inform-residents-newsletter-spring-summer-2016 (2)

05 Community Planning Community planning is a new legislative function that councils have gained as a result of local government reform. Fermanagh and Omagh District Council will lead the community planning process and work with a wide range of partners, including representatives from the statutory, business, community and voluntary sectors, to develop a long-term plan to improve the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the Fermanagh and Omagh area. The Council and its community planning partners are required to produce the first community plan for our district by 1April 2017. Community planning is a unique opportunity for us to plan for and deliver local services whichmeet real, evidence- based needs for local people. It’s a new concept that focuses on partnership working, collaboration, citizen participation and long termoutcomes.Work towards making themost of this newopportunity is progressingwell. As residents of the district you too have an important part to play and citizen participationwill be at the heart of everythingwe do throughout the community planning process. So where are we, and what’s next? A Robust Evidence Base We have developed a robust evidence base for the newcouncil area encompassing social, economic and environmental data, to inform the identification of priorities and outcomes. Citizen Participation and Involvement We have engagedwith you, our citizens, to gain your views onwhat your priorities are. A series of engagement events were facilitated over an extensive period fromJune to October 2015. EachDistrict Electoral Area hosted at least one event, and 903 people engaged in the process, with 430 registering their interest to be included on a community planning database. Further consultationwill be undertaken in the second half of 2016. Integration of Plans and Strategies We have carried out a comprehensive reviewof local plans and strategies which currently impact on, or relate to, the council area in order to inform the development of community planning priorities. Partnership working is developing The Council and its partners are currently considering the evidence base, the engagement findings and reviewof plans to take the next steps in developing the draft community plan. Your views on this draft will be sought later in the year. Performance Improvement By the end of June each year, the Council is required to publish an Improvement Plan setting out what it will do in the year ahead to demonstrate continuous improvement. Councils must set Improvement Objectives annually and make sure arrangements are in place to achieve those objectives. Our draft Corporate Improvement Plan 2016/17 is currently the subject of public consultation and is available for you to viewand comment upon by 27April 2016. This year’s draft Corporate Improvement Plan sets out 3 ImprovementObjectives and 6 associated Improvement Projects which theCouncil will deliver against. These are in addition toworking to achieve all of our service objectives tomeet the commitments in our Corporate Plan 2015-19. Improvement Objective 1: We will seek to reduce our impact on the environment Reduction in energy consumption (Council facilities) What will we do? Achieve a reduction in Energy Consumption, and a reduction in Carbon Dioxide emissions, across all Council-owned buildings in the district. Improvement Objective 2: We will seek to improve local services for our residents and visitors Shared working arrangements (Planning Enforcement/Building Control) What will we do? Implement shared working arrangements between Planning and Building Control to improve identification of planning issues on site and reduce the need for enforcement action. Satellite Museum Provision (Omagh) What will we do? Introduce a Museum presence in the Strule Arts Centre (pending identification of a permanent museum location), based around the history of the Omagh area. Improving online capability (Phase 1: Leisure) What will we do? We will implement a Leisure Management Systemwith the capacity to allow citizens to book their leisure activities online at a time that suits the customer. Improvement Objective 3: We will seek to be a more modern and efficient council Data management project What will we do? We will undertake an audit within the Council to analyse the data that we currently hold, with a view to making data available to the public as Open Data, where appropriate. We will manage internal data more efficiently, with a view to improving customer service. Mobile working What will we do? Introduce hardware and software to enable field officers to input ‘live’ data, whilst on site, without the need to return to the office, and have the ability to respond to site visit requests whilst in a locality. The Council will publish an Improvement Report by 30th September 2017, setting out its performance against its Improvement Objectives and the statutory performance indicators which have been set. You can comment on our draft Improvement Plan at www.fermanaghomagh.com or by contacting Ryan Tracey, Performance Improvement Officer at 0300 303 1777 or email ryan.tracey@fermanaghomagh.com We will keep in touch Wewill keep you updatedwith our progress over the comingmonths about the development of the community plan on the Council website and social media platforms. If youwish to talk to an officer, please contact the Council Offices. 06 How the Council Procures Goods and Services The Council procures awide range of supplies, services andworks to efficiently meet the needs of the Council area. The Council uses procurement procedures that are clear, open, fair and transparent while achieving overall value for money. Economic, environmental and social value considerations are incorporatedwithin the procurement process when relevant. The Council aims tomaximise personal wellbeing, social cohesion, inclusion, equal opportunities and sustainabilitywithin the district through its Procurement process. There is also a focus on continuous improvement in terms of quality, effectiveness and efficiency. To ensure value for money is achieved, procurement is carried out in a competitive manner by either a Request for Quotation (RFQ) or Tender, depending on the level of expenditure. • For expenditurewhich is estimated to exceed £30,000 the Council seeks Tenders. Thesewill be publicly advertised and available for download from the Tenders section of the Council website. • For expenditurewhich is estimated to cost below£30,000 the Council seeks Requests for Quotation (RFQs). Any business or social enterprise interested in participating in Request for Quotation (RFQ) exercisesmay apply to be included on the Council’s RFQSupplier Database, by completing a RFQSupplier Registration Form. The RFQSupplier Registration Formmay be requested by email from procurement@fermanaghomagh.com and will shortly be available to download from the Council website. The Council uses an eProcurement portal for a number of Procurement exercises. This portal is used by a number of Northern IrelandCouncils alongwithCentral Government Departments. To register on the eTendersNI Procurement portal please use the following link: https://etendersni.gov.uk If you require any further details on any aspect of submitting Tenders or Quotations please email: procurement@fermanaghomagh.com If youwould like to readmore about our community planning process you can scan theQRCode belowwith your smart phone to accessmore information.