Liverpool City Council is looking to transform the way it delivers key services to residents, with a new Neighbourhood Model that will see the city divided into 13 areas, each with its own senior manager.
This shake up, the biggest to how council services are delivered in over a decade, has been recommended by a report to the council’s cabinet yesterday and will see Liverpool divided up into 13 Neighbourhoods. Senior managers for each neighbourhood will be situated in the area permanently, working alongside council departments to highlight the key issues to that community.
Outlined as a priority, this landmark project has been given a budget of £1.2 million to recruit the team of 19 officers. The Neighbourhood Model project will be phased, as outlined in the Cabinet report, and will focus initially on services within the Neighbourhoods and Housing directorates. Collaboration with other stakeholders across the city and its communities will be a big focus of this.
Cllr Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said:
“This new Neighbourhood Model lays the foundation for a complete reset of how this council works with – and for – the residents of this city.
“Each community in Liverpool has their own unique issues and challenges and as a council we need to reflect that in how we design, develop, and deliver our services.
“This new model will put the Council at the heart of our communities, placing our eyes and ears closer to the ground than ever before so we can listen and respond much more intelligently and quickly.
“I said I wanted Liverpool City Council to be the best in the country. That’s the goal and it’s achievable if we work with our residents and partners in a more collaborative way. We also have amazing staff with a huge amount of local knowledge which we don’t always use to our advantage. This model will empower people to make decisions and take action.
“Our residents deserve better services, and we will strain every sinew to deliver them. This is a huge task, but this new Neighbourhood model sets out a clear roadmap to becoming much more efficient and effective in how we work with our communities and partners to make Liverpool a better city to live and work in.”
The new programme is aiming to deliver on four key aims, according to the council. These aims are:
- More effective joint working across council services locally with a focus on prevention, improving standards of delivery, maximising our assets, and improving outcomes.
- More effective use of data to understand local neighbourhood issues and to inform strategies, service design and delivery on an appropriate geographical footprint.
- An inclusive, partnership approach working together to benefit residents and communities and enabling engagement in the decisions that impact our neighbourhoods.
- Reduce duplication, particularly in resolving local issues.
Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Cllr Laura Robertson-Collins, said:
“To make Liverpool a cleaner, greener, and safer city we need to empower people with the belief and the confidence that they have a role to play – and our best route to achieving that goal is from the grassroots up.
“This new Neighbourhood model is also about reshaping our approach to better understand the problems in our communities. This is about listening more and using data more intelligently to measure and improve how we respond to the needs of our residents.
“We also need to be smarter and faster and more joined up as a Council, to not just think of an issue purely in terms of how that fits with a department’s priorities. For example, litter is more than just a waste management issue, it cuts across housing, highways and even planning.
“Anti-social behaviour is not just the responsibility of the community safety team. And these new Neighbourhood managers will have the power to connect teams up, which means we should reach solutions far more efficiently and effectively.
“Recruitment is not going to happen overnight, and we need to temper expectations in what can be achieved immediately. But we’ve seen in the Croxteth Hub that greater collaboration with other partners at a community level works.
“Greater collaboration also saves time and money as we’re more likely to anticipate and pre-empt issues before they develop to the point that they become a drain on resources. That is the way forward. And we need everyone to join us to help us look after our city and make and keep it cleaner and safer.”
Image credit: iStock
