Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor.

The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor presenting for approval the high-level Business Plan for the Mansion House & Office of Lord Mayor and Sheriffs (Town Clerks) Department for 2024/25.

The Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor introduced the report by commenting that this was designed to give a longer-term strategy to the Mansion House and Shrieval corridor following a period of stabilisation and consolidation. She went on to draw attention to the fact that the Mansion House were seeking to work with parallel institutions to better develop both its commercial contacts and performance measures. Going forward, the aspiration was to produce a five-year business plan to align with the wider Corporate Plan 2024-2029.

In response to a question, the Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor, clarified that ELB referred to Executive Leadership Board, an Officer based Group.

An Alderman recognised that this Committee acted as the service committee for the Shrieval apartments and the Mansion House but that there was a split in responsibility for the Old Bailey. He commented that he was keen to see this Committee have service responsibility for and oversight of those areas of the Old Bailey associated with the Shrievalty. The Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor offered to seek further clarity on this point and report back to the Alderman on the matter.

Another Alderman commented on a desire to dig dipper in terms of the Climate Action Strategy and to ensure that Officers felt supported in terms of its delivery and accessing funding available for this for the Mansion House as a flagship building. She also referenced external partners and queried whether St Paul’s could be explored as such.

An Alderman stated that it was important to see and be able to track trends/direction of travel. He spoke specifically on staff engagement and queried how frequently staff surveys were being undertaken.

Another Alderman referred to the risk table and stated that it would be helpful to have this presented in the standard corporate format going forwards to include likelihood, an impact analysis and also target risk.

An Alderman revisited the issue of staff engagement, querying why the outcome was only 51% positive and what might be done to improve this. He also questioned what action was being taking to increase the ethnic diversity of staff.

The Executive Director & Private Secretary to the Lord Mayor agreed with the points made around the importance of capturing key data and identifying trends, stressing that she was working with central functions including HR and IT in an attempt to do so. It was therefore hoped that much of this would be presented in the next iteration of the business plan.

RESOLVED: That, Members

i.          Note the factors taken into consideration in compiling the Mansion House & Office of Lord Mayor and Sheriffs Business Plan; and

ii.         Approve the departmental Business Plan 2024/25.