Policies and Plans

We want to make Staffordshire a "great place to live, work, visit and invest." We know that it is not going to be an easy task, but by working with you and our other partners we know we can make it happen.

We think it is important that you know about what we are doing, after all you pay for the services we provide. We also think it is important that we listen to what you have told us because this helps us to understand how we can improve the services that we provide for you. You can read about the improvements we have been making by reading the Council performance section of this site.

We hope the information on this page will explain everything you need to know about our work but if there is something else that you want to know please get in touch.

Your opinions are important to us and it is only by listening to your opinions that we can make Staffordshire a "great place to live, work visit and invest.

A summary of our policies

Here is a summary of what we are doing and what we are planning to do.> Each one of these documents has an influence on our services and the way they are provided for you. You can find more about each of them by clicking on the links provided.

Please Note: Several of these documents are provided in PDF format.
Acrobat Reader software is required in order to read them.

Our Sustainable Community Strategy sets out our long term, strategic vision for Staffordshire and has now been revised following the end of the formal consultation period. This strategy expresses our priorities for joint working and acts as a guiding framework by providing an overview - a countywide picture of the most important priorities for Staffordshire over the next fifteen years.

The relationship between our Local Area Agreement (LAA) and our Sustainable Community Strategy has to be clear. Our refreshed LAA will be linked directly both to the Countywide Sustainable Community Strategy, and also to the District Sustainable Community Strategies. The LAA will deliver focussed elements of these strategies, helping to ensure real improvement where it is most needed.

The Strategic Plan 2008/2011 sets out the medium-term vision for the council, drives forward our programme of change, and identifies a series of outcomes based on five key aims.

Staffordshire County Council Budget Information We tell you about the money we are going to spend on providing our services each year in our Budget Information Summary.

Service Planning

Thematic Improvement Plans (TIP) and the Corporate Improvement Plan effectively act as the annual delivery statements for the priorities contained in the Strategic Plan and the LAA block themes. The TIPs gather together the targets and objectives supporting the Strategic Plan priorities and the LAA block themes, right through to service and individual performance plans. The TIPs also identify where service managers and responsible officers across the County Council work together to meet targets.

Children and Young People Thematic Improvement Plan
Healthier Communities and Older People Thematic Improvement Plan
Safer and Stronger Communities Thematic Improvement Plan
Economic Development and Enterprise Thematic Improvement Plan
Sustainable Development Thematic Improvement Plan
Corporate Improvement Plan (CIP) - setting out how we will continue to improve the systems and business processes of the county council

We are organised into three Directorates - Social Care & Health, Children and Lifelong Learning and Development Services. In addition, there are four support units - Chief Executive's Office, Finance, Law & Governance and Staffordshire ICT.

Service Plans deliver the Strategic Plan, the Thematic Improvement Plans and Corporate Improvement Plan priorities; setting out how specific outcomes and improvement for services will be achieved, including identifying any risks. Service plans are working documents that managers and their teams refer to throughout the year, especially during Personal Performance Review (PPR) enabling staff to develop an understanding of how they should be contributing to achieving the Council's priorities.

As well as telling you about the improvements we are making, we also want to tell you exactly what services we are going to provide you with and the standards of service that you can expect. To do this we have produced our Customer Charter.

Our people

All of our 32,000 employees has an important role to play in ensuring that we deliver excellent services for you. As an employer who is committed to investing in people we also want our people to achieve their own personal goals. So to make sure that we meet these commitments each member of our team has a Personal Performance Review every six months. As part of their review each employee plans their personal contribution to the services we provide for you.

We don't make our Personal Performance Reviews available publicly, but if you would like to know more about working with us to make Staffordshire a "great place to live, work, visit and invest," please visit our careers section.

Other policies that affect our work

The policies that are listed below also affect the way we provide our services. You can find out more about each of them by clicking on the links provided.

Implementing Electronic Government (IEG) Statement

Corporate Enforcement Policy

Staffordshire County Council Code of Corporate Governance

Capital Strategy and Asset Management