Council departments
Here you can find out about how your council is structured, and about the departments responsible for providing services to you.
To contact any of our departments please use our Customer First service:
Customer First
Telephone: (0141) 577 3001
Website: Customer First
The Council is made up of the following five departments:
1. Chief Executive's department
Chief executive: Lorraine McMillan
Deputy chief executive: Caroline Innes
The chief executive is the most senior officer and head of all 4,000 employees of the Council.
Service summary
This department provides the major corporate services that help all Council departments to monitor and improve their performance; to recruit and retain the right people; to communicate clearly; to prepare for emergencies; and to look after the health and safety of employees and customers. It also provides support services to other departments of the Council and to councillors.
The corporate services we provide are:
Administration and members' services
Civil contingencies
Health and safety
Internal audit
Legal
Personnel
Policy
Public relations
Corporate procurement
Our corporate procurement section is responsible for delivering procurement services across the Council and for improving and modernising our procurement activities.
Website: Corporate Procurement Portal
Community resources
Our community resources section is responsible for serving different client groups and communities within East Renfrewshire.
Our work through Login and the Dialogue Youth teams offers young people the opportunity to be heard by the Council. It also offers access to services and support, enabling our young people to reach their full potential through education, culture and leisure activities.
We offer learning opportunities to the wider community in a variety of ways across the local area. Our adult programme provides a range of learning opportunities delivered annually by qualified tutors, as part of our evening learning programmes.
Community planning
Our community plan update sets out twelve key outcomes that our Community Planning Partnership is committed to achieving for local people over the long term. The update is mainly focused on short-term goals to be achieved over the next year, and a further community plan will be produced during 2009. A Single Outcome Agreement, setting out the measures and goals that will be used to monitor progress towards the update outcomes, will be published in 2008.
2. Community health and care partnership
Director: Julie Murray
The community health and care partnership (CHCP) is an innovative partnership, responsible for delivering all local health and social care services to East Renfrewshire people in an integrated way.
Our CHCP brings together services for children, families, adults and older people, in order to respond better to your needs.
We are committed to improving the health of people living and working in East Renfrewshire and to making a difference to health inequalities. We take a lead in improving health, along with our community planning and regeneration partners.
3. Education department
Director: John Wilson
Service summary
Our education department provides an education service through seven secondary schools, twenty-four primary schools (of which nine have nursery classes), three nursery schools, four family centres and one school for children who need additional support.
We are recognised as having a high-achieving education department, and many of our services are considered to be the best in Scotland.
We are committed to continuous improvement and to furthering our vision of inclusion, achievement, ambition and progress for all.
Culture and sport
Our culture and sport section helps our residents to access cultural resources and learning, and to develop themselves and their communities.
The culture and sport section includes:
Library and information services
Arts, including Eastwood Theatre
Local history and heritage
Sports facilities
4. Environment Department
Director: Andrew Cahill
Service summary
Our environment department covers a wide range of functions, including frontline services; regulatory and advisory services; and strategic responsibilities, such as transport, planning, housing and sustainable development.
We want to ensure a sustainable and high quality environment and to promote an active, sustainable and socially-inclusive community.
We operate through a directorate and two operational services:
Roads, planning and transportation
Housing and maintenance services
The directorate is responsible for strategic management and control of the department, in order to ensure that its actions, policies and programmes are consistent with corporate strategy commitments and community planning themes.
Roads and transport
Our roads and transportation service looks after the management, repair, maintenance, lighting, drainage and gritting of the 450km of public council roads within East Renfrewshire.
Roads and transportation has two sections:
Network management is responsible for preparing and implementing the road and footpath maintenance and improvement programmes; carrying out regulatory duties for the network; and managing the contract for street lighting and traffic signals.
Transportation is responsible for new roads and designs; project management; transportation planning and policy; bridges; traffic reduction; road safety; cycling; and safety around schools.
Planning
Planning and development has five sections:
Development planning is responsible for the preparation of statutory development plans, including the local plan and the structure plan; promoting outdoor access; the conservation of the built and natural environment; and carrying out a wide range of information activities.
Development control is responsible for dealing with planning applications, to ensure that development proposals meet the policies of the local plan.
Economic development is responsible for giving advice and financial support to local businesses and providing vocational training and employment initiatives.
Regeneration is responsible for facilitating the physical and economic regeneration of town centres, business locations and other deprived areas.
Building control is responsible for protecting the public from dangerous building structures and with regard to general building works.
Protective services
Protective services focuses on ensuring a safe environment for local residents. We achieve this through the work of three sections: trading standards, building control and environmental health.
Our trading standards service carries out a range of activities to protect and advise consumers and businesses and to maintain and improve standards of trading. We are responsible for administering legislation that governs the quality, quantity, safety, price and description of goods and services.
Housing and maintenance services
Housing and maintenance services provide a building maintenance and adaptation service for both housing and non-housing properties. This includes reactive maintenance and planned maintenance on housing and other council-owned properties, such as house repairs, void property, aids and adaptations.
We carry out emergency repairs to large capital contracts, which helps the Council to fulfil its capital programme requirements.
Housing
Our housing service performs a range of functions aimed at maintaining and improving housing across East Renfrewshire. We have responsibilities for both public sector housing and private sector housing and for homelessness.
Housing has three sections:
Property services is responsible for the maintenance and improvement of the Council’s own housing stock; private sector housing grants; disabled adaptations; care and repair; improving home energy efficiency; tackling fuel poverty; and council house sales.
Tenancy services is responsible for allocating housing; tenancy and estate management; anti social behaviour initiatives (including the community warden service); homelessness; and housing support.
Development and strategy is responsible for the development and implementation of the strategies for local housing, homelessness and tenant participation, and for assessing particular housing needs.
5. Finance department
Director: Norie Williamson
Service summary
Our finance department looks after the Council's financial systems, including accounting and payroll. It also administers council tax billing and collection. We have the additional responsibility of co-ordinating the Council's information technology strategy for all other council departments.
Finance benefits
Our benefits section administers council tax benefit and housing benefit. We can provide advice on benefits from other agencies, such as the Department of Work and Pensions.
Council tax and finance
The council tax for your home is calculated based on the value of your property. The value of your property (band) will be outlined in your bill and is decided by the assessor from the Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board.
Your council tax bill also include charges made by Scottish Water for water and sewerage services. The charge for this part of the council tax bill is set by the water authority. We are legally required to collect these charges, but we retain none of the income.
Rents
Our Rent Recovery Team helps council tenants in financial difficulties break out of the vicious circle of rent arrears.
Local housing allowance
Local housing allowance is the new way of calculating the maximum housing benefit for tenants who rent from a private landlord.
Property and technical services
With just over 30 professional and support staff drawn from all disciplines, Property and technical services provides a comprehensive technical support and property management service to the council and its departments.
Strategic services
Strategic services provides an overview of Technical services and is directly responsible for the delivery of appropriate professional and technical services to our client departments. In addition to providing significant briefing and liaison support to all current projects (including PPP), we provide property, energy management and practical advice about office accommodation issues.