NOT FOR PUBLICATION

As North Yorkshire Council approaches its three-year anniversary, it’s important to begin by reflecting on the considerable work undertaken in just under three years. Our staff have worked tirelessly to embed new structures, build new teams, create new policies, deliver on key projects and cement our position as a new, high-performing authority.

Since April 2023, strong performance has been maintained across many service areas against the backdrop of considerable change and challenge. We can be incredibly proud of our early accomplishments as a council, including:

- Achieving an outstanding judgement for our Children Services

- Ranking third nationally for Adult Social Care services by CQC at the time of inspection

- Securing £40 million of investment to transform leisure services across the county

- Approving plans to deliver a minimum of 500 new council homes by 2029, and over £40 million invested in existing homes

- Embedding a new waste recycling model, allowing more waste to be diverted from landfill

- Progressing key transport projects critical to the region, including A59 Kex Gill and the Station Gateway Projects

Our workforce is the Council’s greatest asset, and we are incredibly thankful to all staff for their continued hard work, professionalism and dedication to North Yorkshire.

Challenges Ahead:

In last year’s Council Plan, we described the challenges facing the county, including the difficult financial outlook for local government. Unfortunately, North Yorkshire has been dealt an increasingly difficult position, following changes to national policy.

Previously in 2024, the Rural Services Delivery Grant was removed by Government, resulting in a £14 million per year loss to the Council. A further loss of almost £20 per year in core government grant is expected via the implementation of Fair Funding 2.0, a policy which fails to adequately account for the additional costs incurred in delivering services in rural areas. The cumulative impact of these changes, coupled with demand pressures in social care and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), cannot be overstated. As a result, more difficult decisions lie ahead.

However, we must take confidence that Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) has enabled us to seize economies of scale and build a solid foundation for the Council to continue its strong record of service delivery, with almost 70% of the Council’s proposed savings programme attributed to LGR.

Creating a Strong, Customer-led Council:

Despite our challenges, there are opportunities provided by the foundations we have put in place. This Council Plan does not seek to reinvent the previous Plan, but instead further develop it. At the very heart of this approach will be our renewed drive to become a customer-led Council. The needs and experiences of customers will be central to everything we do, including how we adapt services, make improvements and drive purposeful delivery.

We must also look to innovate and embed an opportunity mindset. Over the coming years, we know that demand for services will be higher and funding scarce. However, by embracing new technology such as AI and automation, we can work to improve productivity and unlock efficiencies for the benefit of the communities we serve.

North Yorkshire Council was recently ranked the third most productive local authority in the country in the IMPOWER Index, and the best performing in the North of England. This demonstrates the strong progress we have already made, but there is still more work to do.

In all service areas there will be improvements that we can make to ensure that residents and businesses receive a consistently high quality of service delivery. We are committed to that improvement journey based upon the strong foundations that have been laid to the new Council.

Delivering for North Yorkshire:

North Yorkshire’s success is built on the variety and unique character of our places, and that is why ‘place’ features prominently throughout this Council Plan. We know for North Yorkshire to go from strength to strength, we must be a council that supports our places and creates the conditions for them to prosper.

By developing the new Local Plan, delivering new affordable homes and quality infrastructure, we will continue to support our places and communities by working with communities, key stakeholders and infrastructure providers to ensure development is achieved in the most sustainable locations, and that initiatives are joined-up as part of a clear strategy of growth for North Yorkshire.

Our ambition to be England’s most local, large Council, will also remain a central component to the North Yorkshire way, building on initiatives such as the 32 Town Investment Plans and 27 Community Anchors, recognising the nuances of our places in how we deliver services.

This approach will see services work alongside communities to achieve better outcomes and protect the most vulnerable. That is why this Council Plan seeks intervention earlier and closer to communities, with the objective of improving outcomes for residents and preventing issues from escalating. In turn, reduced demand on services will enable resource to be invested in local priorities, such as better infrastructure, affordable housing, protecting our environment, creating good local jobs and more.

At the same time, we will amplify the voice of our residents, businesses, and communities – using the Council’s position to advocate for the county at every opportunity, whether that be at the national level, or working with our regional partners.

Cllr Carl Les, Leader of the Council

Richard Flinton, Chief Executive

North Yorkshire Council is committed to becoming England’s most local large council. We want to work in partnership with our communities to understand their needs and ensure that the places where people live, now and in the future, create new opportunities, promote wellbeing and reduce inequalities. A number of Community Partnerships have been established to tackle the issues most pertinent to their communities.

Thriving places depend on affordable, well-designed homes that meet the needs of our communities. The government has introduced substantial reforms to the planning system to significantly increase and accelerate housebuilding. The Council is committed to working with partners across North Yorkshire to deliver a mix of new homes, including affordable and specialist housing. This will be supported by the development of a comprehensive Local Plan and engagement with the YNYCA and Homes England Strategic Place Partnership. The new local plan is the key vehicle for setting out how we will shape places and communities across North Yorkshire, whilst ensuring that growth is achieved, and housing targets are met. It will set out the Council’s strategy for locating new homes and jobs along with planning policies to guide the quality of future development and infrastructure. Alongside this, we are working positively to raise standards of our social housing and become an exemplar landlord.

