About the Corporate Plan

The Council’s Authority to Act

Everything the Council does is directed by national legislation (through Acts of Parliament), statutory regulations, guidance and advice. This national framework is what gives the Council the authority to carry out its corporate and service role and directs what we do and often how we do it.

Some of the national framework covers the activities of the Council as a corporate body, for example the power to collect council tax to help pay for what it does. Other elements direct what plans the Council must make, for example the local development framework, or services the Council provides for example waste collection and recycling. All the services and activities directed by this Corporate Plan will at some point comply with national legislation or regulations.

The Council also has two responsibilities where nominated officers oversee the way it goes about its role. Officers are appointed to ensure the Council complies with the law and acts within its powers (known as the Monitoring Officer) and manages its finances properly (known as the Section 151 Officer).

The Corporate Plan and all associated activities and functions have been prepared within this framework.

What is the Corporate Plan?

This Corporate Plan provides a blueprint for all Council activities for the next three years.  It is a clear statement of what the Council aims to achieve, the priorities it will concentrate on and the principles it will adopt in everything it does.

It makes clear to communities what we aim to achieve and by when, and is a basis for them to comment on their satisfaction with Council performance.

It makes clear to partners what the Council is doing to help support shared responsibilities.

It makes it clear to the members of the Council and its officers where the Council’s priorities lie to help shape decisions and the deployment of resources – it provides a litmus test to ensure everything we do concentrates on achieving clear outcomes.

Both Executive and Scrutiny will review this plan and Council performance regularly.

Our values

The Council will be honest, transparent, competent, relevant and compassionate in everything it does. To help achieve this we will ensure that all policies and decisions are carefully assessed to understand their actual and potential impact on different communities of interests in Chester and ensure that no one is deliberately excluded or unfairly disadvantaged.

All decisions that come before the Executive will wherever possible first be considered by Scrutiny to ensure that decisions are fair, well thought through and benefit from the skills and expertise of a broad range of members.

What external factors will influence the delivery of this plan?

Society is increasingly complex and communities have different and sometimes competing needs, priorities or expectations. Our job, in part, is to reconcile these expectations to ensure the most effective outcomes are achieved.

There are, however, a few factors that are very significant and will have a major influence on the implementation of this plan.

Leading the delivery of the Sustainable Community Plan

This Corporate Plan seeks to ensure that the Council plays its part in the delivery of the Sustainable Community Plan, “Chester’s Way Ahead”, to make Chester a community to value, a good community to live in, and a good community to invest in.

Central Government priorities

Through legislation and other direction the Government has significant influence over what the Council does and to some extent how it does it. Three particular features will influence the Council during the plan period.

The Government White Paper “Stronger Prosperous Communities”, published autumn 2006, proposes a new agenda for local government to improve leadership for local areas, democratic accountability for a wide range of services and effective partnerships working:-

• Working in partnership with other public sector agencies to provide streamlined services. This will be through Local Area Agreements; these are contracts between central government and local partners to deliver agreed outcomes.
• Developing the role and influence of elected members on councils and in their communities.
• Strengthening the role of members in decision making.
• Changing the relationship between central and local government, especially central government funding to local authorities.

• Creating the potential for the introduction of new unitary local government structures in two tier areas.

The Government is also undertaking a comprehensive spending review to look at the levels of resources available to the public sector. Increasingly, funding will be directed to achieve performance targets specified by government. The comprehensive spending review announcement indicates there will be no additional funding from central government to Chester City Council.

At the same time we also need to demonstrate and evidence value for money and year on year savings.

What internal factors will influence the delivery of this plan?

Three factors will influence the delivery of this plan:-

• What the Council decides is important to meet community needs and priorities.  This will determine our financial and workforce planning. 
• Having the necessary financial resources to meet the costs of any proposals or activities – the Council aims to secure a balanced budget each year.
• Having the right number of people with the appropriate skills to resource and achieve the Council’s expectations.
  

Partnership working

We recognise that seamless partnership working is at the heart of public sector planning, delivery and community expectations.

While we will always seek to work with partners and provide necessary leadership, we will ensure this is not “partnership for partnership’s sake”.

We will focus our efforts on partnerships that add value to our communities and enable us to make more efficient and effective use of the Council’s resources.

We will not be deflected from our core business and will concentrate on doing what others cannot do better recognising that, often, other partners may have better skills and expertise and more direct responsibility.

We will play an active role in leading partnership working especially through the Local Strategic Partnership and in the development, negotiation and delivery of the Local Area Agreement.

Where we do take the lead on community plan projects we will seek to be effective and deliver what the Local Strategic Partnership expects from us.