At the beginning of 2007 this simple statement became the cornerstone of the City Council’s ambition for taking Stoke-on-Trent forward into an exhilarating future characterised by massive regeneration, transformation and development both for the city and the Council. Stoke-on-Trent will be one city, led and coordinated overall by the Council within which silo’s will be broken down and there will be clear and cohesive policies for the future focused by one, binding ambition, to provide excellent services for all of the area’s diverse communities.
At this time we had a number of services doing very well. The council had an ambitious customer first programme which was already starting to deliver important customer service improvements. A number of our services were improving and had clear plans to develop into top performers and overall we were beginning to move in the right direction. Other services however had been coasting with little drive or passion; slow and steady; mixed quality and a lack of consistent customer focus. Worse still, we had some services that needed radical attention.
Due to historic circumstances, we were unable to avoid external intervention in the management of our Children and Young People’s Services, covering both social care and education. These services are now supported by Serco Education and Children’s Services following a review of performance by Government inspectorates and Serco’s Director, Ged Rowney, has become part of the Council’s Senior Management Team. Ged and his senior management team are helping us drive the improved outcomes we all want to see for children and young people in the city. But we are also building an effective internal team to work closely with the external support, to build internal capacity, to sustain momentum, to enable continuity and to help secure the necessary improvements and this is what we are now working towards.