We will continue to work with the YNYCA to create growth in North Yorkshire. We are working with the combined authority to shape the Local Growth Plan and Spatial Development Strategy which feeds into the national Industrial Strategy. Parallel to this we have published a county wide Economic Growth Strategy looking to attract inward investment and advancing key industries such as Agri-food/Agri-Tech, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Engineering and Construction, Maritime, Renewable Energy and Digital. Working with partners the Council will support investment in and regeneration of our towns, with a targeted approach focusing on Scarborough, Selby and Harrogate. Town Investment Plans are being developed for our major towns and key settlements across North Yorkshire, ensuring locally driven regeneration that reflects the unique character, needs and aspirations of each community. Schemes such as the Selby and Skipton Gateway projects are also ongoing.

We want to create a distinctive region where accessible and inclusive culture and heritage is at the heart of improving people’s lives. We recognise that culture and creativity contribute to good health and wellbeing and is of benefit to the economy, including the visitor economy which plays a vital role in driving economic growth. Our Cultural Strategy and Destination Management Plan will support the delivery of growth in this sector.

As the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill progresses, place‑based governance will be further developed. We remain committed to working closely with the YNYCA to secure investment for our places and develop working practices with Parish Councils and community groups to support sustainable local ownership and management.

What we will see across North Yorkshire

Amongst other actions, we will:

Support our communities

Establishing up to 30 multi-agency Community Partnerships across North Yorkshire, each with their own action plan to tackle the issues most pertinent to them.

Investing in a network of Community Anchor Organisations (CAO) as trusted, place based ‘system partners’ to work alongside the Council to strengthen local relationships and optimise community resources to improve community well-being and improve resilience.

Support our businesses

Working in partnership to deliver the priority actions in our Economic Growth Strategy for North Yorkshire, to attract investment and grow our economy to create new and exciting opportunities for our residents and businesses.

We will work with partners and stakeholders to implement our Destination Management Plan for North Yorkshire, to promote a year-round visitor economy.

Support our places

Prepare a new comprehensive North Yorkshire Local Plan up to the year 2045.

Supporting and influencing the preparation of the Spatial Development Strategy for York and North Yorkshire to ensure alignment of key evidence to support growth.

Proactively working with developers to ensure timely delivery of allocated and permitted sites to maximise delivery against Housing, Infrastructure and Employment targets.

Invest in our places, with £30 million Transforming Cities Fund Station Gateway Projects in Harrogate, Selby and Skipton to regenerate the areas around the train station and improve links into the towns.

We will progress the delivery of Catterick Garrison Town Centre Project to create a new community resource centre, enhancements to the near-by park, inspiring artwork and a new public realm making it easier for people to access local services.

We will progress capital regeneration schemes where funding is in place, including £20 million Pride in Place programme in Scarborough, and £8 million in the Harrogate Convention Centre to ensure that the venue can reach its full potential and provide an even greater boost to the region’s economy.

Delivering excellent housing services and becoming an exemplar social landlord. We will lead by example, driving up standards across our Council housing stock and taking enforcement action where we find landlords who are failing to meet safety requirements, ensuring decent and safe homes for all residents.

North Yorkshire has many stunning landscapes, from the Yorkshire Coast to our two National Parks and three National Landscapes. We will continue working with partners to support our environment and biodiversity, so residents can continue to access and enjoy the beautiful landscapes of North Yorkshire.

Protecting and enhancing our environment means keeping our streets clean addressing environmental crime, responding to poor water quality in our rivers and coastline, and ensuring that our open spaces are clean and attractive for all who use them.

We will work with partners to achieve the regions ambition to be net zero by 2034 and carbon negative by 2040. As part of this, the Council is working to be operationally Net Zero by 2030, through our Climate Change Strategy Delivery Pathway.

The Council will continue to harmonise its approach to waste and recycling across the county to improve efficiency and support a circular economy which maximises the value of the materials within our area.

The Council recognises the challenges posed by extreme weather events and flooding. Through the Yorkshire and North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum the Council will ensure the needs of communities are understood during a time of crisis and are supported to respond and recover effectively.

The County’s rural nature poses significant challenges to transport connectivity, risking some communities being isolated from services, economic opportunities and growth. We continue to work closely with the YNYCA to secure strategic opportunities, such as Northern Powerhouse Rail, and to progress major infrastructure improvements, particularly east-west connectivity and along the region’s main transport corridors. Additionally, the Council will work to unlock active travel improvements, maintain safe highways and advocate for increased funding for rural transport.

Digital connectivity remains inconsistent across the county, presenting a barrier to investment and growth in some areas. The Council is committed to advancing connectivity for residents, visitors and businesses in North Yorkshire. The Council will continue to collaborate with mobile operators and the Government to reduce coverage gaps especially in rural and underserved areas.

