
will improve
likely prospects
for improvement
good
Housing allocations
Planning and
development control
Cemeteries
Internal audit
Libraries
Trading standards
Arboriculture
Printing and repro
In addition to the above inspections, others such as OFSTED, Benefit Fraud and Social Services inspections have been carried
out. For further information on these, please refer to the relevant sections later in this document.
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Summaries
of
the
key
recommendations from those
services that have been inspected
can be found throughout this plan.
Review
Page no.
Arboriculture
Building control
Cemeteries
Housing allocations
Internal audit
Libraries
Planning in Ealing
Printing and reprographics
Promoting and enabling
actve lifestyles
Trading standards
Web survey and design
27
29
27
79
97
25
33
114
31
48
113
A summary and detailed report for each inspection is also available
on the following website: www.audit-commission.gov.uk
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