Communities Directorate​ service plan for 2026 to 2027

What we do

The Communities Directorate covers a broad portfolio of services. These have a real impact on our customers, be those internal or external.​

This includes:

  • leading action to maintain community cohesion, advance equity and inclusion and develop strong resilient communities
  • leading on statutory services such as those related to elections and waste collection - the service also includes managing key internal infrastructure, governance and processes such as within the legal services and Digital and ICT
  • leading on the delivery of a new Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) 50 place school
  • working in collaboration with the Department for Education to deliver the new 100 place autism provision
  • delivering corporate communications to safeguard and enhance the organisation's reputation
  • coordinating the development of the council’s strategic plan, corporate policy, projects, and performance management framework

How we work

The directorate will do this by:​

  • delivering  services with residents within the defined budget with available resources
  • developing new strategies and policies that deliver the most effective services with residents
  • collating, analysing and publishing intelligence to inform decisions and enable scrutiny of progress relating to the delivery of strategies and plans
  • looking for ways to innovate with existing technology to enhance points of contact and access to services
  • working closely with our partners and contracts to maintain strong relationships
  • working with communities and partners internally and externally on a wide range of activity
  • delivering clear, compelling, timely and accurate communications

Council context

This service plan describes how our directorate is working towards the delivery of the Council Plan goals. It presents the first year of strategic activity.

Our strategic actions focus on achieving the goals within the 3 priorities of the plan and activity on how we will be an ambitious, resilient and sustainable organisation.

Throughout the plan there are cross-cutting principles that will underpin the work that is delivered. More information about these strategies can be found online:

The full Council Plan 2023 to 2027 is also available online.

Service context

The budget challenges are well known and will impact on service delivery in relation to the savings identified for the 2026 to 2027 financial year. We will be working with an external transformation partner in 2026 to 2027 to identify further opportunities to innovate and develop outline business cases for these.

The directorate risk register identifies the relevant risk areas for the year with mitigation where appropriate.

A focus on developing cohesive, resilient communities and climate change are high priorities for the directorate and they are threaded through the Council Plan and this service plan. 

Working with residents and partner organisations to deliver the Communities Strategy brings the opportunity to harness the energy and resources available towards stronger, more connected and cohesive communities, enabling community action towards their goals and challenges.

Current climate​

The merger of Library Services into the wider Customer Services offer has now taken place. By merging these functions, we can now move forward with the creation of Community Hub Libraries.

These can serve as the primary access points to council services, fostering a more integrated and cohesive service offer. This approach not only increases operational hours but also makes sure that library spaces are utilised for a broader range of community activities and events.

Additionally, the integration allows now for better use of digital technology. It enhances the overall customer experience and provides seamless interactions with all council services. This model promotes social bonds, addresses isolation, and makes sure that the library remains a vital part of the community infrastructure.

The directorate plays a key role in developing frameworks for all other services of the council to align their ways of working to the new strategic planning design principles.

Examples of such enabling actions include supporting delivery of the Communities Strategy, putting Corporate Social Responsibility arrangements in place, and providing intelligence to inform evidence‑based decision‑making on strategies, policies and plans.

Key drivers

The team will be working with partners to deliver the Communities Strategy in 2026 to 2027. This will support our ambition for working directly and jointly with residents, developing resilient and cohesive communities.

The Community Engagement and Equalities team publishes equality information about our services and workforce every year. They also update the equality objectives at least once every 4 years.

The directorate develops, implements and monitors the following strategies and plans:

  • The Council Plan 2023 to 2027
  • The Equality Scheme 2026 to 2029
  • The Communications Strategy 2024 to 2028
  • The Co-Production Framework
  • Climate Change Strategy 2025 to 2030
  • Physical Activity, Sport and Leisure Strategy 2025 to 2035
  • Arts, culture and heritage framework
  • Climate and biodiversity emergency actions
  • Councillor Learning and Development Strategy 2024 to 2028
  • Schools capital construction programme
  • Digital and ICT Strategy
  • Customer Experience Strategy
  • Bracknell Forest Council AI Strategy 2024 to 2029
  • Corporate Peer Challenge 2026 Action Plan

Our services

This information is correct as of May 2026.

