A guide to what your Council is doing and why
The Council regularly publishes news articles about the results of external inspections and
the awards it has won, which let you know how well we are doing in areas such as, for
example, education, waste collection, parks and open spaces. We also openly report areas
where we have been told we need to improve.
But how does the Council know what services to provide for the residents of Bath &
North East Somerset and how does it take forward ways to improve these services?
This guide explains the Council’s Corporate Planning Process, which is the story of what
we are going to do, why we are going to do it and how we are going to do it.
Introduction to the Council’s Corporate Planning Process
What the Council decides to do is influenced by a number of important considerations
including:
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the Sustainable Community Strategy, which sets out the sort of place we want Bath
& North East Somerset to be by 2026
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the Council’s Vision, which supports the Sustainable Community Strategy and aims
to put people and communities first to “Make Bath & North East Somerset an even
better place to live, work and visit”
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feedback from inspections about where we need to improve what we do
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and very importantly, listening to what you tell us you want through surveys and
consultations.
The diagram on the next page outlines the corporate planning process. At the top we have
the Sustainable Community Strategy to show it is the overarching plan for the area that
filters through everything the Council (and its partners) do; at the bottom sits the Council’s
culture to show everything we do, from delivering the strategy to individual staff
performance assessments, is supported by our core values of quality and value with
customer focus.
The Council’s internal planning process considers the things that matter most to residents
by looking at what we need to do to:
a)
deliver the Council vision, supported by four primary objectives and a set of customer
focussed outcomes; and
b)
make improvements in those areas where we need to do things better, as set out in
the Corporate Plan.
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A more detailed explanation of the different parts of the process follows this diagram:
Sustainable Community Strategy
20 year vision and plan for the area agreed by the Council and its partners
Council Vision
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Where everyone fulfils
their potential
With lively, active
communities
Unique places with
beautiful surroundings
Corporate Plan 2012-2014’
Tells you what the Council’s priorities are and what it plans to do for each of them
Medium Term Service and Resource Plans
Tells you how resources will be used by the Council over the next three years
Service Delivery Programme
Service Delivery Programme
Make Bath and North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and visit
Service Action Plans
Annual action plans for each service to deliver the Council’s priorities
Team Business Plans
How each team contributes to delivering their area’s Service Action Plan
Individual Performance and Development Plans
How we develop the skills, abilities and performance of Council staff
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Culture: the kind of organisation we want to be
A listening council with active citizens that reaches every community and culture
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Sustainable Community Strategy…is a 20 year plan about making things better for
everyone in our community by addressing important concerns affecting everyone who
lives and works here such as health, housing, community safety, transport and
education.
The strategy has been created by a group of organisations working together called the
Bath & North East Somerset Local Strategic Partnership. This is made up of public
services such as the Council, Police, NHS, Town and Parish Councils, as well as a
good mix of voluntary, community and business sector representatives, who together,
are responsible for delivering the strategy.
The plans and actions in the strategy have been divided into six themes, which
together will help us achieve our aspirations for Bath and North East Somerset:
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Economic Development &
Enterprise
A thriving and resilient economy will
play a key role in achieving
sustainable growth in B&NES
Environmental Sustainability &
Climate Change
To lead B&NES to an environmentally
sustainable, low carbon emissions
future that can cope with the expected
changes to our climate
Children & Young People
All children and young people will be
able to do better in life than they
thought they could
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Healthier Communities & Older People
To help individuals achieve their best
by improving health and wellbeing
and reducing inequalities within our
communities
Stronger Communities
Creating communities where everyone
contributes and everyone takes
responsibility
Safer Communities
Building communities where people feel
confident to carry out their daily
activities, inside and outside the home
Council Vision…everything we do must help to make the Council’s aim to “make Bath
and North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and visit” happen in some
way. We check our plans and priorities regularly, respond to customer and wider
local, regional and national issues, and listen to what people tell us through surveys
and public consultations. This provides key information on what people and
communities believe our priorities should be, enabling us to create a clear vision for
Bath and North East Somerset with:
People that are…
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Valued and come first
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Active citizens
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Proud of where they live
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Happy and fulfilled.
Communities that…
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Thrive
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Are fit for the future
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Are shaped by our citizens
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Are low carbon
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People love to be part of.
Unique places that…
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Give us a great quality of life for work, leisure and sport
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Have a strong economy promoting local businesses
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Value the contribution of local people, students and tourists
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Are building for a greener/ low carbon future
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Enable local communities to flourish.
The vision is supported by three key objectives, a set of customer focussed
outcomes and underpinned by Council’s core values to be a listening Council with
active citizens that reaches every community and culture.
 Corporate Plan 2008-11... (A new corporate plan will be developed with the new
vision and objectives during 2012). Tells the story of the area, the people and its
communities. The Sustainable Community Strategy is reflected in the Council’s
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Corporate Plan to ensure the long term vision for the area is always at the heart of
everything the Council does. To help make the vision a reality, the Corporate Plan
sets out eight areas we have prioritised for improvement and explains what it plans
to do to address each of these priorities:
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Affordable Housing – making sure that there is affordable, high-quality housing
for those that need it
Better Lives for Young People – making sure that all children and young people
have the best possible chances in life
Climate Change – taking positive steps to tackles the causes and effects of
climate change
Independence for Older People – providing services and opportunities that will
help older people to live fulfilling, healthy and independent lives
Feeling Safer – making Bath & North East Somerset a place where everyone
feels safer from crime
School Buildings – investing in school buildings so that our children and
teachers have the excellent facilities they deserve
Sustainable Growth – developing ambitious plans for the whole area and
keeping our economy strong while looking after our environment
Transport & Public Spaces – making it easier to move around by improving
transport and creating public spaces that we can all enjoy
These priorities are supported by findings from public consultations and events which
have told us levels of affordable housing and traffic congestion are your biggest areas
of concern, as well as smaller concerns over road and pavement repairs, crime and
public transport. The Corporate Plan is reviewed on an annual basis to make sure the
priorities continue to reflect local concerns and issues. The Corporate Plan is being
drafted to align with new Vision and Objectives.
