Foundations for success
Creating a fit-for-purpose organisation
Our ambition is to be recognised for excellence in our role as service provider and as an employer.
We recognise the need to continually develop and improve our internal services to support our key priorities and ambitions set out within this corporate plan. Our foundations reflect our capacity to deliver and achieve successful outcomes both for the organisation and the city and we will work to ensure their strength over the next three years.
People
Our people are at the heart of everything we do. We will prioritise the implementation of our People Strategy to provide opportunities for employees to develop and progress within the organisation. We will support departments to develop and implement strategic workforce planning to address resource and skills gaps whilst embedding inclusive growth into our approach to recruitment and apprenticeships. We will also continue to provide capacity building and support for our elected members to ensure they are equipped to carry out their roles effectively.
Equality and diversity
Belfast is a vibrant city with a diverse population. We will continue to promote and uphold equality and diversity in how we plan, offer and provide our services. We will deliver our Race Equality and Diversity Action Plans and make equality central to our policy and decision-making processes.
Digital technology
The council will continue to explore enhancing our digital services and capability through the implementation of our Digital Strategy. This will focus on maximising our technology investments and systems to support service improvement across the council. Our Digital projects will focus on self-service and automation and will aim to improve our ability to create a data-driven culture which fosters the responsible, ethical and innovative use of data to support evidence-based decision-making.
Continuous improvement
Our Continuous Improvement Programme will continue to deliver a sequenced programme of improvement projects that place our citizens at the centre of the services the council delivers, resolve organisational challenges, rationalise cost, build capacity, agility and capability and enable delivery of our objectives. This work will focus on how we can enhance our services such as Customer Programme, Digital Services, HR, Finance and Procurement.
Belfast Agenda (2024-2028)
The council will work closely with the city partners to help deliver positive outcomes across the city. The refreshed Belfast Agenda will underpin the council's work over the next three years to ensure that we can achieve our ambitions to deliver a city where everyone fulfils their potential; where everyone benefits from a thriving and prosperous economy, where everyone experiences better health and wellbeing.
Strategic partnerships
Partnership working is essential to drive real change in the city – not one organisation can improve the outcomes we want to see for the people of Belfast. To maximise the impact of our partnerships, we will develop a strategic partnership framework to target the key partnerships that will benefit the people of Belfast.
Planning and Performance Management
The council will implement a planning and performance management framework that supports the implementation of the corporate, departmental and service plans through regular monitoring, reporting and review.
Customer Focus Programme
Develop and deliver phase three of our Customer Focus Programme to enhance our services and customer experience.
Celebrating language diversity
The council will implement a Language Strategy Action Plan which will promote, protect and enhance the linguistic diversity which exists within and across the city and our workforce.
Asset management
Our property assets are an important part of supporting and enabling us to transform the way we deliver our services and our regeneration priorities. We will develop an asset management strategy which will set the framework for managing our property portfolio effectively.
Finance
The financial sustainability of the organisation is a fundamental priority to ensure that we are effectively resourced to deliver high quality services whilst ensuring value for money is provided to the ratepayer. We will develop a new medium term financial plan 2025-2028 and efficiency plan to support the delivery of this corporate plan. We will also produce a new capital programme financing strategy for 2025-2028 to outline our approach towards financing the council’s capital programme.
Funding Framework
A corporate level funding framework will be established to enable the council to become more strategic and targeted in relation to securing external investment into city; enhancing services, creating new facilities and assets and transforming local places.
Governance
We will review our governance arrangements to ensure effective and efficient political decision-making. We will focus on the implementation of agreed audit actions arising from delivery of the annual Audit Plan and ensure that adequate and effective risk, control and assurance arrangements are in place through our governance framework.
Communications and engagement
The council recognises the importance of communicating with ratepayers and other audiences via a range of the council's channels and platforms to keep people informed of our services and projects. We will continue to innovate in how we communicate, consult and engage to ensure our communication tactics reflect changing audience demands and new tools and platforms.
We will also strive to ensure that our staff are continually engaged and informed through the introduction of a modern employee engagement platform that becomes the main internal communications channel for the council.
Commercial and Procurement Services
Developing and embedding the corporate approach to sustainable procurement activity across the organisation will support our aspirations to ensure that inclusive growth and social value key factors within our procurement policies. We will also refresh our Commercial Strategy as part of a medium-term financial plan and efficiency realisation work and develop a procurement approach for resources and fleet.
City innovation
The council will prioritise the development of an Innovation Strategy and Policy to help drive service transformation. We will collaborate closely with partners to influence investment in digital infrastructure in the city and support the work of Innovation City Belfast and the Innovation Commissioner. The council will also provide strategic guidance and support on innovative approaches for the city and the th council - integrated with key corporate strategies. The council will develop a strategic approach to managing and curating city data to support innovative approaches to delivering the Belfast Agenda.
