Council plan overview report - Quarterly updates on key performance indicators

The result is measured against a target. 

It is usually related directly to a council service and an indicator of service effectiveness, efficiency or success.

The result is measured against a forecast. 

It is usually outcome focussed and often not fully in the council’s control. 

Contextual indicators are included as they may impact service delivery, demand and the achievement of wider council goals.

The new Ofsted Framework (published in November 2025) removes overall effectiveness grades and replaces the previous 4‑grade system with 5 separate judgements.

Education settings needing urgent improvement will still be identifiable, but it is no longer possible to tell how many are 'good' or 'outstanding'. More settings are expected to have specific areas 'needing attention,' which may prompt monitoring, but this will not equal an overall 'requires improvement' judgement. As a result, this indicator is no longer reportable.  

The 2026 to 2027 service plan includes an action to support to schools and early years settings to meet the requirements of the new Ofsted inspection framework and progress against this will be reported quarterly.

During quarter 4, 6 school appeals were heard: 2 of these were secondary appeals of which none were allowed and 4 were standard primary appeal, of which 2 of which were allowed.

Whilst the period result is higher than the target this is based on a very small sample size due to the low number of appeals received in this quarter. The full 2025 to 2026 result remains below target at just 12%. During the year a total of 42 appeals were heard across primary and secondary schools, only 5 were allowed. In addition to the 2 primary appeals allowed in quarter 4, 3 secondary appeals were allowed in quarter 1.

Where appeals are allowed, this is not necessarily indicative of an error and can be because the Panel believe there are extenuating circumstances which cannot be accounted for in the normal admissions round.

Latest available performance data is for quarter 3 and shows a decrease compared to previous quarters (quarter 2: 69.3% and quarter 3: 51%) and is rated red compared to the aspirational target. However year to date (April to December 2025) there has been a 15% increase in number of health checks completed compared to the same period last year (2,725 versus 2,360).

Work has been carried out in collaboration with the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and colleagues across Berkshire East to develop health promotion campaigns aimed at raising awareness and encouraging uptake of NHS Health Checks among those invited. This social media campaign has achieved substantial reach across Frimley. Further work is underway to produce a short video explaining what an NHS Health Check involves and encouraging residents to take up the offer when invited.

In addition, further work is being undertaken to improve the quality of the Health Checks completed.

Progress updates on performance and activities to improve uptake will continue into 2026 to 2027.

Rough sleepers continue to be identified and supported by Bracknell Forest’s outreach team, through proactive outreach, public reporting and multiagency intelligence gathering to locate where people might be sleeping out.

Data for this indicator is 'live' taken from Bracknell's outreach service, where officers go out and actively try to support those rough sleeping 2 to 3 times a week.

Six people were found to be sleeping rough on 31 March 2026.

Shortly after the count, 1 person was moved into supported accommodation through the council's housing-led programme. As reported under action COM.6.04 the service continues to work closely with partners to engage with people sleeping rough and support access to accommodation and ongoing support. This work will continue as a priority into 2026 to 2027.

This is reported to replace the original 2025 to 2026 service plan indicator ‘Number of children engaged in the creative conversations on healthy eating’, which was removed from the report at quarter 2 as the pilot programme was not extended.

To reflect the importance of children’s health to the delivery of the Council Plan priority ‘Engaged & healthy communities’, 2 alternative indicators have been chosen, in line with National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) instead.

The second replacement indicator, '1.4.3.a KR Reception Year children overweight or obese (%) is', was reported at quarter 3.

At the end of quarter 4 2025 to 2026, the rate of children subject to a child Protection Plan was 69.8, which is slightly elevated when compared with our longer-term average. As reported previously, the rate of children subject to a Child Protection Plan for Bracknell Forest Council tends to be higher than statistical neighbours and the England average and the forecast set at the time was appropriate albeit rather ambitious.

For children to be subject to Child Protection Plans, a multi-agency decision is made by multiple professionals who view that this is needed to make sure children and young people are kept safe. The application of threshold and the quality of decision making in respect of Child Protection have been validated by internal audits as well as by Ofsted during the recent inspection (December 2025).  

Forthcoming legislation, and recently updated statutory guidance, will shift the focus towards intensive preventative help for families. These changes will see agencies, organisations, and individuals provide help, support and protection at the earliest opportunity. Whilst this eventually should lead to a reduction in the rate of children becoming subject to a Child Protection Plan, this will not be immediate. In the short to medium term, it is anticipated that the rate of children subject to Child Protection Plans to exceed the forecast previously set.

None of the sites granted planning permission during quarter 4 were qualifying sites for affordable housing under Policy LP 16 of the Bracknell Forest Local Plan. 

