Issue - meetings

A report of the Interim Head of Strategy, Governance and Information was presented to outline the Council’s approach to performance and risk management, to summarise activity in the past year and planned activity for 2023 to provide the Committee with assurance that the Council had robust arrangements in place for these disciplines.

The Council’s approach to these disciplines was articulated within the following policies:

·        Performance Management Policy.

·        Programme and Project Management Policy.

·        Risk and Opportunity Management Policy.

The policies were scheduled to be reviewed during 2023 to ensure they continued to meet the organisation’s needs in relation to these disciplines.

At a meeting of the Executive on 5 April 2022, a refreshed Strategic Plan workplan for the 2022-24 period and Directorate Priorities for 2022/23 was approved, which combined provide a cohesive approach to the delivery of key priority activities across Council services.

Significant work was also undertaken in the year to improve Directorate and strategic performance management, with the implementation of a monthly performance review cycle using an integrated performance dashboard drawn from a range of feeder systems which recorded different aspects of corporate performance.

The monthly Directorate and LMT performance reviews held throughout 2022/23 considered the following items on a ‘by exception’ basis, with only matters considered to require discussion or steer, raised:

• Actions agreed by the Executive (including responses to scrutiny reports).

·        The Strategic Plan workplan (both in terms of activity and outcomes).

• Directorate priorities.
• The Council’s portfolio of programmes and projects.
• Compliance indicators (e.g. completion of audit actions).
• Directorate and strategic risk registers.

Output from the monthly performance reviews was reflected in a quarterly update on wider corporate performance, to the Executive and Overview and Scrutiny Board; an approach which had served to significantly improve focus upon and strengthen delivery of corporate performance disciplines.

A refresh of the Strategic Plan was deferred in 2022/23 due to the need to consider the implications of several key White Papers over the past year, therefore the issue of articulating outcomes and measures, would be addressed in a full refresh of the Strategic Plan in 202/23.

The Programme and Project Management (PPM) policy and its underpinning framework provided a standardised approach to the governance of programmes and projects, including standard documentation.

All projects within the Council’s portfolio continued to be connected to overarching programmes and portfolios wherever possible to clearly articulate their contribution.

Currently there were projects in the portfolio that were being managed under the PPM framework.  These projects were supported and monitored by the Portfolio Management Office (PMO) and were reported by exception to the monthly Directorate and Leadership Team performance review meetings and in the quarterly reports to the Executive and Overview and Scrutiny Board.

The Council’s approach to PPM was also the base methodology for delivery of Strategic Plan workplan activities and all change and savings programme initiatives, requiring robust milestone delivery plans which were subject to the monthly performance management and governance regime for project delivery, as set out in detail in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65