CONTENTS

STATEMENT FROM LEADER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE......

Statement from the Leader......

Statement from the Chief Executive......

STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY......

Part 1: INTRODUCTION......

1.1 STRUCTURE OF THE IMPROVEMENT PLAN......

1.2 OUR APPROACH TO THE WALES PROGRAMME FOR IMPROVEMENT (WPI)......

Brief Description of WPI......

Basic Elements of WPI......

The Approach to WPI......

PART 2: THE COUNCIL’S VISION & PERFORMANCE......

2.1 Vision and Aims......

2.1.1 Wrexham’s Community Vision......

2.1.2 Ymlaen: Making Change Deliver......

2.1.3 Emerging Corporate priorities......

PART 3. OVERVIEW......

3.1 Review of the Year......

Impact in Communities......

Listening to Communities......

Planning to Deliver......

The Way we Work......

3.2 Quality of Life in Wrexham County Borough......

3.3 Our Performance in 2003/04......

3.3.1 Delivery against 2003/04 Plan......

3.3.2 Analysis of Statutory Performance Indicators......

3.4 Reviewing Council Services

3.5 Our External Regulator’s View

PART 4: KEY IMPROVEMENTS 2004/05......

4.1 Self Assessment......

4.2 Corporate Improvement Priorities......

4.3 Departmental Improvement Priorities......

4.4 Structure and Management Reviews 2004/05......

APPENDIX A: NATIONAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS....

APPENDIX B- HOW D0 WE USE THE MONEY?......

FIGURES AND CHARTS

Fig. 1Community Vision Strategic Priorities......

Fig. 2Y:MCD Management Structure......

Fig. 3Emerging Corporate Priorities......

Fig. 4 2003/2004 WPI Improvement Areas – End of Year Report......

Fig. 5Performance against targets – 2003/04 NAWPIs......

Fig. 6Statutory Indicator Performance: All Welsh Comparison, 2002/03......

Fig. 7Summary Table of Corporate Improvement Priorities 2004/05......

Fig. 8Summary of Departmental Improvement Priorities 2004/5......

Fig. 9 National Assembly for Wales Performance Indicators

Fig. 10Council Fund Revenue Financing 2004/05......

Fig. 11Housing Revenue Account Expenditure 2005/05......

Fig. 12Expenditure and Income 2004/05......

Fig. 13Capital Expenditure 2004/05......

Fig. 14Capital Financing 2004/05

STATEMENT FROM LEADER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Statement from the Leader

I am pleased to introduce this Improvement Plan to you. As the new elected Leader of the Council I am looking forward to working with all Councillors, officers, staff and partners to improve services in Wrexham for the benefit of everyone who live, work and visit Wrexham.

Clearly we face challenges. We want to improve educational standards and attainment to give our children and young people the best start in life. We want to improve housing, and need to find a different way of achieving that following tenants’ decision to remain with the Council. We need to recycle more and aim to achieve European targets. We need to do more so that people in Wrexham feel safe and secure. We also want to create a type of Council that has ambition and the will and capacity to make that ambition a reality.

I want to make sure that we are up to the task and deliver what we promise to make Wrexham the sort of place you and I want it to become.

I look forward to working with all of you during the year and in the future.

Councillor Neil Rogers

Leader of the Council

Statement from the Chief Executive

Thank you for taking a positive interest in Wrexham County Borough Council’s Improvement Plan. Last year we were committed to sharing with you the workings of the Council and being transparent in our ambitions. This year we have reflected both on our progress during 2003/04 and what we need to do to deliver significant change in the areas that matter to people.

Last year we declared some 91 improvement areas, 68 service and 23 corporate. I am pleased to report that we have made significant progress in delivering those improvements. In 72 of them we have either delivered everything (100%) or almost everything (75%). But we are not satisfied with this level of progress, so we are aiming to be more ambitious with our plans for 2004-05.

We have invested much time and energy to develop our medium and long-term plans. We are clearer about our priorities and some of this is reflected in our Improvement Plan. It is clear that we must make a significant difference this year in some key areas and so we have decided to focus on fewer key priorities so we can generate the significant change that we all agree must happen.

We have decided on 8 high improvement priorities and they represent some of the key areas you said were important to you. Among them housing, education, social care, waste and community safety feature highly. We have set ourselves some challenging tasks and we recognise that we will need all the help we can muster to deliver those. We therefore plan to work with our partners and other stakeholders in a constructive and focussed way.

