The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee was scheduled to meet to discuss the Doncaster Delivering Together Borough Strategy Refresh, and to review the Overview and Scrutiny Work Plan and the council's Forward Plan of Key Decisions. The meeting was also scheduled to include a period for public statements.

Doncaster Delivering Together (DDT) Borough Strategy Refresh

The committee was scheduled to discuss the refresh of the current Borough Strategy, Doncaster Delivering Together (DDT), which is the long term Team Doncaster Partnership strategy up to 2030.

Team Doncaster is described as a strategic partnership, including a wide range of organisations from across the public, private, voluntary and community sectors, with an ethos of collaboration.

The report pack stated that the DDT refresh would build on the progress made, capitalise on recent opportunities and react to new challenges, and would continue to work towards Team Doncaster's central mission for Thriving People, Places and Planet.

The report pack noted that a ten-year strategy covers a long period, and that there have been many changes and successes in the delivery of the DDT actions since 2021, making this halfway point an opportune time to evaluate progress and refocus on the future actions that matter the most to residents and businesses. The refresh was scheduled to be informed by a 'Doncaster Delivering Together Progress Review' and a range of engagement. The refreshed DDT was scheduled to contain key actions to focus on for the rest of the borough strategy term.

The report pack stated that DDT is based on a framework of Wellbeing Goals that will be reached by working together towards the 'Great 8 Priorities'. The new, refreshed key actions will be arranged around the Great 8 Priorities and progress will be monitored via performance management mechanisms. Some of the key actions will be grouped together into packages of work. These will be interconnected actions that are essential to help solve complex issues or to grasp opportunities.

The Great 8 Priorities are:

• Tackling Climate Change
• Developing the skills to thrive in life and in work
• Making Doncaster the best place to do business and create good jobs
• Building opportunities for healthier, happier and longer lives for all
• Creating safer, stronger, greener and cleaner communities where everyone belongs
• Nurturing a child and family-friendly borough
• Building Transport and digital connections fit for the future
• Promoting the borough and its cultural, sporting, and heritage opportunities

The report pack stated that the principal mission of the Doncaster Delivery Together Refresh remains to have thriving people, places and planet, balancing the wellbeing of all these to create the kind of borough we want in the future. Bringing this to reality continues to be a shared responsibility between public agencies, businesses, residents and the voluntary, community and faith sector. The DDT refresh will set out the key actions that will be Team Doncaster's focus up to 2030.

The report pack stated that the refresh will continue to use the current central mission, Wellbeing Goals and Great 8 Priorities. The new, refreshed actions will continue to be arranged around the Great 8 Priorities. Each will include a summary of progress made, issues raised during the engagement process and proposed actions for the future.

Some of the key actions will be grouped together into packages of work. These will be interconnected activities that are essential to help solve a complex issue or to improve places.

The content of DDT will be organised according to the following framework:

• Introduction
  • Strategic context local, regional and national
  • Progress already made
  • Summary of engagement findings
  • Team Doncaster ways of working
• Big Collaborations the big areas where we will focus our efforts, for example Neighbourhood Renewal
• Delivery against G8 the refreshed key actions contributing to each of the Great 8 Priorities
• Outcomes framework the measures of progress against the Wellbeing Goals

Progress will be monitored, including updates to the Team Doncaster Executive, an Annual Review and regular monitoring of supporting strategies via the other partnership boards. The council's contribution to the delivery of DDT, the Corporate Plan, will be monitored via the quarterly finance and performance reporting process.

As part of the DDT refresh, a review of recent engagement on key strategies took place. This considered the findings of the following:

• City Centre Strategy where 8,122 survey responses and community conversations took place in early 2024
• Culture Strategy which performed 939 community conversation between December 2024 and April 2025
• Health and Wellbeing Strategy which used a wealth of information including resident feedback, new and current data sets, and health and wellbeing priority gap analysis in other strategies
• Community Safety Strategy which obtained 3,124 responses from the Community Safety public survey in 2025, with insights also drawn from additional data sets.

Following this analysis, the Big Neighbourhoods Conversation was developed. This was an extensive survey to engage with people on identifying improvements and prioritisation of these in the short and long-term. 5,150 residents completed the online Big Neighbourhoods Conversation survey which was open for a 7-week period from 5th August to 21st September 2025. During this period, 1,465 Community Conversations were also carried out by Well Doncaster. These in-depth conversations were held across 97 community locations and events, including creative engagement with children and young people.

