The publication of our Corporate and Business Plans each year provide us with an opportunity to communicate our aims and objectives to our customers, elected representatives and the wider public, and explain the key factors and assumptions that influence these, and how we intend to achieve them.  

They are prepared in the context of the Programme for Government and the Department’s overall Corporate and Business Plans. 

Effective business planning means we should all know what we are going to do; how we are going to do it and when; and ensure that we have allocated the necessary resources to each activity. To be effective, our business planning process requires the involvement and participation of the people who take forward, on a daily basis, the various activities that are necessary to enable us to achieve our targets.  

During 2002, the Planning Service Management Board agreed that we needed to develop a new approach to business planning. This new approach was necessary in order to make it a more inclusive and meaningful process for everyone in the Agency and to ensure that there is clarity and a shared understanding not only of what is to be delivered, but also how and when it is to be delivered. This is particularly important as we enter the comprehensive change programme to fundamentally modernise and reform planning processes.  

As part of Planning to deliver, we have introduced a new  business planning process that involves extensive consultation within Planning Service in the development and preparation of our Corporate and Business Plans.  

It will continue involve the production of local team/Division action plans, which will feed into Directorate business plans, which will, in turn, feed into the Agency Corporate and Business plans. This new process was introduced for 2003/2004 but will continue to evolve over time with the latter being published on this Web Site.

The Planning Service Corporate and Business Plans 2003/2004 - 2005/2006