Integrated planning and reporting

Three major parties are involved in the development of an integrated plan: the local government administration, the Council and the community. Each party has a unique role and responsibilities for effective and sustainable integrated planning and reporting, with the Local Government (Administration) Regulations 1996 requiring each local government to adopt a Strategic Community Plan and a Corporate Business Plan.

A successful integrated planning and reporting process will deliver the following outcomes:

• a Strategic Community Plan that clearly links the community's aspirations with the Council's vision and long term strategy
• a Corporate Business Plan that integrates resourcing plans and specific council plans with the Strategic Community Plan, and
• a clearly stated vision for the future viability of the local government area.

The Integrated Planning and Reporting Framework and Guidelines have been developed as part of the State Government's Local Government Reform Program. They reflect a nationally consistent approach to integrated planning as expressed by the Council of Australian Governments' Local Government Planning Ministers' Council.

The framework:

• recognises that planning for a local government is holistic in nature and driven by the community
• builds organisational and resource capability to meet community need
• optimises success by understanding the integration and interdependencies between the components, and
• emphasises performance monitoring so that local governments can adapt and respond to changes in community needs and the business environment.

The framework and guidelines provide a process to:

• ensure community input is explicitly and reliably generated
• provide the capacity for location-specific planning where appropriate
• update long term objectives with these inputs
• identify the resourcing required to deliver long-term objectives, and
• clearly convey long term financial implications and strategies.

Legislation

All local governments are currently required to produce a plan for the future under S5.56 (1) of the Local Government Act 1995. Regulations have been made under S5.56(2) of the Act to briefly outline the minimum requirements to achieve this.

The minimum requirement to meet the intent of the plan for the future is the development of a Strategic Community Plan and a Corporate Business Plan.

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