Well Doncaster also held 12 focus groups listening to underserved and marginalised residents, including:

• Black and minority ethnic
• Deaf and hard of hearing
• Learning disabilities
• Asylum seekers
• Young people
• Older people in residential settings
• Outlying villages
• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

The insights obtained from the engagement have provided us with the themes that are most important to our residents. Residents have told us that safety, cleanliness, and infrastructure are key priorities, alongside crime prevention and effective policing. Road conditions and traffic management remain important, as does the appearance and upkeep of public spaces. People also want to see greater youth engagement, thoughtful housing development and planning, and reliable public transport. Access to healthcare, tackling homelessness and housing challenges, and strengthening community spirit and social cohesion were also identified as significant concerns. These insights have been used to inform the refresh and assist the development of the key actions that will be the focus of the remainder of the strategy term.

The engagement process also included conversations with Team Doncaster Executive Partners. Partners also provided comments through sessions on the refresh at the Team Doncaster Horizon, Policy and Design Group on 9th September 2025 and Team Doncaster Summit on 10th October 2025.

An OSMC Briefing Session was held on 4th November 2025. It included borough wide feedback on the range of engagement that has taken place and the framework that is being used for the refresh. The session generated valuable comments and reflections which have been incorporated into the refreshed strategy. It is important to acknowledge that feedback from elected members is meaningfully incorporated within the content of the strategy.

The DDT refresh will also consider wider, emerging policies including the following:

• Further devolution has been agreed and Doncaster, as part of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), will receive Integrated Settlement Payments from 2026/27. This is the first multi-year financial settlement for a decade and will provide better financial stability for public sector finances. The Integrated Settlement replaces multiple, separate funding pots, and will give greater control and flexibility over how local services and projects are adapted and funded.
• Other, emerging regional strategies include
  • The Local Growth Plan which will focus on addressing inequalities, identifying priorities for investment and intervention to drive economic and social growth.
  • A South Yorkshire Strategy is currently in development. This will be based on the four South Yorkshire Local Authorities borough plans and with specific Mayoral Combined Authority actions. Our refreshed DDT strategy will enable us to further influence the South Yorkshire priorities and highlight shared goals.
• National policies include Pride in Place, announced in September 2025, which will provide funding to the most in-need neighbourhoods. The '10 Year Health Plan for England: Fit for the Future' has also been announced which will look at future proofing the NHS, including reducing waiting lists and backlogs, and increasing the number of appointments. It also includes the NHS Neighbourhood Health Implementation Plan which aims to transform how care is delivered, by shifting the focus from hospitals to communities.
• The government have also pledged £93bn to support affordable housing nationally, with a target of £1.5m new homes in England, and are looking at several planning reforms to reduce delays and improve housing supply.
• Kickstart Economic Growth is one of the flagship policies aimed at revitalising the UK economy. In addition, the Industrial Strategy, part of the Kickstart mission, is looking at boosting investment, innovation and job creation in eight priority industries: including digital and tech, creative industries, clean energy and advanced manufacturing.
• Pathways to Work is the employment reform programme aimed at reducing economic activity, supporting people with health conditions or disabilities back to work and reforming the benefits system to make work more accessible and rewarding.
• Levelling Up Funding (LUF) 3 will continue as part of the current government's 'Plan for Change', with capital investment underway in three areas of Doncaster North.
• Artificial Intelligence and further advancements in digital technology continue to influence service delivery and will help re-shape our economy.

The report pack recommended that the members of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee:

• Endorse the approach taken in the Doncaster Delivering Together (DDT) refresh process
• Review and comment on the proposed actions and the framework used
• Make recommendations to inform the final version of the DDT refresh

Overview and Scrutiny Work Plan and the Council's Forward Plan of Key Decisions

The committee was scheduled to consider the current workplan and note the following updates:

• Communities and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel - That C&E O&S will be considering waste at a future meeting on the 22nd of October 2025.
• OSMC - At the next OSMC Finance and Performance meeting in December, that equalities be considered as an area of focus as part of the report.
• Regeneration and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel – Comments were raised in relation to the Tenancy Agreement about costs covered in terms of accessing a property, to be raised at the meeting.

The Committee was scheduled to consider the Overview and Scrutiny Work Plan and the Council's Forward Plan of key decisions.

Public Statements

The agenda included a period not exceeding 20 minutes for statements from up to 5 members of the public on matters within the Committee's remit, proposing action(s) which may be considered or contribute towards the future development of the Committee's work programme.