Aiming High - Part Two Council specific priorities

Stepping Up

This section of Aiming High looks at how the Council operates as an organisation and how we will improve the quality of services for our customers.

We want to create the best quality of life for all local people by providing quality services that matter most to them. We want to make Rochdale Council an organisation, which delivers impressive and improving services and creates a positive sense of place for communities. We want to provide value for money for citizens and secure high levels of local citizen satisfaction. We aim to make a great contribution to the success of the Manchester City Region. We want to value and develop our members, employees and partners and be widely respected for our achievements.

Single team principles

We aim to work together as a single team for the benefit of local people. Our principles are:

  • Positive a “can do” approach, flexible, nimble, inspirational, making things happen
  • Openness, trust and respect for each other, colleagues and partners
  • Ambition and courage embracing change, accepting challenges and constructive criticism, taking risks
  • Support freely given, freely sought
  • honest, open and accountable
  • Welcoming diversity inclusive and fair
  • Learning from each other, from others and from our mistakes, listening, recognising and celebrating our success
  • Fun and friendly working hard, but making work enjoyable

We have already made some improvements, but we want to transform the Council over the next three years. We will do this through our new Stepping Up programme. The programme has three work streams which are explained in more detail in the following pages:

  • Customer Focus – this is the heart of the programme. It concentrates on the ultimate goal of improving lives
  • Value for Money – consistently delivering services which can demonstrate excellent value for money. It is not an end in itself, but is vital if we are to deliver more with fewer resources
  • Maximising the Potential of our People – our people (staff and councillors) are the key tool we have to help us make a step change in the council

Stepping Up will be part of our wider work on improvement. It will complement other key change initiatives. Part of the success of delivering Stepping Up will depend on us developing a real climate for change. We need to:

  • Feel free to do things better
  • All take a personal responsibility, playing our part in our success
  • Never settle for second best
  • Let each other know how we’re doing and make sure we reward success
  • Make sure everyone understands what we believe in, our mission and values
  • All be committed to the same goal
  • Welcome challenge and debate
  • All work together as a single team
  • Learn from our mistakes, not look for someone to blame