What the Council does and role of the Strategy

West Berkshire Council provides over 700 statutory services for our residents and businesses. Our residents rely on us to:

• ensure older people and vulnerable adults are looked after and supported to live independently
• maintain our roads and transport infrastructure, parks, open spaces and buildings
• offer housing services
• support education, early years and children with special educational needs
• keep children safe and families together
• encourage economic development
• provide planning services
• support culture, museums and libraries
• provide benefits and collect council taxes and business rates
• collect bins and provide recycling services
• work with communities to support public health and wellbeing

This is what we do every day, and the way we do it is mapped out in our Service Plans. Some parts of the Service Plans are about what we do now and some are about areas that the Council, based on the evidence base and the consultation with residents, wants to prioritise as part of the Council Strategy.

The Council Strategy is about the future, improvements and/or change:

• improving or changing what we do or how we do it
• the introduction of new services or amenities

The strategy sets out what key changes we want to make, what key actions we will take to implement the changes and when, and when the changes will be introduced. As we implement this strategy, the Council will become better at delivering the services you need and will also provide some of the additional things you have asked for.

Having a clear strategy is important because:

• it shows what our priorities are and therefore helps with decision-making
• it gives direction to everyone in the organisation, ensuring all services are working together towards the priorities set in the strategy
• it provides the context and key themes for a range of more specific strategies within the Council, such as the Adult Social Care strategy or the Environment strategy
• it provides focus for the Executive and Senior Leadership
• it provides a framework for evaluating the Council's performance

The strategy is supported by the Delivery Plan which contains more detail on the actions we will take and when, and what improvements we expect as a result. The link to the Delivery Plan, including a QR code for easy access, are provided at the end of this document.

The rest of this document highlights the key goals, outcomes and actions which are further detailed in the Delivery Plan. To make the strategy clearer and easier to understand, each section starts with a visual summary showing what we plan to do each year from 2023 to 2027. These summary plans are then supported with more detailed explanations.

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