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Aberdeen city councillors agree Five Year Business Plan

City councillors have agreed the Aberdeen City Council Business Plan 2011/12–2015/16.

Councillors agreed by 33 votes to 10 to approve the Business Plan and instruct the council’s Corporate Management Team to report to the Policy and Performance Committee on progress with implementation.

The Full Council also agreed to call a meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee, comprising representatives from the recognised trade unions, to discuss implementation after a review of JCC procedures has been carried out by the committee.

The Business Plan takes full account of the financial, social, political and technological challenges ahead and maps out, directorate by directorate, how the City Council will respond by focusing on customers’ needs, delivering high-quality services, and driving up efficiency.

The document outlines the actions the City Council will take to ensure the organisation is fully focused on the key priorities for the next five years to:

• provide for the needs of the most vulnerable people;

• help to ensure that all schoolchildren reach their potential;

• manage waste better and increase recycling;

• encourage the building of new affordable housing;

• ensure a sustainable economic future for the city;

• ensure efficient and effective delivery of services by the council and with its partners.

The creation of the Business Plan has been underpinned by a wide-ranging consultation exercise, which has seen the City Council engage with citizens, staff, trades union representatives, public sector organisations, voluntary and academic sector partners and the business community.

Aberdeen City Council Leader Councillor Callum McCaig said: “It is essential that this organisation has a Business Plan which gives us a coherent direction of travel. It allows us to be fully prepared to meet the very serious financial challenges ahead, which are not of our making but which we must be ready to confront and overcome.

“The Business Plan is not set in stone, however. There are many variables and uncertainties in the years ahead – and so we have created a living, flexible document, which will be subject to regular review and update.”

Consideration of the Business Plan by elected members was deferred at the Full Council meeting in June at the request of City Council Chief Executive Valerie Watts, who requested that councillors allow her the summer period to discuss the document more widely with staff and trade union representatives.

Councillor McCaig said: “I welcome the fact that those further discussions took place and I warmly welcome the constructive approach of all involved. The consultations were extremely worthwhile and resulted in changes to the Business Plan which better reflect the sophisticated ways in which we will deliver our services in the future.

“I want to build on this much-improved relationship with staff and the trade unions and look for further ways to continue this constructive dialogue about how we implement the Business Plan.”

Deputy Leader Councillor John Stewart said: “The Business Pan has been consulted upon for almost 18 months in one of the largest exercises of its kind ever held in Scotland. A whole host of ideas and suggestions came forward, which were fed into the Plan.

“What he have now is a document which spells out how we will deliver services differently in the future through the City Council itself, with a range of public and private sector partner organisations, and by creating new arms-length bodies which can operate very cost effectively.”

Chief Executive Mrs Watts said: “The Business Plan is a dynamic document which lays down the direction of travel but which is flexible enough to respond to inevitable changes in circumstances over the next few years.

“This is an organisation which depends upon the dedicated people that we employ to deliver our services to the citizens of Aberdeen. I have held valuable talks with staff and the trade unions over the summer – and I can promise that discussion and consultation will be an on-going process as we move through the period of the Plan to make sure our staff are fully behind the effort to achieve the necessary savings we must make.”

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