What we will see across North Yorkshire

Amongst other actions, we will:

Protect and enhance our built and natural heritage

Work in partnership with protected landscapes and key stakeholders, supporting our biodiversity, rivers and water bodies and attracting private investment to restore and sustain the natural environment.

We will take action to improve the local environment through a harmonised enforcement approach, tackling and reducing environmental crime including littering, fly-tipping and dog-fouling, to ensure our air, streets, beaches and open spaces are kept clean and attractive.

Improve connectivity

Working to support the York & North Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority to improve public transport options across the county, by enhancing bus services, supporting the upgrading of rail infrastructure, giving people sustainable and reliable travel choices.

Completing the £82.5 million major road improvement scheme on the A59 at Kex Gill to improve the resilience and reliability of journeys along this strategic link between Skipton and Harrogate.

We will work with NYnet and its full-fibre network to improve broadband connectivity in North Yorkshire and collaborate with mobile operators and the Government to close coverage gaps.

Work towards net zero

Work with partners on our climate change strategy and pathway to achieve the shared aspiration that the region is net zero by 2034 and carbon negative by 2040. We will develop our North Yorkshire Adaptation Plan to support services, residents, communities, and businesses to prepare for inevitable climate change and increase their resilience to its effects.

Working towards our aspiration for the Council to become operationally net zero by delivering our Net zero Plan for Corporate Property and Fleet Decarbonisation Strategy for all Council vehicles.

The Council will prioritise early intervention, preventing crises before they arise, and embedding an approach that draws on people’s strengths, their relationships and what is going on in their local communities to help them live longer, healthier, independent lives.

North Yorkshire Council is committed to ensuring our communities are and feel safe. We will engage with residents, gathering local knowledge and fostering open conversations, while working closely with North Yorkshire Police through our Community Safety Hubs and with partners through our wider partnership arrangements.

In line with the Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life Strategy, we remain firmly committed to ensuring that every child has the strongest possible start.

Children and Families service support families in need and who are experiencing difficulties. Ensuring families receive help at the earliest opportunity, working alongside them and their networks to protect children and to enable them to remain together. Children and young people need to be loved, be safe, have stability and a sense of belonging to be able to thrive. For those children who require care they receive support as outlined in the Looked After Children’s Strategy. We are ambitious for children and young people, enabling them to be safe, happy, healthy and achieving.

The Council will strengthen partnerships with all three Integrated Care Boards and deliver the North Yorkshire Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and supporting plans. We will take major steps forward with NHS colleagues to devolve health funding to the North Yorkshire Health Collaborative, a new local partnership between the Council and the NHS, with the goal of strengthening the focus on prevention and community services.

The Council will support people to live independently in their home of choice – in part by continuing to develop our extra care and supported housing services as an alternative to 24/7 care. We will re-focus our social care practice towards preventing, reducing and delaying the need for longer term social care services. Working with the NHS, we will improve availability of reablement and intermediate care services to help people to recover from a hospital stay and, wherever possible prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital or 24/7 care.

With the sparse nature of the county, the Council faces a key challenge in the sustainability, availability and cost of rural services. Costs in the care market can vary significantly from one part of the county to another. That is why we will develop our in-house social care services, where appropriate, to improve choice, service availability and value for money, to enable people to access good public health services and social care across our different communities.

The council will work collaboratively across services such as housing, economic development and environment to address the wider determinants of health. Our Health Determinants Research Centre, which is part of a national programme, will serve as a hub for research, training, and education in behavioural sciences, driving innovation and improving lives across North Yorkshire.

Provision of leisure and activity facilities play an important role in enhancing health and wellbeing outcomes across North Yorkshire. Our in-house leisure service Active North Yorkshire will provide everyone in the community an opportunity to be active, with an increased emphasis on improving physical and mental health and wellbeing.

What we will see across North Yorkshire

Amongst other actions, we will:

Support safe communities

Working in partnership with the Safeguarding Adults Board and the Safeguarding Children Partnership, to maintain the safety of our communities and residents.

Establishing responsive Community Safety Hubs across the geography of North Yorkshire to ensure services are close to and informed by the needs of communities.

Support healthy communities that live and age well

Review and refresh our Early Help Strategy, in line with the Families First reforms and Best to Start to Life.

Develop and deliver our new Looked After Children’s strategy, enabling all children and young people in our care to be safe, happy, healthy and achieving. Renewing ‘We care because you matter’.

Continue to deliver training and drive ‘strength in relationships practice’, ensuring that more children can remain safely within their families and communities. This model creates positive change that continues after support services for children and families are no longer required to be involved. The goal is to create conditions that enable and allow relationships to flourish.

We will improve and develop our adult social care practice so that it is preventative, outcome focused and focuses on people’s strengths – underpinned by a modern adult social care structure which develops the workforce and puts capacity where it is needed most.

Up to £60 million will be invested in new care and support hubs to provide intermediate care and specialist dementia care. This new approach will help to prevent hospital admissions and provide rehabilitation following a stay in hospital, with better outcomes for people and reduced costs in comparison to other residential care.

