Our Corporate Plan

Welcome to our new Corporate Plan 2023 to 2027: Building a better and fairer future.

Following the local elections, which saw the Labour Party take majority control over the council for the first time since 1995, we have prepared a new Corporate Plan setting out our revised priorities for the next four years.

We want to improve the quality of our housing and build new council houses for rent. We want to stimulate investment in the district, with vibrant town centres, enhanced green spaces and an inclusive local economy that delivers jobs and opportunities for everyone. We want to see our communities flourish, with a focus on improving health and wellbeing, raising skill levels, and supporting our most vulnerable residents. We are also responsible for future generations of the district’s residents, so we will reduce our carbon footprint whilst working towards becoming carbon neutral in our operations. We also want to make the council more open, transparent and inclusive.

This Corporate Plan will run until 2027 and has four strategic themes, with a fifth ambition for our council underpinning them. These are:

1. improving our housing
2. growing our economy
3. protecting our environment
4. supporting our communities
5. modernising our council.

Collectively, these themes add up to building a more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable district.

Our ambitions go beyond what we can deliver on our own, and we will, therefore, collaborate with our partners and communities to bring greater and lasting benefits to the district.

Like many councils across the country, after a decade of underfunding by central government, we face significant financial constraints and uncertainties from the wider economic climate and the impact of local government finance reforms. In addition, we know that our businesses and communities are also facing pressures, such as the cost-of-living crisis, the local health, social and economic consequences of the pandemic and deep-rooted inequalities across the district.

Notwithstanding the tremendous challenges ahead, we remain committed to our values and to working to ensure the future prosperity of the district. We recognise that we have a crucial community leadership role in enabling our communities' long-term sustainability and resilience.

Your Labour administration is ambitious for the district’s future, and we look forward to delivering the best services we can to our communities and businesses and building a better and fairer future for us all.

This Corporate Plan sets out our vision for the district and the council over the next four years. It describes our aims and the priority activities we will focus on delivering.

Our Corporate Plan does not try to capture everything we do – instead, it provides a framework for our decisions – how we prioritise and allocate the resources we have available to achieve these priorities. It is the key strategy from which our budget, service plans and individual objectives cascade.

We have centred this Corporate Plan around our vision of ‘building a better and fairer future’. This vision recognises the many and varied strengths of the district but also that we, and our partners, have a role in intervening where particular challenges exist to ensure that individuals, businesses and communities can reach their full potential.

The strategic themes are interdependent, allowing for alignment across the themes and ensuring that no theme operates in isolation.

By defining a clear set of ambitions and commitments, our Corporate Plan also helps residents hold us accountable for our performance and challenge us to improve. By aligning our resources and activities to the Corporate Plan, we can focus on turning public money into results for our communities.

The Corporate Plan informs other key strategies and plans, whether council documents or those of our partners. These documents vary widely in purpose, scope and timescale. The Corporate Plan does not replace these other documents but should shape them whenever they are updated.

We are committed to ensuring sound governance principles and management practices across all business activities to ensure we do the right things openly, honestly and transparently.

Although our aims will likely remain constant over the medium term, the rapidly changing environment within which we operate means we will review the plan regularly. This review allows us to respond to new emerging issues and take advantage of new funding opportunities with new projects and programmes of work.

Whilst this Corporate Plan focuses primarily on the next four years, we also look ahead to the longer term, ensuring our vision remains fit for future generations.

In addition to the aims and ambitions you would expect to see in a Corporate Plan, we are keen to extend our role as a ‘leader of place’.

We aspire to promote the district as a distinct location; a leading destination to live, work, visit, learn and invest - with excellent services that meet local needs.

We will also advocate on behalf of the district and public service provision generally, using our influence as a council for the broader good of the district, its residents, visitors, businesses and communities.

Building a better and fairer future is the focus of our vision – one that is greener and healthier, where people are actively engaged in their communities and can benefit from opportunities that arise.

All of this contributes towards the sense of place that makes the district distinct and gives people the confidence to say they are proud to live here, that we provide good quality services, offer value for money and that they are satisfied with how we run things.

This Corporate Plan is inclusive and we want to help improve the quality of life and life chances for everyone in the district. We are committed to being a fair, compassionate and inclusive council that genuinely values difference and makes everyone feel safe and that they belong.

We will demonstrate this commitment by delivering accessible, fair services as an employer, provider of services and community leader. By showing we value all aspects of the community, we are strengthening it.

We celebrate diversity and the contribution different groups make to the district. This commitment is about everything we do and every decision we make. We do not discriminate against someone because of perceived differences. It also means that we take an active role as a leader in the community and remove barriers to participation and access for all members of the community.

