Decision details

  1.  That the focus of the following outcomes and list of priorities be approved.

Priority 1 For Maidstone to have a growing economy

Outcomes

·  A transport network that supports the local economy

·  A growing economy with rising employment, catering for a range of skill sets to meet the demands of the local economy

Priority 2 For Maidstone to be a decent place to live

Outcomes

·  Decent, affordable housing in the right places across a range of tenures

·  Continues to be a clean and attractive environment for people who live in and visit the Borough

·  Residents are not disadvantaged because of where they live or who they are, vulnerable people are assisted and the level of deprivation is reduced

Priority 3 Corporate and Customer Excellence

Outcomes

·  The Council will continue to have value for money services that residents are satisfied with

  2.  That it be agreed that the outcome on disadvantage be moved and a new customer focus outcome be added.

  3.  That the other areas to be refreshed, set out below, be agreed.

  4.  That the progress on the action plan from April to November 2011 be noted.

The vision for Maidstone in the Sustainable Community Strategy is “We want Maidstone Borough to be a vibrant, prosperous 21st century urban and rural community at the heart of at the heart of Kent, where its distinctive character is enhanced to create a safe, healthy, excellent environment with high quality education and employment where all people can realise their aspirations.” The essence of this message can be distilled as “Great place, great people, great opportunity” and this is what the Strategic Plan sets out to achieve.

Key objectives in the Strategic plan are developed alongside the Medium Term Financial Strategy. The service planning process then allows these objectives to be translated into actions for each team in the Council.

In September 2011 Cabinet agreed that the Strategic Plan 2011-15 would be retained for 2012/13 but refreshed to reflect key changes including work that Cabinet would undertake on the future shape of the organisation and the planning and prioritisation of actions needed to achieve the outcomes set out in the Strategic plan.

In the Strategic Plan for 2011-15 three priorities and six outcomes were agreed. Since that time the Council’s funding has been cut meaning that some tough decisions have to be made with regards to where the Council should concentrate its budget. Cabinet agreed that the overarching aim of the Council should be to achieve economic prosperity and with this in mind, discussions have been held at Cabinet away days to define which areas of activity the Council should focus on. A list of priority areas has been drawn up and is shown below. It is recommended that Cabinet should formally agree this approach in order that Council Officers may prioritise their service plans accordingly.

Whilst the above exercise was being carried out it became apparent that the first outcome under priority 3 relating to disadvantage and deprivation, would more appropriately sit under priority 2, a decent place to live.  It is further suggested that a new customer focused outcome is created under priority 3 to meet ‘customer excellence’ as there is currently only an outcome relating to ‘corporate excellence’.

Priority 1 For Maidstone to have a growing economy

Outcomes

·  A transport network that supports the local economy

·  A growing economy with rising employment, catering for a range of skill sets to meet the demands of the local economy

Priority 2 For Maidstone to be a decent place to live

Outcomes

·  Decent, affordable housing in the right places across a range of tenures

·  Continues to be a clean and attractive environment for people who live in and visit the Borough

·  Residents are not disadvantaged because of where they live or who they are, vulnerable people are assisted and the level of deprivation is reduced

Priority 3 Corporate and Customer Excellence

Outcomes

·  The Council will continue to have value for money services that residents are satisfied with

The refresh of the Strategic Plan will take into account the Cabinet’s desired approach that the Council will use its influence wherever possible to encourage partners to invest in Maidstone in both the priority and non- priority areas and will seek to position itself on boards and Committees that can help this aim, such as the Ambition Boards and the Locality Board. It is not the aim of the Council to stop work in areas that have not been identified as a priority but to stop funding these from its own budget and this will be made clear in the refreshed plan.

A number of KPIs have been identified that could be used to measure success in the priority areas and these are identified at Appendix A to the report of the Chief Executive, Keys Performance Indicators.

A resident survey was sent out to 3,000 residents in November. The Council will know the results of this survey in January and, along with information from the budget consultation which was undertaken in November, the information will be used to update the section ’What matters to Maidstone Residents’

General updates will be made to reflect changes in local and national context such as the introduction of Locality Boards.

The section on Localism will be updated to reflect the Bill having been given Royal Assent. A report on Maidstone’s approach to the Bigger Society was agreed by Cabinet on 21 December and will therefore need to be included in the refresh.

Service planning will take place between December 2011 and March 2012. Each section will create objectives that relate to their delivery of the outcomes as described in the Strategic Plan. During this process actions will also be identified that will be included in the Strategic Plan Action Plan. An up to date copy of this plan is attached at Appendix B to the report of the Chief Executive, Strategic Plan Action Plan. It should be noted that this is a living document and actions will be added and completed throughout its four year life.

Following this decision, this approach will be taken to Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny in January for their comments. The plan will then be refreshed and taken to Cabinet in February 2012 for recommendation to Council in March 2012.

It could be decided not to refresh the Strategic Plan. However, this would lead to out of date information being publicly available and make it difficult for officers to maintain the ‘golden thread’. The Council also needs to be able to demonstrate how it is reacting to changes in the local and national context.