Meeting documents

CORPORATE PLAN

ANNUAL REVIEW

2004 / 2005

INTRODUCTION

In February 2004 the Council published its first Corporate Plan, comprising the key actions and targets that need to be achieved to enable the Council to realise its Community Strategy, Improvement Priority, performance and financial objectives. The issues that informed the development of those actions and targets were well documented at the time and are not repeated in full here (see http://cis/committee_papers/Council/CO040217/14corporate.htm for a full copy of the original document).

This, the first annual review, reports on progress made with Improvement Priority action plans, the enabling projects established to develop the Council's capacity, and the financial plan. It also updates the plan on issues which may require changes to be made so that the Council can remain focused on the achievement of its Corporate Plan objectives.

PROGRESS TO DATE (SECTION 3)

Progress with the Corporate Plan has been generally good. Significant progress has been made with the Council's Improvement Priorities and demonstrable achievements made. There are solid foundations in place for further progress.

Specific achievements are listed for each Improvement Priority in Section 3. Of particular note are the following:

While progress has been good, some obstacles have been identified, notably access to the large-scale capital investment required to achieve significant improvement in some priorities.

Progress on "enabling" projects has been good but it has become apparent that more co-ordination is needed to ensure that the various projects are rolled out in a consistent and structured way, and that staff understand the significance of the individual initiatives within the context of overall organisational change and development.

ISSUES EMERGING (SECTION 4)

There are a number of significant national initiatives and challenges formalised by Government that the council is in the process of incorporating into its planning and service delivery framework, to ensure that it can meet the requirements being placed on it, notably:

CONCLUSIONS (SECTION 5)

The Review has demonstrated that good progress is being made with the Council's Corporate Plan 2003 - 2007. Significant achievements can be seen against each of the Improvement Priorities, and good progress is being made on the "enabling" tools and projects needed to unlock capacity and resources. Solid foundations therefore exist for future achievement.

The Council, like local government in general, is influenced significantly by factors outside its direct control. While local issues and opinion continue to support the Council's choice of Improvement Priorities, national and, increasingly, sub-regional developments will require the Council to check its direction and alter the distribution of its focus and energy. The Council will therefore continue to balance its energy and resources between day-to-day service delivery and statutory responsibilities whilst seeking to redirect a greater share to its improvement priorities.

The financial pressures affecting the Council are serious and particular attention will continue to be paid to the management of the major projects programme in order to limit the Council's risk and funding exposure. Financial constraint, and the need to focus available resources on key projects, mean realistically that large-scale capital investment will not be available to all the Improvement Priorities in the period of the Plan to 2007.

A re-appraisal of the Improvement Priorities in this light clarifies the differing time periods for achievement of outcomes:

Further headroom initiatives are in development to help to alleviate the financial pressures on the Council but it is clear that it will be extremely difficult to contain Council Tax rises within the limits previously defined without some significant cost reduction measures. The Executive has accepted the need to make either substantial reductions to the Council's revenue spending in the short- and medium-term or to generate substantial additional capital receipts, and the Executive will be developing proposals for achieving an affordable revenue budget.

REVISIONS PROPOSED TO THE CORPORATE PLAN (SECTION 6)

There are very few notable changes to the Improvement Priority action plans as a result of the work to refocus activities as part of the annual Corporate Plan review. Whilst not expected to require significant changes, the assessment of effects on individual action plans of the re-appraisal of Improvement Priorities into short-term goals and longer-term aspirations will form part of the Corporate Plan programme of work in 2005.

Revised strategies are being put in place to better co-ordinate and align the Council's major organisational change initiatives, including the establishment of a Change Programme Management Group.

The revised Financial Plan shows the availability of headroom in 2005/06 which has been allocated to progress the Customer Access Programme and to improve performance in Revenues & Benefits. However it also shows projected shortfalls in 2006/07 and 2007/08 due primarily to the loss of headroom arising from the likely changes in funding of schools ("mandatory passporting") and the cost of unsupported borrowing required to fund the Council's major projects programme)

The Executive has fully accepted the need to develop proposals for achieving an affordable revenue budget, and will focus its attention over the next 12 - 18 months on the following:

IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING AND REVIEW (SECTIONS 7 & 8)

The Corporate Plan document by itself will not deliver improvement. Implementation has therefore been programmed over a number of distinct phases, of which the first two phases are now largely complete. Key performance indicators and exception reporting will be used to ensure that any deviations from plans are highlighted so that prompt corrective action can be taken.

