Best Value Performance & Efficiency Sub-committee Of The Policy & Resources Committee - 31/01/2007

At a MEETING of the BEST VALUE SUB-COMMITTEE OF THE POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 31st January, 2007.

Present:-

BAILIE

John CORRIGAN

COUNCILLORS

Councillor Jill SHIMI, Convener, in the Chair.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I STATUTORY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS 2005/2006 - COMPARATIVE DATA

There was submitted Report No 34-2007 by Head of Finance advising the Sub-Committee on the performance of Dundee City Council in relation to the other Scottish Authorities as defined by the Accounts Commission's recent publication of all authorities' performance for the financial year 2005/2006, and advising on the performance of Dundee City Council in relation to the other main Scottish cities.

The Sub-Committee agreed to note:-

(i) the high overall improvement in performance as defined by the Accounts Commission's Improvement Rating for Dundee of +13, the third best in Scotland.

(ii) the improved performance of the Council in relation to other main city authorities which reported Improvement Ratings below that of Dundee.

The Sub-Committee further agreed:-

(i) officers be encouraged to seek further improvements in performance as recommended by Best Value; and

(ii) both Elected Members and Chief Officers should review the items in Appendix 2 to the report, particularly with regard to red colour coded items to assess if there could be further scope for improvement.

II FREE SCHOOL MEAL/SCHOOL CLOTHING GRANT PROCESS

There was submitted Report No 77-2007 by Depute Chief Executive (Finance) seeking to conclude the planned review of making use of revenues data to improve the free school meal and school clothing grant application process.

The Sub-Committee agreed to:

(i) note the improvements made by combining the Free School Meal and School Clothing Grant application forms;

(ii) remove the photocopying of all evidence;

(iii) move the validation process to Customer Services Level 2.

The Sub-Committee further approved the proposed automatic provision of entitlement to free school meal and school clothing grant where the benefit data held by the Revenues Division verified this.

Jill SHIMI, Convener.