Issue - meetings

To consider a report by Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets (copy enclosed) on progress in delivery of the Corporate Plan in 2021 to 2022 as at the end of quarter 2 (July to September 2021).

RESOLVED that Cabinet notes the progress in delivering the Corporate Plan as at the end of quarter 2 of 2021/22 and confirms the content of the draft report.

Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill presented the report updating Cabinet on progress in delivery of the Corporate Plan in 2021 to 2022 as at the end of quarter 2 (July to September 2021).

The Corporate Plan 2017 – 2022 set the strategic direction for the council and its priorities and was now nearing the end of the five year period of the plan.  The vast majority of schemes had been delivered or would be delivered although some had been unavoidably delayed due to Covid-19.  The Corporate Plan Programme Board continued to monitor delivery of the plan and work was being carried out in terms of determining lessons learnt and looking forward to development of the next iteration of the Corporate Plan for the new Council.  The overall summary identified two measures as priority for improvement as previously reported for Connected Communities and Young People but projects had been assessed as good or above.

The Strategic Planning and Performance Team Leader added that the priority for improvement measures mainly reflected areas outside of the Council’s control and the projects more within the Council’s control had shown better performance.  Areas of weakness included the SARTH figures (Housing) which remained high with the outcome of an investigative report due at the end of the year, and progress with the travel project (Connected Communities) had been slow likely due to the need for a project management role.  Whilst healthy weight data for children in primary schools (Young People) had shown an improvement it remained an area of concern with the school nutrition project nearing its end in terms of funding, raising considerations as to what extent the Council could influence/control the weight of young people.  There were no concerns regarding the Environment priority.  With regard to the corporate health outcome, the seven governance areas appeared healthy with few concerns but sickness absence had increased slightly.

The Leader highlighted that the Corporate Plan had been deliberately ambitious and the challenging areas mainly related to those priorities that were predominantly outside the Council’s control.  He highlighted digital connectivity as a particularly challenging area where the Council had sought to influence the pace of change and whilst some progress had been made, it had not moved forward as hoped.  It was noteworthy that some of the priorities highlighted at the beginning of the current Council term were still relevant and it was hoped that services would continue with those priorities going forward and embed them into future service planning.

RESOLVED that Cabinet notes the progress in delivering the Corporate Plan as at the end of quarter 2 of 2021/22 and confirms the content of the draft report.