Business plan 2023-24

Introduction

We have just published our new corporate plan up to 2030 - ‘Nature and People Thriving Together’, which sets out our vision, mission and well-being objectives to 2030.
In our corporate plan we identify the importance of measuring our own performance and impact in delivering our well-being objectives and steps to take, so that we can be held to account by Ministers and the people of Wales.
We set out our commitment to strengthening our performance framework with the development of integrated, outcome focussed indicators aligned to the well-being objectives and steps to take.
While we take forward this development work, the NRW Board has agreed that the business plan for 2023/24 rolls forward those measures from the 2022/23 business plan that align to the well-being objectives.
This business plan sets out what we will deliver in the first year of that corporate plan in 2023/24, and the resources (staff and financial) we will use to do this.

Nature and People Thriving together – our new corporate plan to 2030

Our new corporate plan is centred around our three Well-being Objectives, which will help us achieve our vision of Nature and People thriving together. Although the corporate plan takes us to 2030, we are viewing this as a stepping stone on the way to 2050.

Our Well-being Objectives are:

- Nature is recovering
- Communities are resilient to climate change
- Pollution is minimised

What we will deliver in 2023/24

The tables below show those work areas where we will be tracking performance in 2023/24:

Well-being Objective 1: Nature is recovering / Nature's recovery will be secure in 2030

Nature being protected

Steps to take	Measures
Improving the condition of features at protected terrestrial, marine and freshwater sites through using our advisory and regulatory tools, financial incentives and undertaking monitoring to evaluate effectiveness	Priority actions undertaken on protected sites across Wales to improve condition of features
Protecting species at the greatest risk of extinction through using our advisory and regulatory tools, working in partnership and monitoring to evaluate effectiveness	Delivering targeted action for declining species or those on the edge of extinction

Nature being restored

Steps to take	Measures
Accelerating improvements to the condition of the Marine Protected Area Network through robust monitoring and investigations, evidence, advice and working with others on project delivery	Deliver actions in the Wales Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network Management Action Plan
Building the resilience of terrestrial, freshwater and marine protected sites transforming them into bigger, better and more effectively connected networks through using our advisory and regulatory tools, financial incentives and undertaking monitoring to evaluate effectiveness	Management of and input to programmes to address and restore habitats across Wales
Accelerating action for nature’s recovery at a landscape scale through sharing our evidence and expertise with National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and other partners	Evaluation of the case for a new National Park in North East Wales

Nature being respected and valued in decision making

Steps to take	Measures
Meeting the needs of specific audiences to stimulate action for nature through collecting, managing, synthesizing, evaluating and communicating ours and others evidence	Complete our freshwater quality monitoring review

Nature, people and communities being re-connected

Steps to take	Measures
Ensuring a diverse range of people are taking action for nature through sharing the vision and outcomes from Nature and Us to expand our networks and increase involvement	Sharing the vision for the natural environment to 2050 - Nature and Us

Well-being Objective 2: Communities are resilient to climate change / Communities resilience to climate change will be secure in 2030

Nature-based solutions being widely adopted

Steps to take	Measures
Restoring peatland through the National Peatland Action Programme (NPAP) working with delivery partners, including on the land in our care using a range of advisory and regulatory tools, financial incentives and undertaking monitoring to evaluate effectiveness	Action undertaken to restore Welsh peatlands including peatland on the land in our care
Creating new woodlands and restoring ancient woodlands on the land in our care through only acquiring land for woodland creation to compensate for woodland permanently converted to other land-uses and gradually changing the trees on planted ancient woodland sites to species that better reflect their nature conservation and cultural value	Area of new woodland created on the land in our care

The risks of climate change being managed and adapted

Steps to take	Measures
Reducing the risk to life from flooding through managing our flood assets and infrastructure for current and future flood risk and planning for change through maintaining and adapting the flood assets and infrastructure we are accountable for	1. Maintain flood risk assets in high-risk systems at target condition 2. Produce Flood Risk Management Plan
Reducing the risk to life from flooding to people and communities from main rivers, reservoirs and the sea, through the delivery of flood alleviation schemes	1. Properties with reduced level of risk or sustained protection through capital work 2. Implement Flood Review recommendations/ actions

Steps to take

Measures

Reducing the risk to life from flooding through managing our flood assets and infrastructure for current and future flood risk and planning for change through maintaining and adapting the flood assets and infrastructure we are accountable for

1. Maintain flood risk assets in high-risk systems at target condition

2. Produce Flood Risk Management Plan

Reducing the risk to life from flooding to people and communities from main rivers, reservoirs and the sea, through the delivery of flood alleviation schemes

1. Properties with reduced level of risk or sustained protection through capital work

2. Implement Flood Review recommendations/ actions

Climate emissions being reduced

Steps to take	Measures
Securing the timber producing potential of the Welsh Government Woodland Estate through providing harvestable timber meeting global standards of sustainable forest management	Timber volume offered to market

Sustained action on climate change being taken by people, communities and businesses

