Corporate Strategy 2022-2027

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Well-being Objective 4

To further modernise and develop as a resilient and efficient Council (Our Council)

 

Why is this important?

  1. In March 2020, we entered one of the most challenging periods ever faced by local government with the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging from the crisis, there was a recognition that ‘things would never quite be the same’ and we would not be the same organisation that we had been. We therefore wanted to capture the learning from our response to the pandemic; what worked well/did not work so well, and how this could potentially change ‘what we do’ and ‘how we do’, it in the future. This is now an  opportunity to re-set or go back to basics in using some core principles that underpin service delivery.
    Findings from a recent staff consultation indicate that the vast majority of respondents feel proud of the way we responded as an organisation to the pandemic.
    Additionally, the majority feel ready to move forward and work in a post covid world.
    Mostly, staff agree that they were well led during the pandemic, however a lower proportion agreed that they feel valued for the contributions they made during this time.
  2. We had to adapt our services quickly to continued delivery, which often required innovative and creative thinking, and a multi-team approach within the Council and with other public sector partners. Services demonstrated extreme resilience and as a result are now armed with more robust service continuity plans and a more mature approach to risk – having greater confidence and ambition in seeking ways of developing more purposeful services.
  3. The benefits of having a more flexible, dynamic, empowered workforce will be important to support a transformation programme, to help us achieve our wider aims and objectives. The likelihood is that our staff recruitment challenges are likely to be with us for at least the medium term, and therefore there will need to be a greater focus on the development and retention of staff - priority of our Workforce Strategy.
    Overall respondents to the staff consultation strongly agree that they have the right skills and equipment to do their work, however a lower proportion agrees that they are encouraged to learn and develop in their role.
  4. We are able to develop a more sustainable approach to meet our future workforce needs by adopting a ‘grow your own’ strategy - our ‘Future Workforce’ programme will seek to increase graduate, apprenticeship and work experience opportunities.
  5. Therefore, our Transformation Programme based on what we have learnt, will design and implement a programme of internal change and transformation that will support the Council to deliver on our vision and priorities as set out within this Corporate Strategy.

Outcome we hope to achieve

  • To further modernise and develop the Council’s ways of working.
  • Support the development of the Council as a modern, diverse, inclusive and responsive organisation and be an ‘Employer of Choice’.
  • Listen to our staff through regular staff engagement and empower them to improve their own service areas.
  • Ensure local and regional partnership working is efficient and effective and adds value to the work of the Council.
  • Increased public engagement through engagement, participation and consultation.
  • A more commercial approach to the delivery of Council services with a view to increasing the level of income generated.
  • Make better use of digital technology to further transform our services into smarter, efficient service processes and to deliver a better experience for customers.
  • Embrace and promote agile working, hybrid meetings and new ways of working across the organisation, by being more sustainable and creative to improve Council services.
  • Deliver organisational change that supports key Net Zero Carbon targets.
  • Ensuring the Council is using its resources economically, efficiently and effectively.
  • Embedding the sustainable development principle in all that the Council does.

What will we do?

As a Council we will focus on the following thematic priorities with separate detailed delivery plans outlining our approach to making progress against our outcomes in each of the areas.

Thematic Priority: Organisational Transformation

Public service as a whole has been through a period like no other in responding to the pandemic and with a challenging period likely to be facing us in terms of budgetary pressure it is essential to improve our capabilities and the way that we use our resources economically, efficiently and effectively in order to provide more value and benefits to our customers and residents.

A focus on organisational transformation will further accelerate the process of modernisation across the Council and allow us to deliver high-quality, cost-effective services within the context of a challenging external environment. There will need to be an inclusive and integrated approach to transformation that makes the best use of its people, systems and processes whilst encouraging the adoption of modern working practices and speeding up of processes.