Council Performance

Oxford City Council's performance framework is set out in our Corporate Plan 2008-11. The Council's priorities are:

• More housing, better housing for all
• Stronger and more inclusive communities
• Improve the local environment, economy and quality of life
• Reduce crime and anti-social behaviour
• Tackle climate change and promote environmental resource management
• Transform the Council by improving value for money and service performance.

All of the Council's policies, budget decisions and associated performance indicators are organised around the delivery of these priorities.

How does the Council manage its performance?

The Council manages its performance through the following mechanisms.

Corporate Performance Board 

The purpose of the Board is to drive, coordinate, and oversee the development of a proactive performance culture and to monitor and evaluate the organisation's performance. The Board meets monthly and membership consists of senior officers. Board papers are published monthly in  Performance Matters.

Corporate Transformation Board

This Board drives, coordinates, and oversees large-scale corporate transformation projects that impact on customers, staff and systems. The Board meets monthly and membership consists of senior officers. The Board ensures that all proposed projects are supported by costed business cases and delivered according to the Prince 2 project management methodology.

City Executive Board

The City Executive Board (CEB) is the Council's main decision-making body and consists of senior members of the Council's Administration. CEB maintains constant oversight of performance across the Council and also receives quarterly and half-yearly reports specifically on performance.

Scrutiny Committees

The Council's two cross-party scrutiny commitees provide, among other functions, 'critical friend' challenge to decision-makers at the Council. Like CEB, they maintain constant oversight of performance across the Council and also receive quarterly and half-yearly subsets of reports on performance.

Internal Audit

The City Council have appointed KPMG as their internal auditors. This ensures that internal audits of Council performance are independent and objective.

Audit Commission

The Audit Commission is the independent national performance watchdog. It aims to drive economy, efficiency and effectiveness in local public services.

Audit and Governance Committee. The cross-party Audit and Governance Committee monitors the delivery of recommendations for performance improvement resulting from KPMG and Audit Commission inspections.

Page last reviewed 27 Nov 2008