Council Plan 2022/25 and Year Ahead Plan progress report to cabinet 7th July 2025

1. Background

1.1 The Council Plan 2022-25 is a key document, which sets out the Council’s vision for the Borough and priorities for serving residents and communities and is informed by public consultation. The Plan provides the medium-term basis for targeting resources, informing the budget-setting process, and planning cycles, and ensuring that residents can hold the Council to account for delivery.

1.2 To enable the Council to work towards the Council Plan outcomes and achieve the commitments, the Plan includes a suite of performance measures and targets as well as a Year Ahead Delivery Plan, which sets out the key activities to be delivered over the financial year ending 31 March 2025.

1.3 The Council Plan 2022-25 was adopted by Council in January 2022. The Year Ahead Delivery Plan is updated every year and the Plan for 2024-25 was approved by Cabinet on 29 July 2024.

1.4 The process for monitoring performance is set out in the Council’s Performance Management Framework, which explains how robust performance monitoring should be carried out.  

1.5 To ensure that the delivery of actions and their impact is assessed, formal performance reports have been presented in public at Cabinet meetings twice a year, as previously agreed. Scrutiny has the opportunity to consider the reports in line with the Council’s normal processes, as has been undertaken on previous update reports.

1.6 Service plans have been produced for every Council service and these are reviewed annually to ensure a ‘golden thread’ runs from the Council Plan through to each service as well as the ‘My Year Ahead Delivery Plan’ Personal Development Review (PDR) process at individual officer level.

2. Key Issues

2.1 Informed by a programme of public and stakeholder engagement, the Council Plan set out medium-term priorities and actions, building on and taking forward commitments made by Councillors to the Rotherham community. The Plan was framed around five themes:

• Every neighbourhood thriving
• People are safe, healthy, and live well
• Every child able to fulfil their potential
• Expanding economic opportunity
• A cleaner, greener local environment.

2.2 These five themes were underpinned by a cross-cutting strand - ‘One Council’ - which set out how the Council would operate to achieve the vision.

2.3 The Council Plan set out the outcomes that the Council will work towards over the period from 2022 to 2025. There were 26 outcomes and 47 commitments in total. 

2.4 To ensure delivery against these, the Year Ahead Delivery Plan included 100 priority actions/milestones, which were to be delivered by March 2025.

2.5 The Council Plan was monitored through both the delivery of the milestones and activities within the Year Ahead Delivery Plan and the 68 performance measures outlined in the Council Plan. The performance measures included a mixture of output measures and longer-term outcome measures.   

2.6 The Quarter 4 progress report for 2024-25 (Appendix 1) focuses on the progress made across all the Year Ahead Delivery Plan activities to deliver the Council Plan’s five headline priorities for Rotherham. The report has been designed to ensure that progress on the Year Ahead Delivery Plan activities is as up to date as possible at the time of publication.

2.7 The targets for Council Plan performance measures relate to the financial year 2024-25 and are reported here for Quarter 4 (January to March 2024). Appendix 1 includes full details of performance against these measures.   

2.8 The Quarter 4 progress report (Appendix 1) includes a high-level overview overall and is then presented by Council Plan theme, with each thematic section including achievements and challenges, Year Ahead Delivery Plan trackers and performance scorecards. The report also includes wider information, key facts and intelligence, specific case studies and a timeline of key achievements/activities to demonstrate activity during the first half of the year.

2.9 The Year Ahead Delivery Plan milestone trackers (included in Appendix 1) outline progress against the 100 actions within the Year Ahead Plan. Each action has been rated as follows:

2.10 As of 31 May 2025, the activities within the Year Ahead Delivery Plan are rated as follows:

• 77% (77) complete
• 4% (4) are delayed by less than 3 months
• 19% (19) will not be met within 3 months of original target date

2.11 The performance scorecards included in Appendix 1 provide an analysis of the Council’s performance against each of the 68 performance measures and each are given equal priority.