The Executive Director for Communities is Kevin Gibbs. The directorate provides the following services:

Led by Abby Thomas - Assistant Director

  • Community development and engagement
  • Policy, performance and partnerships
  • Communications and marketing
  • Equalities, diversity and inclusion
  • Arts, culture, and heritage framework
  • Client: South Hill Park Trust

Led by Damian James - Assistant Director

  • environmental services (waste, street cleansing, verges, grounds maintenance)
  • parking management and enforcement
  • emergency planning and resilience
  • Public Protection Partnership
  • leisure services
  • cremation and burial spaces
  • climate change strategy
  • coroners service
  • environmental monitoring of closed landfills

Led by Elise Battison​ - Assistant Director

  • Customer Services​, including library services
  • Digital Change and Service Improvement​
  • IT operations and cloud services ​
  • projects and business relationships​
  • technical infrastructure​
  • knowledge and information management (KIM): data protection, information management, cyber security and AI governance

Led by Philip Sadler - Assistant Director

  • Democratic Services
  • Electoral Services
  • overview and scrutiny
  • corporate complaints
  • Councillor and Civic Services
  • Civil Registration Services (births, deaths, marriages and citizenship)

Led by Kamay Toor - Programme Director

  • Safety Valve construction projects to create additional SEND provision across the borough

Led by Sanjay Prashar - Borough Solicitor

  • corporate legal work (monitoring office)
  • employment law
  • planning and highways
  • litigation
  • contracts and procurement
  • property
  • social services (children’s and adults)
  • debt recovery
  • education
  • licencing
  • information governance

Business change and financial sustainability

The  directorate has a key role in working with colleagues across the council to develop a new operating model of outcomes realisation.

Initiatives such as the council’s contribution to the delivery of Communities Strategy are expected to positively impact on outcomes for residents, demand on services and the council’s financial sustainability.

Challenges

Reduction of financial resources linked to the Fair Funding Review 2.0. represents the main challenge with a requirement for significant transformation of services and ways of working within the council.  System change at place also offers opportunities and challenges including the exploration of a strategic mayoral authority and the launch of the Thames Valley Integrated Care Board.

The financial context has the potential to impact on the availability of partners to contribute to the delivery of Communities Strategy and other partnership strategies and plans. This could translate into slower progress with these strategies’ implementation and slower benefits realisation.

With local elections due in May 2027 the council will be readying itself to be in a position to manage whatever political transition arises. This includes anticipating any challenges that the officer cohort may be presented with in order to make sure that the organisation’s governance arrangements retain vigour in a reconfigured political environment. The directorate will have a central role to play in this regard, particularly by making sure that the constitution remains responsive in such an environment.

Our ability to deliver safe, modern, and connected services is increasingly challenged by the demands of the Data (Use and Access) Act (DUAA) and the forthcoming Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill. Both of these require strengthened governance, improved data stewardship, and significant investment in organisational security.

These expectations sit alongside calls for responsible but ambitious adoption of AI, and the NHS’s drive for better data sharing to support integrated care.

Meeting these parallel requirements - tighter regulation, rising cybersecurity standards, and accelerated digital innovation - must be achieved within the realities of reduced financial resources.

Addressing this will require careful prioritisation, sustained leadership, and a whole‑system approach to make sure that we remain compliant, resilient and able to use data and emerging technologies to improve outcomes for our communities.

Budget position

Revenue budget

The Communities directorate has a gross expenditure cash budget of £39.037 million with £-14.685 million of income, making a planned net spend of £24.352 million. The gross budget includes £9.851 million for staffing.

