A transformation programme to improve South Holland District Council over the next four years has been agreed.
And the reason for it has been starkly spelt out by joint deputy leader Coun Malcolm Chandler (Whaplode and Saracen’s Head).
He told last week’s full council meeting: “If we are to survive, we definitely need to do things in a different way.”
The transformation is based on four key strategies and this is how the council describes them:
- digitalisation – online services so good that people choose to use them
- organisational design – to work with all public sector partners in a more joined up way to meet the future needs of our communities to forge a sustainable legacy
- aligning public services – to have a flexible workforce that meets the future needs of the business
- commercialisation – a commercial mind and a community heart
As part of the “aligning public services” theme, the council is keen to make best use of its office space. By June next year it will explore options to co-locate with the justice system, and explore options for co-locating and integrating services with the NHS and Department for Work and Pensions.
As part of the digitalisation theme, a new website for www.sholland.gov.uk is close to completion. The desire is that much more can and will be done by residents online, including payments of planning and licensing fees, and booking of appointments.
Coun Christine Lawton (Spalding Wygate) – one of the more senior members – light-heartedly embraced the greater push towards digitalisation, but did then highlight the importance of face-to-face payments.
Chief executive Anna Graves said a massive majority of staff were embracing the requirement and chance for change.
She said: “There’s a real energy and appetite around it. They are looking for change. They have come up with a lot of suggestions, many of which we are unable to include because of cost.”
Cabinet member Coun Sally Slade (Pinchbeck and Surfleet) said: “[The programme] will make the council a far more efficiently run council.”
The meeting heard that a budget gap of £1.8million was likely by year three of the plan.
Coun Harry Drury (Spalding St Mary’s), who was elected for the first time in May, said: “From the first moment I stepped into here it may made clear to me that we need to make ways of saving money or making money.
“Having been here a little while, I have already seen the fantastic resources we have and the ability they have to plug that gap.”
