The Chief Executive presented a report, seeking approval of the Council’s reviewed Corporate Plan 2016-20 for 2017-18 that was attached to the report as an Appendix.

He advised that the Corporate Plan set out the Council’s priorities for 2016-20 as well as defining the Council’s commitments for 2017-18. It also sets the Council’s well-being objectives under the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, and outlines how the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and other strategic plans will support the Council’s core business/priorities.

The Chief Executive then gave a resume of the background of the Corporate Plan for the above period, and how this integrated with the above 2015 Act.

The Chief Executive then referred Members to the current Corporate Plan which had been reviewed for the 2017-18 period, with the review in the main, focusing on refreshing the Council’s commitments and measures of success for the next financial year, and defining and integrating the Council’s well-being objectives into the Plan.

The three corporate priorities of the Council were its improvement objectives under both the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009, and the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

Areas of the document had been identified for review by the Wales Audit Office following them undertaking the Corporate Assessment, and these were contained in paragraph 4.4 of the report. The Council’s Corporate Resources and Improvement O&SC considered the reviewed Corporate Plan in January 2017, and proposed a series of amendments which had also been incorporated into the Plan.

The Chief Executive advised Council that the reviewed Plan needed to be published by 31 March 2017 in order to meet statutory and regulatory requirements.

He then concluded his submission, by referring to page 30 of the Plan where it identified its main aims, which were:-

·         To help local people develop skills and take advantage of opportunities to succeed and to extend that success to every community in the County Borough.

·         To create conditions for growth and enterprise, and

·         To create successful town centres

The key projects and programmes that would help the Authority achieve these aims over the life of the Corporate Plan, were the City Deal, Strategic Review of Post 16 Education and Training, a Successful Economy Programme, and alignment of Welsh Government Grants.

A Member referred to page 32 of the report, and welcomed the proposal to look to increase traineeships and apprenticeships within the Council which he felt were much needed.

A Member also referred to page 32 of the report, and noted that the Council was receiving significant resources from WAG both this and the next financial year. With this in mind, he asked what was BCBC’s vision tackling poverty going forward, particularly in households where no one was working.

The Chief Executive advised that the Council did have a number of different grant funding initiatives in place for the next 12 months, though there had been a reduction in Communities First grant funding. He added that the Authority would need to be more creative with grants, including where there was flexibility to do so, in prioritising schemes that were subject to grant funding. These grants however covered a number of different areas of the Authority which included poverty experienced by families and deprived areas. The Chief Executive further added, that funding was overall declining, and allocation of this to different areas of the Council would be fully decided upon in the first quarter of the new financial year.

The Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations, referred to page 40 of the report and the second measure relating to the percentage of care leavers who have experienced homelessness during the year. She felt that in the paragraph that immediately followed in respect of people sleeping on the streets or on friends’ sofas/B&B’s etc, the last line of this containing the words “some of which is a young person’s choice” should be deleted.

Members supported this small change to the document, which the Chief Executive confirmed would be actioned.

RESOLVED:                That Council approved and adopted the reviewed Corporate Plan 2016-2020 for 2017-18, subject to the small amendment to the document confirmed immediately above.