The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive addressed the Committee and advised that the members of the Senior Management Team were also in attendance at the meeting should they wish to ask any questions.

The Committee considered a report by the Head of Programme Management and Performance (circulated previously) regarding the Corporate Plan delivery highlight report.

The Head of Programme Management and Performance advised that this was the first time that a report of this type had been produced and that it followed on from the restructure of the Senior Management Team in September 2021. The newly appointed Heads of Service with the support of from the new Programme Management Office (PMO) were tasked with establishing five programmes within each of their portfolio areas to support the delivery of the Council’s Corporate Plan objectives, which were as follows:

·       We achieve Financial Security (FS).

·       We become focussed on delivering the best for our citizens (CF).

·       Our Environment is cherished and protected (E).

·       We plan for North Devon’s Future (NDF).

She outlined the overarching theme of Financial Security together with the associated Medium Term Financial Strategy and the Commercialisation Strategy, which sat above the five programmes and was assigned to the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive. There were four Key Performance Indicators under Financial Security, where were:

·       A balanced budget.

·       Council Tax collected as a percentage of budgeted collectable debt.

·       Financial return on Commercialisation Activity.

·       Decreasing financial debt (old aged debt).

The five emerging programmes were each assigned to a Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) and were as follows:

1.    Customer Focus/Digital by Design – Head of Customer Focus.

2.    Environmental Enhancement – Head of Environmental Enhancement.

3.    Housing and Community Safety – Head of Planning, Housing and Health.

4.    Regeneration and Economic Growth – Head of Place, Property and Regeneration.

5.    Organisational Development – Head of Organisational Development.

She went on to explain the progress of the programmes and those 44 projects sitting under those programme umbrellas highlighting the detailed information, which was set out in section four of the report. The operational service plans sat below those programmes and each Head of Service was in attendance at the meeting to present any new actions within their services plans to the Committee.

The Committee thanked the Head of Programme Management for her clear and informative report.

In response to questions, the Head of Programme Management advised the following:

·       In terms of the frequency of reporting on the progress of the plan, officers were in the process of developing a Performance ManagementStrategy, which would be considered by the Strategy and Resources Committee and it would be for the Policy Development Committee to decide on the frequency of the report.

·       Officers were currently in the process of inputting the information onto the Pentana system and once this had been completed reports could be generated from the system.

·       Officers were also exploring how the information could be uploaded onto insite to make it more interactive and ensure greater transparency and openness in terms of the objectives being met.

In response to a question regarding the provision of a single webform to ensure that all relevant information was being captured at the first point of contact, the Head of Customer Focus advised that currently the Customer Service team currently received hundreds of emails per month, which covered a variety of services and subjects. The current process was very time consuming for the team and frustrating for the customer as it meant the involvement of more than one person. A single webform would therefore ensure that all of the relevant information was captured within one place and also build a database of the types of enquiries that the Council was receiving to allow lessons to be learnt and identify root cause issues.

In response to a further question regarding any restrictions to the options within the form, she advised that the form would be developed and improved over time.

RESOLVED, that the progress made to date in the delivery of the programmes be noted.

The Chair thanked the Head of Programme Management for her clear and informative report.