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There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to the development of the new Council Plan and Community Plan which were the two principal strategic documents for the Council and for the Renfrewshire area.
The report intimated that the Council had robust strategic planning arrangements at partnership, organisational and service levels. These arrangements were regularly refreshed and reviewed in order to comply with the requirements of the Scottish Government and relevant legislation.
The Council Plan summarised the Council's priority objectives over a period of usually 3-5 years and the actions it would take to deliver these objectives. It was a high-level organisational plan which communicated the outcomes the Council would focus activity on. The current Council Plan was approved in December 2013 and ran from 2014/17.
The Community Plan summarised the priorities for Renfrewshire that the Council and its community planning partners had identified and agreed that could best be achieved by working closely together. The Community Plan usually covered a longer period of time than the Council Plan and the current plan ran for ten years from 2013 to 2023. In addition, the report intimated that the Community Empowerment Act 2015 had introduced a statutory requirement for community planning partners to publish a new ten-year Local Outcome Improvement Plan by 1 October 2017 (hereafter referred to as the “Community Plan”) a key requirement of which was that it must confirm proposals to develop at least one locality plan which would address inequality across an agreed geographical area or community of interest.
The report provided a summary of the development work undertaken for both the new Community Plan and the new Council Plan. This included engagement with communities and with partners to consider some of the findings from an exercise which was undertaken to consider data about Renfrewshire, its communities and its people. The information gathered through this process had been used to shape common themes and areas of priority which would form the basis of both the Community Plan and Council Plan. These early themes and priorities were presented to this Board to provide the framework for discussion.
The Strategic Planning & Policy Development and Strategic Partnerships & Inequalities Managers gave a presentation which provided an overview of the strategic needs assessment undertaken, and further detail on the areas of challenge and opportunity which had been identified through consultation and engagement under the themes of economy, communities, life chances and equality, sustainability and organisational.
There followed a question and answer session. It was noted that the content of both plans would be finalised to include feedback from this meeting, and submitted for approval to the meeting of the Council to be held on 28 September 2017, prior to which Members of the Board would be provided with a copy.
Consideration was given to possible topics for discussion at future meetings of the Board including the preparedness of the Council's fleet for the introduction of alternative fuel vehicles; permanency arrangements for looked after children; private child care; youth employment; and the impact of Brexit. It was noted that care would require to be taken that the Board did not stray into areas which were within the remit of other Boards, particularly that of the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board, and that some areas suggested for consideration were already in progress, for example the Renfrewshire Tourism Strategy.
DECIDED: That the progress made in developing the new Council Plan and Community Plan be noted and it be noted that both plans would be submitted to the Council for approval on 28 September 2017.