Service Improvement Plans
Each Council department has an annual service improvement plan. The plans detail actions aligned to the priorities in the corporate plan and provide details about service standards, performance indicators and targets.
In line with the council's commitment to integrated service and budget planning, service improvement plans are developed at the same time as departments' budget proposals.
Doing this ensures full integration of service planning and budget preparation and setting processes, with the resource implications of all new actions within service improvement plans informed by, and considered, as an integral part of the budget process.
Service improvement plans concentrate on major actions and developments for the department in the financial year along with any incomplete/ongoing actions carried over from the previous financial year. All actions must be linked to a corporate priority and a local outcome. This means that departments deliver on the objectives and priorities set out in corporate plans, Thematic Partnerships Plans and the Community Plan and Single Outcome Agreement.
Operational Plans sit below service improvement plans and contain the detailed actions needed to deliver on the service improvement plan at team level.
Progress against the actions within service improvement plans is monitored through the council's performance management software system, with a mid-year progress report and full year review incorporated within the department's annual report. Further information can be found in dedicated reports for 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.