Future West Sussex
Programme
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Introduction
In 2013 the Council agreed the Future West Sussex Vision which outlined the County Council’s priorities for West
Sussex for the next five years. Those priorities are as follows:
1.a To give children the best start in life
 We want to make sure every child growing up in
West Sussex has the best possible start in life. We
know how important a child’s early experiences of
life are and how the home environment he or she
lives in, and the family support he or she receives,
have a huge influence on their outcomes in later
life. We believe that by supporting children and
their families in these valuable early years we can
promote positive, long-term impacts on their future
health, wellbeing and achievements and encourage
them to reach their full potential as adults.
 We also believe that if we focus this support on
those families that need it the most, we can then
make a real contribution to reducing long-standing
health and learning inequalities. Evidence tells us
that when families break down the costs to society
are high. Children are more likely to live in poverty,
fail at school and end up being unemployed in later
life.
We believe we will make the biggest difference to
the lives of children, young people and families by
working together with partners to meet their needs
as early as possible and by tackling issues at the
root before they develop into more serious
problems.
 Ensuring the best start in life is also about making
sure every child is ready for school when the time
comes and providing support for families is key to
this too. Children living in poverty can be up to nine
months behind children from more advantaged
backgrounds at the age of three. This negative
impact goes on to affect educational attainment,
employment and life chances further down the line.
By ensuring that, wherever possible, children
achieve a good level of development by the age of
five we will be setting a solid base for their
continuing education and positively impacting on
future educational attainment.
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1.b To champion the West Sussex economy
 We want the economy of West Sussex to be vibrant
and resilient. A healthy economy will attract, retain
and grow businesses that will provide high value
employment for local residents and produce high
quality products and services. Our vision is to
develop a diverse and resilient economy and a
digital infrastructure that will create the conditions
that enable traditional and high-tech businesses of
all sizes to flourish across a range of sectors.

We will work with employers to ensure our
residents have the right skills throughout their
lives to meet the needs of our businesses. We
know that an appropriately skilled workforce will
help to attract and retain those businesses
providing higher value jobs. We have a proven
track record to build on - qualification and skill
levels in many parts of West Sussex are high and
school attainment is good.
 Attracting businesses to West Sussex and
encouraging their growth is one thing, but we know
that people are the real key to the success of our
county’s economy. West Sussex has fewer working
age residents as a proportion of the population as a
whole. To maintain or improve our relative
economic position we need to attract and retain
more people of working age and ensure that a
higher proportion of them are working in high value
jobs. Where benefits are administered locally, we
want them to support people returning to work.
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1.c To help older people remain independent for longer in later life
 We want to help everyone in West Sussex to live
long, active, independent and healthy lives
whatever their circumstances. We already know
West Sussex is a healthy place to live and our
residents enjoy a higher than average life
expectancy. This is positive, but also presents
challenges for individuals, families and public
services in the future. We anticipate these
challenges will include individuals needing more
years of health and social care services, drawing
pensions for longer, a smaller workforce to pay for
care and an increased pressure on suitable housing
and accommodation.
 We want to ensure residents, families and
communities have the right support in place to
enable them to confidently prepare for later life
so they can live independently for as long as
possible and remain economically active for
longer.
With
improved
planning
and
coordination of services we believe we can
offer the right level of support to the elderly
population of our county. By providing
information on these services earlier, we will
ensure that individuals and their families are
well aware of what help is available and are
better placed to plan for their future.
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2. In order to support the delivery of those priorities, the Council also agreed five key principles which will drive
the manner in which we operate and ensure that we are directing our increasingly stretched resources to
where they are most needed. We will:

Help you to help yourself. We will be here to
represent you and promote the aspirations of all
in West Sussex but we won’t get in your way.
When we don’t provide a service ourselves we
will make sure you get the help you need by
signposting you to the right place.

Help the most vulnerable feel supported and
safe. We are here to make sure everyone has
the opportunity to live their lives to the full,
particularly the young, old and disadvantaged
who might be in need of extra support.

Do the things that are best delivered
collectively, such as waste management and
highway maintenance. We will ensure we get the
best outcomes for residents and manage our
resources efficiently and effectively.

Be there at times of crisis, such as fire or
flood. We will plan, work and respond with our
partners to ensure you feel safe where you live
and have confidence that we will be there when
you need us.

