Council Plan Connect 2022-27: Quarter 2 Progress Report 2025-26

The council’s performance management reporting system IMPROVe uses a traffic light format with the following definitions to give a status report on each action or performance measure:

The overall summary of Connect progress to date is as follows:

Data as of Monday 27 October 2025

Key achievements to date against each of the six Connect Outcomes are summarised below:

Connect Outcome - Communities and Environment

• Since 1st April 2025 there have been over 75 individual submissions of peoples experience within Justice Services shared on Care Opinion. The stories highlight the impact interventions and relationship-based practices have had on people through their journey in justice services. This feedback is being used as part of developing Justice’s Outcome framework in partnership with Matter of Focus later in the year.

• Additionally, South Lanarkshire University Health and Social Care Partnership’s blog on ‘The power of lived experiences in Justice Services’ appeared on the national Care Opinion website. The blog spotlights the amazing work being done across the partnership in Justice Services, with the dedication to listening and learning truly prevalent. The blog speaks volumes to how important it is to champion Care Opinion, with the “strong, proactive network of Care Opinion Champions, who play a pivotal role in encouraging and supporting staff” being integral in this success. (SWR)

• The percentage of properties with Full Fibre Connection has increased to 63.67%, an increase of 2.85% between April to September 2025, exceeding the annual target to reach 60% coverage. (CER)

• Across our capital and revenue programme, 60 road maintenance schemes have been delivered (47 carriageway/13 footway). A programme of bridge and other structure projects have been completed, including works at Millheugh Bridge, Larkhall, Duke Street Multi Storey Car Park and Elvanfoot Bridge. (CER)

• The new station at Hairmyres was opened to passengers in May 2025 with the southern Park and Ride area. The northern Park and Ride area was opened in July 2025. (CER)

• Conference of Schools 3 (COS3): Empowering Future Climate Leaders -Led by the South Lanarkshire Youth Forum on Climate Change and Sustainability, COS3 brought together over 300 pupils and staff from 100 primary schools at Hamilton Palace Sports Grounds. The event showcased youth leadership in climate education, with strong interest from schools in replicating the model and continuing support for future forums. The event received praise from Education Scotland’s Chief Executive for its impact and pupil leadership. (EDR)

• Over 60 schools now participate in the ‘Eco-Schools programme’ (Keep Scotland Beautiful), promoting whole-school sustainability through practical and pupil-driven projects. A successful ‘Waste Warrior pilot’ with P6 pupils from five primary schools has expanded to 21 additional schools, exploring innovative approaches to food waste reduction. (EDR)

Connect Outcome - Education and Learning

• Literacy: Our P1/4/7 literacy is at its highest (74.6%) since 2016-17, we have overtaken our previous pre-pandemic levels and remain above the national average for the fourth year in a row. S3 literacy remains above the national average and has increased since the pandemic and at its highest (73.8%) for fourth level since 2016-17. Third level continues to show stronger performance at 92.4%. The literacy gap continues to close across P1/4/7 and in S3 our gap remains smaller than the national average. (EDR)

• Numeracy: Our P1/4/7 numeracy is (81.5%) consistently above the national average since 2016-17 and has overtaken our pre-pandemic levels for the third year in a row. Third and fourth level numeracy also remain above the national average and fourth level has overtaken our pre pandemic levels. Our numeracy gap continues to close across P1/4/7 and in S3 our gap remains smaller than the national average.

• Inspections in session 2024-25: 15 school and 4 Early Learning and Childcare inspections were carried out by His Majesty’s Inspector. All received positive outcomes, meeting or exceeding the national expectations with a grade of satisfactory or above awarded for all Quality Indicators. 9 of our establishments were also identified as having practice worth sharing nationally. (EDR)

• Leaver Destinations: The 2024-25 academic year saw promising trends in attainment across most measures for our leavers as we observed continued improvements in the achievements of our learners. Our Positive Destination rate for all leavers remains consistently above the national average. (EDR)

• MCR Pathways Mentoring: This comprehensive programme provides dedicated mentored support to pupils from S3 through S6, with 288 pupils participating last session.

