Agenda item

(Leader of Council) To consider the attached report (C-032-2017/18).

(1)        That the Council’s proposed new Corporate Plan for the period 2018/19 to 2022/23 be agreed, superseding the Corporate Plan 2015-20;

(2)        That the proposed Corporate Specification for 2018/19 be agreed;

(3)        That the Corporate Plan 2018-2023 and the Corporate Specification for 2018/19 be recommended to the Council for adoption;

(4)        That the Leader of the Council, in consultation with the Chief Executive, be authorised to agree any further changes to the Corporate Plan and Corporate Specification following its approval by the Council;

(5)        That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Select Committees be requested to review the key benefits and performance indicator set; and

(6)        That, following consultation with the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Select Committees, the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee in consultation with the Head of Transformation, be authorised to agree further changes to the key benefits and performance indicator set.

The Leader of Council presented a report on the proposed new Corporate Plan for the period 2018 – 23.

The Leader stated that the Corporate Plan 2015-20 was the Council’s current key strategic planning document. This Plan was based around the Council’s medium term priorities for that period. The Plan had been reviewed and updated in response to feedback from customers, local businesses, partners, Officers, Local Councils and Councillors. This new Corporate Plan would run from 2018/19 to 2022/23 and set out the journey the Council would take to transform the organisation to be ‘Ready for the Future’. This Plan sought to link the key external drivers influencing Council services, with a set of corporate aims and objectives, grouped under three corporate ambitions.

The Leader explained that the success of the new Corporate Plan would be assessed through the achievement of a set of benefits, focused on what the Council achieved for its customers. These benefits in turn were evidenced through a set of performance measures. A Corporate Specification for each year detailed how the Corporate Plan was being delivered through operational objectives, with these in turn linked to annual business plans.

The Cabinet felt that this was a very good and very important document for the Council. Cllr Philip (Planning & Governance) was pleased to note the improvements arising from the Plan being reviewed by each of the Select Committees, and felt the Benefit Maps were a useful addition. It was hoped that this Plan would run for the full five years.

Cllr Baldwin queried the figure quoted on page 4 of the Plan that 15,600 residents were happy with the condition of local roads; surely, this meant that almost 115,000 residents were not happy with the condition of local roads, and that perhaps this statistic should not be highlighted. The Head of Transformation responded that these figures had been obtained from Essex County Council.

The Leader of Council commended the Corporate Plan to the Cabinet and highlighted that the key elements were those sections which outlined what the Council was looking to achieve in the future. Cllr Mohindra added that a number of these activities were not statutory requirements, and they were provided as a result of the Council being well run.

Decision:

(1)        That the Council’s proposed new Corporate Plan for the period 2018/19 to 2022/23 be agreed, superseding the Corporate Plan 2015-20;

(2)        That the proposed Corporate Specification for 2018/19 be agreed;

(3)        That the Corporate Plan 2018-2023 and the Corporate Specification for 2018/19 be recommended to the Council for adoption;

(4)        That the Leader of the Council, in consultation with the Chief Executive, be authorised to agree any further changes to the Corporate Plan and Corporate Specification following its approval by the Council;

(5)        That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Select Committees be requested to review the key benefits and performance indicator set; and

(6)        That, following consultation with the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Select Committees, the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee in consultation with the Head of Transformation, be authorised to agree further changes to the key benefits and performance indicator set.

Reasons for Decision:

The Council had ambitious plans for the future and a clear Corporate Plan was essential. This new Corporate Plan had reviewed and built upon the achievements of the previous Plan, and sought to set out a clear and cohesive view from strategic drivers, through aims and objectives, to benefits which measured real improvements for customers. This Plan would enable the Council to focus on what was most important to our stakeholders and sought to lay this out as a set of related performance measures, which collectively indicated how well the Council was delivering benefits to its customers.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

To not agree the new Corporate Plan 2018-2023 and to maintain the previous Corporate Plan 2015-2020; however, the review of this Plan showed that it was now out-of-date, had key gaps and lacked clarity around linkages between drivers, objectives, outputs and benefits which would mean that the potential to make progress was not being taken forward and that opportunities for improvement were lost.

To request specific elements of the new Corporate Plan to be further reviewed, amended or removed, or new elements to be considered and included.