In February 2004 the Council published its first Corporate Plan, comprising the key actions and targets that need to be achieved to enable the Council to realise its Community Strategy, Improvement Priority, performance and financial objectives. The issues that informed the development of those actions and targets were well documented at the time and are not repeated in full here (see http://cis/committee_papers/Council/CO040217/14corporate.htm for a full copy of the original document)

The Corporate Plan is intended to be the means by which the Council and its Executive 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.

This, the first annual review, reports on progress made with Improvement Priority action plans, the enabling projects established to develop the Council's capacity, and the financial plan. It also updates the plan on issues which may require changes to be made so that the Council can remain focused on the achievement of its Corporate Plan objectives.

The review has been led by the Council Executive and has involved the following activities:

The Review records Corporate Plan progress to date plus identification of new and emerging issues that are likely to affect the Plan before proposing revisions to the Plan. This document is structured accordingly.

Progress with the Corporate Plan has been generally good. Significant progress has been made with the Council's Improvement Priorities and demonstrable achievements made. There are solid foundations in place for further progress.

Specific achievements are listed below.

· Information sharing panels are operating in two special schools.

While progress has been generally good, some obstacles have been identified. For example, less progress has been achieved against actions that require inter-agency initiatives, reflecting the extra time often needed to prepare and deliver joint actions. Funding limitation is also a significant obstacle in areas such as Reducing Landfill, Urban Public Realm and Environment for Learning which would benefit from large-scale capital investment.

The Review has also highlighted Improvement Priorities where progress is harder to recognise - notably transport, sustainable economy and public realm. With hindsight these plans contained actions that fell into the long-term and/or developmental categories and as a result their actions are being refined to have a better balance of visible quick wins and more longer-term actions (see section 6).

The term "enabling" is used to describe those initiatives that contribute to releasing the financial and organisational headroom and capacity needed to ensure that resources can be directed towards its priorities. These were described in Section 7 of the original Plan document.

Progress on "enabling" projects has been good but it has become apparent that more co-ordination is needed to ensure that the various projects are rolled out in a consistent and structured way, and that staff understand the significance of the individual initiatives within the context of overall organisational change and development.

Agreed in December 2003, ffive main projects have been identified to implement the HR Strategy, of which two started in April 2004 (establishment of a competency framework for the B&NES manager & employee; establishing Workforce Planning as part of the Organisational Development Process) and a third (resourcing strategies) begins March 2005.

Council agreed in October that there is a need to establish clear principles that govern culture change, and a simple statement about what the Council wishes to achieve. These principles are to include "member-driven", inclusiveness and sustainability. The Council's culture should not be seen as solely about targets, services or processes, but about the reason why the Council exists. The Council is led by the representatives, as elected by the whole community, working with the Council's staff in order to "make Bath & North East Somerset a better place to live, work and visit". These changes represent a major shift in the way the council will need to operate in the future, and a package of initiatives was agreed, designed to build on the substantial progress that the council has already made to enable continued and sustained further improvement.

The Council Executive remains committed to progressing this project with urgency. The project is building on work to date to complete an options appraisal and cost benefit analysis to inform a best value decision on future accommodation needs. The options appraisal will take account of any changes in working practices that may need to be considered in order to facilitate delivery of any of the options.

A number of alternatives are being considered to ensure that members are fully appraised of options prior to making any decision.

In January, Council decided that a single new building is not the `preferred' option at this time. Nevertheless, this will continue to be examined as part of the project to a) firm up this opinion and b) ensure that the option remains live should circumstances change.

Preparatory work has been completed and a three year programme of activity agreed. Work to inform savings identification and capture will begin in the new financial year and resources are being identified to perform these tasks.

This year (2004/05) all planned savings have been identified of which 30% will be recovered in this financial year, 150% of the target has been identified for 2005/06 and 135% of the target is planned to be achieved in 2006/07.

The pressure from Gershon and the Council's future situation mean that these targets will not be sufficient as they stand and will need further impetus. Some major policy decisions may be required to achieve any higher targets that are set to bring Council tax increases in line with Government guidelines.

The Council's Business Improvement Partnership with HBS Ltd is now 18 months old. Transition has been successfully achieved and the core services are being provided satisfactorily. The main "enabler" within the partnership is the Business Improvement Service (BIS) where solid foundations have been laid.

