Councillors Commend Move Towards ‘real-time' Scrutiny Of Covid-19 Recovery Action Plan

16th July 2020

Members of The Highland Council's Recovery Board have welcomed proposals that will enable them to scrutinise progress being made on the Council's Recovery Action Plan from the coronavirus pandemic at any time they choose in ‘real-time'.

Chair of the Recovery Board, Depute Leader Alasdair Christie said: "I am delighted that Members will soon be able to look into the Recovery Action Plan in real time through the Council’s performance management system to see what the progress is on the plan. This is an excellent way forward in terms of performance measurement."

He added: "We are currently reviewing phase one of the Recovery Action Plan which is up to the period ending 30th June. Our job as Members of the Recovery Board is to review, make recommendations and to take assurance forward to meetings of The Highland Council.

"I am also pleased that the Recovery Board will have its first workshop at the end of July with officers on phase two of the recovery at which we will be discussing climate change and the challenges and opportunities around that; community empowerment; and a more up to date situation on the return to schools."

During a virtual meeting of the Recovery Board on 15 July 2020 Council Officers Malcolm MacLeod, ECO Infrastructure and Environment, and Matt Bailey, Team Manager/Transformation provided Councillors with an update on the Recovery Action Plan progress report on the first phase of recovery to the end of June.

Mr MacLeod said: “Good progress has been made across all of the workstreams in the Plan and 50 actions have been completed or are ongoing. In the last two weeks - return to school plans have advanced and Council committees have resumed. Regarding the recovery of the Highland economy, we have held our first economic partnership, which was a really positive meeting across the business community and the public sector. All of this recovery work will be fed back into the Council’s Recovery Action Plan on an ongoing and live basis."

Members were informed that the Council is looking to use its Performance and Risk Management system (PRMS) which will afford Members the opportunity to access the ‘real-time’ status of the Recovery Plan actions directly through PRMS at their convenience.

The Board noted the progress achieved so far and discussed some of the significant challenges the Council is addressing in the delivery of the Recovery Action Plan.