Agenda item

To consider item 15

The Chairman advised Members that this report sets out the progress being made with the Corporate Plan and steps for the year ahead.

The Corporate Planning Manager advised Members that this was a review of progress made over the third year of the five-year Corporate Plan that the Authority approved at its Annual Meeting in June 2020. It also set out the programme for the remaining two years of the plan through to the end of March 2025. Progress made during the second year and a year three refresh were approved by the Authority in June and October of last year respectively. In light of progress made, the Authority had taken the opportunity to refresh the programme of activities that would be undertaken over the remaining two years of the plan in pursuit of the Strategic Objectives.

The Corporate Planning Manager advised that since Members last saw it, the plan had been updated to align with the Medium Term Financial Plan; include two new workstreams relating to readiness to deal with legislative and regulatory change and develop the Service’s culture, the latter of which was linked to the HMICFRS’ Values and Culture report which was considered at the Authority’s Extraordinary meeting at the end of April. A summary of projects by status from which Members would see that three items had been completed and/or streamed into business as usual activity. Specifically, SO1.2 relating to the Safety Centre; SO1.3 dealing with collaboration with partners in relation to risk information and SO3.9 the mid-term review of the current 2020-25 Public Safety Plan.

There were no items at red RAG status, the majority (19) were green which meant they were on track with only five at amber which meant they were a little off track but recoverable.

A Member asked about SE2.8 ‘Review / enhance overall Service resilience / business continuity management structures and processes’ and asked for an update on the business continuity plans and ICT disaster recovery.

The Head of Technology, Transformation and PMO advised that during Covid, the Service held off completing any business continuity testing but were able to put the business continuity plans into practice. The Service does complete penetration testing in line with the ICT strategy and ensured systems remained secure and more recently completed an external server health check, which was positive. Now that the wider area and local area networks had been migrated, officers would work with Buckinghamshire Council and the Business Continuity Officer, to build an action and testing plan including ICT and broader elements.

The Chairman asked what was driving the amber rag status on the culture and values work, and what assurance could be given that it would be tracking to green and not to red.

The Head of Human Resources advised that when she presents the report further down on the agenda, Members would be able to see the progress that was being made. There was still work to be done, but it was moving forward. The date had been reviewed and although it was amber at present, it was expected to move to green.

The Chairman asked about progress with the improvements to records management, and what was the plan to get this on track to green.

The Director of Legal and Governance advised that the Service had engaged with an external provider, Buckinghamshire Council, and there had been dialogue with its Data Protection Officer, and members of its Information Security Team were currently engaged in scoping out a training package which once approved by the Training Strategy Group, would be delivered to nominated staff.

RESOLVED –

That the 2020-25 Corporate Plan Progress Review and Update be noted by the Authority.