Council reaps rewards for meeting performance targets

Manchester City Council can claim a Performance Reward Grant of more than £6.6m from the Government for exceeding performance targets over a three-year period from 2005-8.

The reward grant, which should be received next month, has been achieved after reaching targets set in the second Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA2).

The overall aim of LPSAs was to improve the delivery of local public services by concentrating on targeted outcomes.

Manchester City Council's second LPSA was agreed in 2005 and built on the success of the first LPSA, which ran from 2002-2005.

LPSA2 focused on a series of 13 ambitious targets for the Council set over three years in partnership with local groups responsible for health, transport, education, employment, business, policing and the community and voluntary sector to improve the city's services.

Improvements made in Manchester between 2005-8 through the delivery of LPSA2 targets include:

• Reducing the number of long-term empty properties in the city by bringing them back into use.
• Reducing the number of domestic burglaries by 30%.
• Reducing the proportion of 16-19 year olds who are not in education, employment or training from 10.8% in 2005 to 8% in 2008.
• Increasing the number of young people gaining at least 5 good (A*-C) GCSEs from 43.9% in 2005 to 55.6% in 2008.
• Improving the cleanliness of Manchester's streets.
• Reducing anti-social behaviour by children and young people. In 2004, 71% of young people aged 10-17 served with an Anti-Social Behaviour order (ASBO) breached it within 6 months. By 2008, only 29% of young people breached their ASBOs
• Increasing the proportion of Manchester residents who feel they can influence decisions in their local area from 33% in 2005 to 55% in 2008.
• Increasing the proportion of Manchester residents who feel that their city is a place where people from different backgrounds can get on well together from 55% in 2005 to 74% in 2008.

A second claim will also be made as part of LPSA2 in February next year for additional reward grant for those targets where final results are not yet available.

The council is confident, based on current improvements in performance, that it will meet the remaining targets which will increase the reward grant earned to £9,315,991.

All grant claimed through LPSA2 has been reinvested into further improvements through Manchester City Council's Service Improvement Fund.

Councillor Bernard Priest, Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources at Manchester City Council, said: "This is great news for Manchester residents as ultimately it's their services which will benefit from the funding. It's also very heartening to receive the grant because it recognises how hard the Council and its partners have worked to achieve their targets."