A Personal, Modern and Better Future Our Business Plan Until 2020 1. Purpose of the business plan Our current business plan to 2020 was agreed in 2014. This followed a process of review which agreed our aspirations for the future and enabled the development of a new business plan for 2014-2020. This review clarified our aspirations and identified the key themes which run throughout our business plan sustainability and improving the quality of our homes and support for key communities. In 2015 we have re-visited the business plan to test whether our aspirations for the future are still in line with those agreed in 2014. 2. Vision and strategic objectives We have not changed our Vision, we still believe that making a difference... improving homes, communities and lives holds true, and will do over the life of the new business plan. We have made a presentational change to the Strategic Objectives which simplifies them without changing what we are actually aiming to achieve. The driver for this was to increase clarity of purpose for staff and other stakeholders, using language that is already well used within Accent, that is easy to communicate and for staff to interpret in terms of their own roles. We have agreed new strategic objectives of: Improving Homes Improving Communities and Lives Delivering a Personal, Modern and Better Service The focus of the Business Plan 2015-20 is how we build on our successful virtual consolidation to make more of a difference. Our strategic priorities within each of these objectives are unchanged from when the business plan was first agreed in 2014. Improving Homes Maintaining our significant investment in existing homes, with a total budget of 156M for repairs and maintenance over the life of the plan. Delivery of active asset management, ensuring that we are achieving VFM through our investment, remodelling or disposal decisions. Continuing to meet demand for new housing in communities through the delivery of our Affordable Housing Programme 2, in which we received funding allocation for the development of 125 homes in 2015 2018. Subject to further funding we aim to develop a total of 500 additional homes by 2020. Improving Communities and Lives Refocusing our strategy for investing in communities, adding value to our residents and communities by moving away from training and employment and developing a Skills Development Programme. The programme will focus on skills which help people to manage their tenancy and on social inclusion. Reviewing our resident engagement strategy, aiming to ensure that scrutiny and consultation are having quantifiable impacts on service provision. Building on our tenancy sustainability service, particularly in the face of the roll out of Universal Credit and further potential reforms to the welfare system.
Delivering a Personal, Modern and Better service Targeting specialist services to those who need them the most, with routine enquiries managed through our customer contact centres. Continuing to modernise our service using technology. Improving the interactivity of our website will enable a channel shift for everyday customer transactions, and rolling out mobile working will increase the efficiency of frontline services. Revising our VFM strategy, shifting the focus onto improving performance and efficiency rather than cost savings. By being better governed and better managed we will deliver better performance and better value for money. In delivering these strategic objectives we expect all staff, partners and contractors to demonstrate our values. This means being: Respectful - We expect everyone to be treated with respect and for their diverse needs to be recognised and valued. Service delivery should always be viewed from the customers perspective. Staff should understand how their own role and personal actions affect customers. In all interactions staff should ask questions to ensure they understand the issues and actively listen to what others say. Dependable We expect everyone to act in a professional manner and to own responsibility for completing their tasks. The importance of achieving targets and objectives must be understood. In all interactions staff should deliver on their promises to customers, and managers should deliver on their promises to staff. Creative We expect everyone to offer ideas on how to improve services and working practices and to find possible solutions rather than simply identify problems. Staff should feel comfortable in taking on new challenges and learning from their mistakes. In finding new ways of working we will look outside our immediate working environment and be positive to new ideas. These three values are underpinned by a commitment, promoted by our Resident Panel, of being open and honest in everything we do. Open and honest - We expect everyone to uphold the integrity and reputation of Accent by keeping customers and other stakeholders informed about progress and performance. Staff will be transparent and honest in all interactions, even when the news may not be received positively. We will also expect tenants and residents to be open and honest with us. 3. Accent is Stronger Together We completed a large scale programme of change in 2013 called Fit for the Future and achieved a virtual consolidation of our registered providers. Accent is governed by the Group Board, a single group of people, supported by five regional customer service committees. Ideally we would legally consolidate the separate registered providers into one in order to further reduce complexity and simplify governance. However, this requires funder approval which may incur additional costs. We will therefore only pursue legal consolidation when the benefits outweigh the costs. Our virtual consolidation and organisational structure ensure that we truly are fit for the future. Board and staff have worked consultatively together to determine what that future would look like, to establish our strengths and weaknesses, and to identify external opportunities and threats.
