PAPER E

CO-ORDINATING COMMITTEE – 13 NOVEMBER 2003

REVIEW OF SERVICE PLANS

HEAD OF SELECT COMMITTEE AND BEST VALUE SUPPORT

REASON FOR CONSIDERATION

Members will already be aware that following the CPA review, an increased amount of resource was employed in order to improve corporate governance. This has resulted in several key new initiatives and the co-ordination of service planning, budget timetables, performance management, personal development plans and, finally, public consultation have now also been included in the Council’s annual planning cycle.

The annual planning cycle is shown in Appendix 1. This is the first year of co-ordinating service plans through the Policy Unit and building them into the Select Committee Workplans. In view of the mixed feedback that officers within the Select Committee section have received whilst scrutinising service plans during the September cycle of meetings, it is now considered appropriate to review and evaluate this aspect of scrutiny and policy development to determine whether or not changes ought to be made in the future.

ACTION REQUIRED BY THE COMMITTEE

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the information provided in the service plans.

• To enable Members to examine and make recommendations about service plans growth bids.

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the service plans as a performance management tool.

• To recommend changes to the format of service plans and the annual planning cycle.

• To determine how best to review service plans in the future.

BACKGROUND

Members are already aware of the obligation placed upon Heads of Service to produce an annual service plan in accordance with the Corporate Annual Planning cycle. The service plan enables Heads of Service, Strategic Directors and Elected Members to examine how specific resources are employed within a Directorate to deliver the Council’s strategic objectives. Furthermore, the plans include national and local performance indicators and measures in order to make a judgement as to how well a specific service is performing compared to other local authorities. Finally, the plans include a list of service bids that the Heads of Service should have agreed with their portfolio holders as growth areas that will enhance and develop the service.

During the summer of 2003 a new service-planning template was designed in response to the CPA Inspectors comments and a need to link service and budget planning under a common performance management framework.

The new template was forwarded to all Heads of Service in June together with guidance notes for completion by 31 August 2003. The majority of service plans were completed within the timescale and the Select Committees have examined most plans during September with those remaining being reviewed in October and November 2003.

The Select Committee Support team decided that in presenting these plans to committees it should reduce the contents and background data to enable Members to focus on key headings such as,

1. Key objectives of the service
2. Current budget and manpower employed
3. Performance indicators, including mandatory targets
4. Future budget resource bids.

This decision resulted in reducing the volume of information and paper that Members would need to read, but did meant that some material justifying why certain bids were included was not available. The new template generated feedback from all those involved in this process, the main comments are listed:

• The new format contained too much information and should be reduced.
• Plans appeared to have been written in isolation without cross-reference to growth bids or the achievement of strategic objectives.
• Little or no evidence of the ‘statement of intent’ in service plans.
• The new template provided a standard approach to the planning process.
• The process gave Members an early insight into the bidding process.
• The Council is now working to an agreed planning and budget cycle.

Having completed the first round of the new service planning process, it is now appropriate to evaluate the results and make recommendations as to how the process might be improved for Members and officers in the future.

RELEVANT PLANS, POLICIES, STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

This report is seeking to examine the effectiveness of the scrutiny role in looking critically at the service plans, which form an integral part of the whole Council’s Performance Management framework.

CONSULTATION PROCESS

The review of service planning does enable Members to ask searching questions of officers to satisfy themselves that plans have been developed based upon regular and proper consultation with strategic partners and stakeholders.

FINANCIAL, LEGAL, CRIME AND DISORDER IMPLICATIONS

The purpose of the annual planning cycle is to ensure that Members can make more informed judgements and recommendations pertaining to the Council’s budget and bidding process. This is done by ensuring adequate information is available in a standard format that focuses Members’ attention to the issues that are of strategic importance to facilitate clear and concise decision-making.

The production of service plans within a corporate annual planning cycle is a key element in the discharge of the duty to deliver continually improving services under the Local Government Act 1972 and effective overview and scrutiny under Section 21 of the Local Government Act 2000.

There are no crime and disorder implications in this report.

APPENDICES ATTACHED

Appendix 1 – The Isle of Wight Council’s annual planning cycle.

BACKGROUND PAPERS USED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS REPORT

Template for Service Plan.

Contact Point : Alistair R Drain, Head of Select Committee and Best Value Support

' 823801 e-mail: alistair.drain@iow.gov.uk.

ALISTAIR DRAIN

Head of Select Committee and Best Value Support