The 2025 to 2026 forecast of 35% relates to the development plan requirement under Bracknell Forest Local Plan (2024) Policy LP 16. It applies to new homes on sites of 10 dwellings or more (gross) or which have an area of 0.5 hectares or more. It also applies to specialist housing for older people where the site is delivering a gain of 10 or more (gross) self-contained units (C3 and C2). The 35% can only be applied to permissions granted since the adoption of the Bracknell Forest Local Plan in March 2024.

During 2025 to 2026 overall, 16 out of 53 dwellings were affordable (30%), however a commuted sum (financial contribution) was also paid in respect of a proposal on land south of London Road (Eastern Field), Binfield, for new highways or improvements.

Looking forward to 2026 to 2027 it is anticipated that there are likely to be sites that qualify for affordable housing although the number, scale and timing are outside of the council’s control.

During the monitoring year 2025 to 2026, 8 sites that include affordable housing have been totally completed. The details are:  

• North of Tilehurst Road, Binfield where 10 out of 40 units are affordable (25%) [Permitted October 2019]
• Norbury, London Road, Bracknell where 6 out of 21 units are affordable (29%) [Permitted March 2022]
• The former TRL (Bucklers Park), Phase 4a, Crowthorne where 17 out of 169 units are affordable (10%) [Permitted December 2022]
• The former TRL (Bucklers Park), Phase 4b, Crowthorne where 6 out of 63 units are affordable (10%) [Permitted May 2023]
• The former Beaufort Park Offices (The Evergreens), Bracknell where 8 out of 68 units are affordable (12%) [Permitted October 2019]
• Land north of Cain Road, Binfield where 15 out of 50 units are affordable (30%).  A further 30 were secured outside the planning system. [Permitted March 2022]
• Warfield Area 2 Phase 10 where 10 out of 39 units are affordable (26%) [Permitted October 2022]
• Warfield Area 1 Parcel 4 where 12 out of 45 units are affordable (27%) [Permitted December 2022]

The percentage achieved over these 8 sites is 17% affordable overall. It should be noted that the outline permission for the former TRL site was granted on the basis of providing not less than 10% affordable housing on site and a commuted sum (financial contribution for highways).        

In addition, there were 2 qualifying sites that did not provide any affordable housing:

• Westwood House, Swinley Road, Winkfield where 0 out of 20 units are affordable. Original permission secured 5 dwellings as affordable units but subsequent s.73 permission changed the affordable provision to a commuted sum (£1.3 million) due to viability. [October 2023]
• Warfield Area 2, Phase 6 where 0 out of 80 units are affordable. However, the Section 106 agreement for the outline permission secured the provision 40 affordable units on Phase 4 under the outline permission i.e. the affordable housing was not delivered evenly across all phases. 

The percentage achieved over all for completely 'completed' and qualifying sites is 14% affordable. While this is below the current target (35%) set out in Policy LP16 of the Bracknell Forest Local Plan, the above permissions were granted prior to the adoption of the Bracknell Forest Local Plan, under a different policy regime.

Following the purchase of the Lexicon by Realty Income, strong footfall performance has been maintained with retailers reporting positive trading.

Actual footfall data is commercially sensitive and so has not been available to report during 2025 to 2026. For 2026 to 2027 this indicator will be replaced with ‘percentage of vacant retail units in Bracknell Town Centre’ as this is not commercially sensitive and will provide a useful measure for the Council Plan goal ‘Bracknell town centre continues to thrive & be a destination of choice’.

The latest available data (October 2024 to September 2025) shows a slight decrease in the unemployment figure from the previous reporting quarter, when it was 3.3%. Bracknell Forest’s unemployment figures are comparable with neighbouring Berkshire local authorities, with Reading at 3.6% and Wokingham at 3%.

The new Bracknell Forest Youth Employment Hub opened in January 2026 and offers support to those aged between 18 and 24 years in receipt of Universal Credit to gain sustainable employment. Information on this new service can be found on the main council webpage.

As part of the government’s Get Britain Working plan, the Connect to Work programme launched at the end of January 2026 in Berkshire. Connect to Work is a voluntary programme that helps people overcome barriers to employment and find meaningful work. Barriers can include health issues, disabilities or other challenges that make it hard to get a job. The programme offers up to 12 months of support that is tailored to each person's needs.

Further details are available on the Connect to Work webpage.

This result is for quarter 3. This indicator is reported a quarter behind due to the timing of the data release from our contractors. Unfortunately, throughout quarter 3, high levels of contamination continued to be found in collected recycling from blue bins. This indicator is driven by resident behaviour and is a common problem across other local authority waste collection services.

The council's Environmental Services team and their waste collection contractor work hard to raise awareness of the correct materials to recycle in the blue bin. There are regular communications on social media and in newsletters (including 'Recycle right this Easter' campaign and ‘Recycling right in Bracknell Forest’ feature in Your Bracknell Forest magazine), as well as targeted communication with households that persistently put the wrong items in their recycling bins.

