Main Terms and Conditions of Service
Our Borough
Southwark - one of London's oldest boroughs - is changing. The council is making the borough a place where people from all backgrounds love to live and do business by helping to get rid of crime, building better schools, renewing our estates and neighbourhoods, cleaning and repairing the streets and working with others to create decent and affordable homes. We are not there yet but residents are starting to see a difference in their lives and surroundings.
Southwark has always been at the heart of London. Yesterday the cultural home of Shakespeare and Dickens - today the centre for London government and one of the UK's most vibrant creative quarters.
Throughout history the people of Southwark have had an endless capacity to reinvent the borough. A good example is Bankside and its surroundings: historically a focus for world trade, it became a rundown area in the 70s but is now completely renewed and hosts Shakespeare's Globe, Tate Modern and popular museums.
Southwark has always had global connections - commercial and cultural - and in turn people from all over the world have transformed the area into one of the most varied and interesting boroughs in London with an exciting mix of languages, backgrounds and cultures.
Southwark has not always been the best place to live, and too many of our residents still struggle to have a decent home, a good job and a healthy life. But we are changing that. We have listened to what local people tell us matters most - getting rid of crime, building better schools, clearing up poor estates, cleaning and repairing the streets and having decent and affordable homes. And we are taking action and can show results.
We are putting a huge amount of time and money into renewing the area once again, to bring in more jobs and prosperity. That is why, for example, the renewal of the Elephant & Castle - its homes, its shops, its roads and transport and its community life - is so important to the future of the borough.
Southwark will always represent the demands and rewards of living in the heart of a great city. We will have succeeded as a council when people say this is a place people love to live and do business, with a council that spends the public's money wisely and where people have the freedom and support to take responsibility for their own lives.
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Southwark in context
Southwark in 2009 is a dynamic and diverse borough. The population has been growing at a faster rate than the national average and is currently over 274,000 and is predicted to rise by 2016 to in excess of 300,000. The population density for Southwark is near double the average for London.
Whilst over a third of the current population are categorised as Black Minority Ethnic this percentage rises to almost 68% of the school population. The diversity of the borough is predicted to expand throughout the next decade.
Social and economic context
Southwark is usually described as a deprived borough. Like many inner city areas the statistics show we have our share of deprivation and inequality. But for many who either live or work here that is only part of the picture. The programme of social and physical regeneration over the last ten years has contributed to people feeling more confident about Southwark as a place to live, visit or do business in, and more optimistic for the future.
The growing affluence of newcomers in the north of the borough now means that Southwark has one of the most economically diverse populations in London ranging from significant affluence to severe poverty .
Political arrangements
In the local elections of May 2010 the result was a majority for the Labour Party who had 35 seats with 25 Liberal Democrats and 3 members returned for the Conservative Party.
The new Cabinet, the decision making body that replaced the Executive, was appointed on the 19th May under the leadership of the Leader, Cllr Peter John and Deputy Leader, Cllr Ian Wingfield. Cllr John is the first Labour Leader of Southwark Council since 2002. The elections on 6 May resulted in the first time any political party has had a majority on the council since 1998.
More details on the Councils constitution can be found on the Councils website www.southwark.gov.uk
Strategic and corporate management
Under the leadership of Annie Shepperd the Councils chief executive the Council is organisationally divided in to seven departments each lead by a strategic director.
- Deputy Chief Executive Department
- Environment and Housing
- Regeneration and Neighbourhoods
- Children's services
- Health and Community Services
- Communities, Law and Governance
- Financial Management Services
These senior executives leading these departments comprise the Corporate Management Team.
The Councils staff
In 2009 the council employed just over 5,000 staff (excluding school based staff) of whom 55% were women, 48% were from BME communities and 4.5% had a declared disability.
Organisational reviews are currently being undertaken of corporate wide services such as HR, Finance, administration and IT to achieve reductions in headline costs of these services as well as provide more efficient support to front line service delivery teams.
The Vision
Southwark's strength is its people. With our immense diversity comes an array of amazing talents and vast depths of untapped potential. Too many of our people have not been able to access the employment and social opportunities that living in the heart of London should offer. This is unfair. Unlocking those talents and realising that potential, with nobody left behind, is what we are about as a council.
We all know that the immediate future is going to be very tough. Public sector spending is going to fall far and fast and the council's budget will not be protected. The money we have is held in trust for the local community and we will manage every penny as carefully as local families look after their own household budgets.
But we will not overcome the immense challenges we face by the council acting alone or by simply doing things as we have always done them before. We are ambitious for change. We will work together with residents, businesses and partners to transform public services for the people of Southwark. We will foster a culture of innovation and imagination that enables us to build a brighter future, whatever the challenges.
Our staff are more than just people who deliver services. Our residents are more than just customers. Between us, we have the knowledge, skills and creativity to solve the major problems we are facing together. But this spirit of cooperation goes beyond just problem-solving. It is underpinned by empathy, openness and trust. This is not a borough where cultures clash, but where by coming together Southwark residents create a unique sense of community. We will reflect this as an organisation by showing residents true compassion and the same care and consideration that we show members of our own families.
This is what it means to be a cooperative council. This is how we will not only get through the immediate challenges that lie ahead, but grow stronger together in the long term.
It will not be easy and there will be some difficult times and choices ahead. But by working together, we can introduce free healthy school meals for all primary school children, make every council home warm, dry and safe and cut waste to keep council tax low. And we will transform the borough for the better through regeneration projects which deliver for local people. Together we will build a fairer future for all in Southwark.
Our Corporate Plan, towards Southwark 2016
As a council, we work with partners to deliver hundreds of services. The corporate plan, agreed in April 2009, sets out the council's key priorities until 2011 and describes what we will do to ensure progress is made. It is grouped under six priority themes and takes 'Southwark 2016', our sustainable community strategy as its starting point.
The plan includes key measures and milestones which local people can use to monitor our progress and shows how these themes tie in with the commitments which the administration made to local people in 2006.
The themes are:
Places where people love to live
This considers community and physical regeneration, the importance of the supply and quality of housing in the lives of our residents and what we can do to continue to make Southwark a location of choice for residents, visitors and employers.
Everyone achieving their potential
This looks at how we can help local people achieve their potential by fostering business and enterprise and growing skills and aspirations in children and adults.
Healthy and independent living
This focuses on tackling health inequality, and how we can provide an environment where people can lead healthy, active lives.
Valuing the environment.
This builds on our commitment to keep the borough clean, and focuses on how we can increase recycling rates and lower energy use in order to reduce the borough's carbon footprint as well as energy costs to businesses, households and the tax payer.
Tackling the crimes which concern people the most
This recognises that crime and the fear of crime have a major impact on the way people live their lives and that these fears are different for different communities and in different areas of the borough. We set out our leadership role, alongside the police, in preventing and tackling crime.
Transforming public services
This responds to the challenge to the council and its partners in a tough financial climate, of providing high quality and responsive public services at a reduced cost.