A Service Plan is a document that provides an outline of the services that a Council (or any other organisation) provides. A service plan should aim to meet the current and future needs of the community, and provide a framework that will guide service development, facility planning, workforce development and IT/asset planning.
Service Plan Contents
Below is a (brainstormed) list of items that could be included in a Service Plan for a council provided service. (Please feel free to add to the list)
- A description of the service
- An explanation of the purpose of the service
- A list of legislative requirements associated with the service
- A list of standards and guidelines related to the service
- An explanation of which Council Department or Team is responsible for delivering the service
- A list of service stakeholders
- A list of service level measures
- An estimation of the number of people currently using the service
- An estimation of the number of people likely to be wanting to use the service in the future
- The current cost of delivering the service.
- A list of alternate service delivery options and service levels and the costs associated with them.
- A list of assets required to deliver the service
Municipal Association of Victoria
In 2012 the MAV defined a service plan as a plan that defines programs and projects which need to be undertaken to deliver a service and include service levels (Community & Technical), service cost, service targets, who provides the service, KPI’s and the reporting framework, and gave the following examples.
- Road Management Plan
- Stormwater Drainage Management Plan
- Service and facility planning project
- Arts Plan
- Festival and Event Plan
- Performing Arts Centre Plan
- Waste Management Plan
- Greenhouse Action Plan
- Recreation Plan
- Skate and BMX Plan
- Heritage Study
- Library Plan
- Strengthening and Social Equity Plan
- Affordable Housing Plan
- Access and Inclusion Plan
- Drug and Alcohol Plan
- Graffiti Management Plan
- Healthy Ageing Strategic Plan
- Youth Plan
- Municipal Emergency Management Plan
- Community Engagement Framework
- Bicycle Plan
- Open Space Plan
- Sustainable Water Use Plan
As part of the 2014 MAV STEP Program Councils were encouraged to identify a comprehensive list of their services, and to prepare a service plan for each service. It was also suggested that service plans should inform the content of Council's Asset Management Plans, given that assets typically exist in order to provide a service.