At their November 2014 conference, Board and committee members discussed our ambitions for the future and reached agreement regarding the milestones to be achieved. It was confirmed that while we have high aspirations for improving our core services and will consider opportunities for modest growth, we are taking a prudent approach in terms of risk. For example, we will not move to large scale provision of market rented accommodation or specialist services. We will also not consider commercial activity as a method of subsidising our core business. The vision we have established and the specific measurable actions we have identified essentially sets out our risk appetite. Our risk map identifies potential threats to achieving the business plan and ensures that we have appropriate and effective controls in place to mitigate risk. 4. Strategic analysis 4.1 Our customers and communities Accent owns or manages 20,925 homes. We know from our customer profiling data that less than a third of our tenants are in employment, and a large proportion report that they have a disability. Over 7% of our tenants owe more than eight weeks rent. We know that almost 1,500 households are under-occupying and subject to the bedroom tax. This means we have a significant proportion of our customers who are vulnerable to austerity measures and the reforms to the welfare benefits system. National statistics demonstrate that we have an ageing population. It is predicted that by 2030 one in six householders will be over 70. Almost a quarter of households within our general needs stock are headed by someone over the age of 65. 17% of our stock is sheltered housing. We know that demand for our sheltered housing product is weakening in several areas, and we have not yet developed a specific service offer for older residents in general needs properties. Our homes are widely spread across 75 local authority areas. We only have a very small number of large estates. This means that we have few estates where we have a significant presence in what would traditionally be seen as a community. 4.2 Key Opportunities We know that the UK is growing, with a 23% increase in births from 2001 to 2012. The Office of National Statistics also predicts that the population is set to increase by 4.6m between 2011 and 2021. However we also know that the growth is not evenly distributed, with 43% predicted to be in London and the South East of England. The financial crisis and resulting stricter lending criteria has effectively squeezed first time or lower income buyers out of the home ownership market. This has raised demand for private rented housing. However, we know that much of this growth has been in the south and only in cities. A key opportunity for Accent is our geographical spread. This allows us to look at the markets in each region and adjust our strategy accordingly so spreading our risk. We will therefore continue to develop new homes primarily in the south and east where there are strong housing markets. By building only in areas of high need and of sustainable value we will ensure that future development is sustainable. In the north we recognise that the markets we operate in are not as buoyant. In some areas, demand for social housing is not as high. This, coupled with the age and type of our stock profile in some areas in the North, raises questions for the sustainability of some of our existing properties. Our opportunity here is to replace unsustainable homes with homes that provide a better match to housing need in the long term. Any proceeds from disposals will be ring-fenced and used for reprovision to generate revenue through growth or remodelling. We will still primarily provide social housing (including affordable housing) and not move into large scale provision of market rented housing. There is a reduced ability for people to
access outright home ownership following the credit crunch. This has presented an opportunity for Accent to enable those people who would previously have been first time buyers to own all or part of their home. We will achieve this through flexible tenure and mixed developments. The reduced access to homeownership also means there is a broadening of our potential customer base. Households who would not necessarily be seen as needing social housing are now seeking good quality rented housing. This provides an opportunity to extend our affordable rent offer within our traditional large estates. This will allow us to deliver more mixed communities and meet the needs of an emerging customer base. We recognise that we are not the largest service provider in many of the communities in which we work. However, a community is defined by more than geography. We see the opportunity to develop a core offer for the whole Accent community, and to develop targeted offers for residents with specific needs as a result of the area they live, or as a result of their individual circumstances. Our opportunity is to help people to stay in their own homes. We have invested in our tenancy sustainability offer and created a specialist team in each of our regional areas. We know that the UK population is ageing. We have the opportunity to develop targeted offers for our older customers, and for our residents who need more support in order to manage and sustain their tenancy. We will welcome other organisations who wish to join our group and become integrated as part of Accent. Our merger offer will be based on a shared vision, values and objectives, and not development aspirations. We will support smaller organisations joining Accent where this could demonstrably achieve more for residents as a result of improved value for money and purchasing power. We will only revisit merger with organisations of a similar size or larger than Accent if we can no longer achieve our ambitions within our own financial capacity. 5. Our Performance We have reviewed how performance targets or milestones are set in order to drive delivery of the business plan. Our approach in 2014/15 changed substantially from previous years. We now ensure that targets are aligned with the budget and business planning processes, where applicable, and that they link to our strategic objectives. We are widening our focus on both void and arrears performance. We now apply the logic that all assets owned by Accent will be performance managed from a return on investment perspective. All debt will be included when performance managing arrears to increase debt recovery. At the end of the 2014/15 financial year the overall picture from the strategic performance targets is one of strong and improving performance. The two areas which present our key performance challenges are rent arrears and void performance. These have a direct impact on our financial performance. Our investment in income management and tenancy sustainability resources as part of the new structure has driven performance improvement in income collection and arrears prevention. Although we have not reduced our total void levels significantly we have made strategic decisions which have adversely impacted upon unavailable to let volumes and the overall voids available to let have been reduced by 26%. Generally Tenancy Sustainability Turnover levels are disappointing and remain an area of focus. We believe that low demand, coupled with the impact of welfare reforms in the North, and lessening demand for our sheltered housing model in several of our operational areas, is driving poor performance on void properties for Accent overall. We therefore plan to conduct more in depth analysis with a view to addressing these areas in particular. This in turn will influence our Asset Management Strategy. Our strategic performance indicator targets for 2015/16 and our aspirational targets for 2020 are included in full at appendix 2.