Savings

The 2026 to 2027 budget includes savings of £-2.014 million.

The key themes adopted in making the savings were:

  • reductions in service budgets where levels of demand have decreased or underspends have been achieved in previous years, will save £0.190 million
  • reductions in service budgets not linked to changes in level of demand and previous underspends, to include glass collection roll-out delay and staffing changes including Flexible Use of Capital Receipts (FUoCR), will achieve £1.428 million
  • additional income achievable, to include adoption of the Agency Model within Leisure, totalling £0.396 million

Capital Budget

The 2026 to 2027 in-year capital programme totals £1.431 million. There will also be carry forwards from the 2025 to 2026 financial year. The outline amounts for 2027 to 2028 and 2028 to 2029 are £4.435 million and £0.692 million respectively, where full requirements are being evaluated.

Pressures

The budget includes pressures of £0.645 million.

These pressures can be analysed into the following broad categories:

  • staffing related: £0.196 million
  • non-inflationary contract cost pressures: £0.348 million
  • support to voluntary sector: £0.031 million
  • roll out of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel to waste vehicles and legal costs for Code of Conduct complaints: £0.070 million

Financial risks

The Communities directorate has identified the following budget that could pose a risk to the council’s overall financial position, principally because it is vulnerable to changes in demand for a service:

Service area Budget (£000) Comments
Legal Income (298) Dependent upon the number of schools buying into the SLA, and the number/complexity of lease changes, S38, S278 and S106 agreements.

Workforce position

Staffing position

For the directorate, as of 1 January 2026, there is an overall headcount of 212 staff in post, made up from:

  • 197 employees
  • 13 casuals
  • 2 temporary agency staff

Pressures

Staff voluntary turnover, as of 1 January 2026, was 7.7%.

The estimated annual average sickness rate per employee is 6.47 days.

Workforce demographics

Gender:

  • male - 31%
  • female - 69%

Ethnicity:

  • mixed - 2%
  • black or black British - 2%
  • white - 78%
  • not stated - 1%
  • information not provided - 7%
  • Asian or Asian British - 11%

Disability:

  • yes - 7%
  • no - 54%
  • not known - 39%

Age:

  • 24 and under - 4%
  • 25 to 35 - 17%
  • 36 to 45 - 20%
  • 46 to 55 - 28%
  • 56 to 65 - 27%
  • Over 65 - 4%

Risk

Hard to recruit posts:

  • ICT specialists
  • lawyers
  • technical business analysts

Procurement activity

Activity set out in this section references above threshold procurement due to take place in the 2026 to 2027 financial year in the Communities Directorate.

For more information visit our Procurement policy page and our Tenders and contracts page.

Procurement activity Stage Service area
Car Parking Management and Enforcement Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Contract Services
Environmental Services contract Tendering Contract Services
Specialist printing for electoral services contract Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Democratic and Registration Services
Connectivity Short Haul Data Services (SHDS) Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Digital, Customer Focus and ICT
Core Libraries Technologyÿ(including Library Management system) Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Digital, Customer Focus and ICT
Highways and Environmental asset management system Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Digital, Customer Focus and ICT
Housing options Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Digital, Customer Focus and ICT
Low Code Capability platform (including forms and CRM) Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Digital, Customer Focus and ICT
Omni Channel contact centre solution Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Digital, Customer Focus and ICT
Public website hosting, support and maintenance Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Digital, Customer Focus and ICT
Redaction Software Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Digital, Customer Focus and ICT
Technical Service Desk Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Digital, Customer Focus and ICT
Translation and Interpretation Commissioning and Pre-Procurement Communities and Policy
Core Microsoft Licensing Tendering Digital, Customer Focus and ICT

Priorities

Key results and indicators

We publish our key results and indicators to show our progress with the Council Plan.

View our key results and indicators

Annual actions

Annual actions set out specific activity to be carried out in the next year.

View our annual actions