AT the start of every municipal year, as Leader of the Council, I send a letter to the Chief Executive.  The letter outlines what I and the Council's Cabinet expect him and his senior management team to focus on over the coming year.  With Lambeth's services now improving rapidly it's time to focus on high quality customer service across the organisation.  We must aim for the best and no longer tolerate sub-standard performance.  Here's the text of this year's letter.

DELIVERING QUALITY, TACKLING INEQUALITY

Dear Derrick,

Please accept my congratulations on the great news that Lambeth has retained our three-star status in this year’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment.  That backs up the three stars we were also awarded in the Corporate Assessment earlier this year.  Both results confirm that Lambeth is improving rapidly and is now performing better than at any time in our history.  This is a great achievement and a tribute to the hard work and leadership shown by councillors, managers and staff throughout the organisation working to the priorities of the Labour Administration.

When the current Administration was elected in May 2006 I set the council the task of ‘delivering quality, tackling inequality’.  Our recent inspection results show we are achieving both, although we know there is still further to go.  I am convinced that only the re-election of the current Administration next year can deliver the consistency of vision, ambition and leadership required to turn Lambeth once and for all into a high performing council that residents feel is on their side. 

I want to reiterate the Administration’s commitment to the three priority outcomes that have driven improvement through the past three years.  They are:
• High quality services that represent value for money
• Tackling inequality and social exclusion
• Engaging more closely with residents so we can listen to their concerns and act on them.

Over the coming year, I expect the council to build on the improvement we’ve seen so far.  While many of our services are excellent, that is not yet the case everywhere.  I want to see high quality standards of service delivered consistently across all parts of the council, and all remaining barriers to achieving excellence removed.  Poor performance or failure to comply with procedures and policy will no longer be tolerated anywhere.  Instead, we must reward our best staff and give them the freedom and support they need to innovate and drive improvement harder. 

I want to see an all-out onslaught on underperformance, and a clear message that this council expects every staff member to achieve excellence.  Our residents and service users must be at the centre of everything we do, and that means removing any internal barriers and strengthening partnership working so we can deliver the joined-up services that put residents first.   There must be a new sense of urgency in meeting the needs of our residents, and a new sense of dynamism accompanying our restored belief that this council can and must become the best in London. 

Higher levels of performance will lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction and greater public confidence in the council.  To help speed up that development, I would like the council to develop a customer charter that will tell our residents and customers exactly what service standards they can expect.  I then expect the council to meet or exceed those standards every time.  Every customer should be told what to expect from us, when to expect it, and should then have that promise kept.  Every customer must be treated with courtesy, respect and dignity at all times.  I want every customer of our services to go away satisfied and, if they are not, then we will welcome their complaint as a positive opportunity to learn how to perform better in future.  The customer charter will be a key element in the council’s culture change programme, and it should be backed up by training at all levels to make sure we can deliver and sustain our promises. 

In particular, I want to see rapid, clear and sustainable improvement in the housing service over the coming months.  This will require a strengthened corporate focus and I have established a Cabinet Advisory Panel for Housing to make sure that happens.  Working with Lambeth Living and our other partners we must deliver a better service for our tenants and leaseholders.  

With the economy now in recession because of the worldwide economic downturn, the council must do all it can to help local people weather the economic storm so they are ready to take advantage of the better times when they return.  That means cutting our costs so that we can keep providing the services people will need to rely on in increasing numbers during the coming months and years.  We have already frozen council tax this year, and intend to do so again next year, in a bid to help local people manage their household finances.  Just as local people are having to tighten their belts, so must the council.  I look forward to launching a programme to identify further cost savings across the council so that we can plough back the saved money into protecting and expanding frontline services and keeping council tax down.

I am delighted at the progress this council has made in the three years since the last election.  I look forward to further improvement over the coming year.  I know that great challenges still lie before us, but I am more convinced than ever that we have the people, the ambition and the determination to turn Lambeth into the excellent council that every resident expects it to be.

Yours sincerely, 

Councillor Steve Reed, Leader of the Council