Developing the Ambitious for Health programme, delivering the North Yorkshire Health Collaborative with NHS, voluntary sector and other partners to improve how £600 million of prevention and community services are delivered.

Delivering around £40m of investment in our leisure centres, to ensure we deliver high quality, accessible and sustainable facilities focused on improving health and wellbeing.

Everyone across North Yorkshire should have opportunities to reach their maximum potential, irrespective of their location; urban, rural or coastal.

We want schools and settings to support all children and young people to be safe, healthy and live well. Through strong collaboration with system leaders and partners, our ambition is to support all children and young people to maximise their potential through access to a high-quality and inclusive education.

For people with SEND and other needs, the Council will work with schools, families, communities and the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) to support a range of options, promoting inclusion in mainstream education wherever possible, helping children and young people to get the most fulfilling and positive educational experience which prepares them for independence.

To ensure people have the skills required for today’s jobs and the future workforce, lifelong learning is vital. We will provide clear opportunities to access learning after compulsory education and develop skills with local training providers.

Ensuring individuals can fulfil their ambitions while remaining in North Yorkshire is essential to building a future-ready workforce equipped with the skills needed for emerging industries such as agritech, biotech, marine technologies, and renewable energy. By broadening the range of opportunities for all, we can help reduce inequality and unlock the full capabilities of North Yorkshire’s workforce to drive economic growth.

Skills development should be accessible to all our residents. Working in partnership with the YNYCA, we are expanding Adult Skills provision through the Get Britain Working Economic Inactivity Trailblazer. This support is designed to help people move into employment, access training, or take up voluntary opportunities.

In times of hardship, the Council will focus support to those individuals and communities that require it, whether this is through the provision of information, advice, and guidance, or direct support from partners and community organisations. Our libraries also play an important role and are more than a collection of books, they are vibrant and accessible community hubs that contain the resources and tools to support individuals and communities to thrive and prosper.

What we will see across North Yorkshire

Amongst other actions, we will:

Maximise the potential for our children

Supporting schools and settings in meeting the needs of all children and young people.

We will work in partnership with Leaders in Education and wider services to support more children to be in school for more days. Our approach will focus on early intervention, relational practice, and inclusive environments that meet diverse needs.

Working to mitigate the effects of poverty within the school environment, including the number of children accessing free school meals.

Maximise the potential for all

We will ensure that there are clear pathways for everyone after compulsory education through the promotion of apprenticeships, training, work placements and further education, including adult education. We will work with local employers to understand current and future workforce needs, monitoring local skills levels and helping residents and business to gain appropriate employment skills.

Support marginalised people, including migrant communities, to integrate and participate equally. The diversity of our communities brings strength when everyone can contribute and utilise the breadth of experience, skills and talents.

The Council has a Performance Management Framework which sets out our performance monitoring arrangements. This framework includes multiple levels of performance monitoring including Corporate, Directorate/Service, Team and Individual.

The Council produces Performance Reports on a quarterly basis to show progress made against our ambitions, these reports are then scrutinised by Councillors and Officers at Management Board, Executive and Scrutiny Board. An annual report is also produced to report progress on priority actions outlined in the Council Plan.

The council will also monitor the indicators outlined by central government in the Local Outcomes Framework.

The Council’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) are outlined below:

Thriving Places and Empowered Communities

Quarterly Indicators

% Major planning applications within statutory or extension of time

% Minor planning applications within statutory or extension of time

% Other planning applications within statutory or extension of time

County matter planning applications determined within 13/16-week timescales or within agreed extension of time two-year rolling measure

Museum, Gallery and Cultural Venue visitor numbers

Annual Indicators

Number of additional homes provided

Contextual Indicators

Gross value added per hour worked

Number of births of new enterprises

% Businesses survival rate (three year) 

Sustainable and Connected Places

Quarterly Indicators

Residual household waste per household (Kg/household)

% of total household waste sent for recycling, compost and reuse

% of waste arising to landfill

Number of missed bins

% of highways inspections carried out within timescale including footways

% of highways dangerous defects made safe within two hours

Average length of roadworks on-site occupancy (days)

% of street light defects repaired within seven days

Annual Indicators

% of principal A roads where maintenance should be considered

% of non-principal B and C roads where maintenance should be considered

% of unclassified roads where maintenance should be considered

Scope 1 emissions (tCO₂e)

Scope 2 emissions (tCO₂e)

Scope 3 emissions (tCO₂e)

Contextual Indicators

% of premises with gigabit-capable broadband coverage

% of adults who engaged in active travel at least twice in the last 28 days (DfT)

Safe, Healthy and Living Well

Quarterly Indicators

People waiting for an initial assessment as a % of current service users

Admissions to residential and nursing care homes, per 100,000 population for people aged 18-64

Admissions to residential and nursing care homes, per 100,000 population for people aged 65+

% of hospital discharges to adult social care managed on pathways 0 or 1, i.e. home first 

