3.1 The Plan for North Lanarkshire sets the long-term strategic direction for the council, partners, and other stakeholders and, most importantly, for each unique local community and the people who live, learn, work, invest, and visit within North Lanarkshire.  It’s a Plan with a shared ambition of inclusive growth and prosperity for all and a fairer distribution of wealth across all local communities.  The Plan provides a very clear and compelling narrative for the shared ambition which the council (and partners) are working towards, a narrative that has become well embedded throughout the strategic management, financial decision-making, strategy and policy development, corporate governance approaches, and service delivery across the organisation.

3.2 The vision was shaped by the area’s demographic, social, and economic profile which at the time showed a positive picture in terms of economic growth, inward investment, employment, and educational attainment, but still unacceptably high levels of deprivation and child poverty and clear areas of inequity and inequality.  This meant that not all North Lanarkshire’s people were sharing equally in the improving picture, and there was an element of social exclusion across some towns and communities.  A suite of 28 high level health check indicators was therefore identified to collectively provide the context for North Lanarkshire as a place.  Since The Plan for North Lanarkshire was established in 2019, these indicators have continued to provide a robust, consistent, and independent way of assessing progress. The most recent results were reviewed by the Policy and Strategy Committee in March 2024, this reported that 50% of the indicators show improvement over the period of The Plan for North Lanarkshire and, as such, the suite of indicators continue to play an important role in informing the strategic planning process through the Programme of Work. 

3.3 As the delivery vehicle for the shared ambition, the Programme of Work provides a roadmap for work across council services and with partners and has been instrumental in stabilising the strategic direction of the council, while allowing for appropriate flexibility in the operational delivery of many complex inter-connected programmes, projects, and plans to ensure a dedicated focus on improvement, change, and delivering services that improve the lives of local people.  An annual review process enables a recurring and dynamic approach to realising the shared ambition and has ensured that the Programme of Work has continued to remain current, relevant, and deliverable.  This also enables delivery of the long-term vision to be informed by a process that is framed within the context of the local demographic, social, and economic profile that shaped The Plan for North Lanarkshire, as well as the latest national policy changes and developments.  This process also ensures a targeted and cohesive approach to establishing the programmes, projects, and activities required to achieve the intended outcomes.

3.4 The fifth iteration of the Programme of Work (to 2028) was approved in March 2023.  This longer-term approach reflected the need to reframe the Programme of Work in line with the latest North Lanarkshire context presented through the suite of 28 health check indicators.  This evidence base shows positive trends in a number of key economic indicators (such as gross weekly pay, people claiming employment related benefits, and growth in North Lanarkshire’s economy), as well as significant improvements in educational attainment for all pupils gaining 5+ awards at level 6 and for pupils living in the 20% most deprived areas, leavers achieving a positive post school destination, and school exclusion rates.  These trends were considered particularly significant given the extent of the impact of the pandemic that is evident in certain indicators.  However, the trends also show that challenges remain, reiterating the need for a new approach to the development of the fifth iteration of the Programme of Work.  This was considered crucial to ensure a heightened and more strategic focus on not only sustaining the economic and community aspects, but also on ensuring a more targeted approach to improving social conditions and outcomes.

3.5 While 2023/24 may have seen a more stable year for council operations compared to recent years, recovery from pandemic changed the landscape within which The Plan for North Lanarkshire requires to be delivered.  The impact of inflationary pressures (such as rising contract costs, availability of suppliers and service providers, increasing costs and availability of supply chain materials, and escalating energy prices) has also had implications on the ability of the council to maintain a seamless approach to delivering services and progressing capital programmes that seek to mitigate against the range of different and complex economic, social, and health issues that exist. Locally, inflationary pressures created significant cost of living implications for the people and communities of North Lanarkshire, exacerbating conditions for those in the most vulnerable situations.  As such, this backdrop was critical in informing development of the delivery priorities in the Programme of Work to 2028.

3.6 The Programme of Work to 2028 approved in March 2023 was followed by a supporting single integrated one-council Delivery Plan reported to the Policy and Strategy Committee in March 2024. This is underpinned by a governance framework which sets out, inter alia, roles and responsibilities, alignment across other corporate processes, and the corresponding monitoring, reporting, internal controls, and quality assurance arrangements. 

3.7 Programme of Work achievements to date (reported to the Policy and Strategy Committee in March each year) highlight developments that are key to creating the economic, social, and community conditions that will enable local people and communities (and the place that is North Lanarkshire) to thrive.  These focus on the investment made to establish the solid foundations required to support the place-based ambition and show how the one place one plan one council approach and ongoing leadership and commitment to the Programme of Work are making a difference:

New hubs are in place at the heart of local communities to support a much wider offering to people and communities with more direct access to the services they need and access to earlier, more responsive, and more integrated whole-family support.

