Issue - meetings

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Communities which provided the Annual Report on Community Centres for the period up to 31st March 2011.

            It was reported that Community Centres’ services consisted of five buildings – detailed in the report - which had programmes of community activities, varying models of community cafes and service outlets i.e. children’s centre, youth centre and day services. These centres provided a community hub, a central point at the heart of these communities for residents to enjoy chosen activities and receive services in their neighbourhoods.

            The report set out the performance for community centres which contributed to a whole area approach to health and wellbeing. It was noted that community centre’s service demonstrated continuous improvement through its performance monitoring and contributions to the Council’s efficiency programme.

            Community centres were benchmarked as part of the APSE (Association of Public Service Excellence) against other Civic, Cultural and Community Venues owned and run by other local authorities.

The Board received a presentation from Ian Atherton – Community Centres Manager which provided Members with performance data, including trend information over a number of years. It was further noted that all of Halton’s Community Centres had progressed positively overall on their indicators earning them nomination for APSE national awards for improved performance. The presentation set out graphs representing service performance information over a five year period for Halton’s Community Centres. These included –

·        Net Cost per User excluding Centre Establishment Charges;

·        Total Income Per User;

·        Operational Recovery;

·        Staffing Costs as a Percentage of Total Costs;

·        Visits per Household-Catchment Area;

·        Net Cost per Household Catchment Area

·        Staff Absence; and

·        Quality Assurance and Community Consultation.

            Members were advised of other performance indicators that informed the Council that a centre was performing well. Four graphs were appended to the report showing the annual improvement across performance indicators for Murdishaw Community Centre.

            It was reported that a detailed piece of work would be carried out in the near future, analysing the usage of community centres against post codes to reflect demographics of the local community which would enable APSE to be provided with a further breakdown of data.

            The report also set out highlights of centre activity for 2010/11 at Murdishaw, Grangeway, Upton, Ditton and Castlefields Community. Members were also advised of the wider service delivery and future challenges.

Members were further advised of an energy efficiency programme that was carried out at 2 centres.  It was reported that the gas and electricity consumption was reduced by around 20% across these centres. It was further reported that at Murdishaw Community Centre there was a 39% reduction in gas and a 3.5% reduction in electricity for 2011/12.  Members discussed the implementation of the efficiency programme across all other community centres and wider areas of the council to make further savings.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.