Our Council Plan
Priorities
and
Deliverables
1. Address our financial position in a fair and balanced way
As with other councils across the country, rising costs and increasing demand for our services is causing significant financial pressures. Our most pressing challenge right now is to balance our budget whilst continuing to deliver positive outcomes for the people and places of Kirklees. This means we must make difficult decisions about how to reduce our spending and prioritise our resources.
However, the decisions we need to take must be fair and balanced. This means protecting those who need our help most. It also means making sure we effectively assess the impacts of our decisions in the shortand long-term and mitigate any negative impacts as far as possible. It also means proactively exploring all avenues to support local services, including funding from partners like the UK government and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Deliverables throughout 2024 to 2025
- Address our financial position by delivering the budget savings agreed in the 24/25 Annual Budget as fairly and inclusively as possible, including through the use of Integrated Impact Assessments, consultation, and working with our communities.
- Proactive planning and management of communications with residents, partners, elected members and staff around the budget and service delivery. This will help to improve staff, resident, and partner understanding of the budget challenge we are facing and help us work together to collaboratively plan for our future.
- Implement an ongoing review of our Capital Plan, and implement a new Capital Strategy, to ensure effective delivery of our longer-term ambitions for growth and regeneration, whilst supporting more immediate pressures relating to our revenue budget.
Deliverables by September 2024
- Begin to deliver the new Voluntary Community Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) Infrastructure contract which aims to contribute to the development and growth of a stronger VCFSE sector and development of a community anchor network that enables communities to do more for themselves and each other.
Deliverables by March 2025
- Develop further options for delivery of the budget for 2025/26, so that we can agree a balanced annual budget in March 2025.
- Increase the amount of new external funding for projects in Kirklees, particularly through working collaboratively with partners such as the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Homes England and central government.
2. Strive to transform council services to become more modern, efficient and effective
At the same time as balancing the budget and making decisions about where to reduce our spending, we want to transform the delivery of our services. Transformation is about better use of our limited resources, making services more efficient, effective, and modern. It's not just about doing less, but about doing things differently so we can improve service performance and outcomes for residents. We will deliver changes to the way we do things, working collaboratively across services to do so. We will improve systems and processes and harness new technology. We will also work with our partners to avoid duplication, reduce costs, and share knowledge and resources as efficiently as we can. We will compare and contrast with other councils and look at ways we can improve across all our services.
Deliverables throughout 2024 to 2025 and ongoing
- Building on our children's services continuous improvement plan and success, implementing integrated models of care and preventative services to provide holistic support to our children, young people and families.
- Implementing 'The Big Plan' - our offer to children and families with special educational needs and disabilities, with a focus on improving, and providing the right support at the right time in the right place.
- Working with our whole family of schools and settings to develop a future model and vision for our operational arrangements and relationships.
- Fully describe, develop tangible plans and deliver a more efficient and effective operating model for adult social care services.
- We will work as Corporate Parents to deliver the best services and outcomes for our children and
young people, and provide continuing support for those that are care experienced, including:
- Expand and develop our children's residential provision by purchasing and opening a further new home by April 2024.
- Enhancing our foster carer recruitment and retention approach to increase the number of foster carers by March 2025.
- Enhancing our corporate parenting responsibility by developing the concept of a 'family firm' for all our children in care and care leavers in Kirklees by March 2025.
- Work towards building a more sustainable future for the delivery of council services, by ensuring:
- All directorates have effective workforce plans that support recruitment and retention.
- The most is made of technology to become even more modern, efficient, and effective.
- The development and use of data, and constantly benchmarking services and looking for best practice across local government to inform planning and decision making.
- Continue work to deliver transformation of services and homes for our housing tenants. We will do this by:
- Maintaining the council's housing stock at decent homes standards, including a continued investment in fire safety improvements and damp, mould and condensation.
- Ensuring the tenant's experience (customer journey) informs the development and delivery of housing services.
- Ensuring empty homes are brought up to a lettable standard (safe, secure, clean) and are ready for occupation as quickly as possible.
- Continue to review the services we deliver in relation to damp, mould and condensation to ensure they deal with root causes and improve the quality of homes.
- Continue to take a fabric-first approach to improving the energy standards of homes, targeting investment to achieve the best results for residents in the most cost-effective way.
- Develop a HRA Decarbonisation Strategy along with a costed roadmap to support achievement of energy targets for homes by the end of 2024.
Deliverables by Summer 2024
- Refresh our Adult Social Care Vision, in the wider context of a changing health and social care system, and in the context of reducing resources and increasing levels of need and complexity.
- Deliver council assets transformation, by undertaking a review of the use of buildings across the entire council estate, so that the organisation's assets are being used as efficiently and effectively as possible. We will ensure that service delivery continues to be supported, that space is maximised, and that the outcome of the review makes a positive contribution to the council's finances.
Deliverables by December 2024
- Progress the implementation of our Access Strategy by improving our online customer service offer to citizens and rolling out our public access facilities across our libraries.
