Created in 1974, Calderdale has grown to be a great place to live, defined by its people, its distinctive market towns and its beautiful natural environment.
Recently we have had to adapt to respond to major flooding, COVID-19 and significant financial and demand pressures. Our determination to manage decreasing budgets is matched by our ambition to maximise investment into the borough. The hard work, resilience and innovation of our communities and workforce have helped us achieve a lot, despite the cost of living crisis, sustained pressure on Council services and the health and care system, workforce challenges and the climate crisis.
We focus on continuous learning and transformation to stay relevant for the future. We welcomed a Local Government Association Corporate Peer Review in 2023, and we are about to launch the Vision 2034 for Calderdale and refresh our Corporate Plan for 2024 to 2026, which shows how we will achieve our Vision and priorities and how we will focus our resources.
A core fundamental foundation to enable productive and efficient local government is the Best Value duty placed upon us, rooted in the principles of good governance. The council has well-established governance frameworks in place and a constitution describing how it operates, how decisions are made and setting the procedures which are followed to ensure that these are efficient, transparent and accountable to local people and that the council is well-run.
The Council is subject to a range of external inspections and regulatory frameworks, upon which we are measured or assessed. This provides assurance to residents that we are doing the things we should be, following good practice and using resources wisely.
This document has been produced in accordance with the guidance issued by the Minister for Local Government to local authority chief executives on 16th April 2024.
Robin Tuddenham, Chief Executive, Calderdale Council
Councillor Scott Patient, Deputy Leader, Calderdale Council
How we have transformed the way we design and deliver services to make better use of resources
The Council has a proud history of doing more with less whilst protecting frontline services. We have banked £127m of savings since 2010 with no significant reduction in the services our residents rely on and achieved a reduction of 16.4% of our workforce over the past decade.
We have reduced the number of Council-owned buildings by almost 20%, decreasing our property revenue costs by over 40% (around £5m per year). We have achieved this through asset reviews, most recently our Workplace / Office Accommodation Strategy, which has driven a new hybrid way of working, where staff work from home and a range of office bases to suit their activity, with one desk available per five employees in our offices.
We have transformed the way people access our services through our Customer First Strategy. We have increased productivity by boosting web-based contact from 59% in 2018 to 72% in 2023 and reducing face-to-face contact from 8% to 2% in the same period. Visits to our website tripled from 2018 to 2023, to 9.2m.
We have a proud track record of community asset transfers and community management of assets. Our place-based Neighbourhood Teams support organisations with governance structures, sourcing funding and ongoing publicity about activities and resources that are available at community assets. Our Neighbourhood Teams sometimes become tenants in asset transferred buildings, maintaining their community links and providing a stable occupancy and continuity in the locality. Examples include libraries, youth centres, a town hall and a community college.
In Adult Social Care services, we have introduced an assessment tool based on a strengths-based conversation with people, to give them information and advice and direct them to support in the community. This is a more efficient way of having an impact on people, reducing bureaucracy and waiting times.
How we measure effectiveness and productivity
We measure our corporate performance against our three priorities – reducing inequalities, thriving towns and places, and climate action – and against Office for Local Government metrics. We report this to Cabinet quarterly and publish updates on our website. We compare our performance to other local areas and to similar borough councils in England. For the last 12 months, 65% of our main performance indicators have ranked within the top or second quartile against similar councils.
We also measure effectiveness through external assessments. For example, our Children and Young People’s Services are rated ‘good’ in all areas, according to our Ofsted inspection in February 2024 (previous inspections rated us ‘good’ in 2018 and ‘requires improvement’ in 2015, highlighting our focus on continuous improvement). The report praised the effectiveness of preventative services and early help, which ensure families are supported when their needs are first identified, and we can make a difference.
Awards are another way we use external recognition to measure our innovation and good practice. We have recently won:
- The Stakeholder Engagement in Planning category at the national Planning Awards 2024. (Engagement has helped define what makes Calderdale special and how new development should respond to this.)
- The Leadership in Responding to the Climate Emergency category in the MJ Awards 2024. (The Calderdale Climate Action Partnership shows innovative action for buildings, energy, transport, climate adaptation and nature-based solutions.)
Looking ahead (service redesign and budget savings)
Through transformation we aim to be a council that is financially sustainable, effective and can adapt to remain relevant for the future. Our transformation priorities focus on service redesign in children’s and adults’ services; bringing the Local Plan to life in transforming the place; developing new delivery models for waste management and highways; and implementing a refreshed Digital Strategy that changes the way we interact with our customers (see technology section). We will also focus on ensuring that our internal systems, processes, people and assets are effective, efficient and fit for the future.
