Principles met
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Democratic engagement
We will support the active engagement of the full range of residents in decision making and priority setting.
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Enterprise and social economy
We will promote community-based approaches to economic development that focus on supporting the creation of jobs, social enterprises and other businesses and providing an environment for co-operative and mutual enterprises to thrive.
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Innovation
We will embrace innovation in how we work with local communities to drive positive change.
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Learning
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.
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Social partnership
We will strengthen the co-operative partnership between citizens, communities, enterprises and Councils, based on a shared sense of responsibility for wellbeing and mutual benefit.
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Walking the talk
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.
Rooftop Inspections by Drone
Modernisation in the field of social housing is often marked by the creation of intangible benefits that go far beyond mere cost savings and operational efficiency. One such example is the introduction of drones for our social housing roofing inspections, an imaginative move committed to enhancing how we support our tenants and improving the efficiency of operations.
This was a collaborative cross-Council effort along with, all important, engagement with and support from tenants, residents and members.
The roofing team’s major business challenges were:
- Eliminating work at height where possible to improve alignment with HSE guidelines
- Improving the quality and efficiency of our roof inspections; having an accurate assessment for ‘right-first-time’ repairs
- Where possible, remove the need for scaffolding to inspect
- Reducing risk to others, improving inspection times and if possible, budget savings
For further information contact:
Sarah Peña
Head of Emerging Technology, Business Improvement & Web
Swindon Borough Council