We can do this by implementing robust policies, for example:

• taking appropriate action when we identify unlawful discrimination
• countering misinformation and rumours linked to immigration and particular groups that feed negative stereotypes and prejudices and reinforce hostile attitudes
• consulting with community groups, such as disability awareness groups
• supporting and promoting events such as Pride Month.

We will measure and monitor our progress in delivering our priorities, flex our resources, and approach accordingly. Our Performance Management Framework drives the what and the how of measuring success.

Our performance monitoring is also aligned with our financial reporting and risk management. We will report quarterly strategic performance indicators, aligned to each corporate priority, to our Corporate Management Team, Cabinet, and Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Each service also has operational performance indicators managed by the Heads of Service in conjunction with the Corporate Management Team and their Portfolio Holders. All council employees will have performance and development reviews, connecting them to delivering our corporate priorities and service plans.

Strategic reviews of service areas may occasionally lead to changes in key performance indicators during the year. Where this is the case, we will report these as part of the regular quarterly reporting process and reflect them in the next refresh of the performance management framework.

We are committed to improving outcomes for residents, businesses, the environment as well as the health and state of our district.

In addition to strategic performance indicators that we will report progress against through our performance reports, we will seek to design and develop additional outcome measures over the first and second years of the plan. We will also explore how far we can benchmark against nationally produced indicators and data and supplement these with various community engagement techniques to assess community wellbeing.

We will keep our corporate plan under review, particularly when the council faces new challenges or opportunities, whether nationally, regionally or within the district.

Each year, we must produce a Medium-term Financial Plan (MTFP) for approval by elected members. The MTFP sets out our spending plans in support of delivering the Corporate Plan objectives, presenting a balanced budget, and striving for value for money and financial stability and sustainability.

Every year, each service area across the council produces a business plan incorporated into an overall service plan for that area. These plans serve two purposes.

Firstly, to set out proposed business activity in support of delivering the Corporate Plan, informed by policy developments, and encompassing short, medium and long-term proposals.

Secondly, business plans have an operational purpose, setting out business-as-usual activity and the resources required to deliver this. This element informs the day-to-day running of our services and informs individual objectives. Our Corporate Management Team is accountable to members for service and business plans, monitored through various aspects of our governance framework.

For council staff, the ‘golden thread’ shows how individual work objectives contribute to the overall delivery of the corporate plan. Whether delivering a large and complex project like the Levelling Up Dover Beacon Project, ensuring the streets are clean, carrying out our regulatory functions, or processing planning applications – all our staff are valued equally.

The Dover District Profile is our key evidence base. It allows us to monitor the effectiveness of Corporate Plan interventions designed to address issues and challenges identified across the district. The profile also enables us to identify emerging issues and plan appropriate interventions.

• Read the Dover District Profile

• Customers first: Putting our customers at the heart of service design and delivery, we will seek regular feedback through consultations and resident surveys.
• Digital transformation: We are modernising services and harnessing new digital technology to make it easier for residents to interact with us. We are improving our website, streamlining processes and making more services available online.
• Building self-reliance: We work with others to build the ability of individuals and communities to solve their problems and withstand the shocks that come their way. We will support those who need it – but our priority is always to help people live independently for as long as possible.
• Getting the best value: We strive for value for money in everything we do and we are focused on financial stability and delivering our Medium-Term Financial Plan. However, we acknowledge that the best deal is not always the cheapest – it protects people, jobs, the environment and the budget. So, we are also evolving our procurement practices to enhance the social value in all we do.
• Collaborating with others: We work closely with partners and other bodies within and beyond our district, increasing our collective ability to achieve our vision and improve our residents’ quality of life and wellbeing. We are building on the work done during the pandemic to consolidate partnerships and ensure a more robust network to support the most vulnerable.
• Respect for democracy and ensuring inclusivity: Our councillors, elected by local people, understand the needs and expectations of their communities. This understanding informs our actions and helps us make balanced decisions. We will practice genuine engagement with those affected by our work or decisions.
• Integrity and good governance: As community leaders, honesty, accountability and transparency are at the core of everything we do. We recognise our responsibility to serve all the communities of our district to the best of our ability. We will treat the people we work with and serve with integrity, respect and decency. We will use data and research to drive improvement, listening to our residents, communities and businesses to underpin informed decisions.
• Valuing our staff: Our staff are our biggest asset, and through their dedication and expertise we can deliver the services that people rely on. Therefore, we promote our employees’ health, safety and wellbeing. We support our staff in gaining new skills and qualifications throughout their careers, and empower them to innovate, collaborate and achieve our shared goals.