• The range and affordability of homes has been increased through the provision of high-quality housing.
• Environmental enhancements have been delivered to support added benefits to general health and wellbeing, social inclusion, physical and mental health, and public access.
• Transformations to town centres are starting to reshape North Lanarkshire to provide modern, attractive, and multi-use centres fit for local people today and in the future.
• Job creation has been expanded by accelerating and attracting investment to create more and new business opportunities.
• Pathways have been built and skills and knowledge enhanced to smooth the transition to further education, training, or employment.
• This is all supported by more joined up transport links, an enhanced digital infrastructure, and a network of more active travel routes for pedestrians and cyclists, all of which are boosting the local economy and securing improved opportunities and outcomes for employment, education, housing, and leisure, and creating a place where people want to Live, Learn, Work, Invest, and Visit.

3.8 The council’s commitment made in 2022 - for itself and the area of North Lanarkshire - in respect of achieving net zero through the Action on Climate Together Plan, aims to further support delivery of the place-based ambition and an update on this was reported to the Environment and Climate Change Committee in February 2024.

3.9 The role of Elected Members is key to ensuring the continuing and long-term commitment to delivering The Plan for North Lanarkshire through the Programme of Work and ensuring strategic oversight through the Policy and Strategy Committee in terms of its ongoing development, co-ordination, and monitoring.  To support this role, the Policy and Strategy Committee maintain oversight of the following in relation to the Programme of Work:

• An annual review process - to ensure the council continues to (a) be able to adapt the Delivery Plan to changing circumstances, (b) absorb the impact of major unpredictable situations in order to keep plans relevant and the timescales therein realistic, and (c) assess incremental changes and impacts arising from updates to the results for the 28 Health Check Indicators.
• Three related annual reports - that look back at the achievements to date, that review the current North Lanarkshire context through the 28 Health Check Indicators, and that look forward at future plans (following the annual review process). These are presented to the Policy and Strategy Committee in cycle 1 each year.
• Six monthly interim reporting - to enable the Policy and Strategy Committee to maintain their strategic oversight and monitoring role for The Plan for North Lanarkshire.

3.10 Sitting alongside the Programme of Work - as a key aspect of the council’s strategic planning framework - is the Strategic Policy Framework.  This specifies the hierarchy of strategies, policies, and plans which underpin delivery of the long-term vision set out in The Plan for North Lanarkshire and ensures that strategy and policy remain connected to delivery in order to collectively facilitate a co-ordinated approach to identifying the resources and working practices needed to support delivery of the long-term vision.  Through a structured approach, the Strategic Policy Framework aims to ensure that strategies, policies, and plans are formulated, developed, implemented, monitored, and reviewed in a consistent and transparent manner across the council.  The annual update to the Strategic Policy Framework was approved by the Policy and Strategy Committee in March 2024. The supporting review programme ensures each of the strategies, policies, and plans are up to date, reviewed and updated at an appropriate interval, and reported to the relevant committee.  A guidance document accompanies the Strategic Policy Framework to support the development and monitoring processes for strategies, policies, and plans, and ensure ongoing openness and engagement through stakeholder consultation. 

• An improvement planned for 2024/25 is to undertake a lite touch assessment on all strategies, policies, and plans updated during the year to ascertain compliance with the Strategic Policy Framework guidance.  The outputs from this assessment will be built into the annual position statement update to the Audit and Scrutiny Panel in line with their role to provide an “independent review of the council's governance, risk management, performance, and control frameworks”. This will also support implementation of the improvement action identified by Audit Scotland in their Best Value thematic work which states that “the council should look to improve its existing processes for engaging Elected Members on the overall strategic planning process”.

