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Stakeholder UpDate 4 October 2008 “Our Vision is to improve the quality of life of all in Central Bedfordshire, and enhance the unique character of our communities and our environment.” Welcome to the fourth update on activity towards Creating Central Bedfordshire. In this issue:
NOTE – every article now has a contact for further information! Minister to visit Central Bedfordshire John Healey, Minister of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government, will be visiting Central Bedfordshire on the afternoon of Tuesday, 7 October, as part of a fact-finding trip to the county. He will visit Priory House to meet with the Shadow Executive and discuss progress on creating Central Bedfordshire. In particular we will be advising the Minister on how we are working to empower our communities, raise the aspirations of children and deliver the growth agenda in a sustainable way. To illustrate this, we will be arranging for him to meet staff and partners involved in some of our key services such as planning, community safety, young people’s services and community engagement. We will be emphasising to the Minister that we are on track to deliver our proposals, are tackling the significant challenges that lie ahead and remain excited and confident about the creation of the new council. For further information contact: Sue.Nelson@bedscc.gov.uk Strategic and Directorate PlansCentral Bedfordshire Council’s Executive has agreed the new authority’s Strategic Plan for 2009-11 setting out their aspirations and priorities for the future. The top five priorities are: · Supporting and caring for the ageing population. · Educating, protecting and providing opportunities for children and young people. · Managing growth effectively. · Creating safer communities. · Promoting healthier lifestyles. The Shadow Executive also agreed five Directorate Plans setting out how each service area will achieve the corporate vision, meet the priorities, how each service’s performance will be assessed and where specific service responsibilities lie. They challenge us to achieve high levels of performance in areas where partners’ may take the lead, for example, health and crime. The five Directorate plans provide an essential bridge between the agreed Strategic Plan and the emerging business plans. They cover: · Business Transformation · Corporate Resources · Children, Families & Learning · Social Care, Health & Housing · Sustainable Communities Each plan has different goals and strategies to gain the maximum, positive results. For example, the Children, Families and Learning plan will deliver it’s priorities by ‘working closely with partners and service users in an integrated multi-agency way’; whereas Business Transformation’s role is ‘in leading service quality and performance improvement across the whole council’. Councillor Tricia Turner, Leader of Central Bedfordshire said: “The Strategy Plan represents a major milestone in creating Central Bedfordshire and is a clear statement of our aspirations and priorities for the future. Not only does it show the community of Central Bedfordshire that we are making great progression, it also allows staff to locate themselves in the corporate arena and helps them to understand how their individual roles will contribute to the new council.” We are just putting the finishing touches to the Strategic Plan and it will soon be available on our website: www.centralbeds.gov.uk. An email will be sent to all stakeholders on our email list when it has been posted on the website. You can view the Directorate Plans by following this link, clicking on “Public Reports Pack” and scrolling down to Agenda item L1. http://committees.midbeds.gov.uk:9071/mgChooseDocPack.asp?ID=2956 For further information contact Ian.Porter@bedscc.gov.uk Central Bedfordshire’s Corporate Brand Identity
Voluntary Sector Funding arrangementsCentral Bedfordshire and voluntary and community organisations enjoy good working relationships and share many aspirations: dedication to public life, support for the development of strong and healthy communities, and the pursuit of inclusiveness. The community and voluntary sector in Bedfordshire deliver high quality services across all of our communities, and in doing so help us deliver our strategic objectives. Central Bedfordshire has now agreed to adopt the Bedfordshire and Luton Compact, a framework for working with the third sector. The Compact builds on the strong relationships already established and seeks to develop genuine partnerships that deliver our joint priorities in Central Bedfordshire. We are encouraging all staff who work with the third sector to familiarise themselves with what the Compact means for Central Bedfordshire service delivery. You can find out more about the compact at www.bedsandlutoncompact.org.uk/downloads.htm In order to provide stability and security with the third sector, Central Bedfordshire will honour all existing contractual arrangements that are in place, across all three authorities, if they continue into next year, providing these services are delivered in the area of Central Bedfordshire. Where a Third Sector contract is coming up for renewal before April 2009, subject to satisfactory performance, Central Bedfordshire will roll forward existing arrangements until a fundamental review of all Third Sector funding is undertaken during 2009. The relevant managers will ensure that Third Sector contracts are included in their budget estimates for 2009/10. The Head of Service for Policy, Performance and Partnerships will facilitate a fundamental review of Third Sector Funding in the first year of Central Bedfordshire. Richard Ellis, Director of Business Transformation, Central Bedfordshire For further information contact Richard.Ellis@bedscc.gov.uk Community Network Model