Service change and reviewing our assets are integral to our budget plans, with asset-based initiatives estimated to save £300k per year, which include, disposal of Calderdale’s Shay Stadium, releasing the subsidy to invest in other priorities, and rationalising our Household Waste and Recycling Centres. Phase one of changes include changing opening hours and introducing resident permits, phase two includes reducing 5 sites to 4.
As the demand for temporary accommodation increases, we have identified the opportunity for investment in prevention and new delivery models. We are doing some innovative work with Crisis. The first stage focused on rough sleepers and the next stage is on temporary accommodation, which is at the scoping stage. Both are at the forefront of service transformation backed by Crisis research and support and have the potential to reduce costs in this area.
How we plan to take advantage of technology and make better use of data to improve decision making, service design and use of resources
Our digital transformation ethos is:
- We aim to deliver efficient, effective, people-focussed digital services to residents and businesses that interact with us. We direct resources to those who need our help the most, which are likely to be those that are most disadvantaged.
- We operate efficiently, with automation of routine tasks to release capacity to further innovate.
- We engage with partners at a place/system level to work together to make Calderdale a truly digital borough, where businesses can thrive with future-proofed connectivity, where local people can equally access digital technology and services, and where data and insights drive policy and strategy.
We have been improving use of data over recent years. Our Open Data website, ‘Dataworks’ shows our corporate performance and nearly 300 open datasets in a transparent and accessible way so people can understand the data through reports, infographics and dashboards.
We want to create a data-savvy workforce so we can use data to better prioritise, target and improve service delivery. We have three principles for use of data that underpin everything: openness and transparency, self-service and automation.
To promote shared use of data, there are several other organisations publishing on Dataworks too, such as Citizens Advice Calderdale, the Department for Transport and Office for National Statistics. This shows our local and regional priority for data innovation with partner organisations.
We use Microsoft Power BI, our key digital infrastructure underpinning data and performance visualisation and reporting, to support services with their business intelligence requirements, reporting and to inform decision making.
Use of technology to improve efficiency
We are now recording and managing cremation and burial data with a new system that will enable us to offer additional options to bereaved families and Funeral Directors and Memorial Masons. For example, we are replacing paper-based cemetery maps with interactive digital maps, and will provide a searchable register for people to view online and get detailed grave location information (removing the need for staff to find the grave and show them in person). Funeral Directors and Memorial Masons will be able to upload the required paperwork to the system, replacing the need for paper copies.
We were the first council in the North of England to transform our approach to line marking sports pitches using Turf Tank One, an automated line marking machine. With all our pitches now plotted on a GPS, one operator with a machine can mark out all sports pitches, reducing labour and travel costs by approximately 75% and using half the amount of paint due to efficient application.
Our digital transformation is built on the following themes:
- Ongoing focus on cyber security and ability to recover and continue business as usual, through staff training, security tooling, work with supply chain and the move to Microsoft’s E5 licensing for improved security and digital loss prevention.
- Further reduction in the number of different systems used across the Council and consolidation of ICT infrastructure to reduce spend and ensure staff have the right technology to provide services effectively.
- Increased integration between systems to share data within the Council and with partner organisations for better decision-making.
- Process improvement to optimise efficient and effective deployment of digital systems.
- Automation of routine tasks so staff can focus on more valuable activities.
- Making the most of our investment in Microsoft 365 using proven adoption methods.
- Ensuring high data quality, effective data standards and better access to data to make effective and timely decisions and develop artificial intelligence capability.
- Building a digitally skilled workforce through a learning programme, with everyone on board with our digital transformation journey.
Plans to reduce ‘wasteful spend’ within our organisation and systems
Wider systems and partnerships
The Council plays a crucial role in championing and promoting Calderdale, and leaders influence national, regional, and local decision makers to get the best for the borough. Our Chief Executive is also the Calderdale Place Lead for the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, manages the NHS Place Team and is the principal advisor to the Calderdale Cares Partnership Board.
Our place leadership and relationship with West Yorkshire Combined Authority mean we can share investment and work on priorities that are important to all five West Yorkshire councils, such as climate, culture, housing, and transport. As a place leader, the Council has had the largest allocation of housing funds via the Combined Authority, strong result from the Employment Land Accelerator Fund and other grants, meaning we can get started on delivering projects to improve life in Calderdale.
To address inequalities linked with the availability and quality of housing, we work closely with our social housing provider through a Housing Investment Partnership to drive delivery of new housing, retrofit existing social homes and regenerate neighbourhoods. Calderdale Together Housing Investment Partnership in place in conjunction with our stock transfer housing association (Together Housing) - delivering new housing, retrofitting existing social homes and regenerating neighbourhoods.