​​​​​​​3.11 Key to evaluating the success of The Plan for North Lanarkshire and assessing delivery of the Programme of Work (while ensuring each stage of delivery towards achieving the overall vision is appropriately aligned, planned, guided, implemented, monitored, and governed) are six inter-related corporate frameworks that aim to maintain a corporate one council approach across the organisation:

• Strategic Policy Framework
• Strategic Governance Framework
• Strategic Performance Framework
• Strategic Self-Evaluation Framework
• Project Management Framework
• Framework for Demonstrating Improved Outcomes for Communities

3.12  ​​​​​​To ensure these frameworks remain aligned to The Plan for North Lanarkshire and Programme of Work, all are on a regular review and refresh programme.  This also helps the council to ensure it is proactive in responding to social, economic, and environmental trends and changes in legislation and governance, as well as the broad range of national policy changes and new developments.  Updates in respect of these frameworks are captured in the Strategic Governance Framework review programme each year.  This includes the following:

Strategic Self-Evaluation Framework

Aligned to the seven themes in the national Best Value guidance, the council’s Strategic Self-Evaluation Framework is framed around three questions (How well are we doing? How do we know? and How can we do better?) and supported by a rolling review programme.  This approach provides a regular mechanism to assess the council’s functions and activities and identify areas for improvement through a single strategy for improvement that (a) is in line with the Best Value duty to secure continuous improvement, and (b) ensures self-evaluation is undertaken within the context of fulfilling the vision set out in The Plan for North Lanarkshire.

The Strategic Self-Evaluation Framework is reviewed and refreshed annually.  The update in October 2022 introduced a corporate approach to Options Appraisal - while the use of options appraisal was already widespread across the council, a corporate approach was formalised at this time to ensure that the outcomes from such exercises continue to provide the relevant assurances that service provision is efficient and effective and represents value for money, and that decisions made remain consistent with the strategic direction for the council, as set out in The Plan for North Lanarkshire.

Minor changes to the latest update to the Strategic Self-Evaluation Framework and rolling review programme in February 2024 ensured ongoing alignment with the new national approach to auditing Best Value through thematic audit work as well as ongoing compliance with Best Value guidance in terms of the council using self-evaluation to identify areas for improvement.

Since the Strategic Self-Evaluation Framework and rolling review programme was formally established (and approved by the Audit and Scrutiny Panel) in 2021, nine self-evaluation exercises have been undertaken.  A summary of each exercise has been included in previous year’s Annual Governance Statements and an annual monitoring process is in place to capture the status of implementing the improvement actions arising from each self-evaluation exercise:

• Th e nine self-evaluation exercises resulted in areas for improvement being identified and captured in supporting improvement plans.  In general, these aimed to further strengthen existing arrangements, rather than address any significant issue in terms of effectiveness. 

• The improvement actions arising from the 2023 self-evaluations (in terms of the Audit and Scrutiny Panel and how effectively it is discharging its role, and of Partnership / Community Board effectiveness in line with their role in improving outcomes for local people and communities) are in the process of being delivered and are scheduled to be completed during 2024/25.

• The remaining improvement actions from the Data Governance Board self-evaluation undertaken in 2021 have been integrated within the senior information risk owner annual perform ance and assurance process for implementation and monitoring.

A self-evaluation scheduled to be undertaken in 2025 aims to support the governance arrangements for the Programme of Work to 2028 and will focus on the operation of the supporting Strategic Boards following their implementation in 2023 to ensure they are effective in supporting delivery of the council’s long-term vision in The Plan for North Lanarkshire.

Project Management Framework

• A review and refresh of the council’s project management model in 2022 was supported by a self-evaluation exercise.  This was required to ensure the council’s arrangements remained fit for purpose and able to effectively support delivery of The Plan for North Lanarkshire and followed recommendations arising from Internal Audit reports on managing strategic change and the governance of capital projects.  The review was also considered necessary in light of the changes in the council’s operating environment since the implementation of the model in 2018.  These changes had led to a rapid evolution of programmes and projects across the council, as well as increasing complexities in the delivery of many of these, and a growing need for good governance and good project management to set up and deliver a wider range of projects at pace and scale (particularly during the pandemic), and ensure these are well-directed, delivered to time, cost, and quality targets, and provide the expected benefits and improved local outcomes. 
• To support the review, a group was established comprising officers from across council services with practical on the ground experience of project management in both construction and non-construction projects.  Following work to collate and analyse the information collected through the review, five themes on areas for improvement consistently emerged.  Three of the areas for improvement related to the development of the refreshed Project Management Framework which was completed and published across the council in December 2022. 
• One area for improvement related to ongoing training, staff learning and development, and awareness raising in line with the refreshed Framework for which a programme was launched council wide in March 2023.  A series of full day training courses (aimed at employees with no project management experience, new to the council, or for those who required a refresher) and half day training courses (aimed at employees with some project management experience, or for those who are currently responsible for delivering on council projects) has continued throughout 2023 and is in place to the end of 2024.  The remaining area for improvement relates to enhancing opportunities for more collaboration, sharing, and learning for which a Yammer site has been established for further development and roll out later in 2024.
• Delivery of The Plan for North Lanarkshire is subject to a set of Quality Assurance arrangements in line with the corporate Project Management Framework.  These arrangements have been aligned to the governance supporting the new Programme of Work to 2028 to ensure the council can (a) demonstrate compliance with the Project Management Framework, and (b) monitor delivery of projects and activities supporting the Programme of Work. 
• The review programme to assess compliance with the Project Management Framework was finalised and implemented during 2023 with an overview of the results and findings arising following the analysis of the completed baseline self-assessment forms informing the improvement plan and next steps in order to progress the areas for improvement identified through the review programme during 2024.
• As good practice recommends that a council’s audit and scrutiny committee play an important role in providing independent assurances about the delivery of major programmes and projects, a report to the Audit and Scrutiny Panel in February 2024 provided an initial overview in this respect in advance of future assurance reports that will support Elected Member oversight in terms of the quality assurance process and review programme for the Project Management Framework.

