Action plan information
Frequently Asked Questions on Action Plans
What are action plans?
Action plans are a set of actions prepared by a signatory organisation of the Urban Design Protocol demonstrating their commitment to creating quality urban design. Each signatory will have different actions to suit their particular circumstances. Protocol signatory actions should be challenging, ambitious and updated on a regular basis.
When does a signatory organisation develop an action plan?
An action plan should be submitted within 3 months of signing up to the Protocol.
Are there mandatory actions?
The only mandatory action for an Urban Design Protocol signatory organisation is to appoint an Urban Design Champion. However if you want to get the most out of being a Urban Design Protocol signatory an Action Plan that is regularly updated is a very important and useful process.
Why are action plans important?
Action plans are important as they specify the actions that a signatory organisation will complete as part of their commitment to the Urban Design Protocol and the timeframe. The design and implementation of an urban design action plan is dependent on the nature and needs of the organisation.
Are there any resources to help me write an action plan?
There are a number of supporting resources available to help signatories write action plans:
- The Action Pack provides ideas on actions for each signatory group
- The Action Plan Template provides a format for recording your actions prior to submitting them to the Ministry for the Environment
How do I write up my Action Plan?
Action plans should be high level and depict how your organisation will reach its strategic urban design goals. Remember that urban design as defined in Protocol is very broad and your action plan should reflect this.
Discussing your action plan within your organisation and/or with other Protocol signatories creates robust and shared actions. Your organisation needs to take ownership of the actions at multiple levels. It is therefore important to involve everyone including senior management and political members in the action plan discussions so that everyone owns the actions and resources can be committed to the implementation of your plan.
Consider actions that can:
- have measurable outcomes
- provide you with short and long term wins
- be part of the mission of your organisation and can develop urban design processes and projects into your everyday work programmes
- be maintained and achieved with the resources of your organisation
- be aligned with other reporting, reviews or monitoring functions of your organisation
- break down silo’s in your organisation and build urban design expertise and capacity. The creation of quality urban design requires collaboration across disciplines to succeed.
What happens after we submit our action plans?
All actions received from Protocol signatories are held electronically and input into the Ministry for the Environment’s Action Plan Database. The Action Plan Database provides us with information on the type of action and a detailed description of the action. This information is then used for desk top monitoring. Previous Action Plans can be printed out for your signatory organisation on request
How often do we have to monitor our action plans?
Action Plan Monitoring occurs every two to three years. Detailed monitoring has occurred in 2006 and 2009 in the form of a survey of signatory organisations. Desk top monitoring (using signatory action plan information in our database) is occurring in 2010.
When should an organisation update its action plan?
Action plans should be updated on a regular basis to make sure they are relevant to the signatory organisations policies, programmes and implementation projects. The Ministry will contact the signatory organisations every two years to update their action plans to coincide with Action Plan Monitoring.
Last updated: 25 January 2012
