Minutes:
The Committee considered a report in relation to the Corporate Plan 2015/16 and Organisational Development and Improvement which highlighted information in relation to the following:
· The draft Corporate Plan for the first year of operation of the new Council;
· A feedback report from the recently completed peer challenge exercise which had been carried out to ensure that the Council was fit for purpose to fulfil its ambitions for the City and the organisation; and
· The proposed approach to on-going organisational development and design.
Corporate Plan 2015/16
The Chief Executive explained that the Corporate Plan was a key document for managing the Council’s strategic business. It set out what the Council wanted to achieve in the city and the key priority actions to make that happen. It was proposed that the Corporate Plan for the new Council would be for the year 2015/16 only, to allow elected Members more time to consider and refine their priorities for Belfast in line with the Belfast Agenda and ensure that all the plans and strategies of the organisation aligned to those. It would also allow the new committees to consider their strategic priorities and commitments for the duration of the new Council. The draft Corporate Plan for 2015/16 had been shaped by elected Members discussions on a number of strategic issues, through workshops and other engagement sessions with key stakeholders.
Creating a Fit for Purpose Council –
Organisational Improvement and Development
The Members had also been considering how to make the Council fit for purpose to deliver an ambitious city agenda and had already made changes the Council’s governance structures to create committees that were more aligned to the achievement of city and local outcomes.
To support the Council’s transformation and improvement, the elected Members had agreed that a peer review would be carried out earlier in the year. The Council had been assessed by a team comprising peer elected Members and senior local government officers against the following key competencies:
· Understanding of local context and priority setting
· Financial planning and viability
· Political and managerial leadership
· Governance and decision-making
· Organisational capacity
The findings of the peer review had been presented by the review team to elected Members on 5th March and the team’s full report had been circulated to the Committee. The Corporate Plan set out the Council’s commitment to taking forward implementation of the recommendations of the peer review in the year ahead.
The Corporate Plan summarised the key actions the Council would undertake in the year ahead and was intended to be a brief and high level document. It would be supported by operational plans and Committee plans which would be agreed by Members in the first months of the new Council. The performance indicators specified by the Department of the Environment were included in the plan and regular updates on progress against the objectives and indicators would be submitted to the Committee, helping to ensure that our improvement objectives remained relevant and that the best arrangements for delivering them were in place.
Taking Forward Organisation
Development and Design
In terms of organisational development and design, some of the work which had been recommended by the peer team should be undertaken was already underway in that a new post of Director of Planning and Place had been created and recruited and the staff transferring had been agreed; the decision making and accountability (DMA) process was being rolled out across the whole organisation; the scheme of delegation had been developed; Heads of Service and senior managers briefing sessions had taken place, with more being planned; and an extensive Member capacity building programme was being implemented with further work being developed for the new Council, particularly in relation to the role of elected Members.
It was, however, important to now agree the design, shape and operating principles of the new organisation. The peer review had been commissioned to, among other things, inform new structures and future ways of working. The team had advised that there were several important facets that should inform new organisation structures and ways of working, all of which would support the organisation to evolve further into “one Council” and these are detailed in the peer review report.
Given the review’s recommendations on the new organisation structures and future ways of working, it was proposed that organisational development and design principles and priorities were agreed now and that a programme of work for the short, medium and longer term be developed. Specifically it was proposed to create a City Neighbourhood Services Department, develop a “corporate core” model for support and “enabling” services; develop an approach to the “Belfast Manager” and develop proposals about tiers of management and spans of control.
After discussion, the Committee:
· Approved the Draft Corporate Plan 2015/16;
· Noted the recommendations of the peer review and agreed to their implementation; and
· Agreed the proposed functional model for the organisation and the next steps in organisational improvement and development as outlined.