Vision For Plymouth
Delivery and monitoring
How we will implement the Plymouth Plan
The Plymouth Plan puts all the city's strategic level policies into one document. This will aid delivery because partners will have a shared understanding of City Vision and direction of travel, assisting them in ensuring their 'business as usual' is aligned behind the overall vision.
Putting all the strategic policies into one place also enables us to identify those more complex issues that need to be delivered through a joined up approach. Only a systems leadership approach will succeed in delivering these more complex issues. Systems leadership acknowledges that many of these issues cross departmental, organisational and sector boundaries and therefore rely much more on influence and persuasion than the management of resources that are within the direct control of one organisation.
Systems leadership is described by the Leadership Centre as…. “the way you need to work when you face large, complex, difficult and seemingly intractable problems; where you need to juggle multiple uncertainties; where no one person or organisation can find or organise the solution on their own; where everyone is grappling with how to make resources meet demand which is outstripping them; and where the way forward therefore lies in involving as many people’s energies, ideas, talents and expertise as possible.”
It is often characterised by the following principles:
- Successful delivery is based on relationships and trust and achieved through the ability to persuade and negotiate
- Solutions are co-designed with stakeholders and end users, but should still be evidence based
- Maintaining constancy of purpose is as important as being flexible and adaptable throughout delivery
- Issues are complex making it more important to adopt a long term approach - making progress rather than seeking to solve the whole problem from the outset
- Making initial progress is more effective through a 'coalition of the willing'.
There is a good deal of correlation between systems leadership and the attributes of 'smart cities'. A smart city is a managed entrepreneurial city (not a technological utopia), whose agility and flexibility in adapting to modern challenges, makes it more efficient and competitive, whilst also being inclusive.
The British Standards Institute defines the concept of Smart City as "the effective integration of physical, digital and human systems in the built environment to deliver sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future for its citizens".
In today’s highly competitive world with its many urban challenges, being smart is not really an option, it is a necessity. In much the same way that Plymouth has adopted 'growth' as its strategy of choice, that growth must also be sustainable, inclusive and value generating - in other words it is 'smart'. Smart growth is the only real means by which Plymouth can tackle its challenges and capitalise on its opportunities.
Plymouth is committed to becoming a smarter city, enabled by the high speed cable network and ever-present and reliable high speed mobile data services. The network will offer public and private sector opportunities to capture and manage data for economic and social benefits. We will combine these initiatives with the continued development of skills and confidence for those living and working in Plymouth to allow them to make the most of the capabilities on offer here. This in turn will allow for the further expansion of digital services offered by the City Council and other public sector organisations as the primary mechanism for the delivery of their functions.
Off the shelf, digital enabled and technology led solutions, often using sensors, data and digital communication, can help to make existing systems such as traffic, public health and energy more efficient and predictable. The use of technology alone however is not the answer – industry led technology solutions may improve many of the symptoms but they are not so effective in tackling the causes. Really smart cities adopt a managed, proactive and tailored approach, where they decide where to invite innovation to support the delivery of their vision and broader outcomes. Really smart cities deliver greater equity, improved quality of life and citizen empowerment. They are outcome focussed rather than solution led. They adopt more collaborative integrated service delivery models, finding collective rather than individual solutions, and empowering and enabling communities to creatively solve their challenges through open source and decentralisation.
Adopting a systems leadership approach, embodying these smart city attributes, will help us to deliver our three strategic themes, health, growing and international, in an integrated way whilst also remaining true to the Plan's underlying philosophy.
Plan Structure
An International City
This is about how the city projects itself to the wider world, to people who might invest in or visit the city, the sense of pride that local people take in their city and how Plymouth’s businesses engage with an increasingly global market place.
Open Vision
Plan Structure
Spatial Strategy
The Plymouth Plan's Spatial Strategy is set out in the Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan (JLP). A key element of this strategy is providing an understanding of how and where change will take place over time, to deliver the vision set out in the Plan, and articulating Plymouth's strategic role within the South West.
Open Vision