Modern Council

What does this mean?

• Managing Finance: Ensuring that we are achieving good value for money as financial resources become more stretched from year to year.
• Governing the Business: Ensuring that the processes and information we use to manage our business enable us to deliver our services properly whilst fulfilling our legal and statutory duties.
• Managing resources: Managing staff, assets and natural resources to ensure that we deliver the best possible value for money for our residents.
• Involving People: Ensuring that we involve and include customers, community groups, other public services, local businesses and our own staff in making decisions and delivering services.
• Managing Performance: Ensuring that we have chosen the right priorities and are able to deliver them.

Why is this important?

• This theme is important because it supports the delivery of all the services the council provides. Failing to address the matters raised above would result in significant risks to the council. The Modern Council theme focuses on the role of our support services such as IT, Human Resources, Financial Services and Communications without which the council would not be able to operate.

What are we going to do?

Key projects

• Develop the Council’s finance system and processes to streamline the purchase to pay cycle to improve efficiency (Start: Apr 10 - Finish: Sep 10)
• Review face to face service delivery across Thanet (Start: Dec 08 - Finish: Mar 12)
• Deliver the first tranche of shared services within the East Kent Shared Service Programme (Start: Apr 10 - Finish: Mar 11)
• Implement the Accommodation Strategy reducing the number of buildings used to house staff (Start: Sep 07 - Finish: Dec 10)
• Implement the Climate Change Strategy and action plan in line with the national carbon agenda (Start: Sep 08 - Finish: Apr 11)
• Develop a communications strategy to improve communication methods with our members, residents and staff (Start: Jan 09 - Finish: Mar 11)
• Develop the council’s priorities for 2011 onwards in the context of new government initiatives and financial restrictions following the 2010 general election (Start: Apr 10 - Finish: Mar 11)

Key commitments

• The Council is committed to consulting with and involving residents in its activities in accordance with the duty to involve and will...

• Ensure that the Residents’ Panel continues to be an effective mechanism for eliciting the views of local people;

• Make maximum use of the web for consultation including more interaction, better usability and  innovative use of banners to encourage more people to respond;

• Deliver major consultations for the council e.g. asset management.

Previous page: Healthy Communities

• Foreword
• Thanet's Economy
• Safe Neighbourhoods
• Beautiful Thanet
• Quality Housing
• Healthy Communities

Corporate Resources Manager

E-mail: sarah.carroll@thanet.gov.uk

Tel: 01843 577188