2023 – 2026
Foreword for Evolve 2026
Mole Valley District Council is undertaking a transformation programme to deliver positive change, keeping our customers in mind (residents, businesses and other stakeholders for example charities, faith groups etc) as we look to meet the significant financial challenge over the next three years. This will mean that services will transform in different ways, with impacts felt internally, with partners and with our residents and businesses, if we are to be sustainable into the future.
We are living in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment. The UK is facing significant challenges in terms of cost of living, financial uncertainty with high inflation rates and high interest rates, and global unrest impacting supply chains and energy costs. However, despite all these challenges we continue to see the fast rate of innovation globally which brings opportunities for us as a council.
As a council we are not as efficient as we could be. Our services are not sufficiently digitalised or integrated, the data and systems are not aligned or put to best use, there are pain points in our processes creating too much failure demand for our customers. The council will need to make some difficult decisions about where we choose to invest, and where we may need to close or scale back services. As a public sector organisation, we need to be pro-active in our plans to be leaner, more effective and to deliver best value for money in all that we do. We need to be agile in our approach to change to meet the challenges of now and in the future and to remain sustainable and resilient as a council, we need to act now.
The transformation programme is underpinned by four change pillars that will support the organisation on its journey to its future state: Service Transformation; Digital; Customer Engagement; and People. They are equally important, and it will require a combination of these elements in the projects taken forward through the programme to ensure that changes made enable these four key aspects of our council delivery.
Vision to 2026 – the “north star”
Our aim is to transform our services so that we are confidently: digital by choice, valued by customers and contributing to making Mole Valley a great place to live, work and visit. We will be a modernised, high performing delivery organisation that is a great place to work – attracting and retaining our people with the right skills and importantly share the values of our council. We will embrace the technologies that help our services become as simple and effective as possible, utilise the proven digital pathfinders such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) to further support user experience. And of course, everything we do must align to our Council Strategy.
We will be change capable and confident and will naturally embrace a continuous improvement mentality to provide the best possible services to our residents and businesses. This continuous improvement culture will be realised through the right investment, openness, empowerment, and by setting ourselves an expectation of high performance. This will see our staff acting proactively to maximise opportunity from the latest innovations for our sector as well as analysing customer feedback and insight to identify ongoing improvements. Through their vital contributions, our staff, alongside our customers, will shape how our council delivers the required outcomes and there will be a continued sense of pride to work for Mole Valley District Council.
Our residents, businesses and other stakeholders will see modernised online services that they use not because they must, but by choice, because they are the easiest and preferred way to interact with us. They will see services that feel more joined up so all they need can be achieved in one place. We will be clearer on the expectations of residents and businesses, and what they need from us as a Council. We have confidence in the data we hold as a council and utilise it to provide insight that means we can better support our users. We will create ways to improve key channels so residents and businesses tell us they feel informed and supported with their enquiries. When things don’t go right, we will respond promptly, listening and reflecting on frustrations felt by our residents, and recognising these are important to resolve. We will ensure that where we provide services that entail fees and charges that these meet the recovery of our costs, and we seek out other ways to make income where we have unique opportunities to offer quality services to new or existing customers.
Our work with partners will create positive relationships, so our staff feel confident as collaborators. We will look for the best opportunities with peers to share and create economies of scale, which could be through formalised partnerships with other councils where beneficial. Where it is advantageous to residents or businesses, we will explore the use of pooled data across our partner network only where it is lawful to do so. We will also make sure that we utilise these peer relationships to compare services and costs to satisfy that we constantly meet or exceed expectations and that we consistently offer value for money.
Similarly, if we want to contract out a service, we will make sure that we have the right 3rd party suppliers to support it. So, we will only have contracts in place to meet our duties where we have actively decided to contract out for the service. We will also where applicable work with partners where there is synergy to be competitive in the market as well as sharing cost and effort. We will have strong contract management ensuring that we have the maximum value from what the contract offers us as well as holding our suppliers to account when they do not deliver to expectations.
These ambitions will see the need for us to create the most effective organisational structures that will enable us to meet the changes in how we work. We will have leaner optimal structures that will see improved decision making, clearer roles and empowered staff. As part of this all staff will feel accountable for change and improvement, making sure that the best ideas and change has the ownership to see it succeed. In line with this we will have the appropriate assets to reflect our new organisation structure.
Beyond 2026
Being change confident and capable is an ongoing strength in high performing organisations. The culture and structures of Mole Valley District Council should be better placed to see change continue beyond the life of Evolve 2026.
If we use the work of the next few years to set us up to continue to respond to change (be that legislation, technology or shifts in financial security) then will we keep the pace needed to be a constantly evolving public service delivery organisation.
By achieving our strategic aims in Evolve 2026 we will be a significantly different Mole Valley District Council. Looking at ourselves in 2026 we will be a council that understands and meets the needs of its residents and businesses, that is a modernised, exemplary delivery organisation and a great place to work – attracting the best talent and retaining our people because they feel developed and interested in their work.
We will harness data to see greater use of analytics to create insight and reduce failure demand for our customers. We will be more efficient and engaging, using technologies that people want to interact with because it makes their lives easier to do so.
There is much to be proud of in Mole Valley and by embracing the transformation the council can continue this into the future.