Agenda item

A copy of the draft Corporate Plan for report to Cabinet on 23 March is attached.  The decision of Cabinet will be reported.  The Plan will be approved by Council in May following consultation.

The Leader, Chief Executive and Director Policy and Communications will attend the meeting to answer any questions arising from the Plan.

The Committee is asked to consider the content of the Plan and submit it’s views to Council.

A copy of the draft Corporate Plan approved by Cabinet on 23^rd March for wider communication was considered by the Committee so that it’s views could be taken into account in preparing the final version.

The Leader, Chief Executive and Director of Policy and Communications attended the meeting to answer questions.

The Chief Executive explained that the objective of becoming the ‘best local authority in the UK’ was to ensure high aspirations were maintained whilst providing the best service to the community who would ultimately decide how ‘best’ was defined.  All plans would be developed to ensure the organisation maintained a clear view on how it shaped itself to deliver the best service to the community as the authority continued to mature.

The Chairman acknowledged that the Corporate Plan would be the building block to provide the Business Plan and individual Departmental Delivery Plans and confirmed that the select committees would look to monitor all elements as they progressed. 

In order to assist with future scrutiny, the Committee requested greater clarity around some of the targets (to include cross-referencing to LAA, CAA and benchmarks where appropriate) outlined in the Corporate Plan. 

The Leader of the Council confirmed that the Corporate Plan would be submitted to Cabinet again in April and Council in May for final approval and that the final document would be easily accessible to the public who should also be able to access the related documentation behind the plan as and when completed.

Clarification was also provided that although the nine priorities set out within the Plan did not reflect the order of priority, Cabinet had already made comment that customer focus should always appear first and foremost. 

Ensuing discussion included the current economic climate, the benefit implications of partnership working and what benchmarking would be in place to monitor progress and evaluate completion.

The Medium Term Financial Plan and Business Plan were highlighted as documents to provide further information on how the business would cope with less funding during the current economic climate.  It was also noted that  Wiltshire Council was already considered by the Government Office South West and central government as one of the best authorities in the south west in terms of working together with partners to support individuals, young people and businesses through the current climate.

‘High quality, low cost’ services and how these would be achieved was also raised with the Corporate Director for Resources clarifying that the principle had already been applied to parts of the Resource Service and had resulted in a stronger service with reduced costs.

Further discussion included harmonisation of youth services and whether the allocation of funding was considered a fair apportionment, the procurement strategy and how this would support localised suppliers and the involvement of area boards in influencing the Corporate Plan. Educational attainment at key stage 2 was also acknowledged to be an area of concern with the Chief Executive confirming that a complex programme on intervention was being drawn up to tackle the issues and develop long term goals to address the problem.

The Chairman in concluding discussion due to time constraints identified that the specific views and detailed questions of the Committee would be circulated to Cabinet for consideration following the meeting.

The Chairman thanked the Leader, Chief Executive and Director of Policy and Communication for their attendance.

Resolved:

(1)       To note the decision of Cabinet on 23 March to approve the plan as drafted for wider communication.

(2)               To recommend Cabinet to take into account the specific views of Scrutiny when it receives the revised Plan in April (as set out in Appendix A).

(3)               To agree that the relevant Select Committees scrutinise the key outcomes in the Plan, and the departmental delivery plans and sections from the new business plan when available.

(4)               To note that the final version of the Plan would be taken to Full Council on 18 May for approval.

(5)               To note that an annual refresh is planned (over the 4 year life of the Plan) which will provide further opportunities to hold the Leader and Chief Executive to public account for its delivery.