Agenda item

            The Committee considered the following report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report

1.1       To present for agreement the Council’s high level corporate plan for 2017-2021, which will be reviewed annually and the council’s delivery programme for the first year of the plan 2017/18.  Both documents are based upon decisions which Members have taken about city and corporate priorities as part of the process for developing the ‘Belfast Agenda’, Belfast’s first community plan, as well as organisational priorities agreed by Members as part of the financial planning and rate-setting process and committee planning process.  They draw heavily on engagement with the public about improvement priorities and socio economic analysis of the city.  The corporate plan incorporates the council’s improvement plan for 2017/18, which has been produced in accordance with the improvement duty set out within the Local Government Act 2014.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is asked to:

·        approve the council’s Corporate Plan 2017/21 subject to annual review and update and

·        approve the corresponding Programme for Delivery 2017/18

3.0       Main report

            Corporate Plan 2017-21

3.1       The corporate plan is a key governance document, cited in the council’s constitution as the means by which the Strategic Policy & Resources Committee sets the strategic direction of the council.  It sets out what the council wants to achieve for the city and the key priority actions to make this happen. 

3.2       The corporate plan document is the culmination of a range of organisational and city-wide planning led by Members over the last year and builds upon the one-year plan agreed by Members in April 2016.  Since that time, significant work has been undertaken to finalise for consultation the ‘Belfast Agenda’ – Belfast’s first community plan. Members have agreed that the priorities of the organisation should align to those within the Belfast Agenda, which has at its heart the idea of ‘inclusive growth’ for Belfast. 

3.3       Consequently the Corporate Plan focuses largely on the 4 key ‘pillars’ of the Belfast Agenda which aim to take forward programmes of both economic and social progress for the people and communities across the city.  The document also contains a programme related to creating a ‘fit for purpose’ organisation, which includes customer focus, service improvement, organisational development and the efficiency programme.  This also includes reference to the council’s physical programme as this programme will deliver across a wide range of economic, social and environmental outcomes.

3.4       As members will be aware, a significant amount of organisational planning has already taken place, underpinned by an extensive range of consultation and engagement activities, which has provided a strong foundation upon which to finalise the Corporate Plan for 2017/21.  This work has included:

·        The on-going development of the Belfast Agenda, including a wide range of stakeholder engagement events;

·        Planning workshop with the SP&R Committee to which all Members were invited;

·        A survey of 1,500 residents which asked them to consider their priorities for the city;

·        The 2017/18 revenue estimating process and the departmental and service planning assumptions which underpin this;

·        The development of committee plans for the City Growth & Regeneration Committee and the People & Communities Committee.

·        The Belfast Agenda is being finalised for launch in the Autumn and an update will be brought to the Committee’s August meeting.  The corporate plan will be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure on-going alignment with the Belfast Agenda. 

            Programme for Delivery 2017-18

3.5       Members have stressed the importance of ensuring an effective and properly resourced programme delivery approach to ensure that the council’s priorities are executed.  Therefore, whilst the corporate plan sets out the councils priorities at a high level, in a public-friendly way, the programme for delivery sets out in detail the key milestones and activities that will be delivered over the coming year across the organisation. In order to support delivery a clear process has been put in place with ongoing monitoring and evaluation of progress including regular reporting to Members on both individual projects and the overall plan.  The purpose of this is to help give Members assurance around delivery of council priorities and also to clarify accountability.

3.6       Both the corporate plan and the programme for delivery form part of a suite of strategic planning and management documents which are brought to Members on a regular basis and are all designed to support the achievement of Members’ ambitions for the city, these include committee plans, the capital programme, financial plans and audit and risk plans.

            Performance Improvement

3.7       Members will also be aware that the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 introduced a duty on council to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the exercise of [its] functions. The council therefore has a statutory obligation to publish an Improvement Plan setting out the Council’s Improvement Objectives. The Northern Ireland Audit Office will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of this duty and will undertake an examination of the planning process the council uses to derive their improvement objectives and its progress against them. The Corporate Plan therefore incorporates the council’s improvement plan, which lays out more explicitly our improvement objectives.  These improvements, as is the case with all of our objectives, cascade from the council’s priorities as informed by a wide body of evidence including a far reaching consultation process which informed the development of the Belfast Agenda and Corporate Plan.

3.8       Financial & Resource Implications

            Costs for the implementation of the council’s Corporate Plan and delivery programme have been factored into the budget estimates for 2017/18.

3.9       Equality or Good Relations Implications

            As part of the Belfast Agenda and corporate planning process, residents and other stakeholders have been consulted through our residents’ survey and other stakeholder engagement events. The corporate plan and delivery programme contain actions intended to promote equality and good relations.”

            The Committee adopted the recommendations.