6. How we are organised Our organisational structure is designed to ensure that our staff resources are focussed where they will have the biggest impact on our residents, delivering the quality of service that they expect. We have three directorates and a Chief Executive s office. Our Customer Service Directorate supports the delivery of housing management services through our regional offices in Bradford, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Peterborough and Camberley. Each serves c.4000 homes. Our Communities and Assets Directorate ensures that we continue to maintain and invest in the quality of our existing homes, that we deliver new homes and that we invest appropriately in our communities. Our Finance and Corporate Services Directorate provides a senior finance manager for each of the other directorates to help managers plan and review their budgets, and provide management information and financial advice and guidance. This directorate also provides in house Human Resources, ICT and Management and legal services. Our Chief Executive s office looks after business planning, communications, regulatory matters, risk management, internal audit, fraud prevention and data protection. Our contact centres aim to deal with 80% of routine customer contacts. This enables our housing management and specialist teams to focus on more complex and intensive services. It also allows us to adopt a whole team approach for services bringing our knowledge and skills together to provide a great service to residents. 7. Implementing our strategic objectives To ensure that we are managing the golden thread we have developed a new performance management framework, including a Business Plan Programme Board which will co-ordinate major projects and initiatives with a significant impact on the business plan. The business plan will be delivered through supporting strategies and service improvement plans for each directorate. Directorate service improvement plans are cascaded down into regional and team plans, and ultimately into individual staff personal performance plans. Each customer service committee will approve the regional service improvement plan for their region. In addition to our financial plan we have a range of strategies to ensure we achieve our financial objectives, including value for money, treasury, and finance strategies. Our strategies for digital inclusion, resident engagement, community investment, and asset management support our Personal, Modern, Better Service offer. They set out how we will achieve our service delivery aspirations. More details are included in section 8 below. We also plan a series of future strategic reviews to ensure our vision is delivered, as set out in the schedule of milestones (appendix 3). Managers will attend a series of management development courses aimed at improving performance management. An annual implementation plan will be presented to Board in March of each year in order to provide assurance and enable the Board to monitor the delivery of the plan. This will be followed with a mid year review presented to the Board and Committee Members Conference in November. 7.1 Improving Homes The overall objective of our asset management strategy is to provide homes and services fit for the 21 st century that are sustainable into the next century, to meet both the needs and
aspirations of our residents and future generations. The strategy was reviewed and approved by Board in 2015. This review further confirmed that development of new homes will be focussed within Accent Nene and Accent South and revised our approach to stock rationalisation. Rationalisation Our challenge is to make sure that our stock is in areas of high and sustainable demand, consolidating around our five regional bases of Bradford, Burnley, Camberley, Middlesbrough and Peterborough. Previously we have planned to dispose of stock in areas where we have less than 10 homes, however we have moved to a return on investment approach as part of our active asset management strategy. Our bespoke asset management matrix is based on assessing every asset against a range of criteria such as rental income, maintenance cost and demand. From 2015 rationalisation plans will be focused on the following criteria: Homes within schemes which are loss making Homes where the improvement costs significantly outweigh the potential future revenue In some instances this will result in local reprovision, whilst in others the best solution will be disposal and exit. Any replacement will only be made in our core areas and will aim to be mainly acquired stock (or a blend of acquired and new development) to make sure that the revenue is on stream as soon as possible. This rationalisation strategy will also be reactive enough to take account of the impact of welfare reforms on demand and sustainable lettings. However we are primarily driven by a long term strategy, not short term political initiatives. Stock investment The government s agenda is the delivery of additional housing stock. This is a policy which is appropriate for some of the areas we work in, including the South, East and rural Yorkshire. However, the policy is not appropriate for many of the northern areas we operate in, where a high proportion of our stock is pre-war and where we are also experiencing low demand and high turnover. Housing associations in the North and the housing sector generally, have been hesitant to recognise the issue of difficult to let homes and communities with a high turnover of tenancies, which makes them unsustainable. This is due to fears that investment for the north would be threatened as a result. The majority of these communities are in areas where economic failure has led to high unemployment. Significant