Wrexham's Community Strategy & the Local Service Board
The Local Government Act 2000 gives Local Authorities a duty to promote the economic, social and environmental well-being of their local communities and contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom. Each council is required to develop a community strategy in partnership with other public sector organisations such as police, health, businesses, community and voluntary groups, which sets out long term targets and actions to improve their local area. We took a leading role in the Community Strategy Partnership that has defined the community vision, priorities and goals to improve the Wrexham area over the period 2004-2020. The figure below shows the six key strategic priorities identified in the Community Strategy.
In response to the Beecham review of local service delivery, the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) made a commitment to develop a better relationship with local areas and to strengthen local service leadership to be more focused on citizen needs. A part of this commitment was to develop Local Service Boards (LSBs) from the existing Community Strategy Partnerships.
Wrexham was one of six areas to be selected as a development project and is currently working on making this transition. The LSB is currently made up of high level representatives from the local authority, health sector, higher education, police, a WAG representative and the voluntary sector. The board will work on critical issues to ensure a whole-system response to the needs of citizens, and a key function of the LSB will be to agree and ensure the delivery of a number of key priorities set out in a Local Service Agreement (LSA). The LSA will build on the themes from the Community Strategy and the current joint priorities for Wrexham.
Community Strategy Strategic Priorities
The six key strategic priorities identified in the Community Strategy diagram above are:
- A place that values learning
- A safe place
- A healthy, caring place
- A place where children and young people are valued
- An economically prosperous place
- A place that cares for the environment
Delivering What Matters 2008/09
Wrexham County Borough Council aims to continue to make Wrexham a prosperous and vibrant place to live, work and visit. Ongoing work with our partners in the public, private and voluntary sector will be pivotal in delivering what matters to the people of Wrexham in 2008/09 and beyond.
The ‘Delivering What Matters’ diagram above illustrates the Council’s priorities for 2008/09. ‘Delivering What Matters’ shows the key activities and services that the Council is improving in order to make an important contribution to the lives of people in Wrexham County Borough.
In establishing our improvement agenda, we have considered previous performance, analysis of information from our corporate and service planning processes, strategic risk review, sustainability and equality impact assessments, customer consultations, efficiencies work and audit and inspection findings. A rigorous ‘Joint Risk Assessment’ process run in conjunction with the Wales Audit Office also underpins ‘Delivering What Matters’.
‘Delivering What Matters’ is split into three levels: ‘Corporate Priorities’, ‘Core Corporate Business’ and ‘Service Priorities’. The inclusion of ‘Equalities’ and ‘Sustainability’ represents our commitment to ensuring equitable service delivery in a sustainable way for all of our services.
Accountable officers
CE = Chief Executive
MR = Strategic Director, Malcolm Russell
TG = Strategic Director, Terry Garner
PR = Strategic Director, Paul Roberts
PW = Strategic Director, Phillip Walton
CO = Chief Officers
Corporate Priorities
The centre of the ‘Delivering What Matters’ shows the seven Corporate Priorities where we are focussing resources and effort to deliver service change and improvement. These areas will be subject to the highest level of attention from our officers, elected members and customers. Delivering our Corporate Priorities will often require a number of departments to work together and in order to effectively co-ordinate this work each priority has a Strategic Director that is accountable for ensuring improvements are achieved, as well as a Lead Member who acts as a ‘champion’. Our Corporate Priorities are:
Delivery of Streetscene – Pride in your streets (PW)
Pride in your streets marks a significant shift to customer focused services and aims to make Wrexham cleaner, greener, safer and tidier. Improved customer contact, a reduction in the time taken to deliver key services, and an increase in satisfaction with the local environment are key outcomes of this priority.
The number of older people receiving support and the quality and range of services they receive (PW)
Working with partners to support more older people to live independently at home is a priority for the Council. This priority will be focussing specifically on enabling more people to live in their own homes for longer, improving access to services and increasing the number of people using the re-ablement service.
Improve educational attainment/skills and reduce exclusions (TG)
In this area we will continue to focus on improving performance in schools – aiming for an increase in the percentage of pupils achieving five or more GCSE passes at grades A* to C from 51% to 55%, and to increase the percentage of primary school pupils achieving the Core Subject Indicator at Key Stage 2 to 79%. In addition, we are also working to improve the attainment of vulnerable groups and to increase the number of excluded children taking up their full support entitlement.
Promote sustainable development and use of land in the County Borough through a robust Local Development Plan [LDP] (PW)
Implementing the current Unitary Development Plan and adopting a new Local Development Plan in 2010/2011 will give clear direction to the amount, nature and quality of new developments. This will help us to deliver employment, affordable housing and a range of social facilities whilst also protecting other areas from inappropriate development. In 2008/09 the focus is on effectively engaging with communities and partners to develop a draft Local Development Plan and to secure sustainable development.
Reduce anti-social behaviour (MR)
Reducing anti-social behaviour in Wrexham requires working in partnership with other public service bodies with the overall aim of decreasing anti-social behaviour. We will do this by helping to carry out the activities in the Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy, including providing diversionary activities for those at risk of anti-social behaviour and through helping to fund Police Community Support Officers who undertake a significant proportion of the enforcement activity.
Implement the Regional Transport Plan to secure sustainable investment into the transport infrastructure (PR)
This priority supports the needs of local people and visitors to have a safe and modern road, footway and public transport system. Resources in this area will be used based on condition, usage and expected future deterioration of carriageways and footways. Sustainable modes of transport will be promoted as well as improving access to Wrexham Industrial estate.
Increase recycling and reduce landfill (PW)
We are committed to dealing with waste in the most economical and environmentally sustainable way – setting an aspirational target to divert 40% of municipal waste away from landfill. We also aim to recycle, reuse or compost 65% of the waste received at household recycling centres and to increase the number of households who participate in the kerbside recycling collection scheme to 85%.
Core Corporate Business
The next level of ‘Delivering What Matters’ priorities is made up of our 10 ‘Core Corporate Business’ areas. These are ‘strategic’ services and activities that the Council has been focussing additional attention on to achieve improvements. In common with the Corporate Priorities, many of the areas require departments to work together to deliver the desired service improvements.
Service Priorities
The third level of ‘Delivering What Matters’ is our commitment to improve our services within each department. These priorities are outlined within Department Service Plans each year.
Information and Feedback
If you have any comments or would like any further information on specific areas, then please direct your enquiries to:
Principal Performance and Improvement Officer
Performance and Improvement Unit
Lambpit Street
Wrexham
LL11 1AR
Phone: 01978 292253
Email: statistics@wrexham.gov.uk
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