ABSTRACT
The vision, mission, objectives and goals are the foundation for the service’s development over the period covered by the plan, but the formulation and implementation of strategies and action plans are equally crucial to the service’s progress and success. Strategies in this context can be defined as major actions or patterns of actions for achieving goals and objectives (and accomplishing the mission). A key point to note here is that there is likely to be more than one way of achieving each goal, so strategy formulation involves identifying options and making choices before reaching decisions on the action steps required. Among other considerations, strategies need to be assessed in terms of the knock-on effects for other areas and the risks involved; supporting strategies (for example, relating to staff training) and contingency plans follow on from this. Involving a wide range of staff in this process helps to ensure that different paths are explored and improves the chance of finding creative solutions to problems. Individual thinking and group brainstorming sessions can usefully be combined to generate imaginative proposals for scrutiny by the planning team and senior managers.
