Corporate Strategic Planning

The City’s strategic plans set the goals and direction for the City's future activities.

The Strategic Community Plan

The Strategic Community Plan is an aspirational document that was developed following extensive community consultation. Engagement of the community helps define both what levels of service the community wants and what they are willing to pay for. Both of these elements are extremely important when defining asset management and the resulting costs.

The Plan has five broad strategic outcomes which will shape the City's development over the next ten years and beyond:

1. Local Economy – A sustainable and diverse local economy that attracts increased investment and provides local employment
2. Environmental Responsibility – A leader in environmental management that enhances and sustainably manages our local natural areas and resources
3. Community, Lifestyle and Security – A vibrant, healthy, safe, inclusive and connected community
4. City Growth and Moving Around – A growing City that is easy to move around and provides great places to live
5. Listening and Leading – A community focused, sustainable, accountable and progressive organisation.

The Strategic Community Plan guides the future direction of the City and every activity that the City undertakes.

The Plan is prepared in accordance with the Local Government Act, the Department of Local Government Integrated Planning Framework, and the City of Cockburn Community Engagement Framework. It is reviewed every two years, with a major review every four years.

Progress against the objectives is reported in the City's Annual Report.

The Strategic Community Plan is supported by the Corporate Business Plan, Long Term Financial Plan and Workforce Plan as well as many other strategies and action plans which provide detailed activities to enable the City to meet the strategic objectives in the Strategic Community Plan.

Corporate Business Plan

The Corporate Business Plan 2024-2025 to 2027-2028 is an internal business document that outlines the City’s key projects, corporate projects, plans and services over the next four years. It provides a clear line of sight to the delivery of the projects and services linking them to the Strategic Community Plan 2020-2030 objectives.
 
Relevant information from the Long Term Financial Plan, Asset Management Plans, Workforce Plan and key informing plans has been incorporated into the Corporate Business Plan. 

Financial Year 2025 Service Plans and Project Plans

The City has undergone the process of developing Service Plans and Project Plans which form the framework for the Corporate Business Plan and Council’s budget decisions. They define service levels, increase transparency and improve accountability and reporting capabilities. Implementation of the plans over the financial year will assist the City to continue to deliver improvements in service and project delivery.

Long Term Financial Plan, Workforce Plan 

The Long Term Financial Plan (LTFP) 2024-2025 to 2033-2034 is a ten year view of the financial position of the Council. The strategic objective of the LTFP is financial sustainability to ensure community assets and services can be maintained and provided by Council.  
 
The first year of the LTFP reflects the actual budget to be adopted for 2024-2025.
 
Years two to four have a high level of accuracy whereas years five to ten are estimates. The LTFP is based on a series of assumptions for revenue and expenditure (both operating and capital). The LTFP is subject to review every two years.

The Workforce Plan is the plan for staff employed by Council over the period 2022-2026. The aim of the Plan is to ensure Council has the correct skill and relevant numbers of staff to deliver services required by Council to meet the aspirations of the Strategic Community Plan and Corporate Business Plan.

Annual Budget

Between 1 June and 31 August each year, the City is required to adopt an annual budget for its municipal fund in accordance with Section 6.2 of the Local Government Act 1995 and the associated regulations.

The annual budget is a product of the City’s integrated planning framework and aims to deliver upon high level commitments contained within Council’s Strategic Community Plan and four year Corporate Business Plan.
 

Annual Report

The Local Government Act advises that the City must produce an annual report and specifies what information must be included. The report includes financial reports, Mayor and CEO reports, a list of projects undertaken for the financial year and a report on achievements against the Strategic Community Plan.

Integrated Planning Framework

The Department of Local Government and Communities Strategic Integrated Planning Framework provides local governments with a framework for their corporate planning.

This framework starts with the development of the Strategic Community Plan and requires the development of Asset Management Plans to link with the corporate planning and budgeting process. These Asset Management Plans require reliable and up-to-date asset data to help the local government with reliable budget forecasting.

Asset Management Plans

The City of Cockburn currently manages over $1 billion of infrastructure assets. The Asset Management Plans are strategic informing strategies that assist the City in its yearly budgeting process and further strengthen the City's management of long term asset renewal planning and funding requirements.

The replacement cost (September 2014) for assets managed by the City was $1028 million. The plans are reviewed every two years to ensure that future iterations of the Long Term Financial Plan (LTFP) use the most accurate asset information and financial projections.

Community Scorecard Report

The annual community scorecard survey provides an insight into what the community thinks of services in the City of Cockburn. The City uses these results together with other information to evaluate and adjust its priorities and programs. The survey and its results are also used to measure the City’s progress against its Strategic Community Plan.

Visit the Community Scorecard Results webpage for further information.