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ITEM EX7

EXECUTIVE 22 JANUARY 2002

DRAFT

Oxfordshire Plan

Foreword by the Leader of the Council

The County Council spends half a billion pounds of public money every year in Oxfordshire. We employ over 16,000 people across the county. Our 70 councillors represent 622,000 people every one of whom is touched in many different ways by our services. We educate XX,XXX children in our schools; we provide social care for X,XXX elderly, disabled or vulnerable people, either in their homes or in our own; we run libraries, adult learning centres, a youth service and many other important community services; we maintain XXX miles of roads within the county; we dispose of X,XXX tons of waste every year; we are responsible for planning and implementing major traffic and road safety schemes every year and for ensuring the protection of our environment - both natural and man-made. We have recently been given the important duties of improving the environmental, economic and social well being of our population and of providing leadership to our communities.

From 5 November 2001, there has been a new political structure in place in the County Council. After 16 years without a political administration, the new Executive is determined to give strong leadership, to set clear political priorities and to be accountable for their delivery. I welcome the publication of this first Oxfordshire Plan under the new administration. It will clearly identify our key priority areas and the values we wish to pursue in achieving them. I expect it to give clarity of purpose to our managers and a sense of ownership to all of our employees. The commitment of our staff is key to achieving our objectives. I know I can count on their support; they, in turn, can rely on this Executive to value them and to provide the support and development opportunities they need to do their jobs well.

For the public who use and value our services, this plan provides a set of targets for improvement that are testing and that we are determined to achieve. We invite you to hold us to account over the plan period for delivery. We will report in later years on our progress.

This leaflet is a summary of The Oxfordshire Plan, and also outlines Oxfordshire County Council’s Budget and Council Tax for 2002-2003.

Keith R Mitchell

Leader of the Council

What Oxfordshire County Council stands for:

Making Oxfordshire a better place to live, work and grow

Over the life of the council our priorities will be:

• Helping People to Fulfil their Potential
• Protecting Our Environment
• Safeguarding Our Communities
• Sustaining Prosperity
• Raising Our Performance

To deliver these we will be operating within the following set of values:

• Serving the people and communities of Oxfordshire
• Honesty and integrity
• Valuing our staff
• Teamwork and co-operation 

Our priorities

We are committed to making Oxfordshire an even better place in which to live, work and grow. We have five overall priorities.

Helping people to fulfil their potential

We work to help everyone in our communities to have opportunities that enrich their lives and fulfil their potential.

We help our children to leave school as well equipped as possible for their adult lives.

We provide life long learning opportunities for people of all ages.

We work to maintain the independence of the elderly and disabled.

In 2002/03 we will:

• increase the percentage of children leaving school with 5 or more GCSE passes at grades A to C from 51% to 53% by 2003
  
• Provide fast and easy access to the Internet by linking 75% of our schools and libraries to the Oxfordshire County Network by March 2003.
  
• Increase the number of elderly people who we help to live at home from 6900 (2001) to 7300.

Protecting our environment

Oxfordshire has lovely countryside and historic towns.

We preserve our heritage so that this and later generations can enjoy it.

We encourage interest in the countryside in ways that protect rural interests and support rural businesses.

We work to reduce the levels of waste we store in landfill sites.

In 2002/03 we will:

• Redevelop the site of the Oxford Castle and prison to give the public access to it. We will complete a full archaeological survey and start redevelopment by December 2002.

• Improve footpaths by installing over 250 new signposts and ensuring that over 1700 miles of our footpaths are easy to use by March 2003.
  
• Increase recycling and composting of Oxfordshire’s household waste from 16% to 18% 

Safeguarding our communities

We work closely with many organisations to help make Oxfordshire a safer place to live, work and move around.

We help to reduce death and injuries at home, in work and on the roads.

We help to reduce the levels of crime in our communities.

We support vulnerable people in our communities.

In 2002/03 we will:

• Introduce a fire prevention campaign that will reduce the number of fires by more than 160 by March 2003.

