Our Council Plan

We are striving to be a more inclusive and open organisation that makes the best use of our resources to support the borough.

We are committed to making decisions in a more transparent, accountable and equitable way, engaging with the community as part of decision-making.

We are committed to rebuilding trust with our communities and reconnecting with our residents by being open, transparent and engaging, and putting local people at the heart of the decisionmaking process. Since 2019 we have:

• Established our Customer Access Strategy, to improve how residents can access the services they need.
• We have implemented a Charter for Public Participation outlining how we will involve local people in decisions that impact them.
• More than 2000 residents are part of our broadly representative Citizens’ Panel, giving local people a say in what matters most to them.
• Developed the Celebrating Coproduction Programme, involving delivery of 15 Councilwide projects, to create more local services shaped by residents and service-users.
• Focussed on ensuring equalities is a core part of everything we do, as set out in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, with a focus on increasing diversity and narrowing the gap of inequality.
• Embedded the values and principles of our People Strategy in key processes such as our recruitment and our appraisals system.
• Strengthened our approach to corporate performance and decision-making, increasing accountability and making improvements based on the insight and recommendations of the ongoing Grenfell Inquiry.

We have set out our vision and objectives for improving access to our services.

We published our Customer Access Strategy in November 2020 and are working hard to make our online services more intuitive and easier to use so our customers can access services 24/7. We know not everyone wants to use online services or has access to them. This is why we have also committed to improving our face-to-face and phone line services. Customers should be able to choose how they contact us and get the same positive experience. Key to this is our work to support those who are ‘digitally excluded’ with the skills and tools to benefit from being active online.

We have now developed a detailed implementation plan which includes investing in our technology, training our staff and improving processes which will make it easier for customers to get what they need from the Council, when they need it.

The Charter for public participation

 

Connecting to communities - We will draw on our communities as a valued, often untapped resource for positive change.

Being early - We will give people the earliest possible opportunity and allow enough time to engage with them so they can make a genuine contribution.

Big decisions - We will put draft Council proposals out to consultation and usually allow for at least six weeks to receive feedback on big decisions taken on Council services that affect residents lives.

Variety - We will use a variety of approaches so we’re hearing from a range of voices in the community.

Find consultations - We will publish a full list of consultations underway in a single place on the Council's consultation hub.

Public meetings - We will welcome interested local people to our meetings, and film or record the public part of any meetings.

Collaborating with the council - We will facilitate the involvement of residents or users of our services to co-design or co-produce something with the Council.

Notice of decisions - We will give at least 28 calendar day's notice, on the published Forward Plan, of all decisions valued at over £100,000 or with significant impact on two or more wards.

Reducing repetition - We will do all we can to not ask people for information they have already given us.

 

We have set out the Council’s commitments in a Charter for Public Participation, to promote a culture of involving local people in decision-making.

The Council consulted widely for twelve weeks, between mid-September and mid-December 2019, on a ‘Charter for Public Participation’. The Charter sets out how local people can get involved in Council meetings and influence decisions, and in the development of policies, plans and services that affect them. Through the Charter we aspire to inform, consult, involve and co-design or co-produce with local people.

Last year we established our Citizens’ Panel, a collective of over 2000 residents from all wards in the borough who are regularly invited to give public preferences and opinions informing Council decision-making. This has increased the number of residents involved in decision making and panel membership is broadly representative of the borough, to ensure that a diversity of views are heard by the Council. Insights on residents’ priorities from the Citizens’ Panel have so far informed the development of this plan, as well as consultation and engagement exercises involving the new local Green Plan, and Care and Wellbeing priorities.

Equality, diversity and inclusion is central to our approach to public service.

Our commitment to equality goes beyond complying with our statutory duties. We are working to remove barriers and supporting individuals and families to reach their full potential by focusing on those with the most urgent and pressing need. We have also addressed cultural barriers to resident participation by introducing more culturally appropriate and accessible materials and approaches. The commitments in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy outlines our ongoing focus, following the recent Local Government Association Equalities Peer Review, to working with our communities, improving our collection and use of equality data, increasing the diversity of our workforce and encouraging our service suppliers and contractors to adopt equality, diversity and inclusion outcomes.

We have a flexible, dynamic and modern workforce that have adapted to changes in ways of working and are being supported to be digitally enabled with the right technology and skills to deliver improved outcomes for our residents

Our People Strategy emphasises our ongoing values around putting communities first, respect, integrity and working together. We know that if we can develop an inclusive and empathetic culture in our workforce that this will influence how external organisations act too. Covid-19 has meant we have had to be more flexible, and through our hybrid working model, we are looking to learn these lessons in our future ways of working and ensure a connection between the locality and our workforce. To support this, we are working across the council to:

• Improve service delivery and strengthen connectivity with the community.
• Deliver value to support corporate priorities.
• Empower our workforce and improve productivity.

The integration of digital technology is vital to support the delivery of our services now and in the future. The development of a Digital Strategy focusing on three key pillars; Digital, Data and Technology, will provide a cohesive approach to digitally enabling improvements to our services, information, culture, skills and connections with our communities and partners. Our roadmap will build upon the progress we have already made on smart building technology and digital inclusion for example, ensuring no-one is left behind. All of this work presents an opportunity to deliver savings but also to deliver services in new ways.

Despite financial challenges we are making the best use of resources to make a positive impact.

The Council is in a good financial position for 2022/23 and a balanced budget has been set but this is against a continued level of risk and uncertainty. Government funding over the last two years has supported the spend and income pressures caused by the pandemic but as the country moves into the phase of ‘living with COVID-19’, some pressures are likely to continue into the early part of 2022/23 and it remains unclear on any long-term implications. Inflation could reach 7% by the spring, which will cause a level of at least short-term uncertainty and cost pressures – increasing contract prices, particularly for adult social care which at the same time is a sector needing to prepare for the social care reform from 2023.

Increasing interest rates as well as inflation will increase the cost of delivering our ambitious capital programme and the immediate rise in cost of living is expected to force more into financial hardship and needing to access council services. 2022/23 will be a challenging year and these risks and uncertainties will impact on th Council’s spending. The Council has set a budget that continues to ensure that spending is aligned with the priorities in this Council Plan whilst also holding levels of contingency to manage these risks and uncertainties as they arise.

Looking forward, there will be further, albeit different financial challenges. The economy will recover, and inflation is expected to return in the medium term to the target of 2% but the future of Local Government funding and that for London is not clear. The Levelling Up White Paper has been published and although the specific impact on London and Kensington and Chelsea is not known, there is a theme of addressing inequality, including funding across the country.

The best indication is that from 2023/24, there will be an average budget gap of around £9m per year. This will mean some choices about how best to deliver our priorities and achieve value from our finite resources – £433m each year on day to day running costs and £297m of capital investment over the next three years. It is important to us that this value is felt locally and supports resident wellbeing and  prosperity, and so we are embedding these considerations into our decision making on property assets, procurement, investment and capital development planning as part of our Social Investment approach. By changing the way in which the Council does its work and striking the right balance of non-financial outcomes with financial returns, we can ensure that we have a positive impact and have a more inclusive approach to decision making and service delivery.