It is my privilege to launch our new Department of Planning, Performance and Strategic Change. As a graduate of Bath, I know the impact that our excellence in education and high-impact research can have, and the lasting impact of feeling part of an inclusive and diverse community.

In a highly competitive sector and a socio-economic landscape that is forever shifting, a well-informed vision and strategy, with clear goals, an implementation roadmap with ongoing measurement, and the ability to adapt, together with the partnerships we form, are all vital to our University staying on course for a future of sustained growth and excellence.

In recognition of this, our new department has been formed to bring together the expertise, processes and support to deliver an optimised end-to-end lifecycle, from informed ideas through planning and implementation, to realisation. Our role is to provide an integrated approach, bringing together strategy, planning, delivery and performance, enabling the University to achieve its strategic outcomes and provide lasting impact.

We will do this in three ways:

• turning aspiration into action
• informing and monitoring our choices
  
• driving positive change

Turning aspiration into action

Developing our planning process to look to the longer term, building a pipeline of ideas and investments, grounded in insights and rooted in our academic purpose and institutional priorities. Those strategic ideas and objectives will then be translated into actionable plans, co-created and owned by academics and professional services.

By bringing together the four pillars and key enablers as a coordinated set of plans that together deliver the strategy, we’ll optimise how we apply our investments and resources and provide clear line of sight between strategy and delivery, enabling all of us to see how it all joins up and the part we play in our respective roles.

Informing and monitoring our choices

All our activity will be informed through the provision of transparent, reliable, usable, and accessible insights to support effective decision making and performance management. We will introduce regular review points to monitor progress, measure the success of our delivered activity and inform future choices.

Driving positive change

Our new department has our values at its core. We’ll champion institutional priorities and build confidence and capability in delivery. By bringing together people from across our University and in our partnerships, we’ll build connections and reduce silos to ensure that we make the best use of our resources and maximise the benefits of our collective expertise.

Together, we will enable the University to realise its goals.

Sharon Street
Director of the Department of Planning, Performance & Strategic Change