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ITEM EX6

EXECUTIVE – 28 MAY 2002

PUBLIC SERVICE AGREEMENT

Report by Director for Strategy

Introduction

  1. The County Council is seeking to enter into a Public Service Agreement (PSA) with the Government. This report describes the theme and targets proposed to be included in the PSA and recommends arrangements for its finalisation and submission to the Department of Transport, Local Government & The Regions (DTLR).

    2. Basis of the Submission

  2. The PSA will set improved performance targets for the County Council in 12 service areas. In return, the Government will provide a pump priming grant of £1.4m to cover start up costs and a performance reward grant of approximately £1m per target for each target achieved. The Government may also offer flexibilities and freedoms from certain policy and administrative restrictions which would inhibit delivery of the targets.

  3. The submission based on the proposed targets must be provided to the DTLR by 1 July 2002. The terms of the PSA will be negotiated during the period July to September 2002. The PSA will commence on 1 April 2003 for a period of three years.

  4. The PSA will be based on improved delivery of 12 national and local performance targets. Targets must include at least one national target in each of the areas Education, Social Services and Transport, and one target based on cost efficiency. A total of 26 potential targets has been nominated by sponsoring Council Departments. These have been assessed against 7 key criteria and ranked for inclusion in the PSA submission. Details of the targets are in Annex 1; details of the assessment criteria are in Annex 2.

  5. At this stage it is proposed that the 17 most highly ranked targets (Priority Targets) will be further developed and reduced to the required 12 in the final stages of preparation of the submission. The submission will be based on the selected 12 targets drawn together into a theme. It has been proposed that the "Raising our Performance" and "Safeguarding our Communities" goals from the Oxfordshire Plan should be adopted as the overall target and theme for the PSA.

    6. Scrutiny Committee Comments

  6. At invitation of the Executive the Corporate Governance Scrutiny Committee have considered the theme and targets proposed in this report. Their comments are summarised in Annex 3.

    7. RECOMMENDATION

  7. The Executive is RECOMMENDED, subject to consideration of the comments of the Corporate Governance Scrutiny Committee, to endorse the proposed targets and theme for the Oxfordshire PSA set out in the report and authorise the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Deputy Leader of the Council, to draw up the formal PSA submission on that basis.  

STEPHEN CAPALDI
Director for Strategy

Background papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Patrick Coulter, PSA Project Manager Tel: Oxford 815908

May 2002
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