% of short stay care home residents within the 6-week timescale

% of reablement clients not receiving a subsequent package of social care support within 91 days

Reablement packages delivered per 10,000 of adult population (cumulative over the year)

Proportion of people receiving long-term support living in their home or with family

Clients receiving long term support for 12+ months who have received an annual review the last 12 months

Direct payments as a % of community-based long-term support

Average weekly cost for new admissions to residential and nursing beds (18-64)

Average weekly cost for new admissions to residential and nursing beds for older people (65+)

Average weekly cost of community- based package of care (18-64)

Average weekly cost of a community-based package of care for older people (65+)

% of CQC care home ratings – ‘Good’ or better

Living Well involvements per 100k population

Safeguarding conversion rate – Section 42 enquiries as a % of concerns

% of Section 42 safeguarding enquiries where the identified risks were reduced or removed

Median waiting time (days) for DoLS applications

Number of households open to Early Help

Timeliness of initial assessments (Early Help)

The total number of children subject to a child protection plan (rate per 10,000)

Percentage of child protection plans which were a second or subsequent plan

The total number of children in care

The number of Care Leavers receiving support from the leaving care team

% of Care Leavers in suitable accommodation 17-18 and 19-21 age groups

Number of contacts received by MAST

Number of referrals to CSC

Percentage of C&F assessments completed in 45 working days

Binary re-offending rate

Total number of visits to a leisure centre (participation in an activity)

Total number of Active North Yorkshire memberships

Active North Yorkshire – Social Value Return

No. of Healthy You programme completers

% of those setting a quit date who successfully quit smoking at four weeks

Annual Indicators

First Time Entrant Rate into the youth justice system

Contextual Indicators

Life expectancy at birth (male/female)

Suicide rate

Under 18 conception rate (annual)

Face-to-face new birth visits undertaken within 14 days by a health visitor (%)

Proportion of children aged 2-2.5 years old receiving ASQ-3 as part of the Healthy Child Programme or integrated review

% of physically active adults

The percentage of children aged four or five (reception) who have excess weight

The percentage of children aged 10 or 11 (year six) who have excess weight

% of the eligible population aged 40- 74 who received an NHS Health check

Flu vaccination coverage 65+

Successful completions of treatment for opiate use

Successful completions of treatment for non-opiate use

Successful completions of alcohol treatment

New STI diagnoses (excluding chlamydia aged <25)

Maximise the potential

Quarterly Indicators

The % of care leavers aged 19, 20 and 21 that are in education, employment, or training

Number of children who are EHE

The % of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) issued within 20 weeks

% of school population permanently excluded in academic year to date

Annual Indicators

Overall attendance rate

Rate of children with an Education Health Care Plan as % of school population

% of children with a North Yorkshire EHC Plan currently in a Special Independent or Special non-maintained school placement

The number of children receiving SEN Support as a % of school population 

GCSE 9-5 pass in English and Maths (Basics) at KS4

Persistent absence as % of school population (primary/secondary)

% of school population suspended at least once in academic year to date

Adult Learning – 19+ Adult Skills funded learners – Overall Achievement Rates

Adult Learning – 19+ Adult Skills funded learners – Overall Retention Rates

Adult Learning – Apprenticeship Overall Achievement Rate

Total pupils on SEND transport

Libraries: total issues per 1,000 population (including books, e-books, e-audio)

Libraries: active users per 1000 population

Libraries: physical visits to libraries per 1,000 population 

Contextual Indicators

The % of young people (16-17) not in education, employment, or training (NEET)

Total employee jobs in North Yorkshire

% those aged 16-64 who are economically active

Strong Innovative Council

Quarterly Indicators

% Council Tax collected

% Non-domestic rate collected

Time to process new Council Tax Reduction claims (days)

Time to process new Housing Benefit claims (days)

Time to process Council Tax Reduction changes in circumstances (days)

Time to process Housing Benefit changes in circumstances (days)

% of telephone calls answered in four minutes

Number of days lost to staff absence (sickness absence) per FTE

Staff turnover rate

Spend on agency staff 

Housing

Quarterly and monthly indicators

True current arrears at the end of the month (%)

Average re-let time in days (standard re-lets in month)

% of homes with a valid gas safety certificate

% of domestic properties with EICR certificates up to five years old

% of non-emergency repairs to council houses completed within their target timescale

% of emergency repairs to council houses completed within target timescale

New anti-social behaviour cases reported in month per 1,000 properties

Formal stage one complaints received in month per 1,000 properties

Formal stage two complaints received in month per 1,000 properties

% of stage one complaints resolved within timescale in month

% of stage two complaints resolved within timescale in month

Households assessed as threatened with homelessness per 1,000 households

Households assessed as homeless per 1,000 households

% of homelessness preventions and reliefs successful

Total number of households in temporary accommodation

Total number of households in Bed and Breakfast and Hotels

Contextual Indicators

House price to workplace-based earnings ratio

Number of affordable homes delivered (gross)

The following are the priority actions which will be delivered over the next four years to achieve the ambitions within this plan.