2.12 Each of the measures are rated as follows:

2.13 For the report covering Quarter 4, the status of the performance measures and direction of travel for each is set out below:

Progress against targets

• Performance is on or above target – 36 measures (53%)
• Currently performance is not at expected levels. Confidence that the target will be achieved by year-end – 0 measures (0%)
• Performance is not currently on target. High risk that year-end target will not be achieved – 24 measures (35%)
• Target cannot be assessed this quarter. (i.e. Annual measure or awaiting publication of data) – 3 measures (4%)
• Information measure targets not applicable. (i.e. Volume / Demand measures where ‘good’ is neither high or low) – 5 measures (8%)

Direction of travel

• Performance or numbers have improved – 31 measures (46%)
• Performance maintained or numbers are the same – 3 measures (4%)
• Performance or numbers have declined – 26 measures (38%)
• Direction of travel not applicable – 8 measures (12%)

3. Options considered and recommended proposal

3.1 The Council Plan 2022-25 was developed in consultation with Cabinet Members and officers across all directorates, as well as being informed by public consultation. This report forms part of the Council’s commitment to public reporting on its progress.

3.2 It is recommended that Cabinet note the overall position in relation to the Year Ahead Delivery Plan activities for 2024-25 and performance to 31 March 2025 for the Council Plan performance measures.

4. Consultation on proposal

4.1 A programme of public consultation and engagement to support the development of the Council Plan took place throughout August and September 2021. This included online and postal surveys, focus groups, a series of short interactions and engagement at the Rotherham Show. There were 350 online and postal surveys returned and over 1,000 other interactions in total across all methods of engagement.

4.2 In addition to the public consultation, engagement took place with key stakeholders, including work with Cabinet members and officers across all directorates, a session with the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board (OSMB) and a session that was open to all elected members.

4.3 The consultation is part of an ongoing dialogue between the Council and members of the public.  Feedback continues to be sought on core documents such as the Year Ahead Delivery Plan activities, Rotherham Together Partnership Plan and the Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. 

4.4 It should also be noted that a further consultation has recently taken place between September and November 2024, to inform the development of the next Council Plan, which was agreed by Council on the 21st May 2025.

5. Timetable and Accountability for Implementing this Decision

5.1 This progress report follows the previous report brought to Cabinet in January 2025, together they cover the performance over the whole of the 2024-25 financial year.

6. Financial and Procurement Advice and Implications

6.1 The Council Plan and the Year Ahead Delivery Plan are designed to help steer the use of Council finances, balanced against the wider funding backdrop for the Council and the broader context of national local government finance and policy. There are no direct financial implications as a result of this report and the delivery of the Council Plan will be managed within the Council’s available budgets.

6.2 The Council operates in a constantly changing environment. It will be important to ensure that ambitions and performance targets remain realistic in the context of central government policy, forthcoming legislation and the financial position of the Authority.

6.3 Whilst there are no direct procurement implications in this report, the Council Plan and Year Ahead Delivery Plan include some activities which require the need to procure goods, services or works to achieve their outcomes. All projects will need be procured in line with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, the Procurement Act 2023, or the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023, whichever is applicable, as well as the Council’s own Financial and Procurement Procedure Rules, giving clear consideration and application of social value, the Real Living Wage and other ethical factors.

6.4 Appendix 1 includes information regarding the Council’s financial position, and this is aligned to the financial reporting timelines.

7. Legal Advice and Implications

7.1 Whilst there is no specific statutory requirement for the Council to have a Performance Management Framework and Council Plan, being clear about the Council’s ambitions gives staff, partners, residents, and central Government a clear understanding of what it seeks to achieve and how it will prioritise its spending decisions.

7.2 An effective and embedded Council Plan is also a key part of the Council’s ongoing improvement journey.

8. Human Resources Advice and Implications

8.1 There are no direct Human Resources (HR) implications arising from this report. However, the contribution HR makes to an engaged, diverse, and skilled workforce—empowered to embrace new ways of working to meet the needs of all customers—has been a key element of the ‘One Council’ theme. The delivery of the Council Plan has been supported throughout by the Workforce Plan 2022–2025.