Nine flagship projects have been agreed. These include new technology-led projects such as the contact centre, planning on-line, managed print and payroll/personnel systems as well as efficiency reviews in social services and procurement. A Partnership (Council and HBS) Board tracks progress of these projects through their lifecycles to ensure that project objectives are realised.

New financial and people management systems

The rollout of new financial systems ("Agresso") is enabling easy and immediate access to up to date, accurate information which previously would have required input from a number of people. The completion of this project also contributes to electronic enablement in other areas which are expected to deliver significant benefits in the future. This electronic capability will be at the centre of any e-procurement activity. During 2005 the "Resourcelink" personnel/payroll system will also be rolled out to enable direct access by managers and staff.

The Council has agreed a Public Service Agreement with central government to "stretch" performance beyond that which would be expected from "normal" performance improvement activities. There are 12 targets within the PSA and if Services achieve more than 60% of the stretch targets the Council will receive a performance award grant at the completion of the Agreement in 2006/07. Progress reports indicate that, on current performance projections, around £2.25M of additional grant will be received.

A revised procurement strategy has been agreed (January 2005), reflecting national developments in procurement best practice and to respond to a range of central government drivers and guidance on the contribution that effective procurement can make to efficiency improvement. The strategy will have a wide impact across all Services that commission external goods and services and will require changes to procurement processes and procedures.

The Corporate Plan includes a 3-year Financial Plan for the period 2004/05 - 2006/07. The first year of the Plan was agreed as the Council's Revenue and Capital Budget for 2004/05. The current reported position against the 2004/05 Revenue Budget is a projected overspending of £850,000 mainly as a result of cost pressures in Adults' Social Services which were not anticipated at the time of setting the Budget. Savings have been made as a result of lower interest rates and slower capital programme spending. Actions have been put in place to reduce the net overspending further, to reduce the call on the Council's balances.

Specific allocations were agreed within the 2004/05 Budget to provide additional funding to assist the Improvement Priorities:

Revenue:

Capital

· Improving the environment for learning - £900k

· Improving the quality of public transport, roads and pavements and easing congestion - £1.2M

· Increasing the availability of affordable housing - £1.275M

The above allocations have all been committed.

There are a number of significant national initiatives and challenges formalised by Government that the council is in the process of incorporating into its planning and service delivery framework, to ensure that it can meet the requirements being placed on it.

The Children's Act emphasizes the Council's corporate parenting and safeguarding children roles and responsibilities and will have a significant impact upon the Council, its Services and how it work with Partners and communities. There is a direct line of accountability for services to the Minister of Children and Young People resulting in

The "Choosing Health" White Paper, published in November 2004, sets out a wide-ranging approach to improving health with significant implications for council services. Emphasis is on working in partnership to make "healthy choices easier"- including reducing smoking, promoting healthier eating and improving opportunities for active leisure. The Local Strategic Partnership is building on good practice locally to promote this approach, for example, exploring the link between health and "Get Active", the 5 year vision for sport and active leisure.

A Green Paper in Adult Care is due in January 2005 and is likely to continue the drive for more integrated working with Health and to place a greater emphasis on client choice via direct payments. A consultation paper is also expected on changes in the national funding arrangements for schools, which is likely to have significant implications for this Council as one that spends in excess of its Schools FSS.

The Gershon review has led to more pressure from central government towards the delivery of efficiency gains, including the setting of targets and a requirement for annual efficiency statements. This fits with the National Procurement Strategy for local government.

The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project is a huge Public Private Partnership initiative which runs until 2020, within which period all secondary schools in England will be re-built or refurbished. Government funding will provide the bulk of the capital, estimated at £100 - £150M for Bath & North East Somerset, but our allocation may not be received until 2015. It is expected that a local Education Partnership will be set up to deliver the projects, in which the LEA will have a 10% stake.

In addition there is the new Local Development Framework which supersedes the Local Plan.

The Council currently has a `Good' CPA score. There are quite significant changes proposed to the CPA inspection regime which will impact on the authority, ranging from which service scores carry most weight to how the Council responds to community issues.

For the Council to maximise its potential score it will need to take account of these changes, making sure that it can demonstrate successes in service delivery and that the corporate framework it has in place meets the new assessment criteria. The next full inspection will be 2008.

