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ITEM CC7

COUNTY COUNCIL – 10 FEBRUARY 2004

OXFORDSHIRE PLAN

Report of the Executive

1. On 22 July 2003 the Executive endorsed a Priority Framework for 2004/05 onwards in the light of advice given by the Council on 17 June. The priorities as finally agreed will form the basis for the 2004/05 Oxfordshire Plan which (as the Council’s "Best Value Performance Plan") is one of those strategic plans required to be approved by the full Council. The full Oxfordshire Plan, containing performance information for 2003/04, is timetabled for the end of June (the government deadline) and will be submitted to the 15 June 2004 Council meeting.
2. Since July 2003 the priorities have been out for consultation which included consideration by Scrutiny Committees during their September round of meetings. The primary aim of the consultation was to help focus Council activity on services or partnership priorities that matter most to its communities.

Consultation

3. Responses to the initial phase of consultation in the "Oxfordshire" magazine generated more than 500 individual comments from residents. This consultation identified transport and road & pavement maintenance as key issues to be addressed by the Council.
4. Subsequent, more structured consultation with the Oxfordshire Citizens’ Panel saw ‘Elderly Care’, ‘Affordable Housing’ and ‘Youth Crime Reduction’ identified as the three most important areas from the 13 draft priorities presented. It could be inferred, however, that the explanations of the Council’s priorities were not, at this stage, sufficiently clear to enable Citizens’ Panel members to understand fully the implications of the priorities, for example the link between Elderly Care and Delayed Discharges.
5. The third and most deliberative phase of consultation was carried out with 20 County Stakeholders. Following active participation in two independently facilitated consultation meetings, participants rationalised the Council's draft priority framework from 13 priorities to 11(listed below). It should be noted, however, that stakeholders did not suggest that the Council had overlooked an important priority or that its proposed priority framework was intrinsically wrong.

1. Affordable Housing
2. Basic Skills
3. West End of Oxford
4. Better use of our Property
5. Public Transport
6. Building Sustainable Communities
7. Educational Attainment (Secondary)
8. Increase out of Hours Activities for Young People
9. Support the Voluntary Sector as a Service Delivery Mechanism
10. Bridging the Skills Gap
11. Early Years Provision

6. Arising from the above work, certain amendments are proposed. The list of priorities showing these is set out in Annex 1 (download as .rtf file) and the rationale for each amendment is in Annex 2. Comments received from Scrutiny Committees on the respective priorities are set out in Annex 3.

RECOMMENDATION

7. The Executive RECOMMENDS the Council to confirm the priorities as set out in Annex 1, in no particular order of importance, as the basis for the Oxfordshire Plan 2004/05 pending presentation of the full Best Value Performance Plan to a subsequent Council meeting.

KEITH R MITCHELL
Leader of the Council

MARGARET GODDEN
Deputy Leader of the Council

January 2004

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