I urge you to consider the proposals we are making and work with us to deliver what I expect will be important achievements for Wrexham.

I look forward to reporting back to you on our progress and the difference we have made to Wrexham during 2004/05.

Isobel Garner

Chief Executive

STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY

Wrexham County Borough Council is responsible for the preparation of this Improvement Plan, for the information and assessments set out in it and the assumptions and estimates on which they are based.

We are also responsible for establishing appropriate performance management and internal control systems from which the information and assessments in this Improvement Plan have been derived.

The Council is satisfied that the information and assessments included in the Improvement Plan are, in all material aspects, accurate and complete and that the targets for improvement set out in the Plan are realistic and achievable.

Part 1: INTRODUCTION

This is Wrexham County Borough Council's Improvement Plan (IP) for the year April 2004 to March 2005.

The Plan is published under the Welsh Assembly Government’s (WAG) updated guidance called the Wales Programme for Improvement (WPI).

The document is required to cover a wide range of issues. These include:

  • What we are trying to achieve
  • How we intend to go about it
  • How we have done in the past compared to others
  • What we are aiming for in the future
  • What we have found by reviewing our services
  • What we are doing as a result of reviewing our services
  • How we are asking people for their views

This means that this document is somewhat lengthy but a shorter version of the plan is also being provided. This summary of the Plan will be included in the Council's "Connect" newspaper that will be delivered to every household in the County Borough this summer. Copies of the summary will also be available in Council Offices and Libraries. Both the full version of the plan and the summary document will be available on our web-site (

1.1 STRUCTURE OF THE IMPROVEMENT PLAN

The plan is divided into four sections. Appendices provide detail on key content areas:

Part One describes how we have addressed the requirements of the Wales Programme for Improvement.

Part Two describes where the Council wants to be in terms of its vision and aims

Part Three provides an overview of the Council’s performance in 2003/04.

Part Four describes the key improvements we intend to make during 2004/05 and how they were selected. It describes the consultation we have undertaken and how consultation has influenced the selection of improvement priorities.

Appendix A provides statistical information about the performance of individual services.

Appendix B explains how we use the money we receive.

Feedback

The Council welcomes comment on the Improvement Plan. Please send any comments, or requests for further copies of the Plan to:

Ian Blythin

Principal Policy Officer

Corporate Development Department

Wrexham County Borough Council

Guildhall

PO Box 1284

Wrexham LL11 1WF

Telephone: 01978 292253

E-mail:

1.2 OUR APPROACH TO THE WALES PROGRAMME FOR IMPROVEMENT (WPI)

Brief Description of WPI

The Wales Programme for Improvement is an initiative for Welsh local authorities. Its introduction updates the requirements associated with Best Value legislation. The underlying objective of the WPI is to achieve delivery of high quality services to the public.

Basic Elements of WPI

The WPI requires all Local Authorities in Wales to develop an Improvement Plan that will identify actions designed to improve the delivery of services. The basic elements of the WPI are:

  • Whole Authority Analysis (WAA)– a self-analysis of all functions of the local authority to establish how well services are performing and how likely they are to improve, this only needs to be carried out every five years and was carried out in 2002/03.
  • Risk Assessment – an activity to make sure that the WAA was done robustly and that it has identified the right improvements
  • Improvement Plan (IP) – to publish a Plan that contains key findings of the WAA and sets out a plan of action to achieve the necessary improvements. It also includes many of the requirements that apply to the existing Best Value Performance Plan.
  • Improvement Plan Summary – a summary of the IP for the public
  • Regulatory Plan – a plan of audit and inspection for the authority published by the Audit Commission in Wales (ACiW). This is based on the analysis, risk assessment and IP.

The Approach to WPI

We have worked closely with the ACiW and undertaken the WPI process jointly.

As part of the Risk Assessment we have analysed both the direct service functions (e.g. Social Services, Education, Transport, Waste management) and the support functions (e.g. Finance, Legal).

This analysis included:

  • Analysing relevant information including Performance Indicators (local and national), inspection reports, internal audit reports, Value for Money reports, customer satisfaction information etc and producing evidence about current performance and capacity for improvement;
  • Using that information and identifying areas for improvement;
  • Agreeing with the Audit Commission our plans for improvement.