Thriving and Empowered Communities

Supporting our communities by:

1. Establishing up to 30 multi-agency Community Partnerships across North Yorkshire, each with their own action plan to tackle the issues most pertinent to them.

2. Investing in a network of CAO as trusted, place based ‘system partners’ to work alongside the Council to strengthen local relationships and optimise community resources to improve community well-being and improve resilience.

3. Co-designing – with the sector and partner agencies – a comprehensive ‘deal’ for the VCSE sector that builds additional capacity and resilience by:

· Creating the conditions for partnerships and collaboration.

· Providing consistent funding processes with clear investment priorities.

· Creating opportunities for VCSE organisations to take a greater role in the design and delivery of services that improve the health and well-being of our residents and communities.

· Investing in infrastructure support that ensures long term viability and financial sustainability across the sector.

4. Embedding opportunities for a regular dialogue between the Council and our Parish and Town Councils to share information and opportunities; raise and discuss issues of mutual interest and work together to agree solutions.

5. Creating opportunities for the devolution of services and assets to communities and provide support to town and parish councils and other local community groups who want to run local services and assets where it would deliver improvements and better value for money.

6. Providing leadership in strengthening local resilience arrangements between emergency services and communities. Working with existing and new partnerships to develop community resilience, supporting the residents and businesses of North Yorkshire.

Supporting our places by:

7. Developing the Local Plan for North Yorkshire.

8. Supporting and influencing the preparation of the Spatial Development Strategy for York and North Yorkshire to ensure alignment of key evidence to support growth.

9. Proactively working with developers to ensure timely delivery of allocated and permitted sites to maximise delivery against Housing, Infrastructure and Employment targets.

10. Delivering our Housing Strategy. This includes:

· Delivering excellent housing services and becoming an exemplar social landlord. We will lead by example, driving up standards across our Council housing stock and taking enforcement action where we find landlords who are failing to meet safety requirements, ensuring decent and safe homes for all residents.

· Strengthening strategic partnerships with YNYCA and Homes England.

· Bringing together homelessness prevention and support services across North Yorkshire to tackle homelessness, using a range of prevention tools, best practice, and interventions to prevent homelessness.

· Continue to secure funding on Housing Retrofit for Social and Private residential properties across North Yorkshire, ensuring that homes are energy efficient in order to help lower bills for residents. Supporting the new retrofit strategy that is being developed by the YNYCA .

11. Identifying future investment needs and opportunities in our urban centres and market towns by leading work to develop clear and prioritised ‘Town Investment Plans’ across North Yorkshire, working proactively with local stakeholders and partners.

12. Supporting and delivering major infrastructure and regeneration projects, with a targeted approach focusing on Scarborough, Selby and Harrogate to help create thriving places, including:

· The £30m Transforming Cities Fund Station Gateway Projects in Harrogate, Selby and Skipton to regenerate the areas around the train station and improve links into the towns.

· Delivery of Catterick Garrison Town Centre Project.

· Implementation of capital regeneration schemes where funding is in place, including Town Deal projects in Scarborough and Whitby.

· Proactively exploring investment opportunities and securing funding to deliver regeneration and support economic growth.

13. Delivering our cultural strategy for North Yorkshire, to champion the importance of inclusive culture in creating vibrant places and celebrating our distinctive culture and heritage.

14. Collaborating with partners working across the cultural sector including:

· Delivery of a new creative health development project. This will support prevention and treatment of health issues through creativity and cultural engagement, incorporating national research and working in partnership with sector specialists, the York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and the national Mayoral Authorities Creative Health Network.

· Delivering a diverse and varied programme of high-quality shows and events as part of the creation of vibrant towns and to support tourism, community engagement and economic growth in North Yorkshire.

· Supporting the development of a thriving creative sector and creating opportunities for creative, culture, arts and heritage focused businesses and individuals in North Yorkshire.

· Delivering the Scarborough Fair festival including a diverse and vibrant programme of festivals such as Scarborough Lights, Scarborough Art and Fringe, Scarborough Extreme and Scarborough Streets.

15. Working with partners and stakeholders to implement our Destination Management Plan for North Yorkshire, to boost the visitor economy/promote a year-round visitor economy including launching a new Visit North Yorkshire website, developing a North Yorkshire Events Strategy and creating a Local Visitor Economy Partnership for York and North Yorkshire.

Supporting our businesses by:

16. Working in partnership to deliver the priority actions in our Economic Growth Strategy for North Yorkshire, to attract investment and grow our economy to create new and exciting opportunities for our residents and businesses – including:

· Helping businesses to access the information and support they need to start up and grow in North Yorkshire, through delivery of our Business North Yorkshire service.

· Co-ordinating a targeted programme of Business North Yorkshire events including an annual North Yorkshire Business Week, to proactively support the growth of our key sectors.

· Running a Business North Yorkshire Engagement Group, to ensure that our business-facing work is co-designed with input from businesses and partners.

