New Political Arrangements
Since August 2008, the Council has been run by a coalition of Independent, Liberal Democrat and Labour members. A review of the Council's structures has agreed to retain the network of strategic committees and our Inverness City Committee. The strategic committees cover Education Culture and Sport; Housing and Social Work; Planning Environment and Development; Resources; and Transport Environmental and Community Services. An Audit and Scrutiny Committee, chaired by the SNP opposition, provides scrutiny of the Council's operations.
We currently have three Planning Application and Review Committees as well as three Licensing Boards/Committees serving: Caithness Sutherland and Easter Ross; Ross Skye and Lochaber; and Inverness Nairn and Badenoch & Strathspey.
The Council operates Ward Forums in each of the 22 Council wards (14 four-member and 8 three-member). These are open to the public and give the community the opportunity to scrutinise the work of the council in the local area. These are to continue with the emphasis on greater opportunity for the public to be involved in meetings. The Council has also agreed to pilot video conferencing in certain meetings to allow councillors to take part in meetings without having to travel long distances to the venue. Another trial will see some meetings webcast to increase public access.
The Council's Budget
Along with other Councils in Scotland, we will face a challenging financial situation over the next few years. Rising energy costs, the credit crunch and other pressures on budgets add to our costs _ while the need to work within the Scottish Government's freeze on council tax restricts our income.
This has led us to ask all our departments to identify savings of up to 5% in each of the coming two years. We are determined to be open and honest about these difficulties and to work with elected members, our staff and the public to protect, and where possible improve, our core services.
We will also improve the way we work and find efficiency savings of 2% each year as part of our drive to modernise the Council.
We are committed to playing a full part in seeing the Highlands through the current financial and economic problems and we have also asked all our departments to prepare longer term financial plans, to identify both saving and service improvements for future years.
- Councillor David Alston, Budget Leader
Kate is Employee of the Year
Kate Birch, The Highland Council's Children's Services Manager for Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey, has been chosen as the Council's Employee of the Year.
She received her prize at the Council's recent annual Quality Awards, held at the North Highland College, Thurso. Kate has worked in social work services in the Highlands for the past 24 years, mostly helping vulnerable children, children in need and looked after children to ensure they get the best start in life.
Three members of staff received awards for being commended by their Community Council for special recognition. They were: Janette Douglas, a youth development officer who is based at the Community Wing at Alness Academy; Alistair Macleod, a genealogist at Inverness; and Steven Urquhart, street cleaner in Tain.
Team of the Year went to Nairn Academy, who were the first Scottish school to take part in a Dreams and Teams Initiative by visiting Malawi in June.
Trainee of the Year was Duncan Winston, a third year joinery apprentice from Tain, who works for Housing and Property in Sutherland.
Innovation of the Year went to Getting It Right for Every Child, a pathfinder for the Scottish Government to redesign children's services.
Working with the Third Sector
The Highland Council, NHS Highland and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are working with the Third Sector in Highland to develop a Compact which will aim to enable third and public sector partners across the Highlands to find effective ways of working together co-operatively toward the achievement of outcomes that will improve the quality of life of local people and communities. This will build on the high levels of voluntary and community activity in the Highlands to achieve a culture of mutual understanding, trust and confidence.
European Parliamentary Elections
The five-yearly European Parliamentary Elections will be held between 4-7 June, next year. Polling in Scotland will take place between 7am - 10pm on Thursday 4 June. A total of 736 MEPs will be elected across the 27 EU countries. Scotland is entitled to 6 MEPs. In 2004, more than 14,000 candidates, representing 200 political parties, stood for election.
Single Outcome Agreement
The Council has signed up for a plan of action to deliver better public services in the Highlands, in keeping with the priorities of the Scottish Government, The Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) sets out how the Council and its community planning partners will address the 15 national outcomes, detailing what can be expected locally. The outcomes cover the environment, enterprise, education, services for young and older people, health and community safety.
