Principles met

  • We will capture and ‘expand’ the experience and learning from individual projects and approaches in order to encourage broader application of co-operative principles within individual member Councils and across the Network.
  • As a membership organisation, we will make this statement of our principles operational by: • Co-operation among members: Our members work together to help each other implement our values, sharing experiences and learning. • Openness of membership: Full, Associate and Affiliate Membership is open to any qualifying Council, organisation or individual who shares our values and is committed to putting them into action. • Co-production of the Network’s work: Members help shape the Network’s work programme and the content of events and written products. • Action-focused: The network is a vehicle for helping councils translate co-operative values and principles into policy and practice. •Membership-based: The network is majority funded by modest membership subscriptions from its member Councils, Associates and Affiliates. •Non-party-political: Members share the belief that working co-operatively within and across communities holds the key to tackling today’s challenges.

This project focused on understanding the current service delivery model and underpinning team structures, and asking what was required of a Peterborough communications service to develop a service model that was efficient, effective, and sustainable, reflecting the principles and objectives of Peterborough City Council.

The challenges:

The previous model was reactive, and the team faced capacity challenges. The team was expected to respond swiftly and resolve issues immediately but often missed opportunities to adopt a proactive approach, especially regarding project work. There was limited capacity to analyse the impact of communications on our community, so we couldn’t identify wasted effort or failures to reach and engage residents. The budget had already been finalised, so financial constraints could not be altered. We needed to leverage internal expertise to consider alternative service delivery methods, conduct an assessment to accurately determine capacity, develop an effective service model that maintained a balanced budget, and explore recommendations for innovation and growth.

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