investment is needed in regeneration and infrastructure development. Whilst this type of investment is outside of the scope of Accent, the recognition of the issues has made us focus our priorities on where we can make a difference and drive the sustainability of our own tenancies. We will continue to ensure that we invest in our sustainable assets to drive up the quality of our homes and the sustainability of our communities. We will also work collaboratively, seeking partnerships to invest in existing communities and social housing stock rather than focus on the provision of new supply, which further undermines the sustainability of older homes. Many of which could become sustainable given appropriate investment and regeneration support. We aim to achieve the Accent Property Standard within all of our homes by 2020 with an investment of 57M. Priorities for investment in existing homes will be assessed using an investment matrix. This aims to identify the optimum investment opportunities within our assets. The focus of the matrix is sustainability. We are revising it to ensure it enables us to understand our costs more. We will look at assets in terms of performance as a whole using data on stock condition, financial returns, turnover and demand, energy efficiency and annual component replacement costs - to ensure we have a comprehensive asset
evaluation. Including fuel poverty data will also ensure that future investment will offer value for money for Accent and our residents. New housing supply The key drivers for our growth and development plans are to meet housing demand, improve our offer and increase choice. We will achieve this by developing new homes and acquiring new stock in our core areas. This programme will reflect the needs of the communities in which we develop, based on our knowledge and understanding. Our plans are not driven by the short term government proposals focussing on the development of smaller properties. In determining the new core development areas for development & growth the following factors have been considered: Where we have current development activity; subject to viability Where we have strong relationships with Local Authorities Where the housing market is buoyant and sustainable We could provide a range of rented and sale products Where we can acquire or develop without subsidy Where we could acquire through planning policy (S106) homes from house builders Where we could make profit on sale to subsidise our own rented programme Where projects are economically viable If all the above factors are in place we will also consider where we can attract HCA or other subsidy, subject to the requirements relating to grant levels, standards and conversions. Consideration of the above factors has led to a potential development and growth strategy of approximately 500 homes by 2020, as set out below: Accent Yorkshire Accent Nene Accent Peerless Accent North East Accent North West Bradford Leeds Craven Harrogate Peterborough South Cambs Huntingdonshire Fenland Surrey Heath Runnymede Rushmoor None None Generally our North West and North East areas are considered to be uneconomic to develop additional new homes. They also exhibit features of low demand, exacerbated by the impact of welfare reforms on demand. We will continue to lead the Accent Group Development Consortium, providing programme management services for smaller associations. The charge for our programme manager role is allocated to partners on a per property basis. This offers them value for money if their allocation of development funding is small. The arrangement also ensures that the role is fully funded and achieves an additional 100k of income per annum. 7.2 Improving Communities and Lives Our approach to community investment reflects our commitment to be more than just a landlord. Given the fact that we are not based in one community or area, we are not often the sole or even largest provider in any given area and we do not provide for just one group or household type, our strategy is flexible; it is not one-size fits all. The main objective of the strategy is to help our residents stay in their homes. At this stage, the majority of our investment is in our Tenancy Sustainability Teams. Delivery will vary regionally in order to reflect local needs. We will work with partners such as other housing
providers, statutory bodies, community and voluntary groups in order to achieve our objectives. Our new service offer Accent Life Skills will focus on helping our residents sustain their tenancies. Where we can we will improve their core life skills by assisting them to become digitally and financially included, access support and training, and build their capacity through effective engagement. Whilst we have re-focussed our strategy on life skills rather than employment, this support will also assist residents to be employment ready. We will also create employment opportunities by seeking apprenticeships via contract procurement and by supporting a customer service apprentice and a housing management trainee in each of our five regional offices. We will target our own residents for these opportunities. This investment also funds an annual aids and adaptations budget which helps to keep households in their homes, costing less than average void costs. We agreed a new strategy for resident engagement in 2013. This strategy has a number of aims including enhancing the passive (or informal) opportunities for residents to shape our services, mainstreaming resident engagement in service delivery and reaching more residents by increasing the depth and breadth of consultation. We know that our dispersed stock makes using traditional engagement methods such as local resident associations difficult. We will use technology and our tenancy sustainability teams to develop locally tailored engagement opportunities and communication channels. This will enable us to talk to different groups of people, in different ways. In 2015 we will assess the impact of the resident engagement strategy with a view to further revision in 2016. Accent is also investing in works to improve whole schemes and the wider environment. This includes estate improvements, fuel switch schemes and improvements to insulation all of which improve the wider community and reduce the running costs of people s homes. 