To: THE EXECUTIVE
26 April 2022
Service Plan Refresh 2022-2023
Assistant Director: Chief Executive’s Office
1 Purpose of Report
1.1 To provide the Executive with the details of the proposed content for the 2022/23 service plans. This includes highlighting the progress made in delivering the council plan themes since the last service plans and the key changes for this years plans.
2 Recommendations
2.1 To approve the new services plans to be published on the website. The PDF versions are attached as annexes A-E.
2.2 To note the progress in achieving the council plan objectives.
3 Reasons for Recommendations
3.1 Departmental Service Plans describe how directorates are working towards the delivery of the Council Plan and form a key part of the Council’s overall local performance framework. It demonstrates the work of services in delivering the objectives set out in the Council Plan and provides the basis for the quarterly service reports and the council plan overview report.
4 Alternative Options Considered
4.1 None considered
5 Supporting Information
Overview
5.1 All directorates have reviewed the content of their individual Service Plans in preparation for 2022/23. This work has concentrated on updating the actions to deliver the Council Plan key objectives, in its final year of the plan period.
5.2 A total of 27 actions linked to the Council Plan objectives were achieved and deleted over the last year and a further 44 have been added for the upcoming year. These new actions reflect both emerging work and also new tasks within previous workstreams. These are distributed across the Council Plan themes as illustrated in figure one below.
Figure
1. Total number of actions per council plan theme. The number in
brackets identifies the number of objectives within that
theme.
5.3 As with previous plans, equality actions have been identified with an (E) at the end of each action within service plans. This year they have been more explicitly linked to the new Equality Objectives making it clearer to see the progress of the council. This demonstrates the integration of equalities work across the delivery of the Council Plan and will be built upon with the current Equality Action Plan in development. There are a total of 39 actions that directly link to the council’s equality objectives.
5.4 Over the period of the council plan significant progress has been made across all themes. Despite unexpected challenges such as the pandemic, the council can demonstrate work across all areas of the aspirations set in 2019. Figure two shows the number of tasks/actions that have been linked to each of the objectives and themes of the council plan.
|
All actions during Council Plan period 2019-2023 |
|||||||||||||
|
Objectives |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
|
1. Value for Money |
8 |
19 |
5 |
5 |
|||||||||
|
2. Economic Resilience |
2 |
7 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
4 |
|||||
|
3. Education & Skills |
6 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
|||||
|
4. Caring for you & your family |
7 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
|
5. Protecting & Enhancing the Environment |
7 |
3 |
2 |
* |
3 |
8 |
5 |
||||||
|
6. Communities |
1 |
4 |
9 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
8 |
|||
Figure 2. The total number of
actions distributed by council plan theme and objective, recorded
across all services plans during the council plan period.
*No actions have been recorded against this objective (5.4) however
it has significant duplication with 5.1.
5.5 There has not only been progress across all aspects of the council plan, there has also been considerable joint working and a clear cross-council approach to this achievement. Figure three shows how all directorates have contributed over the three year plan period to all the council plan themes
Figure 3. All actions
recorded in service plans during plan period, mapped by the lead
directorate.
Key changes
5.6 Whilst the service plans generally follow the same framework each year, to set out the strategic progress against the Council Plan objectives. This year there have been a few further changes to build on the formatting edits last year. In addition to the changes in priority actions there have broadly been three areas of alteration:
· The central directorates Service Plan has been split into three separate plans: Resources; Place, Planning and Regeneration; and the Chief Executive’s Office. This reflects the new set up for Quarterly Service Reports.
· An additional page for workforce resources has been added to reflect the ability to deliver the actions as set out in the plans.
· The COVID section has been removed to reflect that this work has become business as usual.
6 Consultation and Other Considerations
Legal Advice
6.1 There are no specific legal implications arising from the recommendations in this report.
Financial Advice
6.2 Approval of the service plans does not have any impact on the council’s finances, although there is a key link between agreeing and delivering the priorities within the budgets available to each area.
Other Consultation Responses
6.3 All directorates and the Corporate Management Team have reviewed the new service plan drafts and provided any further amendments. These are reflected in the copies attached to this report.
Equalities Impact Assessment
6.4 Bracknell Forest Council undertakes EqIAs on significant changes to policy or new policies, projects, procedures or services and decisions that could have disproportionate impacts on individuals or groups protected under the Equality Act 2010.
Strategic Risk Management Issues
6.5 Having robust governance arrangements including clear service delivery plans with performance targets that have been reviewed and approved is fundamental to ensuring that departments are working in line with the council’s strategic direction and mitigates the risk of the council’s key objectives not being achieved.
Background Papers
None
Contact for further information
Katie Flint, Policy and Performance Lead - 01344 352217
Katie.flint@bracknell-forest.gov.uk