Building on our success: How we are performing

Some of the things we achieved last year (2010/11)

Quality services for children

Our services for children were judged as excellent by Ofsted in December 2010.

More young people enjoying their time at school and achieving well

Exam results for Hampshire pupils continue to be above the national average. In 2010, the percentage of young people achieving five or more GCSEs at grade A*-C, including English and maths, was higher than ever before at 61.5%.

Processing waste efficiently

We processed over 800,000 tonnes of household waste, with less than 10% going to landfill, making us the top performing County Council for diverting waste from landfill.

An award winning highways programme

Our £12.5 million road scheme ‘Operation Restore’ filled around 30,000 potholes and resurfaced 70km of roads in just six months. It recently won the 2011 Major Project Award in the Institution of Civil Engineers South East England Engineering Awards.

Increased choice and control in adult care

During the year, around 3,500 people were provided with a service to enable them to regain their independence following a period in hospital. 81% of these were still living at home three months after they were discharged. On average, just under 4,000 callers a month received advice and information through the Adult Services contact centre at HantsDirect.

Modern libraries

The County Council upgraded and modernised two libraries; the Waterlooville Library and Learning Centre and Basingstoke Discovery Centre. Since re-opening both Waterlooville and Basingstoke have shown a 6% increase in books borrowed, reversing the trend in most other libraries.

Keeping consumers safe

Our Trading Standards team withdrew 250,000 unsafe consumer products from the marketplace. We launched the 300th ‘no cold calling’ zone. The scheme aims to deter unscrupulous cold callers, with 72% of residents saying they felt safer as a result.Our priorities for this year (2011/12)

Improve outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups

Improve quality of life for all, particularly those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged.

Enhance community engagement and partnership working

By working in partnership we can help meet the financial challenges, empower communities and improve services. We want to give local people a say in designing services that affect them and deciding how their area develops.

Support and enable sustainable economic development

The recession has shown that Hampshire cannot take economic prosperity for granted. We are working with businesses and partners to help create the conditions for future growth. As part of this, we are investing around £16 million a year in ‘Operation Resilience’, the next phase of road repairs and resurfacing which aims to ‘future-proof’ our roads so that they can cope with extreme weather and more traffic.

Enhance Hampshire’s environment and promote sustainability

We want to make sure that development is sustainable, as well as working with residents and businesses to tackle energy security and climate change. Our innovative ‘Insulate Hampshire’ scheme will help to reduce fuel poverty for local people. The County Council’s own energy bills will be reduced by cutting office space and installing solar panels on some of our buildings.

Develop new ways of providing services

We need to make sure our services adapt to changing national policies and are cost effective. To do this, we are looking at different ways of delivering services, including sharing ‘back-office’ functions with our public sector partners, buying services from other providers, and selling some of our services where we have significant expertise.

Improve customer service

We want to make it easier to contact the County Council by phone, email or in person. Publishing clear information about services will give people choice and help them feel empowered.

Deliver efficiencies and expenditure reductions

Saving £55 million this year is one of the County Council’s top targets. We have established a programme that aims to achieve this by reducing running costs, modernising the way we deliver services and keeping a tight rein on spend.

Rebuild management and leadership training

We will develop staff, so that they have the skills, resilience and experience needed to respond to current and future challenges.

Did you know the County Council is responsible for:

championing excellence in all Hampshire schools (542 across the county, educating approximately 170,000 children)
19 museums and sites of interest
seven country parks
almost 3,000 rights of way
over 50 libraries and Discovery Centres
services that support an estimated 95,000 vulnerable adults
handling 800,000 tonnes ofmunicipal waste
maintaining more than 5,200 miles of road

Find out more about our services, achievements and priorities online or call 0845 603 5638