• Implement a range of road safety schemes that will bring about a 40% reduction in deaths on our roads by 2010 and a 5% reduction in 2002.

• Reducing the number of children who need to be excluded from our schools by 11% and the number of schools with above average rates for unauthorised absences by 20%.
  
• Reduce the offending rates of children in care from xx to yy we may need to remove this target as we have not yet received details of SSD figures.

• Introduce a ‘Good Trader’ scheme to protect the elderly and other vulnerable groups from ‘rogue traders’ by providing a register of reputable businesses in the home maintenance and repair sector. 

Sustaining our prosperity

Oxfordshire has a strong local economy and we help sustain its prosperity.

We maintain and develop the transport infrastructure to ensure people and traffic flow as smoothly as possible.

We will develop a high speed digital communications network (broadband) to support local businesses and key County Council sites.

Enhance opportunities for business and employment in rural areas of the County

In 2002/03 we will:

• Begin 4 major road improvement schemes at Didcot, Banbury, Bicester and Witney to reduce congestion and improve safety. We will complete them by February 2003

• Begin a major review of the county’s transport infrastructure for completion by March 2004 that will help us develop a 15 year investment programme.

• Complete the first phase of the Oxfordshire Community Network and create the potential for access to broadband across the County.

• Complete the development of the Venturefest 365 web site to support organisations and individuals seeking to start or grow their businesses.
  

Raising our Performance

We are committed to responding as best we can to the needs of the people that we serve.

We are working to make it easier for people to contact the County Council for help and support.

We will work with partner organisations to represent Oxfordshire effectively at a national level.

We will continue to improve the quality of our services and value for money.

In 2002/03 we will:

• Commence work on e-government which will improve public access to council services.
  
• Campaign for protection of the ‘Area Cost Adjustment’ which provides grants to cover Oxfordshire’s higher costs of living. Without this council taxes will rise faster.

• Campaign to persuade the Government, who have issued proposals to take over responsibility for land use planning, that such important decisions are better taken by local councillors.
  
• Identify 2% productivity gains for all services.
  

How are we performing?

Oxfordshire County Council offers good value for money. The amount we spend per head of the population is significantly less than that spent by other County Councils.

Where performance is measured by government indicators, we have achieved our targets in over 60% of them.

Our departments have been recognised in many areas for the quality of services provided. For example:

• Environmental Services is recognised as a Centre of Excellence in Transport
• Social Services received a social care award for its partnership working with Age Concern
• Trading Standards have received national recognition when it was awarded Beacon Status
• Many departments have been awarded Investors in People status

Consultation

The County Council is committed to listening to all members of the community and to involving local people and organisations in service planning and delivery. We will:

• communicate our decisions widely
• regularly survey residents’ opinions
• consult with the Oxfordshire Citizens’ Panel of local people regularly

In January 2002, Oxfordshire County Council ran an innovative Budget Consultation/Community Workshop. This approach to consulting local people has generated much interest.

Several of the Government’s performance indicators for 2000-2001 monitored local peoples’ satisfaction with certain activities carried out by Council departments. The key indicator suggests that 60% of the public are satisfied with the overall service provided by the County Council.

We monitor our performance closely to ensure the best possible service to the public.

A range of independent inspections also help us to identify ways in which we can improve our performance.

Raising our Performance

We are committed to continuous improvement in our services. As a result of a wide-ranging review of the authority in 2001 we adopted ‘Raising our Performance’ an ambitious 4 year action plan.

Best Value Reviews

Last year we reviewed 12 of our key services, including Libraries , services for those with Learning Disabilities and Waste Management. Each of these reviews identified potential service improvements and we will implement these during 2002.

Reviews for 2002 will include the educational performance of our secondary schools and how we maximise the independence of vulnerable people in the community.

District Audit

Each year District Audit examines our performance. This year we received a favourable report in overall terms. Recommendations were made for improvements in 5 key areas and we have adopted them.

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