Understanding how regional councils such as ours undertake the legislated planning process can be challenging for many. There are not only different cycles (we have annual plans, once-off transformational plans, four-year plans and 10-year plans), there are also many acronyms, references to different legislation, and mandated processes our teams are required to adopt to ensure the organisation is acting in a legislated, professional, ethical and transparent way.
Our strategic planning process is heavily focused on plan integration. It is critical all strategic materials are heading in the same direction.
Often referred to as the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework (ISPRF), this process essentially aligns our various strategic planning materials to ensure they not only facilitate service delivery efficiencies where appropriate, but also facilitate the attainment of goals shared across planning areas.
In simple terms, we cannot create a priority in our Council Plan to deliver new community engagement initiatives if we have not allocated funding in our Annual Budget, or if the priority differs from those outlined in our 20-year Community Vision. Everything must appropriately align.
The ISPRF describes the requirements governed by the Local Government Act 2020 and includes the following key documents:
The diagram below provides an overview of the core legislated documents of an ISPRF and the planning cycles for each material. If the below is challenging to read on mobile devices, you can also download a PDF version here(PDF, 170KB).
