An Efficient Gwynedd

The main aim of the project is to ensure that the Council has a sufficient supply of eligible staff to enable them to provide services for the county's residents, and that it is possible for us to ensure that this supply is in place for the long-term. We will address specific staff recruitment issues in key fields such as in the social care and education field

The Council's culture places the people of Gwynedd at the centre of everything we do and this means removing obstacles that prevent staff from achieving, with decisions based on evidence instead of assumptions. 

We are already challenging service teams to reflect on their current working arrangements, to challenge whether they are placing the people of Gwynedd at the centre and to consider whether there is room for improvement. 

We will focus on embedding a culture of empowerment, enablement and achievement across all the workforce, which provides services directly as well as indirectly to the people of Gwynedd. 

We will continue with the work that is already in the pipeline to ensure that the Council, in all of its actions, gives due attention to equality. We will identify the work that needs to be done to ensure that the Council treats everyone fairly, regardless of their equality characteristics, background and needs. 

The number of women who undertake a management role within the Council is not commensurate with the distribution within the whole workforce. We will therefore continue to introduce a programme to develop potential for women, carrying out an audit of our recruitment and appointment methods for managerial posts and creating a forum for female leaders and prospective leaders as part of the programme to encourage more women to apply for senior posts within the Council. 

The Council has already cut its budgets to save over £32m since 2015/16, however, as a result of the current economic situation, the funding the Council receives from the Government is not sufficient to cope with inflation and the new expenditure pressure. We are facing a financial gap of over £12 million over the next two years.   

We will strive to do everything we can to reduce the impact on the services provided to the people of Gwynedd whilst accepting that it will not be possible to set a balanced budget without a long series of savings/cuts and increasing Council Tax higher than we would have wished.  

People's expectations and trends have changed substantially as a result of the pandemic, and this is an opportunity to see whether we can further improve the experience of Gwynedd residents of front-line and back-office services by using digital technology.

This project looks at the strategic management of health and safety within the Council and the way this ties in with the Council's general governance and performance systems. It entails undertaking a fully comprehensive review of the management system as a whole. 

We will adopt a new Property Assets Management Plan that will outline the Council's plan in terms of using our buildings to provide services. The previous Property Assets Management Plan was adopted in 2016, and a substantial change has occurred in working arrangements and service delivery since then. It is timely for us to look at managing and rationalising the estate in line with the Council's priorities and the needs of services provided for Gwynedd residents. Alongside with this we will confirm our flexible working and hybrid working arrangements.