Hertfordshire County Council

Corporate Plan 2009/12

Draft

Contents

Foreword 3

Introduction 4

Hertfordshire – County of Opportunity 5

How the County Council Contributes 7

Our Priorities for Action 8

Support economic wellbeing 9

Maximise independent living 10

Ensure a positive childhood 11

Secure a good education for all 12

Reduce carbon emissions 13

Ensure safe neighbourhoods 14

Be a leading Council 15

About Hertfordshire County Council 16

How to contact us 16

How we are organised 16

Equalities and Diversity 16

The Corporate Plan in Context 18

Key Service Plans & Strategies 18

Corporate Planning Cycle 18

Improvement Plan 18

Annual Report 2008/09 19

Foreword

Robert Gordon – Leader of the County Council

Introduction

Caroline Tapster – Chief Executive

Hertfordshire – County of Opportunity

Hertfordshire County Council is the leading public service organisation for the county. Our ambitions for Hertfordshire and its people go well beyond the services that we are directly responsible for delivering. We want to:

· play a full part in everything which affects the wellbeing of Hertfordshire and its residents.

· join with others in the public, private and voluntary sectors to meet the aspirations of our residents, using our democratic legitimacy to lead and to champion the interests of the county.

· be ambitious for our people, creating opportunities for them to maximise their potential and to live fulfilling lives in strong families and communities.

· increase opportunities for people to influence local decisions, trusting them to take greater responsibility for their own communities.

Hertfordshire – County of Opportunity is the vision that sums up this corporate plan. To achieve it, we must empower and engage people in shared responsibility for the well-being of themselves, their families and their communities. We see the following as the most important conditions of wellbeing that we want to secure for Hertfordshire and its people:

090212 06 Item 5 App 1 Corp Plan 5

How the County Council Contributes

Without the help of Hertfordshire’s residents, businesses, public and voluntary organisations, the County Council alone will not be able to achieve the outcomes for the county summarised as Hertfordshire – County of Opportunity. We have an important contribution to make to achieving them, however, both by providing strategic leadership for the county and by delivering responsive services at local level.

As a large, strategic authority, the County Council is good at doing the big things – speaking up for Hertfordshire on the national stage and delivering financial efficiencies resulting from economies of scale. But we also recognise that government – national and local – tends to be over-centralised. So we know we must be just as effective at the local things – the small things which often make the biggest difference to people and the communities in which they live.

We want to make sure that our services fully reflect Hertfordshire’s diversity and create real opportunities for local choice. What works in Royston may not work in Rickmansworth, which a service designed for an ‘average’ community probably won’t suit either of them – or anywhere between.

Here is a snapshot of the main ways in which our services contribute to Hertfordshire – County of Opportunity:

· Our social care services for children and adults help people by providing services that are tailored to their individual needs and circumstances, helping them to remain both independent and integrated into wider society as far as possible.

· Our work co-ordinating and supporting schools helps to produce active, engaged citizens for the future, well-equipped to take their places in society and to contribute to economic and social life.

· Our public libraries are both a valuable cultural resource and a civic hub, providing communities with the information and resources they need on a wide range of subjects.

· We have a vital role in making sure that the county remains an enjoyable, attractive and active place by maintaining roads, co-ordinating public transport and disposing of waste, but also more broadly in our work on strategic planning and controlling development.

· Our fire and rescue services make a key contribution to safety and security for individuals and neighbourhoods – not only in their response to emergencies, but also in their work to prevent fires.

Our Priorities for Action

The following pages set out the main things we will do to play our part in achieving our vision for Hertfordshire – County of Opportunity.

Possible indicators taken from the Local Area Agreement are shown in red with the lead organisation shown in [square brackets]
Support economic wellbeing

We will respond to the challenges of recession and maintain Hertfordshire’s future prosperity, supporting local people and the local economy by:

· establishing, with partners, a strong Economic Partnership and Economic Task Force for Hertfordshire, to promote advice to and support for businesses and the creation of new jobs

· helping people to develop new skills

· helping vulnerable people to get and keep a job

· providing easy access to information and advice about welfare benefits, so that the most vulnerable people get the benefits they are entitled to

We will measure success by looking at:

· The proportion of children in poverty (NI 116) [HCC]

An additional possibility:

· Rate of new businesses registering for VAT (NI 171)

Maximise independent living

We will promote independent living, enabling people to exercise as much control as possible over their own lives, and ensuring that the services they need are delivered as far as possible in ways they choose by:

· significantly increasing the number of people who control the funding for their own care, so that they can also choose and control the services they get

· providing self-contained homes with design features and support services available to enable self- care and independent living

· making our services as accessible as possible, with roads and public transport that are safe and easy to negotiate and local buildings that are easy to get to and get in to, open at times that are convenient to users

· offering support to families who need help

We will measure success by looking at:

· The proportion of vulnerable people achieving independent living (NI 141) [HCC]

An additional possibility:

· Number of social care clients receiving self-directed support (NI 130)

Ensure a positive childhood

We will do our utmost to make sure that the county’s children can grow up free from abuse and neglect and enjoying a positive start to their lives by:

· improving social care services to make sure vulnerable children are properly protected

· helping people who work with children to become better coordinated and more effective

· promoting fostering and adoption

· developing the emotional wellbeing of our children and young people, following a successful pilot programme

· promoting healthy weight by encouraging better diet, sport and exercise.