9. Implications for Children and Young People and Vulnerable Adults

9.1 The Council Plan has a core focus on the needs of children and young people and vulnerable adults and this is embedded throughout all themes of the plan, particularly in theme three (Every child able to fulfil their potential).

10. Equalities and Human Rights Advice and Implications

10.1 Equalities is cross cutting throughout the Council Plan and Year Ahead Delivery Plan.

10.2 Of the five guiding principles, two specifically aim to meet residents’ and communities’ differentiated needs:

• Expanding opportunities for all
• Working with our communities

10.3 ‘Expanding opportunities for all’ encompasses the Council’s essential priority to tackle inequality, striving to ensure that the health and life chances of the most disadvantaged communities are improving the fastest. To complement this approach, ‘working with our communities’ ensures that to achieve the best outcomes for local people, residents are involved in the things that matter to them and services are designed based on input from those who use them.

10.4 There is also an outcome focussed on addressing inequalities and leaving no one behind within the ‘people are safe, healthy and live well’ theme.  This will involve providing support to our communities at a level that is proportionate to the degree of need – taking a universal approach where appropriate whilst also providing targeted support to those who most need it.  

10.5 In addition, the underlying ‘One Council’ theme encompasses two specific areas which ensure different needs are met:

• Effective customer services
• Engaged, diverse and skilled workforce who feel empowered to adopt new ways of working to meet the needs of all customers

10.6 The Council’s commitment to place all customers at the heart of service delivery includes a strengthened approach to equalities and being inclusive.  The commitment to an engaged, diverse and skilled workforce is expected to improve the council’s response to diverse customer needs, by bringing a more differentiated understanding of equality and diversity considerations and barriers.

10.7 A detailed Equality Analysis is attached (Appendix 2).

11. Implications for CO2 Emissions and Climate Change

11.1 A cleaner, greener local environment is a theme within the Plan, focused around reducing harmful levels of carbon emissions to limit the impacts on communities and the environment.  Actions within this theme encompass plans for the reduction of emissions in housing, through the Housing Strategy, and transport, such as through cycleway improvements, and public transports improvements, as well as improving data on waste and single-use plastic. A Carbon Impact Assessment has been produced based on the Year Ahead Delivery Plan (see Appendix 3). 

12. Implications for Partners

12.1 Working with partners across the public, private and voluntary and community sectors will be integral to the delivery of the Council Plan, and partners have been consulted as part of its development. All the themes will require multi-agency approaches to some degree and the Council will continue to show effective leadership, operating through a range of strategic partnership bodies.

12.2 Following the refresh of the Rotherham Together Plan, which was formally launched in January 2023, showcase events have continued to celebrate the achievements of the Partnership. This year, events have taken place in September 2024 at the Arc Cinema in Forge Island, and in April 2025 at the Maltby Learning Trust Academy. The Rotherham Together Plan links to the Council Plan and is included in the milestones under theme 6, “One Council”.

13. Risks and Mitigation

13.1 The Corporate Strategic Risk Register is aligned to the Council Plan themes and the process of identifying and mitigating strategic risks is clearly linked to the Plan.   

13.2 Progress reports will continue to note risks associated with actions at risk of not being delivered, or those that have missed the deadline, as well as performance measures which have not progressed in accordance with the target set. 

13.3 Directorates are also responsible for ensuring that any significant risks are addressed via directorate and corporate risk registers.

14. Accountable Officers

Simon Dennis, Policy, Improvement and Risk Manager, Assistant Chief Executive’s Directorate, Simon.dennis@rotherham.gov.uk

Approvals obtained on behalf of Statutory Officers

Chief Executive - John Edwards

Strategic Director, Finance & Customer Services (S.151 Officer) - Judith Badger

Assistant Director, Legal Services (Monitoring Officer) - Phil Horsfield

Report author

Simon Dennis, Policy, Improvement and Risk Manager, Simon.dennis@rotherham.gov.uk

Oscar Holden, Corporate Improvement Officer,, Oscar.holden@rotherham.gov.uk