Cabinet, at its meeting on 11 September 2024, will consider a report from the Head of Corporate Strategy setting out the proposed strategic key performance indicators (KPIs) for the Council Strategy 2024-28. Cllr Susan Brown, Leader of the Council and Mish Tullar, Head of Corporate Strategy have been invited to present the report and answer questions. The Panel is asked to consider the report and agree any recommendations.

Report to follow.

Mish Tullar, Head of Corporate Strategy introduced the report, which set out the proposed strategic key performance indicators (KPIs) linked to the Council Strategy 2024-28. The Council Strategy 2024-28 had already been through the relevant approvals process and was adopted by Full Council in July 2024, the KPIs had not been agreed simultaneously as more work was required to ensure the right measures were selected. The purpose of the KPIs was to measure the impact of the various actions towards achieving the Council Strategy 2024-28; the number of KPIs had been kept purposefully small in order to maintain focus.

Cllr Susan Brown, Leader of the Council added that the recent Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review feedback and previous feedback from Scrutiny had highlighted that the Council had too many KPIs. She advised that efforts had been made to reduce the number of KPIs and ensure they were more focused on areas of Council control. Cllr Brown also clarified that the proposed KPIs were the Council’s headline KPIs, there would be a suite of operational KPIs which sat underneath the corporate KPIs, which were currently being reviewed; the corporate KPIs were not intended to be a reflection of all the work the Council was undertaking.

Cllr Turner joined the meeting.

In response to questions, the Panel was advised that:

·       The wider context around the proposed KPIs was set out in the Corporate Strategy 2024-28, which may have been more immediately obvious had the KPIs been agreed alongside the strategy in July 2024.

·       The Council had various overall aims, but the levers for achieving these aims were not all necessarily within the Council’s control.

·       There was confidence that the KPIs reflected action that was deliverable and within the Council’s control; and that targets were stretching while still being achievable.

·       The Council’s operational KPIs were being reviewed separately with a view to reducing the number of them; these would be reported on more frequently than the corporate KPIs. The operational KPIs could be submitted to the Panel for consideration and regular oversight once they had been reviewed.

·       The corporate KPIs proposed in relation to Leisure Services had been interrogated for their reliability and had been deemed appropriate measures.

·       Air quality in Oxford was measured, but this did not feature as a corporate KPI, it was measured at the operational level; the Council was required to submit a report to DEFRA annually on air quality and the Climate and Environment Panel was due to consider this report at its meeting on 10 September.

·       The proposed KPI related to the number of rough sleepers without an offer of accommodation was also viewed as a good proxy measure for Temporary Accommodation; in addition, it was highlighted that the Council was doing a lot of work to address the rise in demand for Temporary Accommodation, despite not being able to control or predict the demand as it was a national issue.

The Panel agreed that having a smaller number of more focused KPIs which demonstrated action in areas where the Council had control was appropriate, however suggested that it would be useful to also include additional KPIs which demonstrated whether the Council was achieving its ultimate goals and having the impact that it set out to have, even in areas where external factors outside of the Council’s control influenced those outcomes rather than them being in the direct control of the Council (e.g. length of housing register waiting list or the affordability index for the City under the Good, Affordable Homes priority).

The Panel noted the report; there were no recommendations.

Cllr Susan Brown, Leader of the Council and Mish Tullar, Head of Corporate Strategy left the meeting and did not return.