Health and Environmental Services Departmental Plan 2014-15
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Health and Environmental Services Departmental Plan 2014-15 1 Health and Environmental Services Departmental Plan 2014-15 Contents Section Title Page 1.0 Background 03 2.0 Key actions for 2014-15 07 3.0 Key performance indicators for 2014-15 11 4.0 Committee membership 13 2 Health and Environmental Services Departmental Plan 2014-15 1.0 Background 1.1 The Corporate Plan embodies what the Council intends to achieve from 2012-15. It is ambitious yet realistic and demonstrates how Members are committed to improving quality of life for everyone who lives in, works in and visits Belfast. It is based upon an assessment of need in the city, the views of residents on what the Council’s priorities should be and a commitment to strong political and executive leadership at both a city wide and a neighbourhood level. 1.2 While the Corporate Plan focuses on issues which cut across Council departments, it also reflects the importance of the quality of the vital services that we provide on a daily basis. 1.3 A single image, representing how our Corporate Plan is managed within the organisation, through our Value Creating Mapping (VCM) process, is set out in figure 1 below. This map identifies our key priorities for the period 2012-15: Leadership; Environment; Economy; People & Communities; and Improving our Services. [INSERT DEPARTMENT NAME HERE] Fig 1: Corporate Value Creation Map 3 Health and Environmental Services Departmental Plan 2014-15 1.4 This Departmental Plan describes how the Health & Environmental Services Department’s actions and targets for 2014-15 complement the Corporate Plan. This Plan sets the strategic direction for the department and will ensure focused and effective leadership and management of the department by the Committees and senior managers. It provides explicit links between core departmental activity and corporate strategy. 1.5 Since the introduction of the Local Government Bill in September 2013, the department has already undertaken a significant programme of work to prepare for the changes associated with Local Government Reform. The key actions to be driven by this Department working with Members are described in greater detail in Section 2. Over the next year the department will be leading on a number of key strands of work including; taking a corporate lead on preparing the organisation for service convergence resulting from the extension of the Belfast Boundary; Take a lead role in preparing the council for the new duty of community planning to enable it to have commenced the community planning process by April 2015; including the associated development of our approach to area working; and; the transfer of a number of functions from central government, including responsibility for off street car parking and a number of housing functions. 1.6 The Department will also be working to ensure that the large number of customer facing services that it is responsible for, such as waste collection, street cleansing, recycling, community safety and regulatory services, are introduced to the new areas coming into the expanded Belfast while at the same time ensuring that existing citizens and business continue to receive a high quality service. 1.7 The vision for the Health & Environmental Services Department is ‘to help create a clean, safe, cohesive, healthy and sustainable city’. The Department adheres to the council’s values which state that we will: focus on the needs of customers, have a ‘can-do’ attitude, be problem solvers; provide value for money and improve services; work together; respect each other, be fair, promote equality and good relations; act sustainably; ensure the highest standards of health and safety; and value our employees. 1.8 The Department places particular emphasis on customer focus and has added the following values: ‘In all our dealings with the public, our Elected Members, our partners and each other, we will strive to provide high quality and efficient services and will: treat people fairly, equitably and with respect and courtesy; be helpful and constructive and will act in a professional manner; put public safety and health first and encourage care for the environment; 4 Health and Environmental Services Departmental Plan 2014-15 provide expert and objective advice and when statutory powers need to be used do so fairly but with firmness and in accordance with the principles of better regulation; provide a joined up approach across services and with other agencies and partners to create a clean, safe, more cohesive and healthy city which is vibrant and sustainable; and focus our resources on activities which make a difference to people’s quality of life and achieve our purpose.’ 1.9 Under the Council’s Scheme of Delegation, the Director of Health and Environmental Services has delegated authority to undertake the activities as outlined in Section 2. Progress update reports are normally submitted to the Health & Environmental Services Committee twice yearly. 