Monmouthshire County Council staff take more sick days than their national counterparts, according to Welsh Government figures.

The annual performance review found MCC loses almost 12 days per full-time employee each year due to sickness, compared with just ten days for the average Welsh worker.

Council bosses said last week they are focusing on improving the figures.

The review, which measures local authority effectiveness against a number of key objectives, found MCC’s performance fell within the national top bracket for over half its service areas.

MCC has now achieved three years of improving figures in key areas - education, protection of the vulnerable, enterprise and local service maintenance - against a backdrop of cuts totalling £17m.

Monmouthshire’s school system boasts the strongest record in Wales, with 67 per cent of pupils leaving with five good GCSEs in 2015, including English (or Welsh) and Maths.

The council also underlined a big improvement in adult social care provision, with 91 per cent of users having had their support reviewed, a seven point jump from the previous year.

The review found some areas remained on a level performance with last year.

It found that 99 per cent of highways in Monmouthshire were of a high or acceptable standard of cleanliness, with little room for improvement.

The number of roads in poor condition also fell from 9.7 to 9.2 per cent.

MCC bosses said last week they intend to prioritise driving-down sickness absence and measures attached to children’s services.

Over the last four years, the council has delivered improvements to three-quarters of its performance targets, with particular focus upon shielding frontline services from swingeing budget cuts.

 

Council Leader Peter Fox said, “I am pleased to see that most of our services continue to perform well.  We know from this data and our own regular performance information that there are still service areas that require improvement and we are starting to see these improvements being made.

 

“During the last four years of this administration, we have seen nearly three quarters of service performance indicators improve.  Faced with unprecedented financial challenges, increasing demand and the rural nature of the county, continuing to maintain and improve performance in all service areas is becoming increasingly challenging but it is a challenge we are up to.

 

“We remain committed to prioritising our resources on our four priority areas, while I still expect every service to be efficient and cost effective.  We continue to talk to residents about what’s good about their community and what would make it better as we develop long-term objectives for our county.”

 

The council will publish a full evaluation of its 2015/16 performance in October on www.monmouthshire.gov.uk/improvement