Agenda item

The Mayor and Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health submitted a report for Executive’s consideration.

The report set out the Council Plan 2024-27 and sought Executive endorsement on its structure and content, setting out how the Council would work with its communities, to take forward its shared priorities over the 2024 to 2027 period.

The intent of the report was to provide enough information and assurance for the Executive to endorse the Council Plan 2024-27, prior to consideration by full Council on 8 March 2024, ensuring that it remained current and reflective of major developments of the past year, and those anticipated in the coming three years.

The Council Plan, formerly known as the Strategic Plan, was the Council’s overarching business plan for the medium-term, and was refreshed on an annual basis, setting out the priorities of the Elected Mayor of Middlesbrough, the ambitions of Middlesbrough’s communities and the ways in which the Council sought to achieve them.

Part of the Council’s Policy Framework, the Council Plan required the approval of full Council, as set out in the Constitution. The Council’s Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules provided for the Executive to draw up firm proposals on the Strategic Plan (Change Strategy) for submission to Full Council.

Full Council approved the previous Strategic Plan 2021-2024 on 16 February 2021, which expressed the previous Mayors’ priorities for the town.

This report proposed a new Council Plan for the 2024-27 period articulating the aims and ambitions of Mayor Cooke elected in May 2023, which are informed by, and responsive to the views of residents and which will need to be delivered within available resources.

ORDERED that Executive endorses the final Council Plan 2024-27 and associated strategic priorities and outcomes prior to full Council approval of the final Council Plan 2024-27 and to enable development of detailed, supporting delivery plans.

OPTIONS

It was imperative that the Council effectively articulated and communicated an overarching plan to direct activity across Directorates and services, towards the achievement of its priorities and ambitions.

The only other realistic potential decision would be to leave the Council’s strategic objectives unchanged on the assumption that they were sufficiently robust to address and achieve previously identified outcome measures. This, however, was not correct and would not have represented an appropriate response to the needs of the town. It would also have detrimentally impacted local communities and the business of the Council for some years ahead.  

The only other feasible decisions, therefore, relate to the structure of the document, and its horizon (i.e., reverting to an annual plan). It was strongly in the Council’s interest to plan over the medium-term, (between 3 – 5 years) in line with the indicative budgets over this period outlined by the Government. The proposed document achieved this whilst also providing an appropriate level of detail for all audiences on the Council’s planned activity over this period.  

REASONS

To enable the Executive to endorse, prior to consideration by full Council, the Council Plan 2024-27, ensuring that it is reflective of major developments of the past year, and those anticipated in the coming three years.