Steps to take	Measures
Ensuring a diverse range of people are taking action for climate through sharing the vision and outcomes from Nature and Us to expand our networks and increase involvement	Sharing the vision for the natural environment to 2050 - Nature and Us

NRW being an exemplar organisation for a carbon positive public sector

Steps to take	Measures
Reducing vehicle emissions through the use of ultra-low emission vehicles wherever possible, using biodiesel and fuel efficiency measures in the interim	Develop a low emission fleet and deliver a low emission and climate adapted built estate

Well-being Objective 3: Pollution is minimised / Nature and people will be protected from the impacts of pollution in 2030

Effective use of regulatory tools and approaches

Steps to take	Measures
Ensuring the sectors we regulate, including illegal non-permitted activities, take effective action to control and reduce pollution and increase resource efficiency through the provision of advice and guidance that effectively sets out the standards required to ensure compliance	Category 1 and category 2 compliance breaches are subjected to further compliance effort (action or review)
Minimising pollution of land and water through collaborative working to stimulate positive action and build effective solutions	NRW progress on key deliverables for Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) Rivers Project
Protecting the environment and improving environmental performance of water companies through effective challenge of their investment programmes to secure action to improve	Deliver NRW input to the various Water Company Planning Programmes
Minimising pollution in highly protected and designated waters through identifying the actions required of a range of sectors	Deliver programmes to review statutory water quality requirements
Restoring water quality in catchments affected by the legacy of abandoned metal mines through using our evidence and working collaboratively to identify priorities for action	Progress of our work to reduce pollution from metal mines

Incident response being risk based

Steps to take	Measures
Minimising harm from environmental pollution incidents through preparing for and responding to priority incidents as a Category 1 responder	Response to incidents initially categorised as ‘High’ within 4 hours
Minimising the harm from serious environmental crime through investigating incidents and taking strong and decisive action	Decision on an appropriate enforcement response within 3 months

Sustained action to minimise pollution being taken by people, communities and businesses

Steps to take	Measures
Ensuring a diverse range of people are taking action to minimise pollution through sharing the vision and outcomes from Nature and Us to expand our networks and increase involvement	Sharing the vision for the natural environment to 2050 - Nature and Us

Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

During 2022/23 we developed and agreed levels of service across key areas of our work with Welsh Government. These SLAs cover the following work areas:
- Flood risk management
- NRW Estate (including Woodland Estate)
- Pollution Incident Management
- Enforcement
- Water Quality
- Enabling tree planting
- Freshwater Monitoring
- Terrestrial monitoring
- Control of Agricultural Pollution Regulations
- Marine monitoring

Each SLA identifies the resources required (£ and FTE) to deliver different levels of service. Not all areas of our work are covered by SLAs. We will be developing these over the next 12-18 months to provide complete coverage cover all areas of the business.

Resources

Our funding comes from several sources, with the majority as Grant in Aid from Welsh Government – both revenue and capital, with a proportion ringfenced for our flood and coastal erosion risk management work. Our other funding sources are from our commercial activities (including timber sales), charging, Welsh Government grants and other grants (such as from the Lottery and formerly, EU grants).
Our expenditure is split between staff costs, non-staff costs and capital and revenue projects.
We employ approximately 2,400 staff directly throughout Wales and work with a wide range of partners, including providing grant funding ourselves, or on behalf of the Welsh Government.
The following tables show our financial and staff position for 2023/24:

2023-24 EXPENDITURE BUDGET

Directorate	Staff £000	Non-Staff £000	Revenue Projects £000	Capital Projects £000	Total £000
Communications, Customer & Commercial	6,116	15,634	0	0	21,750
Corporate Strategy & Development	8,512	1,894	160	0	10,566
Evidence, Policy & Permitting	31,045	29,295	4,010	5,241	69,591
Finance & Corporate Services	7,691	19,409	1,400	10,426	38,926
Operations	56,919	22,972	7,083	38,470	125,444
Total Expenditure Budget	110,284	89,204	12,653	54,137	266,278

Our Performance Framework

With the publication of our corporate plan in April 2023 we are at the start of a new business planning cycle. If we are to follow through on the ambition in our corporate plan we need to strengthen and improve our organisational business planning and performance framework to ensure we prioritise delivery of those things that matter most.
We need to move to a well-defined and robust process that will enable prioritisation, enhance scrutiny, empower and facilitate decision making to ensure we effectively deliver our corporate plan vision. The framework will need to capture and represent the broader multiple benefits that are realised through our work for people, nature, climate and to minimise pollution. This wider, integrated perspective must inform our choices about where we allocate our resources, in line with the sustainable development principle.
We are developing strategic indicators aligned to the well-being objectives against which we will measure progress over the period 2023-2030. Supporting this will be operational performance metrics and milestones aligned to the annual business plan. We will seek feedback on the proposed strategic indicators in September 2023 with a view to using them from 1 April 2024.
Performance will be scrutinised by our Executive Team and members of our Board on a regular basis throughout the year, helping to ensure resources are directed to where they can provide the most benefit.

We hope you find our business plan interesting and useful. If you have any queries or comments, please get in touch at corporate.planning@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk

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