Agenda item

A report of the Chief Executive, providing the Group with an overview of the corporate business planning process and informing the Group of the progress to date towards the development of the draft Corporate Business Plan 2019/20.

A report of the Chief Executive, providing the Group with an overview of the corporate business planning process and informing the Group of the progress to date towards the development of the draft Corporate Business Plan for 2019/20, was submitted (item 7 on the agenda filed with these minutes).

The Leader of the Council, the Chief Executive and the Corporate Improvement and Policy Officer assisted with consideration of the item and provided the following responses to issues raised:

(i)            The Business Plan for 2019/20 would be the last relating to the current Corporate Plan.  As a result, work had been done to check the three previous Business Plans to identify whether all of the activities set out in the Corporate Plan for the four-year period had been addressed.  That work had identified that all the headline issues had been addressed and the vast majority, but not all, of the activities.  One of the activities that had not been delivered in the way originally envisaged was producing a town centre masterplan for Shepshed.

(ii)          It was important that the actions set out in the Business Plan related to the objectives in the Corporate Plan.  The targets that were set for the performance indicators in the Business Plan should be challenging and set out what the Council wished to achieve, but there needed to be a degree of pragmatism too.

(iii)         In respect of the Corporate Plan outcome ‘Encourage new jobs to the Borough through promoting the delivery of the Science Park and Enterprise Zone and encouraging new businesses to towns and villages’, officers would review the actions set out in the draft Business Plan for 2019/20 to strengthen the link with ongoing work relating to the Science Park and the Enterprise Zones in the Borough.

(iv)         New performance indicators were being proposed for the Business Plan for 2019/20 relating to the times for determining planning applications as this had been raised as a concern by Councillors.  There were also other proposed new indicators including one in relation to the Council providing trees to the public.  Overall there should be a balance of indicators across Directorates and the Corporate Plan themes.  Indicators that were new could be identified to make clear that there would not be previous performance information for them.

(v)          The Business Plan was intended to provide a summary of key headlines in relation to the Council’s activities and performance measures.  Further detail in relation to particular services and teams was provided in Team Plans.

(vi)         The guidance note that had been circulated with the report had been prepared at the request of the Performance Scrutiny Panel and circulated to members of the Panel. 

(vii)        Performance data was auditable and subject to scrutiny by the Performance Scrutiny Panel.  Checks on the data could and did take place.  All Councillors could access the Council’s performance management software (known as SPOTlite) if they wanted to check performance.

(viii)       The Business Plan was approved by the Cabinet and used as a corporate management tool and by the Performance Scrutiny Panel.  It was complemented by the Annual Report which set out what had been achieved at the end of each year in delivering what was set out in the Corporate Plan and the Business Plan.  It was a public document but the Council used a range of methods, including Charnwood News and social media, to provide the public with information about how it was performing.  It was recognised that a complete picture of the Council’s objectives and performance against them was not contained in a single document.

The following comments were made by members of the Group:

(i)            It would be helpful if the Business Plan made clear that work had been done to deliver the Corporate Plan outcomes in the previous three Business Plans.  In addition it would be helpful to clarify that the Corporate Plan outcomes related to the whole period from 2016 and 2020 and the Business Plan related only to 2019/20.

(ii)          The public audience for the Business Plan should be considered and accessible terminology used.  For example, what will success look like was easier to understand than measurable success criteria.

(iii)         The guidance document on performance management would be helpful for all Councillors.

(iv)         The Council had satisfactory arrangements in place for business planning and performance management.

RESOLVED

1.            that the information be noted;

2.            that it be noted that officers had stated that they would seek to address the comments made by the Group relating to the Science Park and the Enterprise Zones in the Borough, identifying those performance indicators that were new, clarifying the relationship between Corporate Plan outcomes and Business Plan actions and the time periods to which they related, and making the terminology used as publicly accessible as possible when preparing the version of the Business Plan that would be submitted to the Cabinet.

Reasons

1.            To acknowledge the information received.

2.         To acknowledge how issues raised by the Group would be dealt with.