• Now active in all 20 South Lanarkshire secondary schools, the MCR Pathways programme continues to support pupils facing personal and academic challenges. (EDR)

• Instrumental Music Service (IMS) has continued to be a vital contributor to South Lanarkshire’s educational success, offering high-quality music education that is inclusive, aspirational, and community-focused. (EDR)

Connect Outcome - Health and Wellbeing

• Take Control, the commissioned Support for independent advice and information on Self-Directed Support, has now established a base within one of our local offices. They continue to bring service users and carers together in the provision of specific topic information such as recruitment of personal assistants, independent living funds, managing direct payments. (SWR)

•  Lanarkshire Carers is celebrating 30 years of Caring in Lanarkshire. During Carers Week, June 2025, a range of activities were undertaken to raise awareness to carers supports and services. South Lanarkshire University Health and Social Care Partnership raised awareness to Carers Week (Caring in the workplace) with the flag raising ceremony, information sessions for staff, and publication of a carer’s information booklet. Lanarkshire Carers continues to develop online tools to assist carers think about their caring situation. Lanarkshire Carers, Carer Connected representatives, continue to share their lived experience and assist services to improve planning and delivery. They have visited the Scottish Parliament, heard about Local Development Plans, and engaged with “No need to Fall” workshops. (SWR)

• The team at MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements) Lanarkshire won the title of Outstanding External Partner at the Police Scotland Lanarkshire Excellence Awards. MAPPA Lanarkshire aims to minimise the potential risks posed by serious violent and sexual offenders. To ensure the safety of the public and reduce the risk of harm, MAPPA can use a variety of safeguarding measures such as surveillance, curfews, electronic tagging, and sexual offence prevention orders. MAPPA Lanarkshire is delivered through a partnership between South and North Lanarkshire Councils and each MAPPA area works with a number of different organisations including Police Scotland, the Scottish Prison Service, and the NHS. (SWR)

• The Decider Skills Groupwork Programme for men in South Lanarkshire Justice Services was launched in July 2025 and groupwork is based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, to focus on mental wellbeing and emotional regulation, enabling people to be more resilient, resourceful, responsible, mindful of their actions and as such support the development of more pro-social behaviours. This has been implemented within the Hamilton/Blantyre locality team and to date 6 groups have commenced There have been 51 referrals in total with 32 people engaged and continuing to attend. (SWR)

• The £13m Transformation Fund is helping to modernise the leisure and culture asset base taking account of the following needs: to adapt and modernise; to address energy efficiency and decarbonisation of the estate; to reduce liabilities and cover costs of demolition; and to consider community accessibility. Projects completed at the end of quarter two include Greenhills and Blantyre Library reprovision and Hillhouse and Earnock Community Centre refurbishment. A range of additional projects were approved at Executive Committee in August 2025 and have now been added to the programme. This includes the replacement of the floating floor at Hamilton Water Palace and the replacement of the Whitemoss 3G pitch. (CER)

• Of the 40 new homes completed to date within 2025-2026, all have been built to ‘Housing for Varying Needs’ standards and are easily adaptable to accommodate tenant’s changing needs over time. 4 of the 40 (10%) were accessible for wheelchairs, achieving the target of 10% established in the Local Housing Strategy 2022-27.The homes are located close to existing services, amenities and transport links allowing tenants to easily connect with the existing communities. Our affordable housing supply programme continues to increase the supply of council homes across South Lanarkshire, with a focus on ensuring that the new homes provide for changing in peoples need over the course of time. (HTR)

• Emotion Coaching: Over 1,500 education staff have been trained by our Educational Psychologists in Emotion Coaching, an attachment-informed approach that helps children manage emotions. Post-training evaluations showed 88% of staff adapted their practice, with 84% reporting improved pupil wellbeing and 72% noting reduced distressed behaviour.