Two important documents have recently been issued for consultation by the West of England Partnership. "2026 - The Vision for the West of England in 2026 and delivery priorities" focuses on a vision up to 2026 for delivery of sustainable growth supported by successful investment to improve the quality of life and economic prosperity. "Your area : your vision" puts forward possible development scenarios up to 2026 to help deliver elements of the vision and to guide the development of homes, jobs and transport and protecting what is more valued by local communities. The Council has congratulated the Partnership on a vision that is wide-ranging in scope, specific in its objectives and clear in its function. The vision recognises that the drive for growth must be counter-balanced by the protection of those distinctive features of city, town and rural living which give the subregion its identity. The Council's final recommendations on the issues involved in the consultation documents will need to take account of other studies currently being undertaken, including the Greater Bristol strategic transport study and specific sustainability, housing, economic and spatial planning studies and appraisals.

The Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) has a performance management framework linked to the Corporate Plan. It reports on key indicators and progress against early actions. Each LSP meeting examines in depth the performance issues relating to one particular ambition, identifying opportunities for further action. These performance reports are made available on the LSP website (http://www.beintouch.org.uk/ ). A full report highlighting updating on all indicators and actions is being presented to the January 2005 LSP meeting.

Examples of the LSP tackling the key "sub-regional" issues of housing, transport and skills include

It is expected that the LSP will continue to focus on meeting the Community Strategy's ambitions. A new Public Health Partnership will tackle health inequalities and promote good health by harnessing work on issues such as sport and active leisure as well as healthy eating.

All councils in England are required by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) to carry out statutory user satisfaction surveys during 2003/ 2004. One of these was the General User Survey, which aims to ascertain residents' satisfaction with core services and the Council's overall performance. Over 1,100 residents responded to the survey.

The quality of life questions showed that residents considered that the priorities for the local area should be to:

Many of the things that people felt most in need of improving are also thought to have got worse in the last three years.

The results imply that the quality of life priorities for improvement in Bath & North East Somerset should be to reduce the level of crime, improve public transport, increase the availability of affordable decent housing, and to keep the streets clean. The issues that are of `second order' importance are; low level of traffic congestion, road and pavement repairs and activities for teenagers. This data therefore sits comfortably with some of the Council's `Improvement Priorities', as investment is already being made in some of these areas.

Reference has already been made to progress with the Council's existing Public Service Agreement (PSA). The Government has allocated substantial resources to a second round of Public Service Agreements (PSA 2). By using PSA 2 imaginatively there is the opportunity to contribute to addressing a number of issues that were identified as weaknesses in the CPA Corporate Assessment. It could:

Negotiating a PSA 2 therefore provides a significant opportunity for the Council to meet the objectives and improvement priorities set out in both the Corporate Plan and Community Strategy as well contributing to community leadership and partnership working through the involvement of the LSP and other partnerships.

Following an assessment of the projects and initiatives that Services are either leading on or are required to contribute to, a change programme management group (CPMG) has been initiated from existing resources to co-ordinate project activities so that they are focused on achievement of those outcomes most important to the Council, enabling delivery of the Corporate Plan. As part of its remit, the CPMG will monitor the volume of and resources to key corporate organisational projects and initiatives, ensure better co-ordination of cross cutting work, resolve bottlenecks, reduce overlap, remove duplication and manage communications.

The Council has a well-established annual service planning process in which each Head of Service sets out planned service developments together with budgetary implications. In recent years the information in Service Plans has been used to inform both the Council's Financial Plan and Budget, and the Best Value Performance Plan, both of which were approved by full Council, as well as providing action plans for individual Services.

This year some changes of emphasis have been made to the service planning process to assist integration with the Corporate Plan:

Guidelines were issued to identify the key planning principles on which Service and Resource Plans should be prepared.

Review of the "autumn" service and resource plans indicate significant planning and performance management activity by Services to meet Corporate Plan and service targets. Of existing planned developments, 69% are assessed as being on target and only 6% as being "red". Draft plans indicate a significant range of continued, refocused and new developments to respond to a range of drivers, notably:

Achievement of financial planning targets will be tight with most Services reporting difficulty in meeting targets due to the need to absorb additional pension contributions and other pressures. This limits Services' ability to shift resources towards Improvement Priorities.

The Review has demonstrated that good progress is being made with the Council's Corporate Plan 2003 - 2007. Significant achievements can be seen against each of the Improvement Priorities, and good progress is being made on the "enabling" tools and projects needed to unlock capacity and resources. Solid foundations therefore exist for future achievement.

