Council and democracy

The council's published performance results for Best Value Performance Indicators in 2007/08 show a larger number of services met the targets set and improved their performance.

Safer, stronger and more sustainable communities

Making Croydon safer is a key priority for the Council and its partners.
In 2007/08:

• violent crime reduced to 24.9 from 26 per 1000 population
• robberies also fell from 5.3 to 4.9.

This is primarily due to a range of initiatives such as the Best Bar None Awards, CABSAFE Croydon and the introduction of Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers and a robbery reduction strategy that included targeting young people and undertaking patrols.

Physical visits to the Museum of Croydon and its exhibition galleries increased from 137 per 1,000 population to 243, whilst visits by school groups increased from 2,860 in 2006/07 to 4,839. Exhibitions such as the very popular 'Sharmanka', 'Seeing Dragons in the Clouds', 'Whatever the Weather' and '1001 Muslim Inventions' helped boost visitor figures.

Achieving Better Outcomes for Children and Young People

Performance improvement was maintained in this area, including children’s social care and the leadership of early years and child care services. A number of the year’s targets , particularly in relation to education attainment, were not achieved.

To improve performance, the council has established a School Improvement Board, and provided additional support to schools..

Promoting economic growth and prosperity

There has been a marginal drop in performance in the planning service. The challenging targets set for 2007/08 were based on 2006/07 performance,, which was a record breaking year that saw the council obtain the highest Planning Delivery Grant settlement in London. The number of appeals handled by the department also doubled in 2007/08.

Resource and capacity issues in relation to plan making milestones have been addressed to focus on the Local Development Framework.

Improving health and wellbeing

Services for the most vulnerable adults in the community achieved improvements on last year’s results, with top ratings compared to other councils.

Progress was maintained towards achieving the national Decent Homes Standard and Energy Efficiency Rating target for council housing.

Improving the environment

Caring for the environment is a key council priority, with a focus on increasing
recycling. The impact of the new Waste Strategy and Recycling Plan is driving up performance.

Street cleanliness shows a marked improvement, with indicators measuring levels of litter and graffiti in public areas recording close to the best possible scores.

Delivering high quality public services and improving value for money

The improvements in debt collection and rent collection rates demonstrate  the council’s continuing commitment to improving value for money. Improvements continued in the council’s housing benefits service, which again achieved a 4 star CPA rating, and is now one of the best-performing services in London.