Alternative delivery models
We are delivering some services with other organisations through alternative delivery models to benefit from joint skills and investment, such as West Yorkshire Joint Services for trading standards and C&K Careers for young people’s skills and careers. We have demonstrated good use of procurement and contracts for providing large services like waste collection, and we are exploring how a joint venture for this service could improve productivity and reduce costs.
Workforce and diversity
Challenges to recruit and keep staff in certain roles has led to higher use of agency staff and interims than we would like, to keep services going. To increase buying power and secure lower rates, we took a joint approach to contracting agency staff through a matrix supplier. We continue to review the use of agency staff and recently introduced a new grading structure for social workers to boost recruitment and retention. We are looking to expand the scope of the matrix system to a wider range of agency roles and consultancy requirements.
Other ways we are working to attract and keep our own employees, and reduce spend on agency staff, include:
- Implementing our Workforce Strategy to ensure staff are flexible and motivated to respond to change over the next five to 10 years and achieve our Vision and priorities.
- Continuing our commitment to workplace wellbeing by building on the success of our integrated health, safety, and wellbeing management system. We have significantly reduced staff absence rates from 14 days per full time equivalent in 2018 to below 10 days in 2023.
Calderdale’s diverse mix of people brings unique backgrounds, perspectives, life experiences and creativity, and this is something to be respected, celebrated and nurtured.
We are proud that our gender and equality pay gaps have continued to reduce and are better than the UK average. We have the lowest gender pay gap in the Yorkshire and Humber region – reducing from 3.4% in 2017 to -0.4% in 2023. In addition, we have reduced our ethnicity pay gap from 2.1% in 2021 to 1.6% in 2023.
In the UK the working population is increasingly diverse with more individuals from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds entering the workplace. For Calderdale this is good news as we, along with other employers, have access to a wider range of talent and potential and an opportunity to ensure that individuals find jobs that match their talent, experience and qualifications irrespective of their background or personal characteristics. Tackling inequality in the workplace is also about social justice. This is vital if the Council is to be a kind and welcoming place to work, where everyone feels valued for who they are. We work hard to remove any barriers to success and progression for all, having a close correlation in the proportion of employees representing minority ethnic communities to the Census and labour market statistic for Calderdale. In turn, staff are empowered to provide the best possible service to make a difference to our diverse communities. They do this in challenging times, with significant budget pressures and increasing demand – and this deserves recognition. We are proud of our staff and the amazing work they do.
Invest to save
Some of our infrastructure, assets and systems are at the end of their useful life, so they are inefficient and cost more to run and maintain. When we replaced 12,000 of our old street lighting columns, we also replaced 28,000 column lanterns with energy-efficient LED lighting. This resulted in significant financial savings and a 68% reduction in electricity usage from 14.5mwh to 4.7mwh per year. This reduction in usage is not only paying for the borrowing costs of the original investment but generating savings on top and protecting the Council from rising energy prices in future.
We are investing in a new initiative in 2024/25 where care leavers will occupy rooms within accommodation provided by Together Housing, in partnership with the Council, rather than in the private sector. This is more cost-effective and allows us to give better support. Annual savings are expected to rise to £762,000 by 2025/26. Moving children in care back into Council-owned accommodation over the next two years is estimated to save £750,000 on the cost of expensive external provision.
Barriers preventing progress
The following changes to the system of Local Government finance would support councils to be more productive:
- Multi-year settlement
- Streamlining of separate grant funding pots
- Proportionate and consistent reporting on grants
- Adequate funding for new challenges and policy changes
Policy reform is also essential in areas where costs are creating pressures at a ‘system’ level – for example, adult social care, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, children’s social care and housing.
How we will monitor our performance
- Measure productivity in the Council, using quarterly performance reports and annual value for money assessments.
- Measure the effect of our transformation plans, using customer / resident satisfaction surveys highlight reports and reviews at programme boards.
- Monitor the implementation of budget savings, using quarterly budget monitoring reports.
- Consider the value for money of our services, by centrally reviewing service business plans and carrying out annual value for money assessments.
- Assure ourselves that our plans are being delivered, through our Performance Framework, including quarterly performance reporting, staff appraisals and team meetings.
- Measure quality through self-assessment and implementing recommendations from external inspections and reviews.
References and more Information
- Council Constitution
- LGA Corporate Peer Review
- Corporate Plan
- Code of Corporate Governance
- Financial Statements
- Annual Governance Statement
- Approved Budget and Medium Term Financial Plan
- Performance Reports
- Published data sets
- Ofsted
- National Planning Awards 2024 – Stakeholder engagement in planning
- MJ Awards 2024 – Leadership in Responding to the climate emergency
- Local Plan
- Public sector equality duty – annual report
- Climate Action Plan