1.10 The Strategic Policy & Resources Committee agreed the following estimates for the department and all the actions committed to in this Plan have been planned and resourced based on this estimate. 2013-14 figures are included for comparison. Net Expenditure (£) 2013-14 2014-15 Environmental Health 6,324,905 6,373,851 Emergency Planning 90,380 57,068 Regulation of Commercial Sector 1,909,454 1,963,071 Env Protection and Public Health 1,872,526 1,868,114 Community Safety and Schemes 955,491 1,049,768 PCSP 282,904 243,159 Health Development 166,050 165,450 EHS and Other Services 1,048,100 1,027,221 Waste Management 14,860,067 14,953,652 Waste Disposal 8,047,962 7,837,085 Waste Contracts 2,563,235 2,730,894 Recycling Centres 2,649,797 2,760,157 Public Conveniences 222,830 222,120 Waste Awareness and Outreach 618,036 663,645 Waste Management Business Support 569,124 540,417 Waste Policy 189,083 199,334 Building Control 1,586,006 1,333,099 Cleansing 16,083,089 15,987,333 Cleansing and Waste Collection Ops 14,642,409 14,573,596 5 Health and Environmental Services Departmental Plan 2014-15 Quality Assessment and Business Support 1,440,680 1,413,737 Directorate Support 826,492 849,310 TOTAL 39,680,559 39,497,245 The estimates shown above relate to the Health and Environmental Services Department prior to the transfer of the Good Relations Unit from the Chief Executives Department. Members will be aware that the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee approved the transfer of the Good Relations Unit to the Health and Environmental Services Department and at its meeting in January 2014 the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee approved a budget of £426,852 for the Good Relations Unit (as compared to £418,854 for 2013/14). A revised 2014/15 Health and Environmental Services estimate, incorporating the Good Relations estimate, is shown below for information. Net Expenditure (£) 2013-14 2014-15 Total Heath and Environmental Services 39,680,559 39,497,245 Good Relations £418,854 £426,852 TOTAL £40,099,413 £39,924,097 6 Health and Environmental Services Departmental Plan 2014-15 2.0 Key actions for 2014/ 15 (* Indicates whether the action is part of the Local Government Reform (LGR) programme or the Investment Programme (IP) IP* 2014-15 Action or LGR City Leadership 1 Take a lead role in preparing the council for the new duty of community LGR planning to enable it to have commenced the community planning process by April 2015; including the associated development of our approach to area working. 2 Lead the Student Housing Joint Team (with DSD, DoE, SIB and NIHE) to IP develop ways to promote, encourage and fund purpose-built managed student accommodation in the city to contribute to the concept of a learning city. 3 Provide leadership in tackling issues of inequality and social cohesion through IP our leading contribution to the Belfast Strategic Partnership for Tackling Health Inequalities. 4 Provide leadership in the promotion of Equality and Good Relations through IP our leading contribution to the Belfast Good Relations Partnership 5 Ensure safer and more secure residents and communities by supporting and IP driving the citywide Belfast Policing and Community Safety Partnership. 6 Develop a new Disability Strategy in addition to implementing the Council’s duties under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Disability Discrimination (NI) Order 2006. 7 Ensure equality of opportunity in the delivery of our services by implementing the Council’s Equality Scheme and its Equality and Diversity action plans. Environment 8 Implement the city’s Zero Waste Action Plan with the aim of improving the recycling rate by diverting more waste from landfill each year and by increasing the range of materials residents can dispose of in their blue bins. 9 Develop a strategy for the future collection and recycling of glass. 10 Review our commercial waste service to maximise the potential of meeting recycling targets and improving the overall performance of the Commercial Waste Service. 11 Review the Council’s Sustainable Development Action Plan and support the council to undertake OFMdFM’s new Sustainable Development Duty 12 Lead the implementation of the European-funded Renew project to support a sustainable resource-based economy. 13 Ensure the city’s streets are clean; effectively tackle issues of litter, graffiti, fly-posting and dog control while leading campaigns to change behaviours. 14 Collect the city’s bins and provide our residents with more opportunities for recycling. 15 Dispose of the city’s waste in the best way by sending less to direct landfill including leading the council in the decision-making process on procurement of Energy from Waste facilities. 16 Continue to explore options for the development of a new resource IP centre/Eco-Hub to ensure balanced service delivery.