A different approach was applied in relation to corporate functions. This assessment included:

  • Analysing the results of the authorities corporate governance work;
  • Working with the Audit Commission to assess performance against a Corporate Improvement Diagnostic;
  • Agreeing with the Audit Commission corporate improvement areas and their priority

In undertaking this assessment we have used the views and priorities of elected Councillors andthe various stakeholders, including staff, the voluntary sector and the general public.

PART 2: THE COUNCIL’S VISION & PERFORMANCE

2.1 Vision and Aims

2.1.1 Wrexham’s Community Vision

The Local Government Act 2000 gives local authorities a new duty to promote the economic, social and environmental well-being of their local communities and contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom. Each council is required to develop a community vision in partnership with other public sector organisations such as police and health, businesses, community and voluntary groups, which sets out long term targets and actions to improve their local area.

Wrexham's Community Strategy Partnership is leading the community vision process and the purpose of this Community Vision is to clearly set out the vision, priorities and goals to improve the Wrexham area over the next 16 years.

Our initial work involved a review of existing plans and strategies. We followed this up with an initial consultation to help set a vision for Wrexham. In order to do this we held forums with: voluntary and statutory organisations, Community Councils, Community Strategy Partner organisations staff, local businesses, members of the youth forum and the general public. A further extensive consultation exercise was then undertaken as part of the community vision process to determine the priorities of local people, including a number of forums and discussion groups covering a wide range of voluntary, business and statutory stakeholders representing different areas of Wrexham County Borough. This consultation indicated that we must set about achieving progress on six strategic priorities:

Fig. 1Community Vision Strategic Priorities


Although the six priorities for action are the main focus for the Partnership, a number of cross cutting principles will guide our work:

  • Sustainability – improving the quality of life for today’s residents of Wrexham County Borough without jeopardising that of future generations
  • Fairness and equality – promoting equal access to opportunities and facilities for all to ensure the outcomes of the community vision benefit everyone
  • Citizenship – developing strong and empowered communities, where everyone has the opportunity to play an active part in society, be they old or young
  • Social inclusion - helping ensure that people or sections of the community are not left out but have the chance to contribute to and enjoy the progress being made in Wrexham County Borough
  • Bilingualism – promoting the Welsh language to encourage a bilingual society within the Borough
  • Partnership – only by working in partnership with the community effectively will we be able to effect long lasting change within the County Borough.
  • Welsh Culture and Heritage – It is important to us that Wrexham celebrates its unique culture and heritage.

2.1.2 Ymlaen: Making Change Deliver

“Ymlaen: Making Change Deliver” is the name given to the Chief Executive’s change programme launched in autumn 2003. The purpose of Y:MCD is to enable the Council to build upon its previous successes and help it:

  • Deliver what matters to people to an excellent standard
  • Become a more rewarding and fulfilling place to work and be an Elected Member
  • Create a culture where innovation, honesty, team working and openness are the norm
  • Be recognised by others as a progressive and successful Council
  • Achieve high levels of customer satisfaction.

There are a number of different elements within the Y:MCD programme, the focus of effort has been on the first 3 of the following during 2003-04:

  • Sharing the Vision
  • Appropriate Structures
  • Culture & Values
  • Systems & Decision-Making
  • Valued Workforce.

Since October 2003, the Chief Executive has delivered a series of “Sharing the Vision” presentations to employees, Councillors and representatives from partner organisations. She has set our her personal vision in terms of “delivering what matters” and how the Y:MCD programme will enable the organisation to build capacity and commitment to deliver this vision set within the framework of the Council’s emerging corporate priorities.

‘Delivering what Matters’ means making sure that we as a Council make sure that the people of Wrexham:

Are safe and secure

Have pride in our Children and young People

Are healthy and cared for

Are respected

Care for the Environment

Are prosperous

These areas are clearly aligned with the Wrexham Community Vision.

An important part of ensuring delivery is getting our structure right. Following a review of the senior management arrangements, a new “preferred” top tier structure has been identified and early steps taken to implement the changes. Further changes will take place during 2004/05 with the aim of reaching the “preferred” structure of 4 Strategic Directors and around 12 Chief Officers by April 2005.

The current Organisational Structure is outlined at Figure 2, below.

As part of the review of structure, we identified many other issues about the way we work – our values, behaviours and working practices – which impact on individuals, our policies and service delivery. Work has recently been completed on developing “draft” values that will define acceptable standards governing the behaviour of all employees. Once our set of values has been finalised we will move our focus onto ensuring individuals and the organisation as a whole “live the values” to make them a reality.