Partners so far include Highlands and Islands Enterprise, NHS Highland, Northern Constabulary, Highland and Islands Fire and Rescue Service, UHI Millennium Institute, Scottish Natural Heritage, Job Centre+; and Skills Development Scotland.
Corporate Identity
We have amended our logo to give Gaelic equal status as required by the provisions of the new Gaelic Language Plan 2007-2011 which is a requirement of the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.
Performance and Employee Surveys
The Council's Programme gives a commitment that we will continuously review our performance to improve the way in which Council services are designed and delivered. We have just completed a sixth annual Performance Survey, which was sent to a random sample of 11,000 households.
We are pleased that the public perception of the Council has improved in relation to satisfaction with Services (82% satisfied); requests dealt with by the first person contacted (72%); and 90% of people who responded found the Council easy to contact. The top five most important services continue to be: road repairs and potholes; winter road maintenance; refuse bin collection; recycling facilities; primary and secondary education.
The five aspects of the council which are most important to those responding to the survey were: maintaining good quality local services; listening to local people; providing value for money; being of people's needs; and being efficient. However you told us that you want to see improvements in how we handle complaints and quicker response times to letters, emails and telephone calls.
We also ask our own staff what they think of the Council. The survey showed there is a 7% decrease (to 26%) in rating the Council as a best/above average employer. However, satisfaction with more specific aspects of the employment relationship such as `good employment benefits' remains very consistent and well above the norm for other local authorities.
The Council employs around 12,800 staff (not all full time). The great majority of staff provide services directly to people in their homes and communities or are employed in schools. Nearly 96% of staff are located in the areas they serve with 4% of staff working from the Council's HQ in Inverness.
Council Invests in New Pay and Grading Structure
The Council is to commit £7.5 million in this financial year to implement a new pay and grading structure for around 10,000 employees (its non-teaching staff).
The Council is required to introduce a new fair and non-discriminatory pay and grading structure as part of the National Agreement on Pay and Conditions of Service for Local Government Employees. The Job Evaluation Scheme, which was developed nationally, has been used for this purpose.
The Council inherited a variety of different terms and conditions of service from the former Highland Regional Council and the former eight District Councils and a harmonised package of terms and conditions of service is proposed to address the current variations between services and areas.
The introduction of a new pay and grading structure and a package of harmonised terms and conditions of service will:
- Improve flexibility and productivity;
- Give equal pay for equal work; and
- Reduce grievances about conditions of service.
New East Sutherland Offices
The Council has a new flagship office for East Sutherland. Staff completed a phased transfer to Drummuie, Golspie, from five offices - in Brora, Dornoch and Golspie - earlier this year. Part of the project involved the formation of a new access off the A9.
In addition to giving access to the new offices, the road has opened up land to the north of the A9 for much-needed affordable housing in the Golspie area. The 72-house development is being supported by the Council and the Highland Housing Alliance. The road also provided access from the A9 trunk road to the Kilbraur windfarm. On the horizon are plans to improve our offices in Market Square, Wick.
How do we perform?
- In our 2008 Public Performance Survey, 82% of those who replied were satisfied with Council services.
- We continue to prioritise staff health and safety and have significantly reduced the number of major accidents at work from 66 in 2006-7 to 43 in 2007-8.
- In 2007-8, the Council's £6.1m efficiency target was exceeded with £7.620m of efficiency savings achieved.
- We established Ward Forums in all 22 Council Wards to enable local feedback and scrutiny of our services.
- By the end June 2008, 70% of all our public caller buildings were accessible to people with disabilities, compared to 61% in 2006-7.
Telephone enquiries to our Service Centre and Service Point network remain high, with 91% dealt with at the first point of contact.
88% of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were met within the statutory target (responses within 20 working days). From April 2007 to end June 2008, 638 FOI requests were made.
- We are working towards improvements in our handling of complaints and enquiries.