The Council, like local government in general, is influenced significantly by factors outside its direct control. While local issues and opinion continue to support the Council's choice of Improvement Priorities, national and, increasingly, sub-regional developments will require the Council to check its direction and alter the distribution of its focus and energy. It is worth highlighting again that the improvement priorities were developed to reflect those issues and consequent activities upon which the Council decides to focus its energy and resources, in order to ensure that overall Council objectives are achieved. They are not a substitute for key services provision or for meeting the Council's statutory responsibilities, for example in implementing the requirements of the Children's Act. The Council will therefore continue to balance its energy and resources between day-to-day service delivery and statutory responsibilities whilst seeking to redirect a greater share to its improvement priorities.

The financial pressures affecting the Council are serious and particular attention will continue to be paid to the management of the major projects programme in order to limit the Council's risk and funding exposure. Financial constraint, and the need to focus available resources on key projects, mean realistically that large-scale capital investment will not be available to all the Improvement Priorities in the period of the Plan to 2007.

A re-appraisal of the Improvement Priorities in this light clarifies the differing time periods for achievement of outcomes:

In response to the need to better co-ordinate and align the Council's major organisational change initiatives, a Change Programme Management Group (CPMG) has been initiated. This will ensure that the main organisational improvement initiatives - notably office accommodation, culture change, HR Strategy and Customer Access - are aligned, that the tools offered by the Business Improvement Partnership are fully integrated and supportive, and that an increasing emphasis is placed throughout the organisation on driving out efficiency gains.

Sustainability remains critical to the delivery of the Corporate Plan, both in terms of sustainable financial planning as well as the adoption of sustainable practices across the Council.

Further headroom initiatives are in development to help to alleviate the financial pressures on the Council but it is clear that it will be extremely difficult to contain Council Tax rises within the limits previously defined without some significant cost reduction measures. The Executive has accepted the need to make either substantial reductions to the Council's revenue spending in the short- and medium-term or to generate substantial additional capital receipts, and the Executive will be developing proposals for achieving an affordable revenue budget (see Section 6).

There are very few notable changes to the Improvement Priority action plans as a result of the work to refocus activities as part of the annual Corporate Plan review. Whilst not expected to require significant changes, the assessment of effects on individual action plans of the re-appraisal of Improvement Priorities into short-term goals and longer-term aspirations will form part of the Corporate Plan programme of work in 2005.

Appendix 1 shows the high-level Improvement Priority Plans.

Two changes to be made are:

Revisions are to:

The draft financial plan has been rolled forward to cover the period to 2008/09. Revisions have been made to the original Plan to:

The current draft financial plan incorporates the above and can be summarised as follows:

Note: * indicates proposed revenue budget for 2005/06.

Further detail on the proposed Financial Plan is shown in Appendix 2.

The projected shortfalls in 2006/07 and 2007/08 are due primarily to:

The Executive has fully accepted the need to develop proposals for achieving an affordable revenue budget, and will focus its attention over the next 12 - 18 months on the following:

These measures will be translated into revised financial planning targets.

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

The Corporate Plan document by itself will not deliver improvement. To deliver improvement it is intended that the Plan will be developed and implemented through a series of phases. Phases 1 and 2 are now largely complete, but development will continue, as follows.

Phase 3 - Mar 04 to Feb 05

Phase 4 - Mar 05 to May 07

8. MONITORING AND REVIEW OF THE CORPORATE PLAN

Key performance indicators

Our existing performance management framework has been recognised by external inspectors as an excellent system, and we intend to capitalise on this strength by implementing continuous improvements, such as a "balanced scorecard" approach in 2005/6. Publication of our existing 4 monthly performance reports will be replaced by the new approach during the year. Monthly reporting will continue to engage Directors and Executive Members on the immediate issues.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and exception reporting will be used to ensure that any deviation from our plans to implement improvement priorities is highlighted so that prompt corrective action can be taken. KPIs have been in development since June 2003, when an initial set was selected by Directors in response to requests from Overview and Scrutiny panels. They have been developed by a combined Member and Officer Steering Group to ensure they reflect Council priorities as they change over time.

Other Performance indicators will continue to be monitored to ensure we respond to all community needs and service managers will monitor progress using service scorecards, as they are developed.

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1 - Revised Improvement Priority Plans

Appendix 2 - Financial Plan commentary

Annexe 1 - Draft Capital Programme 2005/06 - 2007/08

APPENDIX 1 - Revised Improvement Priority Plans