Agenda item

As detailed in the recommendations.

The Chief Executive introduced the report and explained that the Council had been developing a Recovery Strategy for the pandemic emergency situation.  Recovery was a natural transition from the response phase which lasted from mid-March until the end of July.

            The work had been led by himself and the Leader of the Council, overseen by a cross-party Member Recovery Board.  The Board, which was an advisory sub-committee of Cabinet, had completed its work and had stood down. 

The Recovery Strategy set objectives for the stabilisation and forward-planning of the corporate organisation; the restoration of services; the recovery of the community; the resumption of forward strategic planning; support for engagement with regional recovery planning; and the return to full democratic governance of the Council.  Details on each of those areas, and the latest iteration of the Recovery Strategy, were supported by a set of presentation slides.

            Once the Recovery Strategy was adopted, following review by the five Overview and Scrutiny Committees it was intended to be published in an accessible graphic form.

            Cabinet was requested to invite each of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees to support recovery in their respective portfolio areas, and specifically to have oversight of

1.    The portfolio risk register(s) and the risk mitigation actions -  both live and planned;

2.    The objectives for recovery for the portfolio(s);

3.    The immediate strategic priorities for recovery for the portfolio(s) extracted from the draft Council plan for 2020/21; and

4.    The set of revised performance indicator targets for the portfolio(s) for 2020/21.

The Chief Executive explained that there was a need to see beyond the immediate recovery period and into the medium and longer-term for the Council Plan and the Medium Term Financial Plan.  The Council Plan had not been reviewed and readopted for 2020/21 due to the emergency situation.  The adopted plan covered the period 2022/23 so provided a structure for forward planning.  Part 1 of the draft Council Plan had been reviewed and the parts which were key to recovery had been extracted for adoption, and was attached as appendix 1 to the report.  All portfolios had adopted recovery business plans in support and all Performance Indicators had been reviewed and reset for 2020/21 and were recommended for adoption, which was attached as appendix 2 to the report.

            There would be a verbal update given to all Committee meetings which would provide Members with the latest information on the emergency situation.

All Members thanked the officers for the amount of work that had gone into the development of the Recovery Strategy, including the work that had been undertaken to ensure services continued to be provided.  It was also agreed that whilst in recovery, focus still needed to be given to response.

In response to a question from Councillor Thomas on the slides presented on carbon reduction, the Chief Executive said that would be given a high profile in the Council Plan.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the structure, objectives and core content of the Recovery Strategy for further work and completion be approved;

(b)       That (1) the full set of latest versions of the risk registers and risk mitigation actions for the corporate organisation and the five service portfolios (2) the set of strategic priorities for recovery recommended for extraction from the draft Council Plan for 2020/21 and inclusion in the Recovery Strategy and (3) the set of revised performance indicator targets for 2020/21, be noted and endorsed;

(c)        That Cabinet invite each of the five Overview and Scrutiny Committees to support recovery in their respective portfolio areas;

(d)       That the finalised Recovery Strategy be published in an accessible graphic form in October; and

(e)       That Cabinet receives monthly progress reports on the implementation of the Recovery Strategy from November onwards.