Cross-Council Change Activity
Through the Council’s Let’s Talk K&C Council Plan engagement and Grenfell Legacy consultation, we spoke to over 1000 residents, bereaved and survivors about what they value about the borough as well as the challenges facing residents and what the Council needs to do differently. A strong theme running through the feedback was about how people want the Council to change. Often this is as much about how the Council interacts with our communities as about what we do. As a result, some of the changes cut across the Council as a whole. This is why the Council Plan has a number of ambitious cross-Council change commitments that respond to what we have heard, as well as the specific service and initiative commitments included in the action plan. We are developing a change programme to support the delivery of these cross-cutting commitments and developing a programme of work to deliver meaningful action and better outcomes for residents. These cross-Council commitments are outlined in the following section.
Greener
- Improving our borough and the environment as a whole. Residents have told us that they value the environment and want the Council to tackle issues such as climate change, as well as maintaining and enhancing the borough’s streets and parks. Residents want to see more and fairer access to parks and green spaces and more activities for the most vulnerable in society.
- Place- Shaping. The Council has a leadership role to play in shaping the places that people live, work, play and learn in. Place shaping is about creating and maintaining quality places within the borough, and providing spaces to enjoy our day to day lives. The Council has committed to delivering a place shaping agenda in collaboration with local residents, businesses and other key stakeholders, supporting a thriving borough where all residents can enjoy beautiful and welcoming spaces and live well.
Safer
- Prioritising the impact on the safety and wellbeing of our residents when we make decisions about spending. Safety was an area of importance that residents said the Council should focus on in light of Grenfell. Residents spoke about safety in their own homes and drew a direct connection between people feeling listened to (i.e. feeling like their concerns are taken seriously) and feeling safe. We will be working across Council teams to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of residents is prioritised in service development.
Fairer
Transforming how people can access advice:
- Creating more hubs for people to access the support they need. Residents emphasised the link between listening and acting in this context by making sure that everyone has a say in how their needs are addressed. Residents also want seamless interaction with the Council, and do not want to deal with multiple departments to get their issue resolved. We will be developing the Council’s hubs in the borough to support residents to access the support they need.
- Trialling ‘no wrong front door’ approaches. Residents have said that it important to them that staff across the Council are able to help someone with an inquiry sensitively, and hand them over to other services in a personal way and/or take accountability for addressing whole issues themselves, as well listening to residents and treating all residents fairly with respect and empathy. Residents spoke about the need to be treated fairly, equally and with compassion, in particularly pointing out that social tenants should never be treated differently because of where they live. It also meant ensuring that Council services are accessible to all and that more support is provided to those who need it. We will be working to develop our services to support residents to more easily access the support they need.
Being a good landlord:
- Investing in more support for residents in social housing and temporary accommodation. Being a good landlord was raised in many conversations with residents. This means ensuring that we take our fundamental responsibilities to tenants, leaseholders and those in temporary accommodation seriously, recognising the importance of housing for people’s lives. It means taking better care of residents’ homes, making sure that repairs are done quickly and correctly the first time, and not ignoring issues when they are raised. We will be looking at how we can continue to develop our support to residents in social housing and temporary accommodation.
- Piloting more neighbourhood approaches to housing management – starting with World’s End. Residents have told us that they value local service support. The Council will work with residents, starting with those who live at the World’s End estate, learning from the Lancaster West model to understand how neighbourhood approaches could benefit residents and how more joined up support across Council services could provide better services for those in need of support.
A Caring and Competent Council
- Changing the organisation, focusing on listening and customer care, connecting the council to its communities and involving residents in decision making and ensuring we are accountable. Residents want us to improve the way the Council works to be more open, responsible and accountable. This will be supported by all staff actively displaying the Council’s values and behaviours and the Council being more transparent and honest about issues, putting residents first, improving the connection between staff and residents, and making sure staff have the right skills and knowledge. We will be delivering our People Plan and Customer Access work programme to support this change for the organisation.
Tracking the impact of our activities
The Council is committed to involving local people in its work and being accountable and open to challenge. As the Council looks to become the best it can be, in the light of Grenfell, reporting on performance and delivery of the Council Plan Action Plan alongside what residents, communities and businesses say is important. Every 3 months, the Council publishes its Performance Dashboard on our website, this includes internal service delivery measures and external indicators to provide an overview of how the Council is performing within the wider context of things that are happening in the borough. The Council also reports every 6 months to Overview and Scrutiny Committee on these measures as well as how the Council is delivering against its commitments in the Council Plan Action Plan.