Minimise the burden of local taxation. We
would rather increase the number of people
paying local taxes than raise the level of council
tax.
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3. In order to deliver this vision of a better West
Sussex for our residents we need to change the
way that we do things and how we work with our
partners. We know that there are big challenges
ahead in health and social care and that we need
to support local communities more effectively to
ensure that they are able to support themselves
and each other. We also need to improve the level
of customer service our residents can expect from
us while managing the increasing demand for our
services. So we have devised the Future West
Sussex programme which aims to deliver the
outcomes set by Cabinet and respond to the
challenges set out above.
This programme is
outlined in more detail below.
4. The programme is ambitious and in order to
deliver it we need to ensure that the council is fit
for the future. In recent months we have been
looking at what sort of management structure we
require to allow us to achieve the ambitions set
out in paragraph 1.
Further detail on how the
proposed management structure will help us
achieve our ambitions is further on in this
document. The management structure as proposed
has been based on the following principles:

A smaller, agile senior management structure
that is flexible enough to adapt to the challenges
we face ahead

Bringing together commissioning and delivery

A focus on key priorities - economic growth,
resident services and our ambitions for stronger
communities

A sharper commercial focus

Bringing together Children's and Adults to take a
more coordinated approach from childhood to
later life with additional senior management
capacity

Smaller more strategic centre that enables and
supports

Looking at the whole structure not part
Before looking at the new structure the following
slides provide further details on the individual
programmes of work underway to help us achieve our
ambitions.
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Transformation Programme Structure
Our Future West Sussex transformation programme has the structure set out below, with our three priorities
underpinned by three enabling work-streams. Further detail on each of these is set out in the following slides.
GIVING CHILDREN THE
BEST START
LIFE
IN
A STRONG AND
DIVERSE
INDEPENDENT
FOR LONGER IN
ECONOMY
LATER LIFE
STRONGER COMMUNITIES
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
COUNCIL FIT FOR PURPOSE
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Transformation Programme Structure
Giving children the best start
in life
Two major work-streams are
underway within our children’s
services. The first is focused on
early intervention; the earlier we
can identify and intervene when
we become aware of a child or
family experiencing difficulty, the
greater the opportunity to get
that child and family back on
track and avoid a more lengthy,
costly and potentially complex
intervention at a later stage.
The other area is focused on
improving our children’s social
care from adequate to good, as
rated by Ofsted.
A strong and diverse
economy
West Sussex is a great place to
do business but our GVA growth
is lagging behind that of some of
our neighbours. With a
strengthening economy we need
to have a greater focus on
targeted inward investment in
sectors and industries that
provide high value jobs for the
people of West Sussex, and that
make business rate contributions
that can off-set the need to
make cuts in front line services.
We are refreshing our approach
to economic growth and how we
work with local, national and
international businesses.
Independent for longer in
later life
With increasing demand for
services, an ageing population,
implementing the Care Act and
progressing our plans for
integrating our adult social care
with the health sector this area of
work is the most complex aspect
of our transformation
programme. Several workstreams are underway as
outlined, along with workstreams focused on supporting
our residents to remain
independent for longer and giving
residents greater choice in the
options for care open to them.
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Transformation Programme Structure
Our priorities for children, the economy and independence in later life are underpinned by three key enablers.
These are outlined below:
Stronger communities
By working with our communities we can support them to build their resilience, become stronger and do more to
help themselves for example with initiatives such as time banking, greater and more effective use of volunteering
and taking a co-design approach to repurpose public buildings for the benefit of local communities. We aim to use
the opportunity presented by stronger communities to achieve added benefits such as reduced health inequalities
arising from social isolation.
Customer Experience
All of our customers - be they residents, visitors, businesses or, internally, colleagues – should be able to expect the
highest standards of service in their interactions with us. We should have multiple channels through which
customers can interact with us and all of these channels should be easy to find, to use and to navigate.
Council fit for purpose
This workstream aims to make sure that the Council has the right skills and capabilities to deliver its
ambitions and that the leadership and organisational structure is aligned to deliver the priorities outlined
above. We will achieve effective and efficient ways of working and ensure that every pound of tax payers’
money is spent on the right things, in the right way.
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Organisational Structure
There will be a Chief Operating Officer post in the
new structure. Currently the role has service
delivery responsibilities as well as acting as the Head
of Paid Service and providing leadership to the