· Implementing a cross-Council ‘Open to Business’ Initiative to ensure that our Council services to business are joined up and easy to access.

· Delivering a proactive programme of Business Relationship Management with strategically important businesses, to help them grow and create jobs in the county.

· Promoting North Yorkshire as a great place to invest and do business, to help attract new investment, businesses and jobs to North Yorkshire.

Sustainable and Connected Places

Protecting and enhancing our built and natural heritage by:

17. Working in partnership with protected landscapes and key stakeholders seeking to protect and enhance North Yorkshire’s natural environment and natural capital assets; supporting our biodiversity, rivers and water bodies and attracting private investment to restore and sustain the natural environment.

18. Taking action to improve the local environment through a harmonised enforcement approach, tackling and reducing environmental crime including littering, fly-tipping and dog-fouling, to ensure our air, streets, beaches and open spaces are kept clean and attractive.

19. Deliver our Coastal Erosion Strategy to protect our coastlines and safeguard our communities.

20. Deliver our Harbour Strategy to support sustainable economic growth, protect coastal infrastructure, and enhance the environmental and community value of our harbours.

Improve connectivity by:

21. Working to support York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority aspirations to improve public transport across the county. Key priorities include:

· Improving bus connectivity across the area.

· Upgrading rail infrastructure- such as introducing half-hourly train services to Scarborough.

22. The Council will continue to maintain a high-quality highway network and advocate for funding to make improvements to the network such as dualling the A66.

23. Supporting active travel improvements that make walking, cycling and wheeling safer and more accessible to all. Deliver Local, Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans for the principal towns in the county.

24. Completing the major road improvement scheme on the A59 at Kex Gill to improve the resilience of this strategic link between Skipton and Harrogate.

25. Delivering our new Parking Policy Framework across North Yorkshire to deliver good quality, value for money parking facilities, focused on understanding local need, improving air quality, supporting wider transport priorities and the local economy.

26. Support the rollout of Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure by securing and delivering government grants.

27. Advancing broadband connectivity in North Yorkshire through NYnet and its full-fibre network, whilst collaborating with mobile operators and the Government to close coverage gaps.

28. Supporting partners to deliver the Emergency Services Network project, involving 24 new masts in North Yorkshire.

Working towards net zero by:

29. Delivering our climate change strategy and pathway. To work with partners helping to achieve the shared ambition that the region is net zero by 2034 and carbon negative by 2040. This includes creating and delivering our North Yorkshire Adaptation Plan to support services, residents, communities, and businesses to prepare for our climate to change.

30. Working towards our goal of the Council becoming operationally net zero by delivering our net zero plan for corporate property and Fleet Decarbonisation Strategy for all Council vehicles.

31. Secure and maximise external funding opportunities, including government grants, to support the delivery of climate action/environmental projects.

32. Continue to harmonise recycling collections, to be more efficient, better value for money, reduce carbon and contamination. Implement a single approach to recycling collections across North Yorkshire.

Safe, Healthy and Living Well

Support safe communities by:

33. Establishing responsive Community Safety Hubs across the geography of North Yorkshire. Effective multi-agency problem solving around local issues, including anti-social behaviour.

34. Working with internal and external partners to ensure effective public space CCTV systems across North Yorkshire.

35. Working in partnership with the Safeguarding Adults Board and the Safeguarding Children Partnership, to maintain the safety of our communities and residents. This includes the effective delivery of Safer North Yorkshire (Community Safety Partnership) Strategic Plan.

Support healthy communities that live and age well by:

36. Review and refresh our Early Help Strategy, in line with the Families First reforms and Best to Start to Life.

37. Develop and deliver our new Looked After Children’s Strategy, enabling all children and young people in our care to be safe, happy, healthy and achieving. Renewing ‘We care because you matter’.

38. Continue to deliver training and drive ‘strength in relationships practice’, ensuring that more children can remain safely within their families and communities.

39. Improving children and young people’s social and emotional mental health and wellbeing by working across the health and care system to provide effective support to the right children at the right time, improving waiting times for assessment and access to mental health services.

40. Working with our partner organisations, implementing a response to national social care reform.

41. Developing a Best Start to Life approach that provides a local response to national policy.

42. Expanding stop smoking services to help create a smoke-free generation.

43. Working with CAO in the Voluntary Sector and reviewing our Living Well Service to help prevent, reduce and delay the need for long-term council involvement in people's lives, to support an enhanced model of Prevention Plus.

44. Developing and delivering a North Yorkshire approach to women’s health.

45. Implementing the recommendations from the Director of Public Health Annual Report 2023-24 on Healthy Ageing, and the Annual Report 2024-25 on Working Together for North Yorkshire.

46. Improving and developing our adult social care practice so that it is preventative, outcome focused and focuses on people’s strengths – underpinned by a modern adult social care structure which develops the workforce and puts capacity where it is needed most.

47. Improving support for unpaid carers.

48. Investing in more extra care housing for older people and new supported accommodation for younger adults.

49. Building new care and support hubs to provide intermediate care and specialist dementia care.

50. Supporting more people at home through the development of our reablement service, intermediate care services with the NHS, home care services and re-commissioned community equipment services.

