This strategic plan sets out what we, as a council are trying to achieve, grounded in our vision, priorities, four-year commitments and goals. The plan also forms a central element of the council’s broader planning and performance framework as outlined below. Subsequent delivery plans will translate these into annual deliverables, creating a clear line of sight from long-term strategic intent to short-term action and performance management.
We will report on our progress quarterly to ensure our efforts are focused on the areas where we can make the greatest impact. This will be a combination of qualitative updates on the progress on the actions set out in the strategic plan, and in addition, we will develop and report on a set of strategic indicators to track success in real terms.
Devon County Council planning framework
Measuring our performance is critical to demonstrate the effectiveness and impact of our services and how we work to serve the residents, businesses and communities across Devon.
Monitoring council performance is framed around the following core documents:
- Strategic Plan 2025-29 – spans four years and covers strategic objectives with associated commitments goals and actions.
- Corporate Plan 2025-2026 – focuses on key improvement areas across the council to provide the best services for residents and communities. In future years this will become an annual delivery plan, setting in-year activity to address the four-year commitments in the strategic plan.
- Directorate Plans which set out the role of individual council directorates to address service priorities and improvement actions, on a annual basis.
Our performance is measured through this planning framework, with high-level measures set for our strategic priorities aligned to annual organisational performance measures and service based outcomes.
Strategic plan scorecard
Alongside tracking the actions in this plan we will, to determine whether our activities are having the desired impact, develop a set of strategic indicators for each strategic priority, focussed on the key outcomes of our work, which will be included in a new strategic scorecard. This will be developed in early autumn 2025 and be part of the quarterly and annual reporting outlined below.
We will work with the Devon Youth Council to design outcomes that matter to young people and seek their input into how we report progress.
Transparency through quarterly and annual reporting
For quarters one and three of the financial year we will produce a new corporate performance and risk report, setting out performance against our strategic indicators. For quarter two of the financial year we will produce a more detailed report that provides an overview of our progress against delivering the actions in the strategic plan as well performance against our strategic indicators.
Our quarterly reports are designed to support elected members to effectively scrutinise progress, including any areas for concern. The reports are presented to Cabinet, can form part of the scrutiny committee and audit committees’ work programme.
At the end of the financial year we will produce an annual report, which will be published on our website in early summer. It will provide a more detailed overview of performance for the whole financial year on how we have made a difference and any remaining challenges.
In addition to public reporting, there is a performance management cycle to ensure that we remain on track, and that where there are concerns appropriate action is taken. Each directorate will hold regular quarterly performance review meetings, and once a quarter Cabinet and senior leaders will come together as a business board to review progress, operational and financial performance and organisational risks. Directorate meetings will include monitoring of specific improvement areas as set out in the Corporate Plan 2025-26 and subsequent delivery plans and routine operational performance. Specific themes will also be scrutinised through our scrutiny committees’ work programmes.
Our performance reports and scorecards will be published quarterly on our website.
Annual delivery plans
For 2025/26 we have developed a corporate plan which sets out the key improvement areas for all council directorates and has a corporate scorecard to ensure key service outcomes are achieved. The Corporate Plan 2025–26 outlines the council’s priorities for the year, acting as a bridge between the Strategic Plan 2020/2024 and the Strategic Plan 2025/29. Progress against the Corporate Plan 2025-26 will be included in the quarterly reporting above. To reflect the new strategic plan, in subsequent years the corporate plan will be replaced by an annual delivery plan which will consist of specific annual activity aimed at achieving the outcomes listed under the four-year commitments in each of the six priority areas of the Strategic Plan 2025-29.
Directorate plans and performance management
All directors will focus on how their directorate will achieve the strategic plan actions and indicators for which they are responsible. Especially important will be ensuring each directorate also maximises its efforts to support the children’s service improvement journey. Directors are expected to regularly review performance with their leadership teams and their cabinet member.
Statutory reporting, benchmarking, best practice and peer reviews
Embedded within our performance management framework is benchmarking with national groups and peer groups to highlight where we may be underperforming. We will align our performance framework with statutory reporting requirements, including the forthcoming Local Authority Government Outcomes Framework that is currently being consulted on.
Performance reporting will feed into our statutory inspection regimes, annual governance statement and audit of accountants, ensuring our performance governance and reporting are compliant.
In support of our improvement journey, we will continue to work with peers to support our progress and deliver improvement. Improvement will be governed and reported alongside performance, and we are committed to open scrutiny and transparency through best practice sharing and peer reviews, with an LGA Corporate Peer Review planned for early 2026.
Statutory reporting, benchmarking, best practice and peer reviews
Embedded within our performance management framework is benchmarking with national groups and peer groups to highlight where we may be underperforming. We will align our performance framework with statutory reporting requirements, including the forthcoming Local Authority Government Outcomes Framework that is currently being consulted on.
Performance reporting will feed into our statutory inspection regimes, annual governance statement and audit of accountants, ensuring our performance governance and reporting are compliant.
In support of our improvement journey, we will continue to work with peers to support our progress and deliver improvement. Improvement will be governed and reported alongside performance, and we are committed to open scrutiny and transparency through best practice sharing and peer reviews, with an LGA Corporate Peer Review planned for early 2026.
Lived experience, insight and experience
Key to measuring our success is the improvement in the daily lives of our residents. Hearing their feedback, listening to their experiences and responding to feedback is a critical part of our performance management. Understanding lived experience and presenting case studies to aid learning will be woven in to how we report our progress and achievements against our four-year goals.
We will regularly seek feedback, through resident panels and other mechanisms, such as our resident survey, and will share this alongside quantitative analysis and reporting. We will continue to measure against Equality, Diversity and Inclusion measures and report progress to our diverse communities.
We will regularly meet and engage with the Devon Youth Council, reporting progress and hearing their views on our performance and services. Senior decision makers and Elected Members will benefit from their insight at these sessions to help support our continuous service improvement journey. The Devon Youth Council is a significant partnership for the Council and plays a key role in advocating for young people. We will continue to work with the Devon Youth Council through our participation team to incorporate the views of young people gathered through their annual Make Your Mark Survey. Make Your Mark 2025 results.
Data, tools and data capability
Our performance management is dependent on accurate and quality data. We are developing a data and data quality strategy and this will informed how we embed a culture of performance within the council, and how we hold, manage, apply and analyse data. Our ability to achieve continuous service improvement requires insight and accurate forecasting underpinning service design and commissioning. We are investing in new systems to support our service improvement and having strong data quality principles is essential to supporting the value of these systems support our improvement journey. We are mapping data science and data analytical capability within the organisation and considering these skills as part of workforce planning and our People First strategy.