officers. The change to the existing role in the new
structure is that it will have responsibility for internal
and external business development and more direct
support to the Cabinet and the Executive Directors
delivering change and services. The role will also be
the Head of Paid Service.
Care, Wellbeing and Education – bringing
together commissioning and delivery. Placing the
statutory role with the Executive Director will make
sure the right decisions are made at all times.
Leading and balancing the full support we give to
people who are vulnerable and in need. Managing
the transition from children’s to adult’s and providing
one face to health and other partners.
Residents Services – Making sure we provide the
best universal services with a clear focus on
satisfaction for our residents.
Communities and Public Protection – bringing
together Fire and Rescue, Community Development and
Regulatory Services. Focusing on protecting and
preventing risk in the community. Working with
communities and partners such as district, borough,
parish and town councils and the voluntary sector.
Corporate Resources and Services – bringing
together support services into a small strategic centre
that will focus on supporting the other parts of the
organisation to deliver agreed priority outcomes.
Collectively – as a corporate leadership team the Chief
Operating Officer and Executive Directors will
collaborate to develop organisational strategy for
consideration and agreement by the Cabinet and
members, ensuring that it meets the political objectives
of West Sussex and establishes priorities that are
appropriate and deliverable. In addition each Executive
Director will act as the Council’s principal policy advisor
for the areas within their remit, providing guidance and
support to Cabinet and Members in translating their
political objectives and priorities into coherent initiatives
that will deliver exceptional public services for West
Sussex.
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Organisational Structure
As a result of both formal and informal
consultation with staff and some stakeholders
the Council has taken the view that further
work should be undertaken in three key areas
as follows:
Planning and Infrastructure: the question of
whether there should be a Director of Planning
and Infrastructure - to take a longer-term view
of development and environmental, social and
economic impacts on the county - was raised.
In order to give this feedback due consideration
further, and more detailed review of this area is
being undertaken.
Education and Skills: A large number of
comments were received on the size and scope
of the Director of Family Operations and the
inclusion in this function of Education and Skills
We believe that further more detailed work is
required before a final decision is made on the
strategy and structure in this area.
We also believe it is essential that wider
engagement takes place on this issue with key
stakeholders such as Schools. We have, therefore,
commissioned a peer review to assess the best
and most appropriate structure to take forward
the agenda described in the Education & School’s
policy including post 16 and Adult Education and
to deliver our priorities in relation to education
and skills.
Safeguarding and Assurance: The third area
being considered, which will also be subject to a
peer review, is that of safeguarding and quality
assurance of our social care contracts which is
currently within the public health and social care
commissioning directorate. The review will look at
whether safeguarding and assurance would be
strengthened by placing it with the Executive
Director, independent of commissioning and
operational delivery.
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Proposed Organisational Structure
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Organisational Structure
The proposed structure aligns our organisation
more closely to our priorities and delivery of
outcomes
as
described
above
in
the
transformation programme structure.
We bring together our Adult and Children’s social
care operations and commissioning and our Public
Health functions. In doing so we are adding
additional senior capacity to drive our priorities
for giving children the best start in life, easing the
transition from childhood to adulthood and
ensuring our residents can remain healthy,
independent and active for longer in later life. We
are also bringing Education and Skills under the
remit of our Care, Wellbeing and Education
Directorate to address the education and skills
agenda for school age children, post 16 education
and adult education and aligning the outcomes
we are seeking to achieve for all of these groups.
Our economic and commercial ambitions are
owned and driven at the highest level of the
organisation, signalling our intent to generate
income and grow our economy in a way that is
complementary to our core activities and can offset the impact of reductions in revenue support
grant.
By joining our Fire and Rescue and Community
development activity we can optimise how we
work with communities and partners to improve
resilience, prevent and manage risk and help
communities to help themselves. We can use
existing and develop new networks and
relationships with partners to help our
communities become stronger.
We bring together our customer services
functions such as our libraries and registrars to
create a focus on delivering exceptional
customer experience and resident satisfaction.
We include in this area those functions that
drive resident satisfaction even where residents
may not be aware that the council has a role
such as waste management or infrastructure
planning.
Finally, we create a small strategic centre that
supports and enables the organisation to
deliver the priorities we have set and achieve
our ambitions for West Sussex.
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