Agenda item

Corporate Plan 2023-26

This Report presents the Council’s Corporate Plan for 2023-2026. The Plan builds on the progress from the previous Corporate Plan and presents a refreshed vision, and three Council priorities. This refresh takes account of the changing operating context and the recommendations of the Independent Review of Governance (‘Caller Review’) which reported to Full Council in June 2022.  Moving forward, the three Priorities in the Plan will set the context for the Council’s Budget and Medium-Term Financial planning process.  Service planning, the performance framework, and staff appraisal process will all contribute to achieving the priorities (see pages 31-36). 

Corporate Plan 2023-26

The report presented the Council’s Corporate Plan for 2023-2026. The Plan built on the progress from the previous Corporate Plan and presented a refreshed vision, and three Council priorities. The refresh took account of the changing operating context and the recommendations of the Independent Review of Governance (‘Caller Review’) which reported to Full Council in June 2022. Moving forward, the three Priorities in the Plan would set the context for the Council’s Budget and Medium-Term Financial planning process. Service planning, the performance framework, and staff appraisal process would all contribute to achieving the priorities.

The Leader introduced the Plan which had had significant input from all members and partners. It set out what the Council wanted to achieve in the next three years and the headline was meeting the Council’s three key priorities.  He stressed this was not the Administration’s Corporate Plan but instead belonged to the Council as a whole. He proposed the recommendations, which were seconded by Councillor Wearmouth.

A number of comments were made by members including:-

•         Councillor Dickinson supported the comments made about the ambition in the Plan and the fundamental principles, adding that all members had participated in engagement sessions. He would like to see some information on progress with Key Performance Indicators included so this could be actively monitored. The Leader agreed with this.

•         Councillor Morphet did not feel that VFM should be a key priority as this should be fundamental to what Councils provided. It had only become a key priority because council funding had been cut to the bone by the government and his Group felt the third priority should be the climate and ecological emergency.

•         Councillor Hill commented that there were many things to support in the Corporate Plan and she agreed with the three key overarching aims. There were some elements in it which she felt were possibly unrealistic, and some understatements. Her specific concern was around the implication that the North of Tyne Combined Authority was automatically a good thing and widely supported by all members. She reminded members that this arrangement was not put to referendum or to a vote at full Council. Consultation was not the same as democracy. She was concerned that working towards a “stronger NoT Combined Authority” meant expansion without the involvement of any democratic process such as a vote in Council or a referendum.

The Leader agreed some of the ambitions were lofty, but he would not want to do anything else. Regarding consultation, there had been much more face to face consultation in the last year and this would continue. However, the Council had not been given the task of doing a referendum but of doing consultation, and this would show that Northumberland had done more consultation than any of the other Councils. Finally, he thanked everyone for their contributions to the Plan.

On being put to the vote by a show of hands, there voted FOR: a substantial majority; AGAINST: 2; ABSTENIONS:0. It was therefore

RESOLVED that:-

(a )     the Corporate Plan 2023-26 be adopted;

(b )     Council receive and consider an annual Corporate Plan Achievements report at Full Council in March each year; and 

(c )     Council receive and consider an annual Corporate Plan Performance Report at Full Council at the conclusion of Quarter four of the performance cycle.