Continue to deliver a greener, healthier Kirklees and address the challenges of climate change
A greener Kirklees is also a healthier Kirklees and is critically important for the delivery of longer-term, positive outcomes for our people and places. The built and natural environment contributes to people's quality of life and makes the district a more attractive place in which to live and invest. We want to help people reduce waste, and recycle more, and put other actions in place to improve air quality and address the challenges of climate change. Our vision is for a 'Net Zero and Climate Ready Kirklees by 2038'. This provides Kirklees with focus on both mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
We want people in Kirklees to be able to live their lives confidently, independently, and be in better health and for longer. It's all about preventing problems for people in the future, helping people choose healthy lifestyles and increasing physical and mental health and wellbeing. Working closely with health and wider partners will be crucial for achieving this.
Deliverables throughout 2024 to 2025 and ongoing
- Produce an evidence-based and action-focused Director of Public Health (DPH) Annual Report and work with partners from across the Kirklees system to embed its recommendations and support system-wide changes. Production of the report by June 2024, , with actionon recommendations throughout 2024/25.
- Work with partners and communities to improve physical and mental health outcomes, paying particular attention to addressing inequalities in this area and promoting early intervention.
- Support the local care market to be diverse, high quality and sustainable by ensuring there is quality support and accommodation for adults with complex requirements. We will do this by:
- Opening Knowl Park House, with modern facilities, allowing for the support of people with complex dementia by Summer 2024
- Opening of an extra care scheme by November 2024.
Deliverables by March 2025
- Publish and begin implementation of a new Environment Strategy setting out our borough's commitment and ambitious vision for greater action on environmental issues, whilst also addressing the ecological and climate emergencies.
- Support the role of our communities in looking after local environments and improving recycling behaviours. Support social interaction, volunteering and community groups in relation to the protection and greening of our environment as set out within the Environment Strategy.
- Play a leading role in the ongoing development of the Health and Care Plan, working with the partnership to develop clear metrics for each priority in order to effectively monitor progress and impact.
Deliverables by Summer 2025
- Develop and begin delivery of a Parks and Greenspaces Strategy that will support the provision of welcoming, accessible and high-quality parks and greenspaces to allow people, business, nature and wildlife to flourish.
4. Continue to invest and regenerate our towns and villages to support our diverse places and communities to flourish
We will continue to invest and attract partner investment into the regeneration of our towns and villages, so that our economic recovery is as quick and secure as possible. We will work to build our resilience, by building the infrastructure that brings opportunities for future generations. Plans for the Huddersfield Cultural Heart, the Dewsbury Blueprint and investments in Heckmondwike, Cleckheaton, Batley, Marsden and Holmfirth will remain a key priority, as will delivering major transport improvements, improving and maintaining our roads, supporting housing growth, investing in employment and skills support, and supporting the growth of new and existing businesses. Our capital investment programme will be managed flexibly in order to respond to current and future challenges; we will adapt our plans to respond to market conditions at the same time as maintaining our ambition for the future.
Deliverables throughout 2024 to 2025
- Deliver on the Investment Zone around the new Health Innovation Campus to stimulate the local economy, attract external investment in health and life sciences and create high value employment opportunities, working in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Huddersfield University, and Leeds and Bradford councils.
- Continue work related to the regeneration of our towns and villages, including the Huddersfield Cultural Heart, the Dewsbury Blueprint and schemes in small centres like Batley, Marsden and Holmfirth, making best use of the Shared Prosperity and Levelling Up funds.
- Make progress with the strategic housing sites at Dewsbury Riverside and Bradley Park to deliver high quality housing and increase the amount of sustainable green homes to meet a range of people's needs by the end of December 2024.
- Engage more residents and visitors in our cultural and heritage offer and raise the profile of
Kirklees by:
- Publishing new strategies for Culture, Heritage and Tourism to provide clear ten-year visions by December 2024.
- Pilot the co-production of action plans with communities by March 2025
- Continue work towards our Blueprint ambitions for vibrant markets in Huddersfield and Dewsbury, providing opportunities for communities to socialise, shop, sell, test ideas, eat, learn and be entertained:
- Huddersfield Market - Commence the first phase of enhancement works to the public facing aspects of the open market by Spring 2024.
- Dewsbury Market - Deliver enabling works to support the delivery of the decant market by Summer 2024.
Deliverables by August 2024
- Publish and begin implementing the new Inclusive Economy Strategy, ensuring we are working effectively to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
Deliverables by March 2025
Continue to strengthen public transport networks within Kirklees and with neighbouring areas. We will do this by:
- Starting construction work on Penistone Line improvements, including station enhancements, better access and waiting facilities, and upgrading rail infrastucture.
- Working with partners to secure additional funding and ensure the Penistone Line improvements lead to a better rail service to and from South Yorkshire.
- Continuing to work with the TransPennine Route Upgrade on delivery of the upgrade.