update During the summer we began discussing our concept of the “Community Network Model” i.e. the overall Local Strategic Partnership framework, which will include the establishment of a Central Bedfordshire LSP, supporting groups and CaNs with a wide range of partners and stakeholders. CaNs are the clusters of areas that our community engagement activities and local empowerment activities will be based. This gave them the opportunity to inform our approach to neighbourhood empowerment and contribute to the design of the overall strategic partnership arrangements for Central Bedfordshire. We also invited representatives of key statutory partners, business and the voluntary and community sector to join a Community Engagement ‘Stakeholder Sounding Board’ and are meeting with key stakeholders for direct feedback and to work towards a joint Community Engagement Strategy. Our initial concept for Community Area Networks included ten geographic areas, mixing town and rural communities of interest. This stimulated much debate and following feedback we are now redrawing the boundaries before consulting more widely with partners and residents. We will share these changes for further debate at our forthcoming stakeholder sounding board workshop and town and parish conference. We will then begin wider consultation with residents early in 2009. The next Central Bedfordshire Stakeholder Sounding Board will be on the morning of 15 October at Priory House, Chicksands with the Town and Parish Conference on Oct 11 and our first Central Bedfordshire Local Strategic Partnership meeting on 11 Nov. For further information contact Elaine.Malarky@southbeds.gov.uk Director of Social Care, Health and Housing Just a brief note to let you know interviews for this post took place on Tuesday 30 September and Wednesday 1 October. We will be making an announcement next week about the successful candidate. For further information contact Martin.Williams@southbeds.gov.uk Central Bedfordshire Heads of Service Many of the Heads of Service appointments have now taken place and we will be announcing these soon in a special newsletter to all stakeholders. For further information contact Martin.Williams@southbeds.gov.uk Accommodation Strategy Central Bedfordshire is continuing to develop its overall accommodation strategy. Our medium-term plan is to have staff based in Shefford and Dunstable but clearly it will not be possible to accommodate all transferring staff within existing buildings in Central Bedfordshire on 1 April 2009 and at this stage we are not ruling out any options. We anticipate having more information by the end of the year. For further information contact: mark.bassett@midbeds.gov.uk Bedfordshire Energy and Recycling (BEaR) Project Central Bedfordshire Shadow Council agreed on Tuesday, 30 September to support the BEaR partnership and committed future joint funding to it. The BEaR Project, a joint working partnership between all local authorities in Bedfordshire, including Luton, has been set up to find alternatives to landfill with the goal to significantly increase recycling and energy recovery from waste in the local area. Current detailed research has demonstrated that Energy from Waste (EfW) with Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is the most appropriate technology for the project although the Councils will be open to an even more effective solution should that arise during procurement. Treating non-recyclable waste as a resource to produce energy and heat will avoid paying future penalty fines and increasing landfill tax. Joint funding will ultimately save local taxpayers money due to the cost of the project being split between all the partner authorities and the expectation of significant central government funding. Central Bedfordshire Council expects to exceed the recycling/composting targets set out by the National Waste Strategy 2007 of 50% in its first year and then 60% after that. Councillor Tricia Turner, Leader of Central Bedfordshire’s Shadow Authority said: “It is essential to provide new waste management facilities for Bedfordshire. Looking after our environment is a top priority for Central Bedfordshire and we will do all we can to promote recycling. We see the BEaR project as an effective way to achieve the targets set out by the Government in a cost effective and environmentally friendly manner”. Councillor Tom Wootton, Bedfordshire County Council Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “The BEaR team have worked very hard to establish this important project. It is great news that Central Bedfordshire has agreed to come on board.” For more information contact Benjamin.Finlayson@bedscc.gov.uk Have you been Hurricane’d? We have been working with a group of young people to help them produce their own magazine – Hurricane – written by them, for them. Young people from schools around Mid Beds attend an editorial group once a week at Priory House, using Transport Tokens to help get there. During the meetings they work on their own pages for the bi-monthly magazine that is distributed to over 1,200 subscribers. If you’d like to know more and to see copies of the magazine follow this link: www.midbeds.gov.uk/Community_Services/Youth_Work/Hurricane_Youth_Newsletter.aspx For more information contact Katy.Stefferton@midbeds.gov.uk Central Bedfordshire Website As work progresses, our website www.centralbeds.gov.uk is expanding. All the paperwork for the Shadow Executive is online as are many implementation documents and minutes of the TTFs. Why not pay it a visit and find out in detail what’s really going on. For more information and comments about this newsletter, please contact Mark Hustwitt, Communications Manager, Mid Beds District Council – email: mark.hustwitt@midbeds.gov.uk or call 01462 611014.
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