Strategy and Commissioning

Divisional Director - Helen Charlesworth-May

This division includes the Active Communities and Customer and Community Relations teams. Overall, Strategy and Commissioning deals with buying in social care services and housing related support for vulnerable adults from a range of suppliers. It does this in conjunction with the Primary Care Trust. It consults with the public, service users, their families and carers, voluntary sector organisations and other service providers to find out what services are needed and what services are available. It negotiates with service providers to develop new services. It manages tendering and procurement to ensure they are getting best value and that good quality services are provided. It establishes the needs of the people in the borough based on a demographic analysis and consultation. Acting on this information, it develops policies, plans new services and produces commissioning strategies that set out the purchasing intentions of the department.

Active Communities

The Active Communities team works with a variety of local partners, including voluntary and community sector organisations and ward councillors to build strong, active and inclusive communities across the borough.

The team works with communities across the borough, and provides opportunities for people to get involved, and influence what happens in their area and in their community. They also have responsibility for the development and implementation of parts of the borough's Communities First programme. They do this by encouraging greater involvement of community and voluntary sector partners in planning and delivery of community services.

Customer and Community Relations

The customer and community relations team provides a range of services to support the work of Adults’ and Community Services. These include overseeing internal and external communications, carrying out a range of user involvement and customer satisfaction surveys. They also provide a first point of contact for members of the public who have queries about a range of issues, including welfare benefits, social welfare issues and domestic violence.