Archived decisions

OUTCOME REPORT OF THE BEST VALUE REVIEW OF POLICY DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT

1. The Best Value Review of Policy Development in the Environment Department was undertaken between September 2001 and May 2003. The Review examined the Environment Department's policy development functions in the context of the Government's modernisation agenda and the County Council's corporate policy framework. This included a generic assessment of the processes involved and the effectiveness of the way in which policies and plans were developed, monitored and subsequently reviewed.

2. Consultation with internal and external stakeholders was undertaken resulting in many areas of the service being identified as having scope for improvement. Following the challenge phase of the review, seven outcomes were selected by the Review Team as those that needed to be addressed, as follows:-

Outcome 1: `joined-up' working and internal/external communications including e-government;


Outcome 2: speeding up the process of preparing policies;

Outcome 3: community engagement, consultation methods and transparency of decision making;

Outcome 4: monitoring and implementation of policy and monitoring of the service's performance;

Outcome 5: costs and comparisons with others;

Outcome 6: external provision and working in partnership; and

Outcome 7: innovative, inclusive and integrated policies

The Improvement Plan subsequently drawn up by the Review Team sets out actions to improve the service, including performance indicators to measure the extent of improvement achieved, both having been structured around the outcomes listed above. A Member `Implementation Monitoring Group' has been established to monitor the implementation of the Improvement Plan and its effectiveness. This group, comprising Councillors Mrs Devereux, Kimber, Roberts and Shaw, will be holding its first meeting in October with meetings thereafter being held approximately quarterly during the period of implementation.

3. Several Members participated in various phases of this Best Value Review and they are thanked for the time they have given and for the valuable contribution they have made. The Review Team had worked extremely hard to produce the Improvement Plan. The Plan contains a substantial package of actions which should lead to significant improvements in the service, address the issues and concerns of stakeholders, set the strategic direction for the future of policy development and help achieve the vision for the service.

8ER350703