At its meeting on 12 February Cabinet will consider a report of the Assistant Chief Executive on the post consultation draft of the Council’s Corporate Strategy for 2020 to 2024 (“Council Strategy 2020–2024”). The Council Strategy 2020–2024 and supporting papers will be published as a supplement (to follow).

Councillor Brown, Leader of the Council, will present the report and move the recommendations.

Recommendations: Cabinet recommends subject to decisions at their meeting on 12 February that Council resolves to adopt the new Corporate Strategy as set out in the appendix to the report.

Council considered the report of the Assistant Chief Executive, submitted to Cabinet on 12 February 2020, on the post consultation draft of the Council’s Corporate Strategy for 2020 to 2024 (“Council Strategy 2020–2024”).

Councillor Brown, Leader of the Council, presented the report and moved Cabinet’s recommendations to Council. These were agreed on being seconded and put to the vote.

Council resolved to

1.      adopt the Council Strategy 2020-2024 attached as Appendix 1 to the report;

2.      delegate authority to the Head of Corporate Policy, Partnerships and Communications in consultation with the Council Leader to make further minor amendments as required prior to its publication in March 2020;

3.      note that Key Performance Indicators agreed by Cabinet will be inserted as a schedule in the Council Strategy.

This report will be published as a supplement to the agenda.

The Assistant Chief Executive had submitted a report to seek approvalfor theCouncil Strategy 2020-2024.

The Chair introduced the report by noting that the strategy had been referred to by a number of titles and that it would be helpful to be clear that it was the Council’s Corporate Strategy and that it should simply be referred to as the Council Strategy.  The strategy had been written in a way to be as meaningful and accessible to as many people as possible. Early engagement had ensured something which was properly representative of the Council’s visions and values.

Mish Tullar, Corporate Policy, Partnership and Communications Manager, said the input from Scrutiny Committee had been helpful. The strategy would be underpinned by the Annual Business Plan and associated KPIs, which would come to the next meeting of the Cabinet.

The Chief Executive confirmed that the objectives of the strategy would, in turn, inform Council employees’  personal work objectives.

The Chair thanked all those who had contributed to this important piece of work. 

Cabinet resolved to:

1.    Note the report on the public and stakeholder consultation on the draft Council Strategy 2020-24;

2.    Agree revisions made to the draft Council Strategy in response to the consultation;

3.    Delegate authority to the Head of Corporate Policy, Partnerships and Communications in consultation with the Council Leader to make further minor amendments before adoption by Council;

4.    Recommend Council to

A)   adopt the Council Strategy attached as Appendix 1 to the report;

B)   delegate authority to the Head of Corporate Policy, Partnerships and Communications in consultation with the Council Leader to make further minor amendments as required prior to its publication in March 2020;

C)   note that Key Performance Indicators agreed by Cabinet will be inserted as a schedule in the Council Strategy.

At its meeting on 12 February, Cabinet will consider a report on the post consultation draft of the Corporate Strategy. This item provides an opportunity for the Committee to comment on the latest draft and make such recommendations to the Cabinet as it wishes. Cllr Susan Brown, Leader of the Council, and Mish Tullar, Corporate Policy, Partnership and Communications Manager, will attend for this item. The consultation period for the draft Strategy ends on Friday 31 January. A report back on the consultation outcomes will be published as a supplement to this agenda on Monday 03 February and a revised draft of the Strategy will be made available at the meeting.

The Chair reminded the Committee that the pre-consultation draft strategy had been considered at a previous meeting. The consultation had now taken place and concluded two working days previously. The Committee had before it a covering report which had been made available just before the meeting but not a revised version of the strategy itself. Notwithstanding the late arrival of the report and the absence of the strategy the Committee agreed that it would be helpful to hear what had emerged from the consultation.

Councillor Susan Brown, Leader of the Council, apologised for the very late arrival of the covering report which was consequent upon the very recent completion of the consultation process and the need, then, to collate and analyse responses to it. It was pleasing to see that the majority of responses had been very supportive of the strategy’s objectives. The final version would not, therefore, be significantly different to the pre-consultation draft which the Committee had been able to give proper consideration to.  It was  important to remember that the strategy would be underpinned in due course by the Council’s Annual Business Plan.

Mish Tullar, Head of Corporate Policy, Partnerships and Communications, went through the covering report, section by section,  noting that there had been several other opportunities to contribute to the development  of the strategy as outlined in paragraph 6 of the report.  None of the 42 propositions in the draft had been rejected by the consultation and there was clear support for most. One of the most striking outcomes, via the opportunity for free text, was the desirability for greater priority to be given to reducing carbon emissions.

The Chair reminded the Committee that its task was to consider the outcome of the consultation and its consequences for the strategy rather than to  engage in a detailed discussion about individual representations made during the process.

In discussion the following matters were raised or discussed among others.

·         The Committee expressed disappointment at the difficulty of a thorough discussion given the late arrival of the covering report and the absence of a revised draft strategy.

·         It was confirmed that all of the observations made by Councillor Wolff (who had been acting as a substitute for Councillor Simmons at a previous meeting of the Committee) had been considered and most but not all adopted.

·         It was agreed that that the strategy should be referred to, consistently, as the Council Strategy (rather than Corporate Strategy)

·         There were limitations to the amount of context which could reasonably be provided in a questionnaire format (eg to explain the meaning of “sustainable economy.”)

·         References to “Sustainable Growth” would be better referred to as “Clean Growth”

·         Input from Oxford Brookes was welcome. The absence of input from the Colleges was regrettable but the Leader was seeking to improve their engagement via the Conference of Colleges.

In conclusion the Committee noted the report before it and requested that a report of their main points of discussion be provided to Cabinet.