POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE				Wednesday  19 September 2018
Update on the Development of the New Strategic Plan
Final Decision-Maker		Policy and Resources Committee
Lead Director		Alison Broom, Chief Executive
Lead Officer and Report Author		Alison Broom, Chief Executive and Angela Woodhouse, Head of Policy, Communications and Governance
Classification		Public
Wards affected		ALL
Executive Summary
This report sets out the draft vision, objectives and outcomes for committee consideration following the workshops and events with Councillors and the Leadership Team. The report seeks agreement to consulting on the draft vision, objectives and outcomes and the approach that will be taken.
This report makes the following recommendation to this Committee:
Agree the draft vision, objectives and outcomes for further consideration by Councillors, Committees and consultation with the public and stakeholders.
Timetable
Meeting			Date
Policy and Resources Committee			19 September 2018

Update on the Development of the New Strategic Plan

 

 

1.       INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

 

1.1     Policy and Resources Committee agreed in July 2018 to a corporate planning timetable for the creation of a new Strategic Plan to run concurrently with the Medium Term Financial Strategy from 2019-2024.

 

1.2     The timetable included further councillor workshops to develop the strategic plan prior to consultation with stakeholders and service committee review in October. The timetable as agreed is set out in Appendix A.

1.3     This report provides an update on the work undertaken so far to develop the plan, the draft vision, objectives and outcomes proposed for consultation and the planned approach to consultation

 

2.      ACTION TAKEN SO FAR

 

2.1     Four workshops were held covering the four emerging themes of the Council’s future strategic plan, the numbers in brackets represent the number of Councillor attendees at each workshop:

 

·         Creating a great place for living and visiting (17)

·         Great communities by design (16)

·         People are healthy and safe (10)

·         Prosperity – Working in the Borough  (13)

 

2.2       The purpose of the workshops was for Councillors to consider the       objectives and outcomes the Council should aspire to in the new Strategic Plan considering what the Council could do to achieve these objectives alone and working with others. All presentations and information shared and gathered at each workshop has been circulated to all Councillors.

 

2.3       In terms of the vision for the Strategic Plan. It has been identified from conversations with Members that our vision needed to go beyond the 5 years of the strategic plan to ensure it leads all policies and strategies of the Council and really sets out where we want to be in the future as such it is proposed that the vision is until 2045. The draft vision is set out in section 3.

 

2.4     Wider Leadership Team considered the outputs from the workshops and as a result it is recommended that the number of objectives is reduced from 12 to 8 and the pillars are removed. This recommendation is made to reduce duplication and complexity based on member consideration of how future outcomes could be achieved as there was a degree of repetition and overlap across the original twelve draft objectives. A table mapping the bullet points from the workshops onto the draft outcomes can be found at Appendix C.

 

 

 

3.        AVAILABLE OPTIONS

 

3.1     The Policy and Resources Committee in July agreed to a period of consultation from September to November with a range of stakeholders as set out in Appendix A. The approach to this consultation is set out from 3.7 below.

 

3.2     The Committee is asked to consider and agree the draft vision, objectives and outcomes for consultation as set out at Appendix B.

 

3.3     Following the workshops in June and  August a vision has been developed for the consideration of the Committee by the  Leadership Team:

 

“A borough of opportunity that works for everyone; that residents are proud to be part of.”

 

3.6   Each Committee and individual councillor will have an opportunity to comment on the vision, objectives and outcomes prior to approval by policy and Resources in November as part of the recommended Strategic Plan to Council.

 

Councillor and Committee Consultation

3.7    Each Service Committee in October will have the opportunity to review the vision, objectives and outcomes and comment, this will then be reported to Policy and Resources in November for consideration.

 

3.8     It is proposed that each Councillor is asked to individually complete a prioritisation exercise using pairwise comparison for the 8 objectives. Pairwise comparison is used to work out the relative importance of a number of different options. The advantage of this method is that each objective has to be considered and assessed against the other.

