Council planning

Council plans

Tranche 1

Status: Regulations being developed

Commencement: To be confirmed

What is proposed?

The reforms propose that local governments prepare, adopt and publish a council plan to plan for the future services and facilities that are to be provided by the local government for the district. This is intended to replace the requirement for strategic community plans.

A summary of this reform proposals are:

• simplified, short-form council plans that replace strategic community plans and set high-level objectives over an 8-year period
• simplified asset management plans to consistently forecast costs of maintaining assets
• simplified long-term financial plans that outline long-term financial management and sustainability issues, and any investments and debts.

Regulations are being developed to ensure the framework meets the needs of the sector and provide for an avenue for local governments to plan for the short, medium and long term.

Regulations being developed are proposed to include:

• information and contents to be contained in the council plan
• the period a council plan is to cover
• when a council plan must be prepared, published, reviewed, modified and replaced
• procedures to be followed in preparing, reviewing, modifying and replacing a council plan. 

It is intended that templates, compliance guidance and capability building tools will be available on commencement.

How these changes help

By simplifying the integrated planning and reporting framework, it is hoped that local governments can better focus their resources on service delivery and providing facilities instead of extensive planning.

Changes also aim to address the needs of varied audiences, being the council, administration and community, particularly in relation to having a shared understanding of priorities, roles, responsibilities and accountability.

Community engagement charters

Tranche 1

Status: Regulations being developed

Commencement: To be confirmed

What is proposed?

The reforms propose that local governments will be required to prepare, adopt and publish a community engagement charter that sets out the principles to be applied, and what will be done, to encourage a diverse range of community members to participate in decision-making processes.

Local governments will need to ensure they engage with their community when developing their charter.

Regulations are being developed to further detail a charter's relationship to the council planning process. It is intended that a template and guidance material will be developed to support local governments on commencement.

How these changes help

Community engagement is vital for inclusive decision making. Many local governments already reflect this importance by involving their communities in decisions that affect them.

Community engagement charters are being introduced as a consistent requirement across the sector to ensure that all local governments commit to engaging their communities. They will also help communities understand how they can influence decisions that affect them.

Community surveys

Tranche 1

Status: Regulations being developed

Commencement: To be confirmed

What is proposed?

The reform proposes a requirement for class 1 and 2 local governments to undertake community satisfaction surveys.

How these changes help

Many local governments already appreciate the benefits of regular community satisfaction surveys and voluntarily conduct them to inform service provision, projects and decision-making.

By linking community surveys to the council planning process, local governments will have better insights into how satisfied their community is with the services and facilities provided in their district. These insights will then directly influence planning for the future delivery of these services and facilities.

Undertaking these surveys at consistent intervals will allow for a better understanding of a local government's performance and improvement over time. Members of the community will also get a better understanding of the views of their entire community through the requirement for community survey results to be published.