The authority is embarking on a major transformation programme to examine how services are prioritised, how they can become more business efficient, to explore opportunities for greater customer focus and digital delivery and to consider alternative delivery models and seek out commercial opportunities.
To enable us to continue providing high quality value for money services in an environment that will require new approaches and new skills, we will also need to build a new relationship with our staff and our communities.
This ambitious programme of change articulates the combined vision of the Cabinet and the Corporate Leadership Team and has been developed over the last 12 months. In making this Strategy a reality, courageous political and officer leadership will be essential to ensure that we successfully deliver the outcomes that we are aiming to achieve.
Our transformation strategy
#TeamCaerphilly
- Better Together
is multifaceted and is based on a range of key components that will underpin everything that we do and will be fully embedded into our new operating model -
The outcomes we aim to achieve are: -
• To have strong working relationships with
our communities and partners to maximise the use of our collective resources to ensure a resilient county borough for the future.
• To embed a new operating model that will
encourage innovative approaches to service delivery and ensure that we are making the best use of our resources.
• To help close the gap between poverty and
prosperity through improving educational attainment and stimulating the local economy to create high quality jobs.
• To make Caerphilly County Borough a better
place to live, work and visit.
The case for change is well understood. Since
the 2008/09 financial year the Council has cut over £100 million from its budget due to the ongoing programme of austerity and further savings totalling circa £44 million are anticipated for the four-year period 2020/21 to 2023/24.
This, coupled with the rising demands associated with an ageing population, helping people with complex health needs to remain in their own homes, the gap between poverty and prosperity, climate change and digital advancement, demands a new approach that enables us to deliver “more with less”.
To date the Council has responded to the financial challenge with limited impact on front-line services. However, in planning for the future of the County Borough we know that the needs of our communities are changing and that the demographic profile of our population is shifting. For example, by 2036 the number of people living in the County Borough over the age of 85 will increase by 119%.
We know that future jobs, skills, employment and education will be underpinned by technology. The Cardiff Capital Region City Deal will provide the most important opportunity for stimulating the local economy for generations to come. Employment leads to prosperity and equality of opportunity.
We have a duty to be globally responsible in
everything we do and we must deliver our services in an efficient, effective and sustainable way.
Our partners are operating in similarly challenging environments and we need to maximise our collective abilities through working in collaboration across the public,
voluntary and community sectors.
We are redefining our vision and values as an
organisation. Our operating principles will need to change to meet our vision for the future. We are developing a new set of values and our staff have been actively engaged in this exciting opportunity for positive change. We will help them with this through new support and development practices.
We have identified the key local authority projects that will increase our resilience and we will deliver these through robust programme management. Our recently adopted Sport and Active Recreation Strategy is a good example of our future approach - consolidating and supporting viable services into the future.
The Council is committed to protecting vulnerable people and providing services as equitably as possible across the whole of the county borough. However, we must be more commercially minded in our approaches to service provision and look for opportunities to increase income that can be reinvested in services.
The way in which we interact and engage with our communities must be more meaningful and integrated fully into our strategies, so our current approach will need to change. We have to manage the expectations of our communities and we must develop a mutual understanding that we simply cannot deliver services in the same ways that we always have. We will listen carefully to the views of our communities in shaping future services and we will explain the rationale behind any decisions made.
Tough choices will need to be made and we will need to prioritise essential services. We will be open and honest in how we make these choices and we want our communities and staff to be part of the discussion.
Our staff are a dedicated and valued resource and we will ensure that we support and equip them with the required skills and competencies they will need to ensure the successful delivery of the new operating model that will underpin this transformation programme.
