What Croydon Do
To change Croydon for the better, the Council has to change too. We’re currently undergoing a significant transformation that will help us to lead more effectively and work together more coherently.
As part of this change, we have proposed a realignment of the Council’s functions — reducing eight departments to five — and are in the process of consulting our staff and stakeholders. We have already recruited to the first of the Executive Director positions and intend to have all senior appointments completed and in post by October 2008.
You’ll find more detailed information about each of these areas within the job packs.
The proposed five departments are:
- Children, Young People & Learners
- Community Services
- Adult Services & Housing
- Regeneration & Development
- Resources & Customer Services
There is also a Chief Executive’s Office that co-ordinates Policy, Strategic Planning, Communications, Legal Services, Human Resources and Organisational Development.
Council Structure – PDF Download
Children, Young People & Learners
With responsibility for Children’s Services across the board, this department plays a vital role in our ambitions for young people in the borough.
Encompassing areas such as Education Services, Early Years, Safeguarding, Children’s Social Services, Building Schools for the Future, Youth Services, Adult Education and Strategic Planning, this department delivers our promise to provide the best start in life for young people and lifelong learning.
It’s an exciting time for this department as we’re investing an additional £500k on improving school standards. It’s especially important that we build effective relationships with schools and provide greater leadership and coherence across regeneration and community initiatives, for the benefit of young people.
Children, Young People & Learners – Strategies
Community Services
At the heart of Croydon, is its community. The Community Services Department is responsible for providing effective front-line services to residents and businesses in the borough. It’s clearly important that this department provides high quality, efficient services and engages with our service users and stakeholders.
We have a huge task to improve resident satisfaction in the borough. Services such as Streetscene, Waste Management, Parking, Open Spaces and Community Safety need to demonstrate value for money and efficiency.
Croydon’s inward investment and regeneration plans are huge — and so ensuring we develop and grow our sense of community is important. In fact, improving the public realm is going to be at the heart of the new Croydon. The Council is preparing an area action plan that will establish how we accommodate changes and deliver high-quality mixed used development. SMC Alsop has been appointed to outline ideas for how the borough can be transformed, kicking off with talks under the banner ‘Dare to Dream’, followed by public consultation throughout the year.
Adult Services & Housing
The integration of Adult Social Services and Housing Services is a key area of focus for the Council. As the borough’s largest landlord, we have the opportunity to offer vital support to some of the most vulnerable people in our community, breaking down the often confusing range of services and different points of contact with the Council.
Like all the other departments, we must maximise the benefits of regeneration, improving services and the opportunity to engage our communities and partners.
Working through the Local Strategic Partnership, and closely with health services in the borough, we seek to improve the quality of life and create a stronger, safer community.
Adult Services & Housing – Strategies
Regeneration & Development
With a population of over 341,000 Croydon is London’s largest borough and is widely recognised as the largest town in Western Europe that hasn’t yet been granted separate city status.
The borough is experiencing unrivalled regeneration and growth, with £3.6bn of investment committed and much more in the development pipeline.
Completion of Park Place, a £550m, 1 million sq ft shopping scheme, is set to expand the 2.5 million sq ft of shopping space we have already. Croydon is currently one of the largest retail centres in the south east (excluding central London) and just outside the country’s top 10 shopping centres. Park Place will expand our catchment population of 1.5 million and further underline Croydon’s retail strength.
Another key asset is Croydon’s excellent transport links. East Croydon is one of the busiest stations in the UK with fast and frequent rail services to London, Gatwick and the South Coast. In May 2000, Croydon became the first London borough to reintroduce trams. The £200m, environmentally-friendly light rail system Tramlink has been an outstanding solution to traffic congestion, and regularly carries more than 50,000 passengers a day. An extension to the system is scheduled for 2012/17, and Croydon looks set to benefit from the New Cross Gate link of the proposed East London line scheduled post 2012.
Regeneration & Development – Strategies
Resources & Customer Services
Having recently been awarded 4–stars for our use of resources by the Audit Commission, we are keen to build on the successful, robust planning and management of resources across the borough.
Overall, our biggest challenges are embedding a strong culture of performance management and improving customer satisfaction across all services.