The Key Drivers for the Council
There are four key drivers for the Council.
Closing the gap of inequality
It is a long established fact that there are big differences in the outcomes for people living in communities in our Borough which are only a few miles apart. The reasons for this are also well known, but hard to tackle. They include prosperity, lifestyle, health and education to name a few. The stark reality is that average life expectancy in some parts of the borough is unacceptably less than in others.
Understanding the needs of customers
More and more people are coming to expect personalised services, rather than a one size fits all approach, and increasingly expect us to know their needs in detail and be able to respond appropriately.
More for less
Local government has learned how to adapt to an ever decreasing pot of money and has earned a reputation in the public sector for being able to successfully implement efficiencies without impacting on service delivery.
Without the current economic conditions and the inevitable tightening of the public purse in the years to come, the Council was already facing the need to address a year on year reduction in income, requiring more and more creative and sophisticated approaches to delivering efficiency.
Not wanting to stand still, the Council has set itself the aim of continually improving services whilst striving for efficiency by 'doing more with less'. Inevitably, we will have some difficult decisions to make over the next couple of years and we really do have to find new ways of working smarter, particularly now that we are beginning to understand the long term impact of the recession on public sector finances.
Our Brand
The Council’s Brand evolved a number of years ago and is still as fresh and relevant as it was then. Living the Brand of:
The Brand is the key to tackling, with integrity, the three previous drivers - which makes it the fourth and final one in its own right. Being clear about the challenges that drive us is only the start and we need to understand what we want to achieve at the end of our endeavours - not that the end will ever come since circumstances will change and people will want us to do more.