Ambition
We will work together with our partners and communities to be an enterprising council, delivering value for money and enabling local people and places to thrive.
Values
For the way we work, we will:
- listen to, engage and involve local people ensuring we are responsive and take account of the things that matter most to them
- be open minded, honest and accountable, to make sure the decisions that we make are fair and transparent
- spend money wisely making the best use of the resources that we have
- work with partners and local communities because we know that we cannot tackle complex problems on our own
- be aspirational about our vision for the future, for our organisation, local people, and communities
Outcomes
We want Derbyshire to have:
- resilient, thriving and green communities which share responsibility for improving their areas, and supporting each other
- happy, safe and healthy people, with solid networks of support, who feel in control of their personal circumstances and aspirations
- a strong, diverse and clean economy which makes the most of Derbyshire's rich assets and provides meaningful opportunities for local people to achieve their full potential
- great places to live, work and visit with high performing schools, diverse cultural opportunities, transport connections that keep things moving, and a healthy and sustainable environment for all
- high quality public services that work together alongside communities to deliver services that meet people's needs
A strong focus on our outcomes will be important in determining our response and recovery from COVID-19 over the life of this plan.
Our strategic approach
Our strategic approach governs how we work, as a council, with and for communities, and in collaboration with partners. Three key areas of activity underpin the approach: 'Enterprising Council', 'Thriving Communities' and 'Vision Derbyshire'.
Together these key areas place us in a stronger position to understand, to deliver our ambitions, adapt and respond to challenges, and bring about the changes needed to ensure future success.
Vision Derbyshire
Collaborating with partners in new and powerful ways, maximising existing resources to collectively address complex challenges and shape future services to deliver better outcomes for local people and places.
Enterprising council
Transforming the organisation, working as one council, ensuring we are prepared for the future and able to respond to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Thriving communities
Supporting greater collaboration with and across our communities to bring about change, ensuring people and places thrive.
Moving forwards
Over the forthcoming year we will be refreshing our strategic approach to drive forward our ambitions over the next four-year planning period, 2025-2029.
The way we work with partners will be evolving to align with the emerging East Midlands County Combined Authority and to ensure Derbyshire residents gain optimum value from the £1.14 billion regional investment that has been agreed with the government as part of the devolution deal.
Our future work with communities will be remodelled with a focus on effective delivery and aligning activity with other strategic programmes, ensuring that the refreshed approach reflects both what we do to support people, families and communities, as well as our ambitions for greater collaboration with communities and local agencies to address complex challenges.
Driving efficiency, effectiveness and value for money across the organisation will be central to our approach, and we will be accelerating our focus on transformation and maximising opportunities, to address budget challenges and to deliver modern services local people want and need.
Our services
We're responsible for the delivery of a range of mandatory statutory duties including key functions such adult social care, education, children’s safeguarding, public health, highways, waste management, libraries and trading standards.
We'll continue to fulfil our statutory duties and we'll also set out in this Plan a set of strategic objectives that prioritises the key activity for delivery during the year within our available resources, so that we can continue to drive improved outcomes for local people and value for money.
Some facts about us and our services (figures correct at 28 March 2024):
- We have a total of 64 elected members representing the residents of Derbyshire
- We support 420 schools to offer the best education
- We provide safe, stable homes for children in our care
- We deal with concerns about child safety and wellbeing
- We support older and disabled people to live independently at home
- We deal with requests for adult social care assessments, advice, and information
- We run 45 branch libraries, and a mobile library service
- We maintain 3,597 miles of roads and 2,796 miles of pavements and footways each year
- We look after 1,182 bridges, 495 footbridges, over 3,000 rights of way, and 89,900 streetlights
- We run 9 household waste recycling centres and dispose of more than 400,000 tonnes of waste each year