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Fig. 2Y:MCD Management Structure

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2.1.3 Emerging Corporate priorities

During 2002/03 we carried out a comprehensive whole authority analysis, from which we identified our improvement priorities for 2003-07 and our Improvement Plan for 2003/04 described the improvement priority aims and key work that would be delivered during 2003/04. Much has been delivered against these priorities during the year.

We have taken time to reflect on where we are. We have assessed our performance, strengths, weaknesses, capacity and capabilities. Assessment also includes the information generated by other reviewing processes such as strategic risk review, Y:MCD and Inspections.

We are also developing our medium term agenda and, using information gathered from Wrexham’s Community Vision and elsewhere, work started last autumn, with the intention to develop our vision and provide focus for all our work corporately and departmentally. The result of this work is referred to our “Emerging Corporate Priorities” and it has resulted in narrowing down our range of priorities activities to 19 Emerging Corporate Priorities (ECP) as shown in Figure 3, below. Each row of the triangle indicates the priority order of the 19 ECPs, showing “Improve Education Standards and Attainment” as the highest priority ECP.

The challenge for us this year is to dove tail our 2003/04 WPI Improvement Priorities with our Emerging Corporate Priorities and identify how quickly and comprehensively the improvements can be achieved.

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Fig. 3Emerging Corporate Priorities

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PART 3. OVERVIEW

3.1 Review of the Year

In 2003/04, the Authority displayed its Corporate Improvements as four themes.

  • Impact in Communities – Issues that make a real difference to people
  • Listening to Communities – Making sure we listen to your views and how we will take them on board
  • Planning to Deliver – How we turn strategy and policy into delivery
  • The Way we Work – The framework through which we deliver our priorities.

In this section, we assess our delivery and we do that on the basis of these four themes.

Impact in Communities

General

  • Officers from Wrexham Council met with Community Leaders in Caia Park in June in light of disturbances in the area. Community leaders were keen to ensure that people within the County Borough are educated in the needs and views of ethnic minority groups.
  • Housing stock Transfer Vote: On 12 March the result of the stock transfer ballot was announced. Of the 9,692 returns, 3,991 were in favour and 5,701 against (41.18% and 58.82% respectively). This means that the ownership and management of homes will stay with the Council. The Council will continue to do its best for tenants with the limited budget available
  • Llay Air Quality: Domestic coal burning in Llay has contributed to Air Quality issues in the area that were identified in 2003 as part of the local Air Quality Strategy. The Council has worked jointly with Transco to develop the scheme, which allows for all properties (whether Council or owner-occupied) to be connected to the gas supply at no charge to the occupier. The scheme will not only improve the local air quality, but will also provide greater choice of fuels for residents and provide more energy efficient homes. The partnership scheme is the first of its kind to be implemented in Wales.
  • Neighbourhood wardens – In March 04, Wrexham Community Safety Partnership launched a Neighbourhood Warden Scheme aimed at reducing the level of anti-social behaviour and juvenile nuisance in some communities within the County Borough.
  • Plans for a new Theatre and conference centre to be built in the Town Centre were shelved in November 2003. The centre was a project undertaken by the Council in partnership with Yale, potential Theatre Trustees, the Arts Council and the Welsh Assembly. Although the scheme had a broad base of public support, concern over the funding shortfall ultimately led to the scheme being cancelled.
  • Recorded usage of Leisure, Libraries and Culture facilities within the borough increased by over 8% during the last year. The current level of participation is 15% higher than it was two years ago.
  • The Children’s Information Bureau, based in Wrexham library, has been awarded the prestigious ‘National Quality Award’ for Children’s Information Services. The Bureau is to be held up as the exemplar and expert adviser for the development of similar services throughout Wales.
  • The council has overseen numerous schemes and projects aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of our citizens:
  • The opening of a new sports centre at Ysgol Rhiwabon and it’s subsequent designation as a Centre of Excellence for Cricket in North East Wales – Achieved in partnership with Sportlot.
  • Free swimming for minors during school holidays.
  • An extensive GP referral scheme and cardiac rehabilitation programme.
  • A ‘green gym’ programme of moderate exercise provision in all Country Parks.
  • Total refurbishment of the fitness facilities at Water World, Plas Madoc and Chirk Leisure Centres.

Improving the Quality of the Economy: