10.
Building, leading and managing the organisation
Our achievements this year
First in the country to implement integrated care IT system connecting council, schools, hospitals and fire stations across the county
Became Certified as a Disability Confident Leader as part of the Government's Disability Confident Scheme
Completion of a review of the Better Buckinghamshire Programme
We have delivered £75.4m savings between 2020 and March 2024, with a further £41.34m to be delivered in 2024/25
Maintained our Silver standard mark from Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (ENEI) TIDE scheme in 2023 and were finalists for the LGC Workforce Awards in the Diversity and Inclusion Employer of the year category
Implemented a new planning system
Establishment of a Shareholder Committee in order to oversee governance arrangements and performance of the council's companies and joint ventures and ensure that the outcomes it requires are delivered in the most effective way
Our employees told us in our latest staff survey that they:
are clear about our values and behaviours
had a positive working relationship with their manager
feel trusted and enabled to do their jobs
Our Talent Academy framework has been developed to show the career development pathways available to attract, retain and grow our own workforce. This includes:
35 aspiring managers who have commenced a level 3
team leader apprenticeship during 2023
106 new managers who have completed management training between March 2023 and the end of March 2024
Established a Talent Register to help redeploy colleagues with transferable skills to fill internal vacancies and provide them with internal career development support and interview skills training
Trained 31 new coaches for our internal coaching pool during 2023 and so far in 2024, providing us with a total of 58 trained coaches to support our workforce with a further training cohort to take place in November of this year
Procured a new CRM platform to provide an improved customer, resident and service user accessibility to our services
The employee representatives' network ensures that employees have a voice in service discussions. We have circa 80 employee reps in the organisation which is just under 2% of the workforce or 1 employee rep for every 55 staff members
Launched the customer partnership panel with over 200 residents on the panel
We have established an Early Careers Network to support people joining the council helping them to collaborate and understand more about the work we do. It also supports social and career development connections. Over 70 people signed up to the group and they organised a first anniversary event in November focussing on career development, with guest speakers including our CEO and Service Director for HR&OD. 30 delegates attended. They have also delivered multiple training sessions on C4P and CPD in 2023. Started Informal Bi-Weekly Coffee Catch Ups on teams to bolster a safe space and created a campaign on the importance of the work admins do in April. The Network has also organised a Volunteering Day in May to paint a school together. There will be many exciting projects coming up in 2024.
The One Network Project built a new ICT network for 197 Council offices, school and traffic management locations, 19 Fire Stations and 24 NHS Health Trust premises