Essex Works project is making life better says county council (From Echo)

Essex Works project is making life better says county council

7:40pm Thursday 29th September 2011 in Features By James Wills

A BID to make Essex residents the happiest in the UK is supposedly bearing fruit.

In 2008, the council launched the groundbreaking Essex Works programme to make the county’s residents the most content in the nation.

A new report to the council’s Audit Committee claims it is on the right track.

In its annual report for 2010-11, Essex Works says eight out of ten residents are satisfied with where they live.

Over the year, the council spent £2.65billion serving the county’s 1.39 million residents.

Performance highlights included: * Delivering £86million of savings * Improvement of children’s services * GCSE results improved * No secondary schools in special measures.

However, by the council’s own standards, there is still some way to go.

Where its performances can be measured, the council hit its targets in 43 cases, but missed them in 29.

Many of these are not covered by official legislation, but are merely a benchmark of where the council wants to be.

Areas where it missed its goals include: * The number of people engaging in the arts at least three times a year (43 per cent – target 46.5 per cent) * Active library membership (333,757 – target 348,479) * Reducing the number of 16 to 18-year-olds not in education or employment (6.2 per cent – target of 5 per cent) * A total of 54.6 per cent of GCSE pupils achieved more than five A*-C grades at GSCE, including English and maths – target 56.2 per cent * Reducing obesity in primary schools to 8.1 per cent, figure achieved was 8.8 per cent.

Peter Martin, leader of Essex County Council, said: “We are proud that, during a difficult financial year, we continued to make improvements in key services, such as protecting vulnerable children, supporting vulnerable adults, increasing educational attainment, increasing recycling rates and reducing the number of deaths on our roads.

“We are also pleased the number of people who are satisfied with the way the council is running services increased over the past 12 months, as did the percentage of residents who feel Essex is a good place to live.”