Council structure
The council
The council employs around 10,500 staff in six directorates
around 4,800 of whom are based in schools.
The council is made up of 51
elected local councillors from 17 wards.
The council structure
The corporate structure is designed to support the council's
objective of ensuring the provision of services that are responsive
to the needs of individuals and communities and integrated at the
point of delivery.
Each of the corporate directors is responsible for co-ordinating
a range of services within their relevant portfolio and achieving
corporate objectives so that improvement is accelerated. To
facilitate cross-directorate working, the corporate management team
meets regularly with the council's service heads who take
responsibility for operational management within their areas.
The Adults, Health &
Wellbeing Directorate
In the Adults Health and Wellbeing Directorate we:
Commission £95m of support each year for vulnerable people
to live independently in the community, or in residential or
nursing care
- We use £20m of the £95m we commission to
support organisations in the local community to work with people to
prevent them needing social care in the first place, for example
our LinkAge Plus network, our Carer's Centre and our wide range of
lunch clubs
- Making sure this all works well together is
complex.
Assess the needs of people aged 18 + who are
the most vulnerable in our society and work with them to plan
the support they need, either from the council or from support
available in the community. We also take steps to safeguard
people at risk of abuse.
Our vulnerable groups are:
- People who are physically disabled
- People who have learning disability
- People with mental ill health
- People who become frail through illness or
ageing
- People who have HIV
- People who lead chaotic lifestyles who need
support to maintain their tenancy
- ‘Carers’ -people who provide caring support
to these groups of people (not to be confused with paid home
carers - or "home help")
We also lead within the council on partnership
working with the NHS ensuring that our strategies for health
and wellbeing are based on the needs of the Tower Hamlets
population
Tower Hamlets is a high performing council and
in December 2010, for the 7th year in a row, adult
social care services were
awarded an 'excellent' rating by the Care Quality
Commission (CQC). This is the highest possible rating.
The Children Schools and
Families Directorate
The Directorate are committed to further improving outcomes for
children, young people and their families and work closely with
Schools to improve levels of educational achievement in the
Borough. In 2011, Tower Hamlets achieved its best ever GCSE
results, with over 60% per cent of pupils achieving at least five
A* to C passes including English and Maths – up from 51.8% in
2010.
The Directorate also has responsibility for establishing the
Borough's Children and Families Partnership Board to
ensure that all agencies working to deliver services to children,
young people and their families co-ordinate their activities to
improve the outcomes we all deliver.
The Resources Directorate
This directorate comprises:
- risk management and continuity planning
- human resources & workforce
development
- information communication technology
- corporate finance
- procurement
- customer access
- corporate programmes
The directorate reinforces the key and distinctive role of
resource management in a forward-looking council that is determined
to ensure that local people get excellent services that are value
for money.
The Chief Executive's
Directorate
This directorate
comprises:
- legal services
- one Tower Hamlets
- corporate complaints
- strategy and performance
- communications
- democratic services
The Communities, Localities & Culture
Directorate
The combined services of community safety, public realm, local
strategic partnership, cultural services and environmental control
work to protect residents from:
- health dangers
- ensure that they can access leisure
facilities and open spaces
- provide innovative access to lifelong
learning opportunities
- help improve the environment
- provide opportunities for entertainment
- support social cohesion and
community life
The Development & Renewal Directorate
The six key service areas are:
- strategy
- regeneration and sustainability
- major project development
- development decisions
- strategic property
- Olympic and Paralympic Games liaison and
resources
Together the directorate's services offer a seamless approach to
the co-ordination of the regeneration of the borough in line with
the needs and aspirations of local communities and the government's
agenda to build sustainable communities.
Housing
The council has developed a multi-layered approach to bringing
its housing stock to the Decent Homes Standard in the context of
creating sustainable neighbourhoods.
The Housing Choice programme was launched as a ground-breaking,
community-led approach that encouraged residents to consider
whether they would benefit from a change of landlord, at a point
when the council's option appraisal showed it to be the preferred
solution to bringing stock to the decent homes standard. Almost 40
per cent of the council's stock has transferred to new landlords
bringing in more than £400million of investment.
The council has now set up an arms length management
organisation called Tower Hamlets Homes,
to manage the retained housing stock and has bid to the
Department for Communities and Local Government for £192m of decent
homes funding.
In addition there are a number of targeted regeneration schemes
where it is apparent that more comprehensive renewal is required in
particular areas.
Alongside the physical development the council is working in
close partnership with the social housing landlords in the borough
to develop a co-ordinated approach to improving housing and
neighbourhood management across the borough.
Find out more about how well the council is delivering services
with the Comprehensive Performance Assessment
(CPA).