Agenda item

(Item 6 – report by Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance and Health Reform and Mr David Cockburn, Corporate Director for Business Strategy and Support )

Cabinet considered a report regarding the annual business plans for each Directorate for the next financial year (2013/14).  The report detailed the process to date for information, and the final plans for approval.  

The Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance and Health Reform, Mr Roger Gough, introduced the report to Cabinet and in particular he referred to the following:

(i)        That the business planning process had been subject to incremental improvements over the last year and had further built on the success of 2012/13.  Of particular benefit had been the stronger links with divisional business planning and earlier engagement with Cabinet Committees.

(ii)       That the Corporate Risk process had also evolved over recent months and was now linked to business plans to encourage more effective planning and risk management activities.

Head of Policy ? Strategic Relationships, Mr Whittle attended and spoke to the item, he further confirmed the cyclical nature of the business planning process by reporting to Cabinet that the review of the process for 2013/14 would begin immediately with internal audit.  In addition feedback would be sought from senior managers in order that any lessons learnt could be incorporated into the 2014/15 process.

In response to a question from the Leader of the Council, Mr Whittle reported that Cabinet Committees received 6 monthly and annual update reports on the delivery of Business Plans and in order to further facilitate this in the 2013/14 plans the link between the performance indicators and Divisional Dashboards monitored regularly by Cabinet Committees had been strengthened.

The Leader opened the item for comments and questions and heard from the following Cabinet Members:

The Cabinet Member for Customer and Communities, Mr Mike Hill welcomed the further co-ordinated approach which had helped to deliver cross-cutting objectives.  He was reassured that the corporate approach of streamlining and cross-cutting delivery had been mirrored within his own directorate where services had been integrated to the extent that they now numbered 12 from 21.

The Cabinet Member for Education, Learning and Skills, Mr Mike Whiting also welcomed the new approach as an improvement and reported that within the Education Directorate the Business Plan and targets were directly linked to Bold Steps for Kent and Bold Steps for Education objectives.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support, Mr John Simmonds echoed the views of the previous speakers and particularly congratulated the close work between the Finance directorate and all other directorates 

It was RESOLVED: