A forward-looking and resilient Council

We're always looking to make services more efficient and sustainable and better meet people’s needs, and will carry on looking at ways to develop our services and change the way we work in the future.

As a large County Council we have a range of central services that work across the whole of the Council to provide and support our day-to-day services for residents.

This includes our customer service centre, legal and governance teams, finance, human resources, procurement, communications, IT and business support.

These services are the 'engine room' of the Council and help us provide and deliver our customer-facing services, ensuring we have the resources we need to work efficiently and adapt for the future.

Colleagues in our central teams also make sure that we work in a lawful and transparent way, reducing any risks, and making the best use of resources to protect services while delivering value for money for local people.

Our staff stepped up during the pandemic and worked hard to adapt services and protect the most vulnerable. We want to continue to support them by giving them the skills and knowledge they need and providing a positive, inclusive culture. We'll also continue to develop new and innovative ways of working, including some which came out of the pandemic, like hybrid home/office working, and using 'virtual visits' to connect social care staff and residents. We're always looking to make services more efficient and sustainable and better meet people’s needs, and will carry on looking at ways to develop our services and change the way we work in the future.

We’ll keep developing our technologies to reach those in isolated communities, and make it easier for people to communicate with us and access our services. We’ll create effective, easy-to-use systems and processes to ensure we get it right for residents first time, every time. And, we’ll keep listening and using residents’ feedback and other data to make services better, working closely with partners to get the best for people.

Finally, we’re working hard to secure more powers and resources for Nottinghamshire. We know this would help us improve our services, support local businesses, create jobs and attract much needed investment for infrastructure and the economy. We are doing this by collaborating with other councils in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, and our many partners, all of whom share in our ambition. We’re talking with Government about our proposals, and how they link to our broader ten-year vision, and the national levelling up agenda.

Over the next four years, we’ll focus on:

Delivering our Council-wide Improving Residents Access Programme, to give people better access to information and services, develop technology that helps people access our services more easily, and empowering vulnerable people to be as independent as possible.
Maintaining the financial sustainability of the authority through our Medium Term Financial Strategy, allocating resources appropriately to achieve the ambitions in this Plan and working with partners and the Government to maximise the resources available.
Developing our Council-wide approach to service transformation. This will help us to identify and develop new ways of delivering services that create the best possible long-term outcomes for people. It will find better ways of managing costs and demand.
Managing the transition from our current Committee system to a Cabinet system of governance that will help speed up and improve our decision making.
Continuing to develop our hybrid-working model to enable staff to deliver services in new ways, whilst reducing our carbon footprint from staff travel and reducing our property costs.
Continuing to invest in supporting and developing our workforce, so that our staff are resilient, adaptable, and equipped to face the challenges of changing services and workplaces.
Ensuring that the way we work with our partners, residents and with each other across the Council reflects the values we set out in this Plan.
Joining up our commissioning activity across Council services to achieve financial benefits and improve services for people.

In 2025-26, to achieve this, we will deliver the following actions:

Deliver our Buildings and Office Rationalisation Programme which aims to improve the mobility, productivity and effectiveness of our workforce, including further progression of the Council’s new office complex, Oak House, in Hucknall.

So that we ensure efficient and effective use of the Council’s office estate to support modern and efficient services, whilst maximising assets for economic impact and regeneration.

Deliver a Joint Venture arrangement for the County’s Catering & Facility Management Services, to realise increased efficiency and effectiveness.

So that there is a secure and sustainable future for the service to provide high-quality meals, cleaning, landscape and maintenance services to schools, residents and businesses across the county.

Respond to the statutory invitation by working collaboratively with partners to develop proposals to reorganise local government in Nottinghamshire, in line with the requirements of the English Devolution White Paper.

So that residents experience more joined-up services and have a more powerful local voice, with local government in Nottinghamshire seeing improved resilience, efficiency and effectiveness.

Deliver a new blueprint for how the whole Council is organised and works together and collaboratively with our partners.

So that the Council achieves its ambitions and vision and is ready for Local Government Reorganisation.

Establish new ways of working through a test, learn and grow approach to transformation, delivering programmes which focus on helping people get the right help at the right time, delivering integrated services closer to communities and establishing more efficient and effective delivery models, built through employee engagement.

So that people can find the help they need, when they need it, close to their communities, preventing needs escalating, reducing service demand and helping support a sustainable financial position for the Council. This will also motivate and engage our employees, making best use of their knowledge and expertise to improve the design and delivery of services.

Deliver the Council’s digital strategy, exploiting new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) wherever possible, including upgrades to our social care case management system and financial & HR systems.

So that residents have improved access to Council services, whilst we increase our efficiency and reduce costs.

Strengthen our quality assurance, performance and risk management arrangements, engaging with external sector support through health check and peer review opportunities to ensure we are working towards embedding best practice.

So that we have effective ways of understanding the quality and performance of the services we provide and commission, identifying risks and taking action to improve where it is needed.

To find out more about what we’ve got planned for the current year, you can read our full Annual Delivery Plan 2025-2026.