How to produce a re-use action plan

15th June 2016

This guide sets out how to produce a re-use action plan which is a key element of any re-use strategy. It addresses the who, how, what and when of the actions needed that will ultimately deliver your objectives.

Highlights

GUIDE

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How do we get there?
Engagement with key stakeholders
Looking at your options
Agreeing actions and monitoring progress

Video

Introduction

The scale of an action plan is flexible in terms of coverage and the steps set out in this guide are relevant whether for a single re-use initiative within a local authority (e.g. re-use led kerbside bulky waste collection contract partnership with a furniture re-use organisation) or at a county or sub-regional level (e.g. establishing a Re-use Forum in order to develop wider initiatives to increase the re-use of materials in the kerbside bulky and household waste recycing centre waste streams). 

We cover four steps in order to develop a re-use action plan:

  1. Engage with stakeholders to explore the opportunities for increasing re-use.
  2. Appraise the options against a set of agreed criteria (based on your strategic priorities) and determine the options to take forward into the re-use action plan.
  3. Prioritise and plan your activities.
  4. Plan to monitor and evaluate progress.

Engage with stakeholders

Having set your aims and objectives, and identified options to improve re-use you are now ready to start your action plan. 

Before developing the plan, it is important to engage fully with all stakeholders to ensure that it meets their needs and that they are committed to the actions included in order to achieve the required outcomes.

This engagement process will allow a more detailed discussion of the potential options to improve re-use, canvass opinion on what will work (and won't) and understand the local area and additional service support potentially needed to meet this demand.  You can also take advantage of the knowledge of re-use professionals and ensure that other relevant council departments (e.g. housing) are integrated into the plan.

There are a wide range of ways to engage with stakeholders which can be found in the guide. 

Appraise the options

The second step in developing a re-use action plan is to undertake an options appraisal and develop a brief business case for the identified re-use options and interventions. 

You should consider the strategic aims and objectives in order to provide a clear context and criteria to assess the options. These should be developed into a set of scoring priorities, against which each option can be evaluated.

Plan your activities

Once the options have been evaluated and a consensus reached on the best way to take the plan forward, the final re-use action plan can be drafted. This will include the options to be included, based on the options appraisal, and the actions required to achieve them. 

The action plan should split each option up into a series of manageable tasks and the key is to ensure that it clearly identifies:

  • The actions to be carried out / deliverables.
  • The delivery lead (individual or organisation).
  • Timescales.
  • Budgets.

Planning for monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring should be written into the action plan, with a monitoring schedule for each action, setting out what needs to measured, how often and when. The monitoring schedule within the action plan will ensure each lead organisations understands what data they should be recording. This will help ensure that the Project Manager is able to review overall performance when required.

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