Annual performance spotlights

Areas for improvement

Further explanatory narrative for those measures where targets were not met or where performance was not improving.

Connect outcome	Measure	Target	Performance	Explanations/narrative
Education and learning	School leavers achieving 1 or more awards at level 5	Met	Not improving	Although the 2023 result of 90% is a reduction of 1.2% points from the previous year, direct comparison is still difficult due to ongoing covid mitigation and changes to course work and assessments. The 2023 result shows a significant increase since pre-covid data: in 2019 the result was 86.53%.
Education and learning	School leavers achieving 1 or more awards at Level 6	Met	Not improving	Although the 2023 result of 68.9% is a reduction of 3.4% points from the previous year, direct comparison is still difficult due to ongoing covid mitigation and changes to course work and assessments. The 2023 result shows a significant increase since pre-covid data: in 2019 the result was 66.48%.
Children and young people	Reduce the gap for positive destination outcomes for care experienced young people	Met	Not improving	Although the gap has widened slightly compared to the previous year this is due to the rate for non-care experienced young people improving at a higher rate within a context where both rates have improved. The council achieved a higher positive destination rate in 2022-23 (92.9%) than in 2021-22 (92.5%) which relates to 79 young people out of 85 compared to 74 out of 80. We do not believe that further improvement actions are required as robust processes are in place to track care experienced young people’s destination between the employability team, social work, school and SDS and this is reflected in a positive destination rate for care experienced young people which is significantly higher than the national rate.
Children and young people	Gap in attendance between secondary pupils from the least and most deprived areas	Not met	Maintained	Data holding steady and slightly short of the aspirational stretch aim target, which means they are designed to be ambitious, beyond expectation and encourage continuous improvement. This was discussed and reported as such at committee. Work will continue to focus to improve attendance next year.
Our economy	Number of jobs created or sustained as a direct result of Economic Development intervention	Met	Not Improving	646 jobs were created or sustained during 2023-24 as a direct result of Economic Development intervention, exceeding the target of 500. Eligibility criteria for SLC Business Growth Grant amended in August 2023, from then on applications were only accepted for projects that led to direct job creation or net zero projects.
Communities and environment	Percentage of our road network that should be considered for maintenance treatment (Road Condition Index)	Not met	Not improving	This figure is derived from the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS) Road Condition Index (RCI) survey. The survey has now been completed and the overall RCI is 31.9% for 2022-2024. This falls short of the target of 30.8% and indicates a regression of 1.1% of the amount of our road network in an amber or red status. Deterioration is also showing across individual road categories to a similar extent. The service is currently preparing the annual Roads Asset Management Plan (RAMP) update for 2024 to reflect the most recent data and this will be reported to committee later this year. Budgetary as well as inflationary pressures impacts on the ability to improve the condition of our assets; and whilst there has been an increase in capital funding for this financial year, this is being used to help balance the reduction in the revenue budget which provides the Service with its day-to-day funding to help maintain the network in a safe and serviceable condition. The Service will continue to inspect routes on a regular basis and identify priorities within available budgets.
Communities and environment	Percentage of household waste that is recycled	Not met	Improving	The Household Recycling Rate for January to December 2023 was 43.75%. This remains below the target of 50%. The new bulky waste contract commenced on 1 April 2022, and continues to increase the quantities of bulky waste being recycled, as evidenced by the increase from 2022 (41.2%) to 2023 (43.75%). Performance will continue to be closely monitored.
Health and wellbeing	Local authority and private welfare guardianship visits completed on time	Met	Not improving	This is a statutory area of work and the target has been met. The Resource prioritises statutory areas of work to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities.