BANYULE CITY COUNCIL

POSITION DESCRIPTION

(Refer Schedule One – Contract of Employment– Maximum Term)

TITLE / Director Community Programs
CLASSIFICATION / Senior Officer (Director)
DEPARTMENT/DIVISION / Community Programs
HRIS POSITION NO / 9000201
OCCUPANT / Vacant
DATE REVIEWED / 27 June 2013
PREPARED BY / Manager Human Resources
APPROVED BY / Chief Executive Officer

Banyule City Council is recognised as an industry leader and is an award winning organisation that prides itself on a customer-focused culture of innovation, best practice and continuous improvement. Our team upholds an enviable reputation for customer service and works diligently to maintain high quality services to provide the best possible opportunities and outcomes for the community.

CITY PLAN FRAMEWORK

Council’s role is to locally govern for all residents, visitors and ratepayers, and provide a range of programs and services that meet the needs of our community.

Our City Plan provides a roadmap for us to follow in this important role. Underpinned by our vision and principles, the Plan’s objectives give us clear areas of focus for the four-year period and guide us to achieve the best we can for our community.

OUR VISION

What we strive for…

Banyule, a green, liveable and prosperous city, sustaining a healthy and engaged community.

Principles

The core principles that help us achieve our Vision are:

  • Sustainability for our future
  • Community wellbeing
  • Community participation
  • Fairness in all we do
  • Maintaining our community’s trust

WORKING TOGETHER WORKING BETTER

Our Values

Our Values guide us in placing our customer first as well as in the work we do together as teams, and as individuals.

RESPECT each other

We act in ways which support each person’s dignity and worth. By: (example)

  • Listening to staff members’ concerns and dilemmas and providing them with ‘an ear’ or a possible lead to solutions.
  • Accepting each other’s differences, values, culture and mindsets.
  • Always listening to the views and ideas of other members of staff.
  • Treating others as you want to be treated.
  • Communicating with staff to work effectively as a team.
  • Recognising everyone’s potential and skills, encouraging growth.

have CLEAR purpose

We work with consistency, direction and clarity, even in a changing environment. By: (example)

  • Ensuring tasks are completed through email, phone and/or face to face meetings.
  • Sharing information with the rest of the team.
  • Working forwards breaking the silos which emerge naturally in an organisation.
  • Acknowledging good performance.
  • Talking to staff and community to effectively know what is happening with regards to queries.

take OWNERSHIP

We act with integrity, by being honest, responsible and accountable for our actions. By: (example)

  • Checking and maintaining my equipment.
  • Looking out for danger which can be avoided.
  • Accepting responsibility for mistakes, regarding them as a learning opportunity.
  • Following each project from initiation to completion.
  • Being accountable for my behaviour towards stakeholders.
  • Being honest with customers and each other.
  • Taking pride in our job and in representing Council.

seek OPPORTUNITY

We innovate and take initiative, open to experiencing new things and celebrating our achievements. By: (example)

  • Coming up with different styles to teach children to swim depending on personality of child.
  • Brainstorming better ways to work together and provide quality service.
  • Working with businesses in Heidelberg West to ensure none of their practices result in pollution entering Darebin Creek.
  • Designing new events and organisational systems.
  • Challenging the way things have been done and trying different ways of doing it.

INVOLVE others

We engage and include others, seeking to understand one another and communicate well. By: (example)

  • Creating sustainable community groups, empowering people to access the community thereby improving quality of life.
  • Establishing consultative framework for projects.
  • Liaising with other service providers and members of our community.
  • Participating in and contributing to forums.
  • Ensuring all stakeholders have ownership.
  • Welcoming the opinions of the community and our fellow employees and respect a person’s right to be heard and the right to an impartial decision.

POSITION OBJECTIVE

  • To manage the operations of an effective community programs function that maximises the quality of all services which need to be provided and minimises the cost of delivering those services.
  • To implement practices that will culture staff commitment to excellence as the standard for delivery of services to all external and internal customers.
  • To form part of a Leadership Team to inspire and create confidence through united leadership. The Leadership Team is united, dynamic and decisive.

Areas of Responsibility

In general the areas of responsibility are outlined on the attached organisation charts and include:

  • Leisure, Recreation & Cultural Services
  • Youth & Family Services
  • Health & Aged Services

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1.Customer Service

•Oversee the delivery of responsive, considerate and reliable customer service in accordance with the Community Charter, customer expectations and best practice customer service standards.

•Monitor development of systems and processes for accurate collection of various statistical data to establish customer service trends in order to facilitate more effective management and Council decision making in relation to service quality and levels.

•Extend the highest possible level of customer service and co-operation on Corporate Services’ responsibilities to the CEO, Directors and their Business Units.

•Promptly implement Council policies and decisions and ensure staff politely and promptly attend to community and government enquiries, requests or complaints.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•The independent annual Local Government Community Satisfaction survey continues to score Council highly amongst its inner-Council comparative group and State-wide in relation to Customer Service and service delivery of performance.

2.Professional & Technical Advice

To recommend to the Chief Executive Officer:

•financial targets which will result in the optimum long term benefit for the City’s ratepayers.

•an organisational structure for the Community Programs Directorate, most appropriate to achieve the agreed service and financial targets.

•the most cost effective mix of physical assets and other resources to be employed in achieving the agreed targets.

•those Community Programs which are best provided to the City’s residents by entering into regional arrangements with Banyule’s neighbouring councils.

•the Community Programs policies that will be in the best long term interests of residents, that are cost effective, generally in line with community expectations and be consistent with the objectives of the current City Plan;

•appropriate policy and implementation procedures for any other issue identified by the Chief Executive Officer as requiring attention.

•a timetable to achieve all targets.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•The Chief Executive Officer accepts recommendations with minimal change.

•The Community Programs operating expense and revenue is at a level agreed between the Chief Executive Officer and the Director.

•The Community Programs policy on all related issues of significance to the community is well understood by residents (as measured by periodic surveys).

•The level of service provided is generally in line with community expectations (as measured by periodic surveys).

•A framework for the improvement of the municipality is clearly set out in the current City Plan adopted by Council.

•Policy is adopted and action undertaken to achieve the agreed vision.

3.Good Governance

•To manage the timely implementation of all recommendations accepted and decisions made by Council and the Chief Executive Officer relating to the Community ProgramsDirectorate or overall organisation.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•Actions authorised by the Council/CEO are implemented accurately and on time.

4.Culture Change

•To manage the development and application of measurable best practice benchmarks for the Community Programs Directorate.

•To manage staff goal setting and performance measurement, which focus, in particular, on customer service and cost consciousness.

•To manage work redesign to achieve best practice through the establishment of autonomous work groups.

•To ensure the provision of appropriate training to enable all staff to contribute positively to continuous improvement programs.

•To ensure that all material projects and ongoing activities are subjected to rigorous cost/benefit analyses.

•To ensure effective internal and external communications are maintained so that staff and the community are kept fully informed of significant developments within the City of Banyule, and of the reasons for making changes, where such changes result in variations to services and fees, charges and rating levels.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•There is general staff acceptance of the Council’s employment environment and preferred constructive organisational culture as measured periodically.

•Business units enthusiastically engage in the Best Valuereview program to embrace and pro-actively achieve the principles that are the foundation for service excellence.

•Foster a Best Value Plus process where unsolicited recommendations for efficiency improvements come from the ‘shop floor’.

5.People Leadership

•To ensure that all employees in the Community Programs Directorate have a thorough understanding of their objectives and key responsibilities and the means they have available to achieve them.

•To ensure that all employees have the authority, training and resources to achieve their goals.

•To ensure that all employees are appropriately rewarded for superior performance and counselled for performance which is below standard.

•To ensure that employees are managed in a way which enables them to demonstrate their full potential, and are encouraged to realise that potential.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•Employees display all the characteristics of being happy in their work and of being well motivated – eg. there is a low level of sick leave; unpaid overtime is worked willingly; there is a willingness to help colleagues when assistance is required; there is low voluntary staff turnover; there is a readiness to accept challenging assignments.

•Employees talk with pride about the City of Banyule.

•Employees are promoted from within, or move to higher level jobs in other organisations.

•Absenteeism is maintained below the industry standard.

6.Management of Community Programs

•To ensure at the beginning of each financial year, operating goals for the City are agreed between the CEO and the Director and such goals are consistent with the objectives, key directions and supporting strategies defined in the current City Plan.

•To ensure Best Value principles are applied to all Community Programs areas as required by the Local Government Act 1989.

•To manage the development, recommendation and implementation of all Community Programs plans, budgets and other matters related to the business of Community Programs.

•To manage the provision of strategic Community Programs planning recommendations which enable Council to set long term goals for the City, and to ensure that the City Plan is recognised by staff and the community as the key strategic planning element of the Council upon which decisions are based.

•To manage the regulatory and information needs of the Council in accordance with legislation and policy with sensitivity, political acumen and skill to ensure community understanding and satisfaction is balanced with enforcement principles.

•To ensure plans and specifications prepared for Community Programs works are developed/designed in conjunction with users and potential users of the facilities/infrastructure and in full consultation with relevant service providers.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•Objectives and key directions identified in the current City Plan are timely achieved.

•Best Value principles are applied in accordance with the legislation.

•All Business Unit financial targets are met or bettered.

•Customer satisfaction is high (as measured by independent surveys).

•Key performance indicators are developed annually from the City Plan for all staff.

•The best cost effective work option is implemented taking into account user and provider input (refer customer satisfaction survey).

7.Advice to Chief Executive Officer

•To ensure the Chief Executive Officer is promptly made aware of all significant issues requiring his/her attention.

•To ensure that all staff advice provided to the Chief Executive Officer and Council is complete, relevant and balanced, and is presented in a way which optimises decision making.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•The Chief Executive Officer always has sufficient notice of important issues to enable him/her to make informed decisions.

•The Chief Executive Officer/Council rarely has to refer an item back to staff because information presented is inappropriate for decision making.

8.Communications

•To ensure that effective communications relating to Council issues are maintained with staff, Council, the community, news media, appropriate federal and state government departments, local government organisations, regional bodies and parliamentarians.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•Unfavourable news stories are rare.

•The number of questions and complaints from residents are low (as measured by the periodic collection of customer complaint statistics).

•Formal and informal information flows regularly between government organisations and the City.

•The City of Banyule is treated equitably when government grants are made.

9.Consultation and Decision Making

•To consult with all relevant interest groups before making significant decisions which affect the community.

•To consider the opinions of the community during the decision making process for the City Plan and Community Plan.

•To make decisions on specific issues which first, are consistent with policies, priorities and values defined in the current City Plan, and second, are consistent with community aspirations.

•To communicate to all relevant interest groups the reasons for making significant decisions which affect the community.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•General acceptance by the community of the fairness of the decision-making process as revealed in periodic customer satisfaction surveys.

•Number and gravity of objections received from the community relating to fulfilling the requirements of Section 223 of the Local Government Act.

10.Leisure, Recreation & Cultural Services

•To provide a range of leisure, recreation and cultural services to industry best standards.

•To be responsible for the overall planning, policy development and co-ordination of the Leisure, Recreation and Cultural Services Unit.

•To be responsible for the overall financial management of the Leisure, Recreation and Cultural Services Unit.

•To manage Council’s contract arrangements with external providers of services (Yarra Plenty Regional Library Service, The Centre Ivanhoe, WaterMarc, Ivanhoe Golf).

Indicators of Effectiveness

•Constructive and helpful relationships maintained with external stakeholders.

•Financial targets are met.

•Satisfaction, as measured by customer satisfaction surveys in the quality and variety of leisure, recreational and cultural options offered by Council.

11.Youth & Family Services

•To participate in corporate planning and provide input into the strategic direction of Council.

•To implement strategic plans and policies to support the delivery of service in the areas of Youth Services, Maternal and Child Health and Children’s Services, including leading the developmentof community hubs in the municipality.

•To coordinate a range of programs aimed at improving the municipality’s liveability, including Community Safety and Graffiti Management, MetroAccess, Neighbourhood Renewal, Community Grants and Trust Management.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•Constructive and helpful relationships maintained with external stakeholders, especially State and Commonwealth Governments.

•Financial targets are met.

•Satisfaction, as measured by customer satisfaction surveys, in the quality and professionalism of the services offered.

•Evidence of being at the forefront of strategic developments in the areas of youth and family.

•Statutory requirements are met.

12. Health and Aged Services

•To prepare and implement strategic plans and policies to support the delivery of service in the areas of Healthand Aged Services.

•To ensure appropriate resourcing including analysing external trends and the impact on service planning and delivery.

•To prepare and implement sound financial management plans.

•To prepare submissions designed to enhance services for target groups.

•To prepare and present reports to Council and other key stakeholders on issues relating to Health and Aged Services.

•To represent the Council in negotiations with Government departments, peak bodies, non-government agencies and public forums on issues relating to Health and Aged Services.

Indicators of Effectiveness

•Constructive and helpful relationships maintained with external stakeholders, especially State and Commonwealth Governments.

•Financial targets are met.

•Satisfaction, as measured by customer satisfaction surveys, in the quality and professionalism of the services offered.

•Evidence of being at the forefront of strategic developments in aged care and environmental health.

•Statutory requirements are met.

13.OH&S

•To ensure that the provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2004 are implemented proactively to reflect current workplace health and safety arrangements in all business activities.

•To consult with staff on issues that directly affect their health and safety, and assist in the development and implementation of policies, guidelines and work procedures to manage identified OH&S issues.

•To ensure that all staff complete a corporate induction, including the on-line OH&S induction module, as well as an induction specific to the Business Unit and service unit specific functions, tasks, workplaces, work sites, hazards and risks, and associated procedures, equipment, documentation and systems related to health and safety.

•To ensure that BCC’s hazard, injury and incident reporting process and documentation is available and used by the staff in the Business Unit.

•To act on the outcomes of injury/incident investigations, and hazard reports, within reasonable timeframes.

•To ensure that contractors are adequately inducted, supervised and informed in relation to managing OH&S exposures arising from the contracted works, goods and services (or visit to Banyule premises).