Part 12 - Management Structure

The management structure of West Berkshire Council.

1. Role of the Chief Executive

The Council's management structure is headed by the Chief Executive, the most senior officer employed by the Council. The Chief Executive holds the statutory post of Head of Paid Service and is the Council's Returning Officer.

The Chief Executive is supported by three Executive Directors each, responsible for a Directorate focused on the following themes:

The directorate structure and the service units that sit within each is set out in the Icon for pdf Council Senior Management Structure [42KB] . It should be noted that the Council agreed a new management structure from April 1^st 2019 but this new structure is being implemented gradually.

Strategic and key operational decision making at an officer level is undertaken through Corporate Board which meets fortnightly. This is chaired by the Chief Executive and includes the Executive and Service Directors.

The Chief Executive and the Executive Directors each have a variable number of Service Directors (or Heads of Service) reporting to them. Each Head of Service is responsible for managing a discrete service. Heads of Service assist the Chief Executive and Executive Directors in the corporate management of the Authority, although their primary purpose is to oversee the day to day management of services.

Heads of Service meet on a bimonthly basis as the Council's Corporate Management Team.

2. Chief Officers

The Council defines Chief Officers as the Chief Executive, Corporate Directors and Heads of Service. A list of the Chief Officer posts as at 1 June 2019 is set out below:

Chief Executive (also designated as Head of Paid Service and Returning Officer)
Executive Director (People)
Executive Director (Place)
Executive Director (Resources) (also designated as Section 151 Officer)
Head of Adult Social Care
Head of Children and Family Services
Head of Commissioning
Head of Customer Services & ICT
Head of Development and Planning
Head of Education
Head of Finance and Property
Head of Human Resources
Head of Strategic Support & Legal Services (also designated as Monitoring Officer)
Head of Prevention and Safeguarding
Head of Public Health and Wellbeing
Head of Public Protection and Culture
Head of Transport and Countryside

3. The Three Directorates

The Council comprises three directorates and a description of each and the Service Units that sit within them are set out below:

3.1 People

This Directorate brings together the Council's 'People' based functions, and comprises the following service units; Adult Social Care; Children and Family Services; Education; and Public Health and Wellbeing.

The Communities Directorate consists of the following Service Units:

Adult Social Care

This is the largest of the Council's Service Units providing a wide range of support to adults requiring social care and support. The main areas of activity include the commissioning and provision of support to older people largely through home care, day services and residential services. Support for adults with learning disabilities, again either at home, through day provision or through residential or supported living placements is also a major area of activity. Adults with physical disabilities are also supported and the Unit also provides a range of support to adults with mental health problems.

Respite and carer support are also important elements of provision. This service works closely with the NHS managing transfers from local hospitals and providing a rapid response service. There is also close working with the voluntary sector which is engaged in providing social care support.

Client Financial Services Team is also based in Adult Social Care.

Children and Family Services

The Service safeguards and promotes the welfare of children and young people within the West Berkshire area who are in need. This includes children in need of protection, in care (and after care), children who are vulnerable for a range of other reasons and children for whom youth offending may be a concern. A broad range of services are provided, some of which are integrated with its partners and provide a range and level of services appropriate to each child's and family's particular assessed needs.

This service also manages the Youth Offending Team, the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), Intensive Youth Support Services and Restorative and Family Group Conferencing.

Education Service

The Education Service works with 82 schools (including two Pupil Referral Units, each with three sites) and nine academies and some 25,000 pupils and 2,700 students. It promotes effective teaching and learning, and the raising of standards and quality learning environments.

It encompasses a wide range of functions including school funding, school admissions, home to school transport, school meals, school support, governor support, educational psychology, behaviour support, education other than at school, education welfare, parent partnership, special educational needs, children in care, early years and childcare, children's centres and school improvement.

Public Health and Wellbeing

The Public Health function is shared across Berkshire with a single

Strategic Director of Public Health being employed by the lead authority, Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead. Each unitary authority has its own public health resource.

The Public Health and Wellbeing Team. The team commissions a range of services including drug and alcohol prevention and sexual health services as well as providing advice both to the Council, clinical commissioning groups and the local community.

3.2 Place

The Economy and Environment Directorate was renamed in April 2017 following a senior management review in 2016. The Directorate is home to the Council's 'place' based services but is also responsible for prioritizing and driving economic growth across the District. It comprises three service units.

Development and Planning

This new service is responsible for promoting economic development across the District and for ensuring that the area's economic, social and environmental needs are reflected in adopted policy and that subsequent development takes place in accordance with those policies. Key documents include the Local Plan, Local Transport Plan, Economic Development Strategy and Housing Strategy.

Economic Development and Housing are both functions that form part of this service alongside Planning which aside from policy is also responsible for processing and determining planning applications, planning enforcement, minerals and waste planning, conservation and listed buildings.

Public Protection and Culture

This service provides an environmental health, licensing and trading standards service to Wokingham, Bracknell and West Berkshire Councils. Building Control also falls within the remit of this service although Wokingham DC lead on its provision.

Cultural activities include the provision of libraries and heritage services. Leisure services are provided through a contract with Parkwood Leisure. This service is also responsible for the Berkshire Archive Service which the Council manages on behalf of all other Berkshire unitary authorities.

Transport and Countryside

This service brings together all of the Council's street based services namely highways, street cleaning, street lighting and verge maintenance. The service also manages the Council's car parks and provides an integrated transport service including home to school and social care transport. They also oversee the provision of local bus services working collaboratively with transport operators. The Countryside Team works in partnership with the Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust who are now responsible for the management of conservation sites. Other activities include public rights of way and parks. The Waste Team work with Veolia as part of a 25 year PFI. This delivers an integrated waste management service to the Council.

3.3 Resources

The Resources Directorate is managed by the Executive Director (Resources) and comprises five discrete service units each headed by a Head of Service. These service units encompass the Council support services along with those functions supporting the corporate and democratic core of the Authority.

Commissioning

This service unit was created in April 2017 and its primary function is to increasingly coordinate commissioning and procurement across the Council. At this time activity is largely focused on commissioning for the Communities Directorate but this is set to expand across the Council over the coming 3 years.

Customer Services and ICT

This is a new service unit created in April 2017. It brings together the Council's 'front of house' functions namely the Contact Centre, switchboard and reception facilities with the Council's ICT Service. The ICT Service encompasses ICT infrastructure and systems development along with help desk facilities to both the Council and schools. The Service also comprises business continuity and information security functions and the Council's postal team.

Finance and Property

The service provides a wide range of financial services and advice to the Council. In addition to strategic medium term financial planning the service also leads on revenue and capital budget formulation, treasury and tax advice, internal audit services, risk management, health and safety and insurance. The service also encompasses the Council's Property Team which includes maintenance and facilities, capital projects and asset management.

Human Resources

Human Resources provides a range of personnel services and advice to both the Council and to schools. These include staff recruitment, policy and strategy development and industrial and employee relations. Human Resources also manage a corporate learning and development team which provides a wide range of training support across a number of disciplines. The service is also home to the Council's payroll team which provides a payroll function to both the Council and local schools.

Strategic Support and Legal Services

This service comprises five distinct teams. The first provides legal support to the Council, Members and to schools. The Head of Legal Services also holds the statutory post of Monitoring Officer.

The second manages the Council's Corporate Improvement Programme which is focused on coordinating the delivery of an extensive change programme across the Council. The performance and risk team provides performance and data management across the Council and also manages risk and scrutiny whilst the communications team provides digital services, graphics and public relations support. The democratic services team provides committee support, elections and land charges