The Communities Directorate covers a broad portfolio of services. These have a real impact on our customers, be those internal or external.
This includes:
An expanding area of the directorate is to lead on the delivery of the construction projects to create additional school places (200 school places) across 4 sites. This is part of the Safety Valve programme.
The budget challenges are well known and will impact on service delivery in relation to the savings identified for the 2024 to 2025 financial year. The directorate risk register identifies the relevant risk areas for the year with mitigation where appropriate.
A focus on climate change is a high priority for the directorate. This is threaded through the Council Plan and this service plan.
A corporate restructure has resulted in:
The directorate will do this by:
Key drivers for this directorate are:
The Office for Local Government (Oflog) was launched earlier this year, providing a data source for local authority performance. The Policy and Performance team will monitor and share this data, using it for benchmarking and supporting corporate improvement.
The Community Engagement and Equalities team annually publish equality information on our services and workforce and publishing equality objectives at least every 4 years. A new set of equality objectives will be developed in 2024 to 2025.
The directorate develops, implements, and monitors the following strategies and plans:
This information is correct as of April 2024.
The Executive Director for Communities is Kevin Gibbs. The directorate provides the following services:
Led by Abby Thomas - Assistant Director
Led by Damian James - Assistant Director
Led by Elise Battison - Assistant Director
Led by Ann Moore - Assistant Director
Led by Kamay Toor - Programme Director
Led by Sanjay Prashar - Borough Solicitor
We publish our key results and indicators to show our progress with the Council Plan.
Annual actions set out specific activity to be carried out in the next year.
Budget information reflects information approved at council in February 2024. Structure changes will be reflected in reporting from quarter 1.
The Communities Directorate has a gross expenditure cash budget of £39.147 million with £-20.707 million of income, making a planned net spend of £18.440 million.
The gross budget includes £9.470 million for staffing.
The 2024 to 2025 budgets include savings of £0.828 million.
The key themes adopted in making the savings were:
The 2024 to 2025 in-year capital programme totals £3.937 million. There will also be carry forwards from the 2023 to 2024 financial year.
The outline amounts for 2025 to 2026 and 2026 to 2027 are £2.062 million and £0.490 million respectively where full requirements are being evaluated.
The budget includes pressures of £1.306 million.
These pressures can be analysed into the following broad categories:
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 significant changes in demand for the service:
| Service area | Budget (£000) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial property | (8,045) | Increased voids and void periods, resulting in reduced income. |
The Communities and Policy service area was previously the Chief Executive's Office. Budget information reflects information approved at council in February 2024. Structure changes will be reflected in reporting from quarter 1.
The Chief Executive's Office has a gross expenditure cash budget of £2.052 million with -£0.011 million of income, making a planned net spend of £2.041 million.
The gross budget includes £1.618 million for staffing.
Business Change is excluded from the base budget as these costs are met from reserves.
The 2024 to 2025 budgets include savings of £0.061 million.
The key themes adopted in making the savings were:
The 2024 to 2025 capital programme does not include any schemes for the Chief Executive's Office.
The budget includes pressures of £0.026 million.
These pressures can be analysed into the following broad categories:
The Chief Executive's Office identified no budgets that pose a risk to the council's overall financial position, principally because they are not vulnerable to significant changes in demand for a service.
