West Berkshire Council Weeknotes #84

It has been said many times that a week is a long time in politics and this past week has certainly proven this to be true. It would be fair to assume that not much is going on in government as the news cycle has been so dominated by events in Westminster; however here on the ground in West Berkshire we continue to make progress and deliver for our residents.

Serving in local government as a Council Leader is an enormous privilege and I take great pride in representing an area I love, where I grew up and where I raised my own children. The work we do has the potential to directly impact people's lives every single day whether it's through their education, the roads they drive on, collecting their bins or providing vital social care- so the importance of local government should not be underestimated.

In recent weeks, I have been visiting local schools as part of some work we are doing to engage more closely with our young people and I know that many of them have been surprised to understand just how much local government is responsible for. As a unitary council, we are responsible for around 800 individual services from adult social care to waste disposal and these are an integral part of ensuring that West Berkshire is a great place to live, work and learn.

We are proud of our record of service delivery and the fact that our performance data and feedback from our residents tell us we are meeting their needs. We report our data every quarter at Executive meetings and this often goes unnoticed, however this report is a key indicator of how are we doing and the progress we are making on the projects and objectives laid out in our four year Council Strategy. The most recent Executive meeting took place last week, where we reviewed our performance from January to March this year.

Among the results we discussed were some real successes in our core business services, such as the strong response to Covid-19 crisis, achievement of a "Good" Ofsted inspection rating for our Children's Service and being among the top 20% of local authorities in the country for young people's participation in education. We also looked at some of the improvements we have made to service delivery, reflecting on some excellent feedback from adult social care users, the launch of our new investment prospectus and business website, approval of the Newbury Town Centre Masterplan and enhanced levels of engagement with residents from a wider variety of backgrounds.

Of course, there is always room for improvement and some of our indicators showed a need to complete further work in order to achieve what we set out to back in 2019. For instance, a recent inspection of one of our care homes found that additional work was required to ensure we deliver the high standard of care we expect in West Berkshire and we have already put into place a detailed action plan to address these issues. Similarly, we have seen recycling rates dip slightly since Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed, so will be deploying a series of initiatives to encourage local people to recycle more in line with our commitment to protecting our environment.

If you would like to read more about these results, you can do so here: Executive - Thursday 7 July

As we deliver these priorities, we will continue to focus on what is best for local people and how we can best respond to the concerns being raised with us. Unsurprisingly, the most common theme at present is the cost of living crisis and how this impacts on family life. With this in mind we will look to provide some financial relief to those most in need as we have been able to do through government funded initiatives such as the Household Support Grant, Holiday and Food Activities in schools and a reduction in Council Tax for some. Caring for our residents will remain a primary driver even as needs change, we want to ensure those most in need get our help.

To underpin this we will ensure West Berkshire remains open for business through attracting inward investment into the area and supporting existing businesses to grow and thrive. A strong local economy is the foundation to success and we are proud to have a strong relationship with local employers, a good record of encouraging apprenticeships and a well-planned programme of capital infrastructure investment. We have also been busy implementing our Environment Strategy and Delivery Plan to facilitating our journey to net zero, from encouraging people to leave their cars behind to active travel schemes and tree planting, among others.

The impact of local government is clear everywhere you look, whether it's new flood alleviation schemes, new sports facilities, digital connectivity, free bus travel over seasonal weekends, 95% of Schools rated Good or Outstanding, Children's Services rated Good, new Primary Schools or working with businesses to get High Street footfall back to pre-Covid levels.

So, regardless of the national and international picture, we will carefully monitor our progress so that we can deliver on our ambitious programme for West Berkshire and its people.