A plan to improve the way Lichfield District Council operates is making “good progress”, a report has claimed.
The local authority introduced the Being A Better Council initiative in November 2021.
It was designed to bring about organisational change and create a council that is “more responsive to the changing needs and expectations of residents”.
The project has seen the introduction of a new leadership team and what a report by Cllr Doug Pullen to a meeting of the cabinet next week describes as “an aggressive focus on efficiency”.
“Savings, both identified specifically by the programme and others have been achieved.
“This renewed focus on finances enables capacity to deliver place-shaping, with a new cinema, a new leisure centre, new parks, in-sourcing leisure, community safety events and bringing forward the Birmingham Road Site, all examples of progress over the last 12 months.”
Cllr Doug Pullen, Lichfield District Council
As well as allowing the council to fund capital projects, Cllr Pullen said the project had also changed the way residents interact with the local authority.
“Our organisation structures have changed fundamentally.
“We are moving towards becoming a ‘horizontal’ organisation with single services for things like customer contact, policy and strategy, and performance management.
“From a service perspective, we are starting to identify key indicators to help us monitor how services are doing more effectively.
“With the council now reshaped, an ongoing investment in management skills and competencies and a focus on performance management, we have now begun to turn attention towards individual services and their improvement journeys.”
Cllr Doug Pullen, Lichfield District Council
Part of the Being a Better Council agenda was driven by the challenge of so-called “invisible competitors” – organisations and businesses residents compare to the council in terms of service standards.
Cllr Pullen said:
“We have invested in new technologies like robotics, chatbots and a new telephony system and we now need to focus on extending their use to create the digital layer for our new customer services and single front door.
“The roll out of new technology and digital solutions stands out as the key part of the programme that is lagging, but the arrival of our new assistant director for this area has created clarity and a drive to deliver which is already generating more momentum.”
Cllr Doug Pullen, Lichfield District Council
