New five-year Corporate Plan for Blaenau Gwent council

At a special meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Corporate and Performance scrutiny committee on Wednesday, October 19, councillors studied the first draft of the plan.

Interim chief executive, Damian McCann said: “The corporate plan outlines a new council vision, and that is Blaenau Gwent will be a place that is fair, open and welcome to all by working with and for our communities.”

The plan has four underpinning priorities for the council to work towards.

Data that analyses how the council services are run will be marked on how they perform in relation to these priorities.

Cllr Ross Leadbeater said he liked the existing corporate plan as it explained what council departments are supposed to do.

Cllr Leadbeater said: “When I first looked at the four headline principles, I thought they related to the four key directorates, but it doesn’t.

“I wonder if it would be a good idea to align the priorities closer to the directorates, it would be helpful to break it down to more specifics.”

He explained that a number of different departments had been lumped together under one priority and it would be difficulty to “realistically assess” the work they do.

“Maybe there’s a way of redrafting so that they sit closer to the directorates,” said Cllr Leadbeater.

Mr McCann explained that that the plan is attempting to be a “one council approach” and that each directorate would contribute to make sure the council is meeting its priorities over the five-year period.

Mr McCann said: “What we’ve seen in the past is directorates working in silos, not seeing the overall picture, they are just doing what they need to do – and not contributing.”

“It’s important that everybody recognises these four priorities, how they can contribute and be held accountable to them.

“We can evolve as we go along – this isn’t the final version – we have to start somewhere.”

Committee chairwoman, Cllr Joanna Watkins said: “What’s crucial to us is that everything is underpinned by business plans, what we need to be clear about is how we evaluate them.”

Cllr Watkins asked when would the committee start seeing the business plans in front of them.

The council’s performance and democratic service manager, Gemma Wasley told the committee that the work on the business plans is taking place now, and that the committee would receive more details in January and February.

Councillors voted in favour of supporting the plan while Cllr Leadbeater’s motion to amend the proposal was defeated.

The four high level priorities are:

• Maximise learning and skills for all to create a prosperous, thriving, resilient Blaenau Gwent;
• Respond to the nature and climate crisis and enable connected communities;
• An ambitious and innovative council delivering quality services at the right time and in the right place;
• Empowering and supporting communities to be safe, independent and resilient.

The plan is set to be presented to a full council meeting next Wednesday, October 26.