Section 326.4  Department Planning Responsibilities

The Department shall integrate its planning, budgeting and evaluation responsibilities to ensure consistency among service needs, Department policy, Department goals and priorities, and the allocation of resources.  The Department's general planning responsibilities shall include the following:

a)         to implement a Planning, Budgeting and Evaluation (PBE) system that integrates planning, budget development, resource allocation and program evaluation at the state and regional levels;

b)         to develop and submit the Department's budget requests to the Bureau of the Budget and to prepare Department fiscal analyses as appropriate;

c)         to conduct an annual evaluation of the Department's performance and to monitor performance on a regular, periodic basis;

d)         to conduct at least annually a statewide assessment of service needs and service delivery problems leading to issue identification, resource development, and other administrative action;

e)         to project, in light of legislative mandates, executive direction, public interest, availability of funding, and the annual evaluation and assessment – the Department's priorities and goals for at least two years into the future;

f)         to prepare a means of planning the work required to achieve the goals and priorities over the next two- to three-year period and to monitor progress toward achieving them;

g)         to prepare the planning documents specified in Section 326.5 in accordance with Federal, State and Department requirements; and

h)         to report annually on how the Department uses its resources and what resources are needed.