Introduction

The Cumberland Council Plan 2023 to 2027 sets out the ambitions for the Council in five strategic themes:

• improving health and wellbeing
• addressing inequalities
• local economies that work for local people
• environmental resilience and climate emergency
• delivering excellent public services

In the first months of the council we have focussed on integrating four councils into one, stabilising the organisation to ensure that our services continue to be delivered effectively for all of our communities.  We have also taken opportunities to deliver on some early priorities such as implementing a new model for working with our communities through our Community Panels and Networks; developing a framework to guide how we will put health and wellbeing at the heart of what we do; and adopting a strategic food framework to champion the Right to Food and support the local food economy to be inclusive, resilient, sustainable, and fair for everyone. 

We have begun developing our transformation plans to ensure that we can begin our transformation journey and achieve our goal of achieving long-term financial sustainability, and delivering high-performing services for our residents through implementation of an effective operating model. 

The Delivery Plan builds on this early work and describes the key activity that we will deliver over the next 18 months to meet the priorities, objectives and ambitions set out in the Council Plan. This provides clear details on what we are going to do and when we are going to do it. 

This Plan will be how we measure the progress we are making over the first two years of delivering the Cumberland Council Plan. A report describing progress will be presented quarterly to the Executive and to Overview and Scrutiny Committees alongside a set of metrics contained within a strategic performance framework.

The Delivery Plan outlines programmes and projects that will be initiated in the first year of the new council to deliver the Council Plan ambitions.  It also includes programmes started by the previous councils that now form Cumberland Council and continue to be key to the success of our area.  This is in addition to the daily delivery of all the Council services, which are equally important but often less visible.

As we continue to form the new council other programmes and projects will be initiated following the development of more detailed strategy and policy. Programmes and projects may also be developed to respond to legislative change, organisational opportunity and risk. 

Throughout 2024 and 2025 all services across the council will still have significant volumes of work to do to harmonise policies, procedures, contracts and working practices across the new organisation.

It is through this Plan that we will strive to make everything we do the best that it can be. As we said in our Council Plan we are prepared to be broad in our thinking and try new ways of working where appropriate. We accept that in doing this we won’t get everything right all the time, but we will learn our lessons quickly and effectively.