Agenda item

The Committee will received a presentation on the draft Corporate Plan.  Members will have the opportunity to ask questions and provide their views to help inform the Shadow Executive.

Minutes:

The Committee welcomed Ms S Payne, Director of Policy, Communications & Performance, Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) who provided a presentation on the draft Corporate Plan for the new Buckinghamshire Council. Ms Payne explained that the Corporate Plan was part of a wider strategic planning framework to provide a clear direction and ‘golden thread’.  This would enable staff to be able to track their objectives back up through Team Plans, Service Plans, Directorate Plans and back to the Corporate Plan.  The following points were highlighted:

 

·         This would be a 3 year plan aligned to the budget setting process and was deliberately high level. The Directorate Plans would set out a higher level of detail and would include the key performance indicators used to monitor progress. 

·         Continuous monitoring processes would be undertaken, including through regular financial monitoring and performance monitoring and scrutiny.

·         Development work included informal engagement with members, (shaping priorities sessions open to all members), an online member survey over summer 2019, a cross-council debate to seek input from external key strategic partners and discussions with residents at focus groups. This engagement helped develop a draft set of priorities.  These had been taken out to wider consultation with the public, partners, staff and other stakeholders through the Budget and Priorities consultation.  This had taken place for a period of just over a month and ran until 25 November 2019.

·         There had been promotion of the consultation through a number of channels including electronic channels and face to face meetings.  Specific targeting for underrepresented groups such as ethnic minorities and young people had been undertaken. 

·         Example priorities included:

·         Strong, healthy and capable communities,

·         Protecting vulnerable people,

·         Enhancing our environment,

·         Prosperous County.

·         The priorities would be developed and refined based on the consultation feedback received. 

·         The next steps included consultation feedback to be considered in December 2019 then the draft Corporate Plan would be brought alongside the draft Budget to be scrutinised in January 2020.  The Shadow Authority would sign off the Budget and Corporate Plan at the meeting in February 2020 with further Directorate and Services Plans being signed off in March 2020.

·         It was noted that partnership working would be key to achieving the strategic outcomes.

 

In response to members’ questions the following points were noted:

 

·         The existing councils’ Corporate Plan priorities were used as the starting point for the work undertaken on the draft Corporate Plan.

·         It was noted that partnership working would be key to achieving the strategic priorities. Key partnerships would be set out in the new Plan, examples included the Integrated Care Partnership, emergency services, town and parish councils, voluntary community sector, Growth Board, and Cultural Partnership. 

·         It was noted that there had been a fairly low response rate to the consultation in relation to the total population of the County; however the response rate was comparable with that received for previous budget consultations, and specific targeting had been undertaken to promote the consultation to underrepresented groups.

·         The Chairman suggested that a breakdown regarding the responses received be made available so that the representation of residents and groups could be evaluated.

·         A member of the Committee commented on the Oxford/Cambridgeshire Arc and how this would affect residents, parish and town councils, new members and the new Unitary Council.  It was noted that this level of detail would be included in other plans developed by the new Council. 

·         The new Corporate Plan and Directorate Plans would be comprehensively reviewed post May 2020 to make sure these were still fit for purpose and would then be reviewed at least on an annual basis.

·         A member noted that the consultation for residents provided the opportunity for them to comment on the draft Plan.  There were good themes however some would be difficult to measure.  It would be challenging to determine the final priorities and to ensure residents had their needs addressed however there was confidence in officers that this could be achieved.

·         In relation to the responses it was noted that some of these could have been submitted on behalf of more than one person such as a parish council or stakeholder group; therefore one representation could be attributed to more than one individual.

·         Regarding scrutinising the draft Corporate Plan the Vice-Chairman suggested that a draft be provided to the Committee members in advance so that comments could be forwarded to the Shadow Executive.    

·         One member noted that changing people’s behaviours was very difficult and this needed to be considered as part of the draft Corporate Plan.

·         It was also noted that making sure jobs and environmental issues were considered was a priority as it would be negative to the area if the county continued to be used as a dormitory for other areas.

·         A Committee member noted that a majority of opinion polls were usually based on less than 1,500 and anything above this number was helpful in informing views.

 

To summarise Ms Payne thanked members for their comments and noted that these would be considered by officers.  Regarding the level of detail proposed by the Chairman on priorities, this would be set out in the Directorate Plans following engagement with staff, members and stakeholders to help develop the plans.  It was noted that the Corporate Plan was deliberately high level. 

 

The Chairman thanked Ms Payne for her presentation.