• Counselling Through Schools Service: Between April 2024 and March 2025, 1,745 young people accessed in-school counselling. Evaluations showed 87% of primary and 82% of secondary pupils reported improved wellbeing. (EDR)

• Attendance Campaign – ‘Every School Day Matters’: A council-wide campaign launched to promote school attendance, especially among early years and primary pupils. Featuring real pupils and superhero-themed messaging, the campaign highlights the social and emotional benefits of regular attendance. It aligns with national priorities and has been widely promoted across schools. (EDR)

Connect Outcome - Children and Young People

• South Lanarkshire Family Connections Team established the Birth Roots support service in August 2025 to support birth parents whose children have been adopted. The service is due to launch in October 2025 and offers a safe, understanding space where parents whose children have been adopted can talk, take part in group activities, or just spend time with others who have been through something similar. (SWR)

• 100% of young people leaving care were provided with a housing options discussion which resulted in the development of an individual housing plan. 100% received a person housing pathway plan. (HTR)

• Improving Attendance: Over 120 schools and Education Scotland representatives attended the CQIS Attendance Conference, focused on tackling attendance through collaboration and innovation. New attendance data tools were launched, enabling real-time data use and reducing admin time. These tools were rolled out authority-wide, supported by a comprehensive learning programme. Our persistent absence level for session 2024-25 was 3.1% compared to 3.8% nationally. (EDR)

• Inclusion Conference 2025: Over 200 participants attended our “Embracing Diversity” themed Inclusion Conference in September 2025. Topics covered included a new vison for inclusive practice; embracing neurodiversity; embracing all behaviour as communication; embracing equality and embracing The Promise. (EDR)

Connect Outcome - Housing and Land

• We continue to increase the supply of affordable housing with the delivery of 96 homes so far during 2025-26. This includes 40 new build and 56 properties that have been acquired through the market purchase scheme. (HTR)

• Average days to relet a property decreased from 19.36 days in Quarter 2 (2024-25) to 17.67 days in Quarter 2 (2025-2026). (HTR)

• We ensure that those with the highest housing need are prioritised, with 60% of lets to urgent homeless (UH) households. (HTR)

Connect Outcome - Our Economy

• Following the approval of funding in our budget of £8m, the Hamilton Town Centre masterplan can move forward. A report was presented to Community and Enterprise Resource Committee in August 2025 setting out the proposals. (CER)

In addition to working towards the six Connect Outcomes, the council will continually aim to improve and ensure effective and efficient use of resources, and that business will be conducted with integrity and transparency and will operate to the highest standards. In order to monitor and report progress against these values, Resource outcomes have also been identified, under the heading Delivering the Plan and achieving Best Value. Related achievements to date are summarised below:

Delivering the Plan and achieving Best Value

• Landlines in the UK are going digital. The existing analogue technology (the PSTN - Public Switched Telephone Network) which has supported phone, broadband and community alarm services for decades is being retired and switched off in January 2027. In advance of this we embarked on a large-scale programme to replace over 7,000 community alarms with new digital-ready devices and to implement new digitally ready Alarm Receiving Centre software, replacing outdated systems with a more resilient cloud-based solution. This work was completed over the summer of 2025 and offers efficiencies through flexible working, better data access and improved response to service interruption through the introduction of enhanced monitoring capability. (SWR)

• Against an extremely challenging set of socio-economic circumstances, positive performance, against previous year, was achieved in relation to the percentage of gross rent arrears – it reduced over the same period from 7.26% Quarter 2 (2024-25) to 6.61% in Quarter 2 (2025-2026). (HTR)

• The Digital Telecare Project has been formally signed off and closed. (FCR)

Progress to date against the full suite of measures is contained in the Connect Quarter 2 Performance Report 2025-26, presented to the Performance and Review Scrutiny Forum (PRSF).

To focus attention on areas where there may be scope for improvement, additional information is provided for Resource Plan results, in the same period, recorded as being either

• Red status: there has been major slippage against timescale or major shortfall against target or
• Amber status: There has been minor slippage against timescale or minor shortfall against target

Connect Outcome: Communities and Environment

Connect Outcome: Health and wellbeing

Connect Outcome: Children and young people

Connect Outcome: Housing and land

Connect Outcome: Our Economy

Delivering the plan and achieving Best Value