Strategic Performance Framework

• The Strategic Performance Framework is supported by a Performance Reporting Schedule which sets out the performance reporting, monitoring, review, and scrutiny arrangements for The Plan for North Lanarkshire by way of a reporting schedule and set of non-negotiable standards.  During 2023/24, information regarding items on the Performance Reporting Schedule (i.e. Chief Officers six monthly performance reviews at service committees, service specific reporting to meet business and/or statutory obligations, and corporate reporting) was made available to the Audit and Scrutiny Panel through quarterly performance assurance reports in order to support the Panel’s scrutiny and strategic oversight role.
• Since its implementation the Performance Reporting Schedule has been regularly reviewed and updated.  The latest update, reported to the Audit and Scrutiny Panel in February 2024,  differs to previous years in that it also incorporates Programme of Work performance management and progress monitoring. This follows work to update the Strategic Performance Framework and develop Delivery Plans and performance measures for each of the seven Programme of Work priorities, while ensuring further alignment and formalisation of the corporate arrangements that support monitoring and governance of The Plan for North Lanarkshire.
• During 2023 there were 83 performance reports produced in line with the Performance Reporting Schedule.  A very small number of reports did not make the scheduled reporting cycle, but clear rationales were provided by way of explanation that were found to be logical and sensible, and an agreement was reached on an appropriate subsequent reporting cycle.  It should be noted that as the Reporting Schedule is developed only once a year as at a moment in time, it is expected that national changes or changes in local operating contexts and priorities may have an impact on subsequent reporting requirements and dates.
• During 2023/24, Chief Officers’ six-monthly reports in line with the Strategic Performance Framework followed the standard template.  This ensured that all reports consistently (a) set out the current context within which the service is operating, (b) highlighted areas of good performance that could be evidenced in the accompanying data, and (c) provided a summary of areas of performance requiring improvement along with narrative that gives an explanation for the level of performance achieved and summarises the remedial action implemented (or to be implemented) to bring performance back on track. Moving forward, reports will be required to demonstrate that the loop has been closed in terms of implementation and monitoring of both improvement actions and subsequent performance levels.  This is required to provide a clear evidence trail that demonstrates continuous improvement in performance in line with the requirements of Best Value.
• The extent of the action undertaken by each audience when reviewing and scrutinising the performance information before them has been varied.  Moving forward, the ask of the audience reading the report will be specifically (and appropriately) referenced in performance reports to service committees moving forward.  This practice is already in place for Audit and Scrutiny Panel reports for the scrutiny function of the Panel.  Specific training to be held in 2024, in relation to the scrutiny of performance, will further complement awareness raising and roles and responsibilities (as identified through the Audit and Scrutiny Panel’s self-evaluation in November 2023).
• Reporting of the Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) measures were integrated into the Strategic Performance Framework when it was initially approved. This ensured appropriate alignment to The Plan for North Lanarkshire and Programme of Work, and also ensured that scrutiny did not focus on a single performance indicator which rarely provides a complete picture of performance when considered in isolation. This meant that during 2023/24 LGBF measures were integrated into reports to service committees alongside the wider suite of measures within each Chief Officers’ area of responsibility. This approach will continue to ensure that reports contain a suite of all relevant performance indicators in order to provide a complete picture of performance.  The council’s website hosts a new dashboard for LGBF measures which was launched by the Improvement Service in 2023.  This provides an easy way to view a live picture of the most up to date performance for a benchmarking measure as at a point in time.  It also enables North Lanarkshire’s performance to be compared with other local authorities and the national average.  Moving forward, this dashboard will be signposted in performance reports to service committees.