Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Director - Operational In-House Services

The Committee considered the report of the Assistant Director - Operational In-House Services that provided an update on the progress of Green Sefton’s operational delivery over the last year, and setting out the strategic work programme, in line with the new Service Vision 2030, and updated Service Plan for the next year until March 2026.

The report concluded that the service had performed well under ongoing challenging circumstances, as resources available clearly did not allow for service delivery to meet public, councillor, nor the service’s own expectations; that although there had been challenges at times, there had also been many successes too; that overall, the service was now well established and was starting to see the rewards of the Public Sector Reform project that led to its creation; that more work remained yet to be done, and the structure would be revisited in 2025/26 to ensure this met the business need, and as always focus on the priority work areas in order to deliver on the Service’s own 2030 vision, that ultimately contributed to that of the Council overall; and that the Service Vision, Service Planning and new KPI’s, were all proving a useful tool to manage this, and regular updates would continue to be provided to the Cabinet Member throughout the year.

The full Annual Review was attached as an appendix to the report and included other background information including the newly adopted Service Vision, and Service Plan updates for the three service areas. Table 1 within the document detailed a headline overview of actions in 2024 relating to:

·       Delivery and sharing of the service vision 2030 and service plan 2024 – both within, and external to, the service

·       Embedding culture and behaviour change within the team

·       Look to increase capacity within the team – by apprenticeships, fixed term posts, and a review of the approach to seasonal support

·       Look to reduce existing demands on team where appropriate – by examining the work programme, and amending what wase managed and how, and by looking at a ‘Place-Based’ approach to strategically managing sites

·       Achievement of ‘innovation’ income targets

·       Development of site-based changes to make best use of available resources and increase wider benefits of sites

and table 2 detailed a range of actions, desired outcome, and key measures 2024/26, along with key dates and progress contained in the Green Sefton Service Plan 2025-2026.

The Committee was requested to review the proposals contained in the report and Annual Review and consider the submission of comments to the Cabinet Member - Health and Well Being and the Cabinet Member - Locality Services.

Members of the Committee asked questions/commented on the following issues:

·       the financial sustainability of the commercial work Green Sefton undertook within the Land Management Team

·       details were sought on if/when tree stumps that had recently been cut down would be removed

·       what data the Council would be able to be access in future using the asset management database; it was noted that the database was a joint project with Operational In-House services and Highways

·       staff retention and experience sharing within Green Sefton

RESOLVED: That