All Council services are linked to the delivery of the Corporate Plan, either through one
or more of the improvement priorities or through the plan’s approach to managing and
using the Council’s resources to deliver value for money and better outcomes for local
people. Because of this, our ambitions in the Corporate Plan need to be looked at
alongside the resources we have available to deliver them. This information is
provided in the Medium Term Service and Resource Plan, with the exact detail of how
actions will be achieved set out in the Service Action Plans.
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Medium Term Service & Resource Plans…are three year plans that are updated
every year. It frees up the capacity we need to ensure resources can be directed
towards the Council’s improvement priorities and areas of improvement without a
significant reduction in service levels.
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Service Action Plans…the Council has 14 business plans called Service Action
Plans. These plans are updated each year and provide details of the commitments
services have made to deliver the Corporate Plan priorities for the year ahead and
how these commitments will be achieved, as well as actions to improve areas of under
performance.
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Team Business Plans…the commitments in the Service Action Plans are changed
into more detailed workforce plans for delivery by the individual service teams.
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Individual Performance and Development Plans…the process that identifies how
individual members of staff contribute to the Council’s vision through their service’s
future plans. It includes an opportunity to identify development needs to ensure staff
have the right skills and knowledge to perform their job to a high standard.
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Service Delivery Programme…is key to the delivery of the Corporate Plan and the
Council’s improvement outcomes. The programme is illustrated on the corporate
planning process diagram by the blue shaded area and has four main functions:
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To bring together all the commitments in the Service Action Plans that are directly
linked to the delivery of the improvement priorities into a single programme
To track and record progress on the delivery of the programme and report this to
the Council’s senior management team once every three months
To publish the Council’s key commitments on the Council website
To report to the public at the end of the year that we have delivered what we set
out to deliver at the start of the year
The guidance below explains what the Service Delivery Programme looks like with
examples of what you can expect to see. Each set of commitments is made up of three
tables. The first table shows how the commitments link back to the Corporate Plan
Improvement Priorities to illustrate how the commitments are delivering the things that both
you and the Council have identified as most important.
Table 1
Link to Corporate Plan Improvement Priorities
 Transport and public spaces
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Climate change
 Sustainable growth
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School buildings
 Affordable housing
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Better lives for young people
The second table provides a list of the services that are involved in delivering the
commitments. The abbreviated code is used in column one of the third table to show which
Service Area is responsible for each individual commitment.
Table 2
Code
Service Action Plan (SAP)
Code
Service Action Plan (SAP)
ASH
Adult, Social Care & Housing
PRO
Property Services
DMP
Development & Major Projects
PTD
Planning & Transport Development
ENV
Environmental Services
TLC
Tourism, Leisure & Culture
The third table sets out what we intend to deliver and why:
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Our commitment – this is what the Council, together with its partners, has committed
to delivering for the residents of Bath & North East Somerset between 1st April 2011
and 31st March 2012 and includes what you can expect to see as a result of the
Council delivering its commitments. For example, quality of life outcomes for residents
that will either be delivered by the end of the financial year (31st March 2012) or build
clear foundations if the commitment leads to a longer term deliverable.
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The commitments are categorised and colour coded to the six themes of the
Sustainable Community Strategy to align our commitments under the Corporate Plan
with the long term vision for the area. For example, under the Economic Development
and Enterprise theme, you will see commitments that lead to the delivery of Affordable
Housing, Better Lives for Young People, Climate Change, School Buildings,
Sustainable Growth and Transport & Public Spaces.
We have added a seventh theme around Value for Money. This is a key part of the
Corporate Plan’s approach to delivering its priorities and a major consideration in
everything the Council does. The economic downturn has resulted in significant public
spending cuts and you will see from the commitments that we are looking at a number
of ways to both save money and improve services.
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Measures of Success – this is how the Council will monitor progress to deliver the
commitments. The measures vary from national performance indicators, to measures
that have been designed by the Council to capture specific information. At the end of
2011/12, we will use these measures as part of our annual review to show the public
that we have delivered what we committed to at the start of the year.
Table 3
Economic Development & Enterprise
A thriving and resilient economy will play a key role in achieving sustainable growth in
Bath & North East Somerset
SAP
Our Commitment
Measures of Success
DMP
We will influence and facilitate joined up
provision of support for skills and
worklessness especially in the most deprived
wards. High levels of worklessness are a drag
on economic growth because it is costly in
terms of benefit payments; they are potentially
our future workforce; and inequality is bad for
a place in terms of reputation and potential for
social unrest.
 Participation by workless in
economic activity
 Increase in take up of
apprenticeships
 Improved progression routes
from level 2 onwards
 Reduced NEET population
If you would like to find out what the Council has committed to deliver during 2011/12,
please click on one of the following links, which will take you to our public commitments for
that theme. Alternatively, click on ‘All Public Commitments’ to view the commitments for all
seven themes:
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Economic Development & Enterprise
Environmental Sustainability & Climate Change
Children & Young People
Healthier Communities & Older People
Stronger Communities
Safer Communities
Value for Money
All Public Commitments
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