7.3 Delivering a personal, modern and better service 80% of our services have remained the same under our new service offer because our role as a landlord brings with it certain basic requirements. We know we need to maintain a strong focus on income management, responsive repairs and several other services, including ASB, estate services and our lettings service, which we are committed to improving. We do not want to move into large scale provision of specialist support services. However, in response to changing demography we will develop a more flexible and responsive service offer for older people. This will make us a provider of choice as individual circumstances change. We have made some significant changes to how we deliver our services. We have introduced a single repairs contact centre and five regional customer contact centres. These aim to deal with 80% of all incoming calls right first time. We will be reviewing the performance, costs and potential efficiencies of the contact centres, including the consideration of a single contact centre, with a view to continuously improving our customer contact arrangements. The change in the way that we manage customer contact means that we could consolidate our service delivery into five main offices in Bradford, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Peterborough and Camberley. Whilst there is no intention to move out of these geographical areas, we are looking to relocate some of the offices in order to achieve more value from our expenditure on office costs. During the life of the business plan we will also look to close our two remaining satellite offices in Blackhall and Barrow.
We will improve how we use technology to deliver services, communicate and engage with residents. This will reduce the costs of service delivery. It will also meet growing expectations for digital access to services, and support the delivery of Accent Life Skills. We have a number of opportunities to improve the value for money of our repairs and maintenance services in the next two years. We remain committed to Procurement for All (PFA) as our primary route for construction related procurement for the life of the business plan. The most significant procurement exercise for the group is P2016, the re-procurement of our responsive repair and void contracts. This 220m procurement will secure five regional 10 year partnering contracts. We will strip out waste by removing non value adding activity and simplifying processes, particularly those associated with performance and budgetary management. This is likely to be in the form of a price per property/price per void arrangement. Our communication vision is to inform and influence key stakeholders in an open and honest way, which maximises access to services and drives performance improvements. Our messages will vary according to the audience. Overall, we want to make Accent easy to communicate with; ensure that residents and staff feel well informed and listened to; and to raise our profile within the housing sector. In order to achieve this we will prioritise and develop our key partnerships and professional networks. We will be more proactive in publicising our successes and evidencing that we are delivering our vision and strategic objectives. We want to embrace technology and emerging communication methods. We will use our website and social media to increase the opportunities for two way communications and to engage a broader selection of our residents and staff. We will maximise the opportunities for achieving better value for money in our resident publications through reducing our reliance on paper based communications. 8. Financial planning and strategy Accent has a five year financial planning cycle, which is backed by higher level planning over a 30 year period. The 30 year financial plan is undertaken utilising the BRIXX financial modelling package. Our financial plans for the life of the business plan are included at appendix 4. These financial plans ensure that the financial impacts of delivering our strategic objectives are modelled and budgeted for. We have a detailed budget model which covers cost code level and scheme level. The budget model is regularly presented to Board throughout the budget preparation period and is a dynamic document. We undertake sensitivity analysis during budget preparation and at all stages of review, and will subject the financial plans to robust and multi-variant stress testing twice each year. Our financial strategy establishes our golden rules for financial efficiency: We aim to deliver a minimum group surplus of between 2-3M. In order to ensure compliance with loan covenant requirements we maintain 5% headroom for our gearing covenants, and 10% headroom for our interest covenants. Business as usual activities are cash positive or neutral after funding the cost of the core service and paying the interest cost and the cost of any loan. We have established tolerances for variations to budget. Year to date actual surplus/deficit position of plus or minus 5% when compared to budget must be subject to an explanation from the relevant executive director.
