On 19 October 2021, Full Council will discuss the adoption of a new 10-year Business Plan for Wiltshire Council. This will follow its consideration by Cabinet on 27 September 2021.
The Business Plan sets the council’s overarching strategy and its purpose is to enable Chief Officers to lead and manage the organisation to achieve the priorities and objectives set by elected members. In September, each select committee will be invited to comment on Business Plan priorities relevant to their remits, with comments being referred to Cabinet to consider at its meeting on 27 September 2021.
The final Business Plan will be an influential document when OS is developing its forward work programme, with experience showing that OS is most impactful when it focuses on the council’s key priorities. Alongside select committee engagement on the Business Plan, the chairs and vice-chairs will be meeting with their Executive counterparts and directors during September to gain a more informed understanding of plans and projects and to discuss how OS can engage most constructively. These two processes should lead to a well-developed OS forward work programme that reflects the key priorities of the council.
Minutes:
The Chairman announced that Full Council would discuss the adoption of the new 10-year Business Plan for Wiltshire Council. The plan would set out the council’s overarching strategy and its purpose was to enable senior officers to lead and manage the organisation to achieve the priorities set by elected members. He explained that each select committee would be invited to comment on the Business Plan priorities relevant to their remits, with comments being referred to Cabinet for consideration.
The draft plan was not available at the time of the meeting, but the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and Skills was present to provide an update and outlined the four key priorities identified in the plan:
• Empowered people.
• A resilient society.
• A thriving economy.
• A sustainable environment.
The cabinet member explained that the executive was working on the plan and that Cabinet hoped to share the document ahead of the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee. She then encouraged members to read the proposals and suggest potential additions that would assist her in her aspiration to put children at the heart of the plan.
During the discussion the Committee thanked the cabinet member for the update. They also stated that they would have welcomed the opportunity to read the document ahead of the meeting, so that they could have the best available information to scrutinise and contribute to the plans. It was noted that this was the sole opportunity at a formal Children’s Select Committee meeting to provide input to the plan before it was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee.
The cabinet member said that she would welcome a coordinated response from the Committee if they were able to meeting informally before the next meeting of the O&S Management Committee. Options such as conducting a Rapid Scrutiny exercise, or an informal meeting, were then discussed.
Committee members raised questions about the budget implications of the plans, as well as how progress would be measured. They then offered a range of suggestions about issues that they would like to see included in the plan. Suggestions included:
• An emphasis on early years and family support.
• Stressing the importance of early intervention in achieving strong outcomes.
• Closing the attainment gap for disadvantaged and vulnerable children.
• A focus on mental health issues.
• Strengthening Local Youth Networks.
The cabinet member assured the Committee that all of the proposals would be affordable but given that the plan was due to cover a 10-year period there was scope for the addition of further ideas. She also noted that each service would have a delivery plan and that the details of how targets were to be measured would be included in those documents. In addition, she echoed the comments of the Committee about the importance of the issues that they had highlighted, stressing that she would review the document to ensure that the key messages came through strongly.
Resolved:
• To organise a briefing open to all members and substitutes of the Committee (likely to be Monday 20 September 2021) to discuss the Committee’s priorities and the draft Business Plan, once available around Friday 17 September, which would then be fed back by the Chairman to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee on 21 September.