At its meeting last night (Thursday 23 June) East Dunbartonshire Council agreed its renewed approach to service delivery and organisational priorities for the area, entitled ‘East Dunbartonshire Forward in Partnership’.
Council Leader Gordan Low explained, “For this new Council term we have a real opportunity to refresh our approach to our strategic planning and performance framework, and it is our intention to do this through genuine engagement with our wide-ranging local communities and with our workforce.
“’East Dunbartonshire Forward in Partnership’ is our commitment to listening to what local people and our Council employees are saying and taking decisions after meaningful consultation with them. This is especially important as we face the current cost of living crisis and the climate emergency that are directly impacting our day-to-day lives.
“Community empowerment is absolutely at the heart of our plans. We want to improve the role our local residents, businesses and community groups can play in local decision making - and we especially want to focus on and include those areas that often struggle to be heard.”
Continuing the commitment to the vision for East Dunbartonshire ‘Working together to achieve the best with the people of East Dunbartonshire’, set out in the Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP), this renewed approach will support the delivery of the Council’s strategic priorities and outcomes, aligned to the local outcomes defined in the LOIP. The strategic priorities for 2022 – 2027 were outlined to Council and categorised in to the following four themes:
- Heath & Wellbeing
- Access to Services
- Finance & Employment
- Community & Environment
These themes were also key areas of focus highlighted in the feedback to the Locality Plan reviews recently carried out. These Locality Plans support the delivery of improved outcomes at a local level and are part of our wider approach to improvement planning through the LOIP.
Councillor Low continued, “Our ‘Forward in Partnership’ approach to decision making and the prioritisation of our services and resources truly places our citizens and our communities at the centre of our plans.
“Our partnership approach to this five year term will shape a new transformative agenda for the Council. Our priorities will deliver the services that our local communities need, in a flexible and tailored way - recognising that “one-size fits all” will not achieve the varying needs, priorities and outcomes across our diverse range of communities in this area.”
A suite of documents supported the new approach, including a strategic overview of the “Organisation and Workforce for the future” highlighting the strategic approach for the Council to deliver “East Dunbartonshire Forward in Partnership”, aligned to the updated priority themes.