The default use for capital asset proceeds should be to generate new income earning capital assets. If that is not possible then the proceeds should be used to repay debt or for the re-provision of poorly performing capital assets. Proceeds should not be used for revenue expenditure. As agreed in our community investment strategy circa 5% of turnover is ring fenced for investing in community investment. 9. Investing in our people We know that our people are the core of our business and that the key to having highly satisfied customers is having highly satisfied staff. Our People Strategy was launched in 2014. This aims to improve staff capability though training, learning and development and to strengthen the golden thread between organisational and individual objectives though better performance management. The strategy aims to enable a professional, enthusiastic and valued workforce through the following specific themes: Performance management Leadership Investment in training and development Professional behaviour applying consistent rules Ensuring simplicity and avoiding bureaucracy Reward - pay and T&Cs Staff engagement 10. Value for money Our strategy for value for money is to maintain an effective balance between reducing costs and improving performance. Value for money is one of the cornerstones for everything we do. As such it is embedded within the business plan, supporting strategies, team delivery plans and individual objectives. We maintain a log of value for money achievements, no matter how small. This demonstrates that our staff understand value for money and seek out opportunities to make savings or increase the value of the service they deliver in their everyday roles. Through the business planning process we have also identified what our big ticket items for achieving further value for money over the life of the business plan are. Our active asset management strategy aims to improve the use of our housing assets, achieving value for money from our investment in existing homes. It ensures we plan for stock renewal which is sustainable in the long term. Decisions on investment, rationalisation and development will be based on asset performance as a whole, with the proceeds from stock disposal ring fenced for redevelopment and acquisition. We are members of Procurement for All (PFA) procurement consortia who use collective buying power to procure goods and services. Working collectively enables us to achieve value for money pricing and improved quality. In 2013/14 PFA reported cashable savings for Accent of 6.025m, which represent a saving of 223 per property. During 2014-2020 we will be using the PFA framework to re-procure a number of contracts for repairs and maintenance in order to achieve cost efficiencies and improve performance. The delivery of services which are more personal, modern and better is one of the key outcomes from our value for money review programme. We have already invested in tenancy support services and improved our customer contact arrangements. Our future initiatives to deliver this outcome, and further drive value
for money, include improving our mobile working; moving towards services which are digital by default; helping to improve the digital inclusion for residents; and reviewing our community investment strategy, particularly looking at how this can deliver social value or a wider benefit to the community. We are improving our performance management framework. A new approach to target setting which links directly to the budget setting process is being developed. We will improve access to performance data through the introduction of QlikView, a business information dashboard which will consolidate data from multiple sources into one easy to access application. We are also streamlining our personal performance planning and investing in training for our managers to ensure that team and individual plans are linked to the business plan objectives. 11. Managing our risks Our capacity to withstand risk is explored through stress testing the financial plan each year. Board s risk attitude is referenced throughout the business planning process with formal review of the risk attitude statement and further definition of risk appetite in April. Our approach to risk management is approved by Audit Committee and Board actively monitors the strategic risk map via review at every Board meeting. In addition, significant operational risks are monitored via an operational risk map which contains those risks felt to threaten achievement of key milestones. We are committed to maintaining a sound system of internal controls that helps us achieve our strategic objectives, whilst safeguarding our funds and assets. It is impossible to eliminate all risk and risk is sometimes necessary. The key factor is to ensure that Board s risk attitude is considered when making significant business decisions. Our process for risk management comprises of four stages: identify the relevant risks, evaluate their likelihood and impact, plan to manage the risk and implement effective controls. The new incarnation of the business plan is not radically different from the previous version therefore it is not proposed to make any significant changes to the content of the strategic risk map for 2015/16. There are some changes proposed in terms of format and supporting information (performance data and an opinion on assurance of each risk is to be provided). This is the subject of a separate paper to be discussed by Board and Audit Committee at the annual risk review in April. In summary, the proposed new strategic risk map (appendix 5) contains risks that threaten the current business plan and therefore our strategic objectives. Each risk has been assigned an owner. In addition, we will seek assurance that any control listed is in place and effective. The risk map will continue to be monitored by the business assurance team before being submitted to every Board meeting for review. 12. Appendices 1. SWOT analysis 2. Performance Targets for 2015/16 (and aspirational targets for 2020) 3. Schedule of Milestones 4. Financial Plan 5. Strategic risk map