Positive progress on council priorities highlighted by new report

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Westmorland and Furness Council is making positive progress towards its priorities for the year, a new report has highlighted.

Earlier this year, the unitary authority set out its priority projects for 2024/25. Now a report on the Council Plan Delivery Framework’s 10 missions reports positive steps to achieving those goals for residents, communities and businesses.

The quarterly Corporate Performance Report is the first focussed on the transformational objectives set by the council and covers the period from April to July. It uses measurement against 70 performance indicators and 101 actions to give effective scrutiny of progression on council priorities.

In summary, 28 indicators with a target were reported to be performing well and had either met or were on track to meet the planned milestone, four were in progress and 16 were not expected to be fully delivered as intended. 22 were data only metrics with no target set.

Ninety out of the 101 actions were performing well and met or were on target to meet the planned milestone.

The council’s 10 mission areas for 24/25 are communities, environment, growth, connections, homes, learning, care (children), care (adults), health and well-being, culture and effective services.

Missions which have seen the most progress against indicators are growth and children’s care.

Cllr Jonathan Brook, Leader of Westmorland and Furness Council, said overall performance was encouraging.

He said: “We are on a journey to change and to realise the benefits of becoming a unitary authority. Given the extent of that change, we recognise that some things are still not working as effectively as they should, but the purpose of this report is to show the progress we are making and how we are performing so people can hold us to account.

“We are in a period of transition and this is the first time we have presented our performance information in this way. It will continue to be refined and it will enable us to tell our story about what we are delivering for local communities and measure our performance against our Council Plan ambitions.

“It will enable us to celebrate areas of council services that are performing well and to consider appropriate action if performance is not at an acceptable level, or the pace of improvement is slower than expected.”

The mission on growth is focussed on increasing the economy and providing people with access to a diverse range of good employment opportunities for them to be economically secure.

Progress includes planning work for a Westmorland and Furness economic strategy; moving forward oversight and management of £220m of Government investment in Barrow over the next decade; significant progress in the development of a new Local Plan and establishment of Enterprising Cumbria, taking on the business support functions of the Local Enterprise Partnership.

In children’s care the focus is on supporting all to achieve a good life, safe from harm, in the place they call home with the people and things that matter most to them.

Achievements to date include a whole service Ofsted inspection grading of Good; approval of the Ambition for Every Child strategy covering children and young people; the development of a children’s social work academy framework, outlining a clear workforce training and development offer and, following the successful opening of a family hub in Barrow, work progressing on a wider rollout covering Eden and South Lakeland.

Other notable successes recognised in the report include more than £500,000 of UK Shared Prosperity Fund money being used to provide an innovative programme of carbon reduction and sustainability support for small/medium sized businesses and social enterprises.

The introduction of supported bus services has provided access to some communities where for a number of years there has been no or limited provision.

And in housing, a recent stock condition survey showed that 100% of the council’s housing stock meets decent homes standard.

See the full quarterly Corporate Performance Report