51. Improving support to people with complex life circumstances, including mental health, neurodiversity and substance use, through new services and improved practice.

52. Providing more social care services online so that people have more choice around access.

53. Continuing to work collaboratively with the Independent Care Group and care providers to ensure a sustainable care market that meets people’s care needs and work with the care market to reprocure the Approved Provider List.

54. Developing the Ambitious for Health programme, delivering the North Yorkshire Health Collaborative with NHS, voluntary sector and other partners to improve how £600m of prevention and community services are delivered.

55. Ensure plans are in place when Public Health incidents occur to protect the health of the population.

56. Supporting more people in North Yorkshire to be physically active to enable them to be stronger for longer in mind and body – through movement, play, and sport.

57. Delivering a wide range of universal and targeted programmes to support physical and mental well-being, with a particular focus on people with disabilities, long term health conditions and people who are currently inactive and may need more support to become and stay active.

58. Delivering a programme of targeted investment in leisure facilities to ensure we deliver high quality, accessible and sustainable facilities that meet community needs.

Maximise the potential

For our children, by:

59. Deliver the Local Area SEND Operational Plan and SEND Ofsted Improvement Plan.

60. We will work in partnership with Leaders in Education and wider services to support more children to be in school for more days. Our approach will focus on early intervention, relational practice, and inclusive environments that meet diverse needs.

61. Supporting schools and settings in meeting the needs of all children and young people.

62. Fostering a shared ambition for all children and young people through strong partnership working with system leaders and partners.

63. Working to mitigate the effects of poverty within the school environment, including the number of children accessing free school meals.

64. Preparing children with complex needs for independence and adulthood.

For all, by:

65. Ensuring that there are clear pathways for everyone after compulsory education through the promotion of apprenticeships, training, work placements and further education, including adult education.

66. Supporting North Yorkshire residents to gain appropriate employment skills and access work.

67. Establishing local employers’ workforce needs, monitoring local skills levels and helping to enable delivery of appropriate training.

68. Driving inclusive skills development by working in cross-sector partnerships to support the ambitions of the Local Skills Improvement Plan, the Combined Authority Skills Plan, and wider regional strategies.

69. Delivering Get Britain Working and Connect to Work to remove health-related barriers and support people into employment.

70. To provide accessible financial inclusion support services that empower residents to improve their financial wellbeing.

71. In partnership with our Community Libraries, continue to maintain and develop a library network that offers safe, welcoming spaces with a comprehensive range of services that meet the needs of local people. This includes a new mobile library to increase access to Council services in rural parts of the county.

72. Continue to deliver against our Library Strategy themes: promoting literacy skills and reading for pleasure, providing resources and activities to support health and wellbeing, enabling people to be digitally connected and being a focal point for communities by providing opportunities for volunteering and partnership working.

73. Supporting marginalised people, including migrant communities, to integrate and participate equally. Implementing the Swift Programme to develop place-based initiatives to welcome and empower migrant communities across North Yorkshire.

Strong Innovative Council

Developing a Strong Innovative Council for the future by:

74. Continuing to be a financially sound Council through a sound Medium Term Financial Strategy, treasury management, capital strategy and savings and transformation plan that supports both our ambitions and continued delivery of front-line services.

75. Delivering transformation to enable the Council to meet future challenges by working smarter, managing reduction in demand, making data-driven decisions and harnessing innovation. This includes:

· Focus on optimising our business operating environment by removing avoidable effort, simplifying how workflows through the organisation, and strengthening the foundations that support effective working – our culture, governance, planning, digital tools, data, leadership and physical environment.

· Ensuring all staff have the right skills, tools and technology to work effectively and are data informed.

· Enabling transformation by leveraging digital opportunities, using data to make better decisions, harnessing AI, adopting an innovation approach and maximising the opportunities to use our council assets and digital networks in the community.

76. Delivering our People Strategy that will ensure we have an empowered and skilled workforce that work in well-connected teams, with a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.

77. Delivering our Customer Experience Strategy. This includes:

· Putting the customer first – we prioritise customer needs in every decision we make ensuring customer experience is at the centre of our approach.

· Listening and learning – we actively collect and value customer feedback, using their insights to understand the customer journey and improve our services.

· Changing our services – we continuously adapt, and redesign services based on customer input. Ensuring they evolve to meet our customers changing needs.

· Harnessing digital technology – We use new technology to make our services more accessible, efficient and responsive to customer requirements.

· Continuously improving – we measure our progress, share out results transparently, and always look for new ways to make the customer experience better.

78. Embed our new performance framework, creating a culture of strong teams, delivering excellent service supported by processes that monitor performance and support continuous improvement and learning.

Our ambitions	SDG mapped to Ambitions
Thriving places and empowered communities
Safe, healthy and living well
Sustainable and connected places
Maximise the potential
Strong Innovative Council, with local customer- led services
National SDG