About the organisation

Wolverhampton City Council is embarking on an exciting journey of transformation that will put the customer at the heart of everything we do. For us, this is what an excellent organisation does.

Whilst the Council is very clear that it owns the transformation, we are engaging the support of a commercial partner to help us deliver some of the changes we want to make, as quickly as possible. The Council is now poised to enter into a ten year partnership with a private sector partner to help us refocus more closely on the needs of customers (both internal and external), improve the customer interface, modernise IT and make significant improvements in efficiency. This will come about through new processes, new roles for staff, new styles of management and changes in culture and behaviour.  

The Council will decide in March which of its two bidders will become our new strategic partner. Each bid has slightly different implications for the role of Director in particular. Further details will be shared with candidates at long or short listing stage. By the time of final interviews the precise shape of the job will be clearer.

Whichever partner is selected, the Council is now realigning its senior management arrangements around the Model for Excellence it has adopted for its organisation design. As part of these new arrangements, we have created a new post of Directorate of Customer and Shared Services. The Director will bring together all of the internal support services such as Finance and Human Resources ‘under one roof’ as well as establish and grow the Customer Services organisation. The Council is committed to developing a truly holistic customer-focused culture and we have refreshed our values and reviewed the behaviours that support those values, as part of this process.

Our new values are as follows:

• We treat each person as an individual.
• We work to deliver real improvements to the lives of Wolverhampton residents, to visitors and business.
• We deliver high-quality services that provide value for money, while protecting the environment.
• We include people in decisions that affect their lives and in the design of services that meet their needs.

Download the documents below for more detail on the transformation process.

• Achieving an Excellent Council through a Transformation Programme (PDF 1064Kb)
• Model for Excellence presentation (Powerpoint 9660Kb)
• Cabinet Report 04.04.07 (PDF 50Kb)

Management Structure

The Directorates in the new structure are as follows:

Customer and Shared Services

Responsible for the management of the core corporate support services of Human Resources, Finance, Legal, Procurement, ICT and Property. This directorate is also responsible for Customer Services, which will expand over time but begin by delivering a range of front line services – Housing Benefits, Local Taxes, Banking, Payments and City Direct. 

Children and Young People

Responsible for the management of the Council’s provision of Education, Children’s Social Care and Play and Youth, including preparing and implementing Statutory Plans and implementing School Improvement Partnership Board initiatives.  Providing operational management of the Youth Service, including youth clubs, projects and programmes; adventure playgrounds and other play provision.

Wolverhampton’s secondary schools are currently receiving £300m as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme. This will result in the creation of two new city academies and the rebuilding of four existing schools.

Sustainable Communities

Embracing the corporate lead for Regeneration & Environment and Safer and Stronger Communities, the Service Group is responsible for Planning & Highways, Regeneration & Transportation, Environmental Services, Waste, Recycling and Street Scene Services and Strategic Housing through Neighbourhood Renewal.  Management of the Council’s Housing Stock is undertaken by Wolverhampton Homes, an Arms Length Management Organisation which was established on 1st October 2005 to manage the Council’s 22,300 homes and deliver over £400m of improvements to achieve the Government’s Decent Homes Standard by 2010.

See: http://www.wolverhamptonhomes.org.uk/

Adults and Community

Responsible for the commissioning and provision of high quality services to adults in the City in partnership with others to ensure the best possible outcomes for the citizens of Wolverhampton.

Services include Social Services for Adults, Supported Housing Service, Cultural Services, the Libraries and Information Service, the Arts and Museums Service, Adult and Community Learning, the Registrars Services as well as the Sport, Recreation and Parks Service, Community Centres and Bereavement Services.

Social care for Children and Adults is making a major step towards business transformation with a programme which comprises a £9.3m investment to improve service user and carer satisfaction, efficiency and integrated working with partner organisations.

Office of the Chief Executive

The OCE comprises a range of Corporate and Democratic Services including Communications, Policy and Equality, Scrutiny and Democratic Support, Performance Management, Emergency Planning, Secretariat and the Transformation Project Team. Its prime focus will be to support the corporate management of the Council and the delivery of our aspirations for the City

Transformation Programme

The wide ranging change is supported by a Transformation Programme with the Transformation Director reporting to the Chief Executive. The Programme promotes and coordinates the complete set of changes. It takes particular responsibility for managing the Partnership for Customer Service and Efficiency, for Programme and Project Management and for facilitating the change in culture across the Council.

Political Arrangements

Wolverhampton City Council comprises 60 elected Councillors, representing local people in 20 wards across the City.   Wolverhampton seats are usually closely contested and we have a traditionally robust and open political culture.

Following the May 2008 local elections, the composition of the Council currently stands at Labour 28 seats, Conservative 27 seats, Liberal Democrats 5 seats, Liberals in Focus 1 seats. Political control rests with a minority Conservative administration

Decision making operates under a Leader and Cabinet model. Within the Cabinet, there are currently nine portfolio holders:

• Resources, Governance and Support Services
• Leisure and Culture
• Adults
• Environment
• Neighbourhoods and Community Safety
• Regeneration and Enterprise
• Schools
• Children and Young People
• Organisation, People & Performance

In addition to this, there are three Cabinet Panels to enable the Cabinet to focus on the strategic decisions facing the Council - the panels deal with issues of Resources, Performance Management and External Relations.