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Council Plan

Published: 18/06/2018

The Council Plan for the coming twelve months is set to be endorsed by Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday 19 June. Every local authority is required to publish an annual Council Plan, and this sets out the Council’s aims and objectives for 2018/19. This year’s Plan continues with the new, fresh format introduced last year. It has full details of the Council’s six priorities and sub priorities. Its format allows easy navigation to specific content online, which also means that information can be easily updated to ensure that it remains the most current. The six main priorities remain as follows: · Supportive Council · Ambitious Council · Learning Council · Green Council · Connected Council · Serving Council Within Supportive Council, our priorities include provision of new social and affordable homes, continuing with our pledges to build 99 new Council and 22 new affordable homes, increase the number of properties managed by NEW Homes from 126 to 148 and deliver options for new, innovative low rent housing schemes for single people. We will also work proactively with landlords and tenants to improve the quality of private sector housing. We need to do this to prevent homelessness, offer more diverse housing options and meet the Welsh Government target for all social housing to be brought up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. Another priority is to continue to support Flintshire residents to better manage their financial commitments, particularly building on the good work achieved by officers working to minimise Universal Credit risks and helping residents manage these fundamental changes to how they receive their benefits. It is important to reduce the risk of poverty in Flintshire households and reduce the impact of rises in fuel cost. We will work to embed the Early Help Hub, officially launched this month by the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, into everyday practice by working with partners and the third sector. This ground-breaking innovation was commissioned by the Flintshire Public Service Board and is designed to deliver more timely, and co-ordinated, support to families with greater needs. The recent launch celebrated the Hub’s achievements to date sharing positive stories about how we have worked collectively to support families with two or more ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences). We will ensure that all employees understand and act on their responsibilities to address safeguarding by raising awareness and working with partners to increase the public’s awareness of safeguarding. As an Ambitious Council, we will drive the development of the Regional Economic Growth Deal to final approval stages with UK and Welsh Governments, including agreement of funding allocations and formal governance arrangements. We also want to protect and enhance the scale and quality of apprenticeships both regionally and locally and develop a more strategic approach to regenerating and supporting town centres in partnership with Town Councils. This will help to grow the local and regional economy, develop transport solutions for the region and help to support and grow our tourism sector. Our Learning Council ambitions are to provide effective learning opportunities and quality learning environments for all pupils aged 3-18 to achieve their potential and high levels of educational attainment. This is important to ensure they have the right skills to access modern employment opportunities. Where schools are needing support, we will provide effective assistance to quickly re-establish good educational standards. As a committed Green Council we aim to improve protect and enhance buildings and structures by adopting a Local Heritage Strategy. We need to balance the need for sustainable development with the protection of the natural environment and continue to reduce our carbon emissions. We will be using available grant funding to support our priority of introducing a sustainable transport network. We are prioritising repairs and maintenance to our transport network to improve its resilience, efficiency and reliability. Importantly, we will support isolated communities to develop innovative and sustainable transport schemes, giving people access to key services and linking communities across Flintshire. As a Connected Council, we aim to grow the capacity of the social enterprise sector and Alternative Delivery Models (ADMs) to help them become more self-sustaining, enabling them to maximise their contribution and deliver community benefits. We will also ensure that our Armed Forces Community and their families are not disadvantaged when accessing Council Services. In this continuing climate of austerity, we must manage with reducing resources and, as a Serving Council, we will develop and implement a renewed five year financial plan that reflects anticipated funding, costs and efficiencies. We will continue to aim high and operate effectively as a smaller organisation and achieve the highest possible standards of customer services. Councillor Aaron Shotton, Leader of Flintshire County Council said: This Plan sets out our key priorities to support and enhance residents’ lives. We continue with some of our priorities for example, expanding the provision of affordable homes for residents in need; protecting people from poverty; enabling people to live independently and well at home, whilst avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital; working with partners to sustain economic growth and increase employment opportunities and developing the county transport infrastructure. “Despite continued financial austerity, we will remain committed and ambitious as a Council to continue to deliver for our local communities.” Cabinet Member for Corporate Management and Assets, Councillor Billy Mullin, added: “We aim to continue the work of supporting children and young people to achieve their potential; enhancing the natural environment and promoting access to open and green spaces. The important thing is Flintshire is continuing to reach and surpass its targets and is setting priorities to sustain the solid performance of the Council every year.” The final Council Plan will be available on the website before the end of September.