Cheshire East Council
C.Co was engaged to review Community Services at Cheshire East Council. The review was to consider the way in which current services are delivered; the strategic context for the delivery of services moving forward; and the future delivery of those services in line with recognised best practice. The review specifically explored the issues and opportunities that alignment/absorption of Community Services within the wider Place, Public Health, Commissioning and Social Care functions may bring.
Our approach was to conduct an initial ‘desktop’ review of available, relevant documentation and to challenge existing delivery and ‘to be’ proposals against the hypothesis that the Communities division can be incorporated into the Place, Public Health, Commissioning and Social Care operations to better integrate services around the needs of the community. This part of the review raised a number of questions/queries that were explored through engagement workshops, at a more general level, and specifically through the face to face meetings with key individuals/groups.
C.Co was able to make a number of, mostly, structural recommendations that provided a platform for the existing Community Services teams to be incorporated across the wider People and Place directorates and, in particular, more closely aligning Community Safety and Community Development to the commissioning process. C.Co’s recommendations identified efficiency savings as well as an improved operating model.
Although the focus of this review was Community Services, C.Co was able to identify a number of wider, added value, considerations for the Council that will inform its wider community governance and cultural development.
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