Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report presents a refresh of the Council's Corporate Plan 2008 - 2011 (2009/10) for consideration by the Cabinet and for recommendation to Council for adoption.

1.2 The refreshed plan includes:

(1) the key measures by which our improvement priorities will be judged, incorporating the targets included in the Local Area Agreement 2008-2011 which were agreed by Cabinet on 14th May 2008

(2) an assessment of the emerging issues

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The refreshed Corporate Plan 2008-11, incorporating the Medium Term Financial Plan, is recommended to full Council for adoption as a Policy and Budget framework item.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 The Corporate Plan incorporates the Council's Medium Term Financial Plan, ensuring that decision making on priorities and resource allocations is fully aligned.

4 CORPORATE PRIORITIES

5 THE REPORT

5.1 The Corporate Plan is the means by which the Council and its Cabinet ensure that priorities are clearly set out and adequately resourced. The plan enables a strategic approach to planning and resource allocation; supports the achievement of longer term and more complex goals; and ensures an integrated move towards service and financial planning.

5.2 The Corporate Plan 2008-2011 was developed alongside work with partners to refresh the Local Area Agreement. In this way we were able to align the Council's emerging priorities with those of our partners to show more clearly how the Council's priorities and those of our partners work together to deliver better outcomes for our communities.

5.3 The refreshed Corporate Plan 2008-2011 (2009/10) is set out in Appendix 1, incorporating the key measures by which our improvement priorities will be judged. The key measures incorporate the targets included in the Local Area Agreement 2008-2011 that were developed with the Strategic Directors, agreed by Cabinet on 14^th May 2008 and approved by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on 1^st July 2008.

5.4 An assessment of the emerging issues, including the recession, is also included in the refreshed plan. These issues have informed the development of the Medium Term Financial Plan. They will also inform the refresh of the Sustainable Community Strategy which is being reviewed with a broad range of partners and stakeholders.

6 RISK MANAGEMENT

6.1 The report author and Lead Cabinet member have fully reviewed the risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance.

7 EQUALITIES

7.1 An equalities impact assessment was carried out in 2008 on the process by which key measures and targets were selected.

8 RATIONALE

8.1 The Corporate Plan has been refreshed using a robust evidence base of the issues facing Bath & North East Somerset over the next few years. This evidence base compared issues from the whole framework of the Social, Environmental and Economic spectrum.

8.2 This has been shared with partners and has been considered alongside evidence of existing performance in order to set out those issues which the Council wishes to focus more of its time and resource.

9 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

9.1 The key measures and targets were developed looking at a range of issues and a judgement has been made based on the rationale above to focus on the proposed indicators as areas where we need to have greatest impact over the time of the plan period.

10 CONSULTATION

10.1 The key measures and targets were consulted on with Cabinet members, Group Leaders, Overview & Scrutiny Panels and a wide range of stakeholders and partners including members of the Local Strategic Partnership, Duty to Cooperate Partners and Community Interest Groups.

10.2 The key measures and targets were developed alongside the review of the Local Area Agreement with a broad range of partners, through the Local Strategic Partnership. It involved cross-sector workshops considering the evidence base for the area, the key issues facing us in the future and the strengths and weaknesses of the area across the social, economic and environmental spectrum.

11 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

11.1 Social Inclusion; Customer Focus; Sustainability; Human Resources; Property; Young People; Human Rights; Corporate; Health & Safety; Impact on Staff; Other Legal Considerations

12 ADVICE SOUGHT

12.1 The Council's Section 151 Officer (Strategic Director - Support Services) has had the opportunity to input to this report and has cleared it for publication.