1.        PURPOSE OF REPORT AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1     This report sets out the corporate planning timetable the process for reviewing and identifying the council’s priorities and the resources needed to deliver them. The committee considered a report on the timetable for developing the medium term financial strategy in June.

2.        INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

2.1   The Strategic Plan is a core element of our corporate planning. The priorities and outcomes in the Strategic Plan are developed alongside the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) to ensure consistency between service delivery and budgets. Service Planning allows the Council to convert high level priorities from the Strategic Plan into actions for each directorate, service or team across the Council, which then feeds into individual staff appraisals.

2.2   A report on the Medium Term Financial Strategy, elsewhere on the agenda for this meeting, describes the high level of uncertainty about the local government funding environment.  This emphasises the importance of linking closely the Strategic Plan update with development of the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

2.3   Each year the Policy and Resources Committee are asked to agree whether to refresh the existing strategic plan or create a new one.  A timetable of activity is then planned around this process.

2.4   The timetable includes a period of public consultation and reports to service committee meetings on the budget.

3.        AVAILABLE OPTIONS

3.1     The Committee could either choose to create a new strategic plan, refresh the current plan or that there is no reason to produce either an update or a new plan.

3.2     A timetable for corporate planning is outlined in section 4; the Committee can review and amend this timetable as appropriate.

4.        PREFERRED OPTION AND REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1     It is recommended that as the current Strategic Plan was subject to significant change in 2016-17, the present plan is refreshed to ensure contextual information is up to date and areas of focus in relation to the action areas 2018-19 are agreed. Not updating the plan is not recommended as the local and national context is constantly changing and the Council needs to demonstrate how it is planning and managing change.

4.2   A refresh of the Strategic Plan for 2018-19 would include:

· Identification of  areas of focus for 2018-19;

· Refresh of any contextual information in the document such as statistics; and

· An updated foreword and performance measures.

4.3    Outlined below is a proposed timetable for updating the Strategic Plan and development of budget proposals.

Timetable

5.       CONSULTATION RESULTS AND PREVIOUS COMMITTEE FEEDBACK

5.1     As outlined in the table above the resident survey held in summer 2017 and budget consultation will inform the refresh of the Strategic Plan and the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

6.       NEXT STEPS: COMMUNICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECISION

6.1     The timetable in section 4 sets out the next steps.

7.       CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

8.        REPORT APPENDICES

None

9.        BACKGROUND PAPERS

None