· putting a children’s centre in every community and providing extended services for more hours in schools

We will measure success by looking at:

· The gap between the lowest achieving five year olds and the rest (NI 92) [HCC]

· Timeliness of initial children’s social care assessments (NI 59) [HCC] OR Timeliness of detailed children’s social care assessments (NI 60) [HCC]

Secure a good education for all

We will ensure a high quality education for our children in good schools, help our young people to gain skills that make them fit for life and encourage people to continue learning throughout their lives - so that they can be healthy, fulfilled, productive and economically independent:

· narrowing the gap between the achievement at school and elsewhere of vulnerable children and that of their peers across the county

· developing a range of learning and training opportunities for young people that is fit for purpose, following the transfer of commissioning responsibilities to the County Council

· helping to improve the range of workplace learning opportunities available

· guaranteeing work experience for all young people leaving the county council’s care

· providing opportunities for adults to learn, including literacy, language and numeracy skills

We will measure success by looking at:

· The achievement at school of 11 year olds in both English and Maths (NI 73) [HCC]

· The proportion of children getting 5 good GCSEs including English and Maths (NI 75) [HCC]

· The proportion of working-age people with a degree or equivalent (NI 165) [LSC, but coming to HCC…]

Reduce carbon emissions

We will work with partners to reduce Hertfordshire’s carbon footprint, including promoting energy saving and new, greener energy sources for homes, public buildings and businesses by:

· Tackling traffic congestion

· Promoting alternatives to private car use

· Careful monitoring of energy use in our schools and other buildings

· Resisting building developments that are not carbon neutral

· Resisting airport expansion

· Promoting recycling and new methods of waste disposal

· Reducing the energy used by street lighting

We will measure success by looking at:

· The level of carbon emissions per head in the county (NI 186) [HCC and University]

· The proportion of municipal waste land filled (NI 193) [HCC]

Ensure safe neighbourhoods

We will contribute to the creation of safe public spaces which people can use free from the fear of crime or intimidation, by:

· Giving communities more influence over local decisions

· developing preventative and community services to help keep people safe, and clear and easy ways for people to report safeguarding concerns

· working closely with the police and others to develop effective responses to crime and disorder in our communities

· working with young people to identify positive outlets for their time and energy and helping them to fulfil their ambitions and aspirations

· intervening through the Hertfordshire Youth Justice Service to cut youth crime and prevent young people who have been before the courts from re-offending

· maintaining a focus on road safety

· promoting volunteering

We will measure success by looking at:

· The number of drug users in effective treatment (NI 40) [HCC]

Be a leading Council

We will maintain our record as an pioneering council, contributing to Hertfordshire – County of Opportunity by delivering high-quality, value for money services and giving people more and better opportunities to influence decisions about the places they live and the services they get, by:

· developing Hertfordshire Local, a range of initiatives to help people to get information about their local area, services and conditions and enable them to have a say about the public services that are provided and how they are organised

· maintaining and improving our roads and buildings so that they provide the services everyone needs and enhance the environment, contributing to pride of place

· introducing new ways of working between the County Council, district and borough councils and other public organisations, so that we do business together more efficiently and effectively

· ensuring that we provide the best possible value for money, especially in back-office functions

We will measure success by looking at:

· The proportion of people who say they can influence local decisions (NI 4) [HCC]

An additional possibility:

· Value for money (NI 179)

About Hertfordshire County Council

How to contact us

To find out more about the services we provide, you can:

· Look at our website – www.hertsdirect.org

You can use lots of our services online, and contact us via the website if you wish.

· Telephone us

You can call us on the numbers below [insert table from website]

Our lines are open Monday to Friday from 8am-8pm and Saturdays from 9am-4pm. Lines are closed on Sundays and Public Holidays. For urgent calls outside of office hours about the welfare of an adult, please use the telephone number for Adult Care Services and for urgent calls about the welfare of a child, please use the telephone number for Children, Schools and Families.

If you need to speak to us through a Language Line interpreter, ask the person who answers your call to arrange this.

· Write to us

Hertfordshire County Council

County Hall

Pegs Lane

Hertford SG13 8DQ

· Visit us

Maps and directions to our offices are available on our website.

We want to hear from local people about the issues and decisions that affect their lives. Visit www.hertsdirect.org/havesay to find out how we consult with the community and how you can give your views and comments about County Council services.

How we are organised

To find out more about how the council works and how we are organised, please visit our website at www.hertsdirect.org

Equalities and Diversity

Our Equalities Commitment

We are committed to achieving diversity and equality of opportunity both as a large employer and as a provider of services. We demonstrate our commitment to tackling inequality and promoting diversity in everything we do. Our full commitment to equality and diversity is detailed in Putting People First, our Equalities Policy, which can be found at: http://connect.hertscc.gov.uk/infobase/docs/pdfstore/ppfirst04.pdf

We recognise, respect and celebrate the fact that our staff and the people we serve are all very different, whether this is in our ethnic background, family setting, gender, religion and belief, or other factors. We have a public duty to promote equality and to combat the unfair discrimination that still exists in society. We also believe that this helps us do our job better. For more information on how we promote equality and diversity across our services, visit: http://www.hertsdirect.org/yrccouncil/hcc/corpservices/hertshr/workhcc/diversequal/promo/

The Corporate Plan in Context

This Corporate Plan runs from April 2009 until March 2012. It is written in the context of the overall strategy for Hertfordshire, set out by Hertfordshire Forward, the county’s Local Strategic Partnership, in its Sustainable Community Strategy 2021 [link?]. This explains the overall ambitions of the county council and its partners for the county as a whole.