 

3.9     Each objective will be compared to every other objective in turn and members will be asked to select which one out of each pair is the most important. This comparison will be set in the context of the agreed vision for example, out of objective 1 and objective 2 which is most important to achieving our vision.

 

3.10 This will run online from 29 October for one week. The results will be presented to Policy and Resources in November and used to consider the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

 

 

   Public Consultation

3.11 The proposal is to run an online survey which will run from 24 September until 11 November. This will be a prioritisation exercise linked to the budget and the results will be presented to the Policy and Resources Committee in November

 

 

 

 

Parish Consultation

3.12 The Director of Finance and Business Improvement has been working with Parish Councils to arrange area meetings to consult on the draft Strategic Plan in October with one event in the West and another in the East of the Borough.

 

Stakeholder Engagement

3.13 A meeting will be held with key stakeholders to identify how they can influence and work with us to achieve the objectives and how our objectives align to those organisations that play a role in our communities and place.

 

3.14 The Committee has already agreed to a plan for consultation and engagement, a decision is required on what to consult on. As such there are several options available, as the Committee have already approved creating a new Strategic Plan and carrying out consultation a do nothing option has not been included:

 

1.   Approve the draft vision, objectives and outcomes set out at Appendix B.

 

2.   Approve one of the draft visions set out above and the objectives and outcomes set out at Appendix B.

 

3.   Approve a new vision and priorities for consultation.

 

 

4.        PREFERRED OPTION AND REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

 

4.1     The Committee is asked to take forward options 1 or 2 as set out above.

 

 

5.       RISK

 

5.1    This report sets out the next steps in the development of the new Strategic Plan. Risks associated with the delivery of the Strategic Plan will be set out in the Risk Management Framework and operationally through the service planning process.

 

5.2    If the Committee do not agree to a draft vision, objectives and outcomes for consideration then the timetable for the new strategic plan will have to be  reconsidered

 

6.       CONSULTATION RESULTS AND PREVIOUS COMMITTEE FEEDBACK

 

6.1     As outlined in the report the draft vision, objectives and outcomes will be used to consult the public on the councils priorities linked to the budget. The process for consultation is set out in the report.

 

 

7.       NEXT STEPS: COMMUNICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECISION

 

7.1     Following the approval of the vision, objectives and outcomes, consultation will be carried out as outlined in the report.

 

7.2     Results of the consultation will be reported to Policy and Resources Committee in November 2018, with the Medium Term Financial Strategy and Strategic Plan going to Council on 12 December 2018.

 

8.       CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

 

 

Issue	Implications	Sign-off
Impact on Corporate Priorities	The Strategic Plan sets the Corporate Priorities	Head of Policy, Communications and Governance
Risk Management	Already covered in the risk section	Head of Policy, Communications and Governance
Financial	Financial implications of the Strategic Plan will be addressed by developing an updated Medium Term Financial Strategy in parallel with the Strategic Plan.	Section 151 Officer & Finance Team
Staffing	Creating a new strategic plan will have staffing implications for the Policy and Information Team and Leadership Team.	Head of Policy, Communications and Governance
Legal	There are no legal implications
Privacy and Data Protection	All data collected as part of the Strategic Plan process will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act	Head of Policy, Communications and Governance
Equalities	Equalities will need to be taken into account when we plan the consultation and any service changes resulting from the budget	Head of Policy, Communications and Governance
Crime and Disorder	Crime and Disorder will be considered during the strategic plan process	Head of Policy, Communications and Governance
Procurement	N/A	Head of Policy, Communications and Governance

 

9.        REPORT APPENDICES

 

The following documents are to be published with this report and form part of the report:

·         Appendix A: Corporate Planning Timetable

·         Appendix B: Draft Vision, Objectives and Outcomes

·         Appendix C: Map of workshop notes to Objectives and Outcomes

 

10.    BACKGROUND PAPERS

 

 

None