The collection operatives look for contamination before emptying the recycling bins, however they can only see what is visible near the top of the bin. If contaminants are visibly present, then they do not empty the bin and leave an advisory notice on the bin.

The number of electric vehicle charge points per 100,000 population is 98.6.

This continues an upward trend for this year but falls short of the end of year target of 121.

The council did not install any publicly available charge points last quarter. 

Following a procurement process the council aims to award a contract with an EV charge point operator in May 2026 which will deliver chargers in residential streets, at scale, over the next few years.

Agency spend was monitored throughout the 2025 to 2026 financial year and compared each quarter to the same quarter the previous year.

Over the course of the financial year, cumulative spend on agency workers has fluctuated, at times showing greater reduction compared to the same period the previous year. 

For the full year 2025 to 2026, a £312,760 reduction in agency spend was achieved, when compared to the previous financial year. When added to the £2.8 million reduction in 2024 to 2025, compared to 2023 to 2024, a total reduction of £3.1 million was achieved across the first two years of the programme, exceeding the 3-year target of £3 million.

A reduction in Rateable Values late in the financial year has resulted in credit remaining on accounts that need refunding, hence a figure above 100%

At the end of the reporting period, long-term debt remained steady at £60 million, short-term debt rose to £67.5 million, on spending power of £123 million.

As reported previously, the result rose as the council proceeded through 2025 to 2026, but did not reach the upper limit set for total debt as a percentage of core spending at the year end.

A further £62,500 has been delivered this quarter through the digitalisation and efficiency programme. No new savings have been delivered through the neighbourhood regeneration and assets programme this quarter.

As reported under action ORG.1.02, while some revenue savings have been identified through the neighbourhood regeneration and assets programme, the current programme will not deliver the scale of savings required. The programme is being reprioritised and aligned to the 3-year strategic planning to achieve savings over a longer term.

The percentage of staff undertaking an apprenticeship stayed at 4.2% this quarter. Managers are still being encouraged to look at apprenticeships for difficult to fill roles. Funding for Level 7 apprenticeships has now been withdrawn so there be a reduction in numbers, as the higher level programmes were popular in Bracknell Forest.  

Apprenticeship opportunities were promoted during National Apprentice Week in February for existing council employees who may wish to undertake an apprenticeship as part of their development and training. The team held several activities including lunch and learn and meet the provider to raise awareness of the wide range of opportunities on offer. It celebrated members of staff who had recently completed their apprenticeship and the managers and mentors that supported them.

During the quarter the council also reached a key milestone, celebrating the 100th successful apprenticeship completion.

Within quarter 4, 6 appeals were determined, of which 4 were allowed.

Of these, 1 was a Committee decision (Member overturn) whilst the other 3 were determined under delegated powers.

As a result, the council's target for this period was not met. A review of all appeal decisions is undertaken by officers to determine if there are any learning points that arise from these cases.

The council’s legal fees are charged to the developers for the drafting negotiation and completion of Section 106 (S106) agreements.

Developers pay the legal fees on completion, however the value of legal fees to be received cannot be guaranteed. S106 agreement income is directly related to the number of planning applications received that require such agreements, and the legal department have no control over this as it is a reactive service working on instructions received from the planning department.

During 2025 to 2026 there has been a reduction in planning applications received by the council and particularly planning applications for the larger sites.

As forecast at quarter 3, some income was received during quarter 4 as a result of 8 S106 completions (£18,175). There are a few agreements in progress that are taking longer to complete due to site specific issues, but this is not unusual.

In total 25 S106 completions were made during the year and £62,954 income was recovered from legal costs versus a forecast of £117,500.

The proportion of disabled staff in the top 5% of staff reduced again this quarter as a result of 1 leaver from the top 5% cohort.

The low result overall can be attributed to a large reporting gap in terms of staff disabilities as reported under ‘4.5.4.CI Percentage of employees with a disability’.

The March 2026 HR Newsletter included a call to action to update personal information to support the council to:

• provide the right support and adjustments
• understand the workforce better
• strengthen fairness, inclusion and wellbeing

A video has also been produced to encourage staff to record their sensitive information.  

Regular requests will continue to be made to ask staff to update their personal details on the system.

The percentage of disabled staff overall continues to be below target, but has risen slightly this quarter and is better than the result at the same time last year (4.9%).

The March 2026 HR Newsletter included a call to action to update personal information to support the council to: 

• provide the right support and adjustments
• understand the workforce better
• strengthen fairness, inclusion and wellbeing

A video has also been produced to encourage staff to record their sensitive information.

Regular requests will continue to be made to ask staff to update their personal details on the system.